Fort Worth

Fort Worth Animal Shelter Battles Canine Influenza Outbreak

NBC Universal, Inc.

Just one month after battling a distemper outbreak, Fort Worth Animal Care and Control faces another problem at one of its shelters. This time it’s the influenza virus.

When dogs at the Silcox Adoption Center in Fort Worth started showing signs of up upper respiratory infections, they suspected canine influenza.

Chris McAllister is the Assistant Director of Fort Worth’s Animal Care and Control. He said a veterinarian onsite confirmed it.

“He kind of identified this early on saying he believed this is what it is,” McAllister said. “And after some PCR tests, we confirmed we definitely have it in the shelters.”

From there, the virus took off. He said the disease spread by the hour.

“We would come in one morning and find 20 sick dogs,” he said. “By the end of the day, we would have 20 more.”

Today, he says more than 90% of the dogs at the facility are infected. He’s tapped others in the animal care industry for insight.

“I talked to many experts in the field and what they’re telling me is this is going to burn through your shelters; meaning most of the animals are going to catch this,” McAllister said.

Veterinarian Christina Minton said dog flu is not as deadly as distemper, but the shelter still has a fight on its hands because of how the virus presents.

“They could be sick for a couple of days, have no symptoms and already be spreading the flu, and that’s the difficult part about this,” said Minton.

She says tight budgets typically mean shelters face additional challenges.

“The only things they can try to do is vaccinate every dog upon intake and that’s an expensive undertaking for them. That’s hard,” she said. “It makes it this almost impossible scenario to avoid completely.”

For now, the City of Fort Worth tells NBC 5 that Silcox will shut down fosters and adoptions, as well as all intakes, except for emergency cases. They will divert several services to the North Animal Campus while they attempt to isolate dogs and treat the situation.

McAllister said they’ve had to euthanize in some cases since the canine flu outbreak. He’s hopeful to see a turnaround in the coming weeks.

“With proper care, treatment and isolation, I’m hopeful in the next three to four weeks that we can start back to normal services at Silcox,” he said.

FW Animal Care and Control tell us they held a meeting recently to discuss solutions and more than 50 community members and volunteers attended.

For now, they’re asking residents who must surrender their pets to consider alternative options like rehoming their pets with friends and family. They’ve also asked all residents to ensure animals are current on all vaccinations.

Contact Us