The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is fully open again, following an outbreak of parvo virus, a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness.
AWLA CEO Samuel Wolbert said that once two recent arrivals, dogs named Rolo and Slim Jim, tested positive, the shelter was closed “out of an abundance of caution” for a deep cleaning of the entire facility. Cat and small animal adoptions resumed Thursday, but the dog kennels were closed until Saturday morning.
“We were fortunate in that the other dogs that were in the kennels were, for the most part, adult dogs and were fully vaccinated, so there was a very low risk of exposure to those animals,” said Wolbert. He said the affected dogs were treated at the Columbia Pike Animal Hospital and Emergency Center and were expected to make a full recovery.
The illnesses had no connection to the water they were drinking. Wolbert said the boil water advisory covering much of Arlington did not affect his facility, since it has a reserve of water on hand for emergencies.
Wolbert said once an animal arrives at AWLA, on South Arlington Mill Drive, near Shirlington, the league is dedicated to ensuring it gets the care that it needs to be a healthy pet. He said many shelters throughout the country would not have been equipped to handle a diagnosis of parvo. He credited AWLA’s healthy pet fund.
In light of the significant cost of care of recovery for these two dogs, AWLA is encouraging the community to donate to their healthy pet fund.
“We are back to normal and everything is progressing well,” Wolbert said.
