Caleb Warnock

More dogs adopted from the North Utah County Animal Shelter have died of parvo virus.

Four or five purebred pit bull puppies, all from the same litter and all adopted from the shelter, have died from parvo or been euthanized because of the virus, said director Tug Gettling.

The outbreak of the highly contagious virus is the second at the shelter this year. Three dogs adopted from the shelter in July died of the virus, causing the shelter to quarantine all its animals and cease adoptions for 10 days.

This time, because the outbreak was confined to one litter, the area of the shelter in question was disinfected but adoptions have continued as normal, Gettling said. The mother of the puppies was also adopted from the shelter but has not been reported sick.

Shauna Hunt of Cedar Fort said she and her husband adopted one of the infected puppies on Sept. 6 as a gift for the ninth birthday of their daughter, Turner.

The puppy showed no signs of being ill when they adopted it, and passed a vet exam with flying colors two days later, she said. The next day and for several days thereafter the puppy threw up but the family thought the animal was adjusting to new food.

On Sept. 12, the puppy had grown worse and the family took it to a vet, paying $90 for a parvo test and visit. When the test came back positive, the vet suggested hospitalizing the animal for a week at a cost of around $1,200.

"We are not rich," Hunt said. The family opted to care for the puppy at home, force-feeding it water every hour for several days.

Around 3 a.m. on Sept. 15, the puppy was trembling violently and could no longer hold up its head, Hunt said. Because it was clear that death was imminent, the couple woke their daughter at 5 a.m. and told her to say goodbye to her birthday puppy.

"We couldn't even force the liquid down her anymore," Hunt said, sobbing. So that her daughter would not have to watch the puppy die, her husband took the puppy for a drive in the car, where it died a half-hour later, she said.

"It wasn't fun," Hunt said. "It took us all last week for my daughter to stop crying before she went to bed."

Hunt said she realizes the animal shelter cannot pay to have each abandoned animal tested for parvo, but said she wishes staff would have told her about the previous parvo outbreak and given her a day to have the animal tested before taking it home.

"We would not have minded waiting another day or two to have it tested," she said. "They could have put her down right after the test results. She was miserable for four days and it put us through the wringer. It would have been well worth the $55 cost of the test upfront."

Because parvo virus can remain active for up to a year, the family will have to wait to get a new puppy, she said.

Parvo comes into the shelter from the community, and because many of the animals in the shelter have been loose before coming to the shelter, parvo may always be a problem, Gettling said.

Since the first parvo outbreak, the shelter has posted signs warning adoptive families to quarantine their new pets from other animals and have them checked by a vet, he said.

"Parvo is in the community just like the common cold," Gettling said. "That is why we give them five days to get to a vet to have their animal checked out. A lot of times a vet can look at the dog and they can't tell either."

Adoptions at the shelter have not decreased since the first parvo outbreak, he said. To ensure the health of animals, the shelter is disinfected twice each week.

The North Utah County Animal Shelter, at 93 N. 2000 West in Lindon, has just extended its evening hours and will now stay open until 6 p.m. for adoptions, Gettling said. Call 785-3442 for information.

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.