More On: dogs sick
The state and the federal government are looking into what is killing dogs in Michigan
The virus that has killed at least 30 dogs in Michigan is being looked into by both state and federal agencies.
MDARD said Monday that the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the veterinary lab at Michigan State University, the US Department of Agriculture, and other groups are trying to figure out what is making dogs sick in the state for the past two months.
The virus, which has not yet been named, causes severe stomach problems and usually kills young dogs in three to five days. Some of the symptoms are bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and feeling tired.
The sickness has similar symptoms to parvovirus, which is spread from one dog to another and through poop that is contaminated. The virus is most dangerous to puppies and older dogs. Most of the dogs that died were under 2 years old.
Melissa FitzGerald, who is in charge of animal control in Otsego County, where the virus was first found, told the Detroit Free Press that tests on the dead dogs showed that they did not have parvo.
FitzGerald said, "It's a little scary." "It could be a lot of different things."
FitzGerald said that it doesn't look like the sick dogs have been around each other.
A state veterinarian did say that some samples did show signs of parvo.
“We are still in the early stages of this investigation, but some of the first samples submitted to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory were positive for canine parvovirus. However, there are more results pending and more to be learned,” State Veterinarian Nora Wineland, DVM said in a statement.
Adrianna Potrafkey is a dog owner in northern Michigan. She told WXMI-TV that four of her dogs woke up in early July with bloody diarrhea and upset stomachs. After her vet said she didn't know what was wrong with the dogs, she didn't go to work for two weeks out of fear of leaving them alone.
"It made me feel a lot. Potrafkey said, "I couldn't leave them in case something went wrong."
All of her dogs, who were all vaccinated against parvo when they were young, got better.
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