The vicksburg Animal Shelter has been forced to close their doors temporarily, the shelter is under quarantine due to the spread of kennel cough.

On May 14th the shelter announced they’d be closing for a minimum of 2 weeks, This means they won’t be able to take any animals in or adopt any animals out as they err on the side of caution.

Treatable, yet extremely contagious, kennel cough spreads like wildfire once it enters an environment with a lot of dogs.

“In a shelter situation, a lot of times when animals are brought in, you don’t have a history of what they’ve been vaccinated for,” Dr. Troy Majure, with the Animal Medical Center, said. 

Often once a dog starts showing symptoms, it’s too late to stop what’s already begun, at that point it becomes more about treating the animals that have it and making sure it doesn’t go any further.  

“Very rigorous cleaning…The good news is that it’s very self limiting the symptoms may last for 10 days to 3 weeks,” Doctor Majure explained. 

Doctor Troy Majure says there are different strains of what is commonly called kennel cough.

“Make sure your dog is vaccinated, but also realize that some strains may override that, and you may still have the possibility of infection. I would be careful around any dogs that you don’t know,” Dr. Majure said. 

The shelter isn’t the only area off limits, the city’s dog park near the airport on US 61 South was closed as well. Vicksburg dog owners are taking extra precautions.

“You should be aware of who your dogs are with and where they’re going. Obviously she shut down the shelter because you don’t want to spread it, so if there’s a lot of stray dogs that run around that aren’t vaccinated at all… so that’s already an issue,” dog owner, Gina Hendrickson explained. 

Gina hendrickson commends the shelter’s director for being cautious during this time.

“Obviously we want them to be adopted and she loves taking them in and taking care of them, which is great, so she’s kind of sad that she can’t do that right now, but it’s always better safe than sorry,” Hendrickson said. 

There’s no exact date on when the shelter will reopen but the shelter’s director says they could be closed for up to 6 weeks in order to make sure the virus is completely gone.

For now the shelter is asking that if you have a surrender an animal to contact the Mississippi Animal Rescue League at 601-939-1631.

If you have any questions for the Vicksburg Animal Shelter you can contact them at 601-636-6982.