Hall County Animal Shelter halts cat intake, adoptions amid viral outbreak

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - The Hall County Animal Shelter is fighting a viral outbreak among its cats.   

Panleukopenia is a virus that only affects cats and has forced staff at the shelter to quarantine the more than 100 cats at the shelter currently for two weeks.  

"It's a very contagious disease," said Trey Garcia, the director of Animal Services for Hall County.

He says they’re not exactly sure how Panleukopenia got into their shelter, but they have some good guesses.

"Mostly you're going to see it in animals that are not vaccinated. And that's what we struggle with a lot because we are an open intake shelter," Garcia said.

They get a lot of stray cats dropped off by both Animal Control and community members.

"We get them in almost on a daily basis," Garcia said.

So they decided to suspend all intake of cats for the next two weeks last Friday to try to get a handle on it and investigate the cause.

"We weren't going to do any cat adoptions either. That's just the best way that we can figure out what's going on and treat our animals," Garcia said.

He says the virus is especially deadly for kittens and nursing mothers.

But so far, the quarantine has been effective.

"Ever since we decided to hold off on things this past Friday, we haven't had any new cases pop up," he said. "We're very encouraged by that."

Garcia says the community has also been very instrumental in helping in their pause in intake.

"We may be unable to take them in right now, but we're offering other solutions, different places, rescue groups, humane societies who may be able to help as well. They've been great for us," Garcia said.

When asked how many cats have died from the virus at the shelter Garcia said "very few."

Garcia also cautioned those who’ve recently adopted a cat from the shelter to look out for the symptoms of Panleukopenia: loss of appetite, fever, vomiting, dehydration, diarrhea and lethargy.