Priscilla

This sweet, young girl ended up on the euthanasia list after getting sick in the shelter.

She tested a very low positive – an amount considered indeterminate – on a distemper PCR test while in the shelter. She also tested positive for a form of kennel cough. She had shown great improvement over the last few weeks and was VERY energetic and ready to go when we sprung her out of jail today!
The overall medical situation is pretty upsetting – Priscilla was vaccinated on 5/31, 6/22 and 6/26. The last two shots within 4 DAYS of each other!! This must have been an accident. There should be, at a minimum, 2 weeks between booster shots, though 3-4 weeks is more typical. To make matters worse, shelter medical staff took a swab for her distemper test just 3 days later, when the live vaccine had only just entered her system. Since it is a modified live vaccine, it will show up in low values on tests. Priscilla’s values were 107k – the threshold for a test to be indeterminate instead of negative is anywhere between 105k-1m, and test instructions themselves recommended retesting…. unfortunately, even with symptoms improving, county medical refused to retest.

The awesome alt placement staff that we work with always try their best for the dogs, and we definitely don’t fault them for any of this, but seeing a dog that may actually be perfectly healthy and almost fully recovered about to be put down because a staff vet refuses to retest and give her just a few more days just isn’t sitting well.

Stay tuned while we get to know her and wait for test results.