Kelowna

The Vernon SPCA has finally reopened its doors to the public after a rare month-long closure due to a ringworm outbreak.

Photo: Amy Jackson-Shelling

These 3 month old kittens can now be adopted out by the Vernon SPCA.

“We had 43 animals that we were treating for ringworm with the lime dip,” says Corrine Ross, Vernon SPCA Branch Manager.

“We had a confirmed case of a kitten and we knew that the kitten had contact with other cats and had been in a room where there was some small animals, some guinea pigs and rabbits.”

The cultures taken for ringworm testing were sent to the provincial office where they take one to three weeks to process.

“Other shelters had it, but it was erratic,” says Ross.

“It didn’t make any sense. It’s in the community basically. It’s very contagious but it’s not deadly.”

Due to the length and nature of the closure, animals at the shelter have been unable to be adopted, causing an increase in shelter numbers and creating an even longer waitlist (which already was set back to June) for animals coming in for surrender.

“We had some pending adoptions which we couldn’t let go out. I had one dog that wasn’t neutered and he had to get neutered before he could go home. That was really sad because we really wanted to let them go but we couldn’t because we hadn’t had the negative results. Once you have two negatives we’re okay to adopt out.”

While the Vernon SPCA is willing to talk to people wanting to surrender dogs, the closure has meant they can no longer take in any more cats or kittens (currently over 40 in care).

“It’s been a really challenging time,” says Ross.