POTSDAM, N.Y. -- There's more than cats and dogs to keep volunteers at the Potsdam animal shelter busy this week. A ringworm outbreak forced the shelter to close its doors.
"About a week ago, we noticed we had a problem with some of the cats and our vet tech, Regina, she checked over the cats and determined, yes, they did have ringworm," said Jackie Pinover, Potsdam Humane Society Board Member.
Ringworm is contagious, so the infected animals were quarantined and workers began intense cleaning to prevent it from spreading.
"We've had to thoroughly clean every room, scrub it from top to bottom," said Jason Vario. "All the bedding, all the towels, all the cans of food, bags of food, have to be wiped down individually."
There is a lot of work involved in getting the shelter back up and running, which unfortunately means more time spent cleaning and less time spent with the animals.
The Potsdam animal shelter has temporarily closed after a ringworm outbreak infected 18 of its cats. Our Kaitlyn Lionti visited the shelter and has more on the outbreak and what it will take to reopen its doors.
"They haven't had their usual romps and walks and training sessions and they're exhibiting signs of stress. They know something is different," said Pinover.
"We can't take in any animals because of it and it's just really stressful for everybody," said Vario.
That stress might be avoidable in the future, when the shelter is able to move into its new facility.
Pinover said, "Once we have a good air filtration system and we're able to have a real isolation unit where we can isolate animals that have problems like this, then that will certainly solve our problem."
For now, the shelter is looking to the community for help.
"What it really shows to us is a real need for foster homes and that's what we desperately need now," said Pinover.
The Humane Society does not know where the infection came from, but local vets tell them it may be related to the damp weather conditions this summer.