Ill-dog sale earns store quarantine Pomeranian euthanized for parvovirus infection

BANGOR – Maine Department of Agriculture officials have placed dogs at the Bangor Mall’s Get-A-Pet store under quarantine after a Pomeranian with parvovirus had to be euthanized.

It is the second time the store has been placed under quarantine since its opening in December, according to Maine Animal Welfare Program Director Norma Worley. The store, which remains open, was quarantined in January because of several cases of dogs having kennel cough.

Dr. Christine Fraser, one of the program’s veterinarians, recommended on May 13 that the store be quarantined to avoid spreading parvovirus to other animals.

“[Parvovirus] is so infectious,” Fraser said Tuesday. “That was our main concern with the quarantine because they have so many other animals.”

Parvovirus is a disease that affects dogs’ intestinal lining, causing stomach problems such as diarrhea and vomiting. In young puppies, which are more susceptible to the disease than older dogs with stronger immune systems, it can cause sudden death, according to Fraser.

Although the disease cannot be transferred to humans, it can spread to other dogs and animals with weak immune systems, the veterinarian said. Most dogs with the disease need to be euthanized immediately.

The Pomeranian had to be quarantined and euthanized after a veterinarian in Blue Hill examined it, according to the dog’s owner, Grace Astbury of Blue Hill.

Astbury’s daughter, Sandy Porter of Bucksport, bought the dog for Astbury on May 3 as an early Mother’s Day gift. The next day, Astbury was driving Porter to a doctor’s appointment when the dog threw up in the car.

“I thought she was carsick,” said Astbury, who choked up as she talked about the dog she had named Mazie. “We made an appointment [with the veterinarian], and she had full-blown Parvo.”

“She was the cutest thing I ever saw,” Astbury said. “I bawled for a week.”

She said the employees at Get-A-Pet had assured her that the dog was “perfectly healthy” when she bought it.

“They said we had nothing to worry about, but we had a lot to worry about,” she said.

Astbury said her grandson’s two beagle puppies caught parvovirus from the Pomeranian and also had to be euthanized.

The Pomeranian was euthanized on Mother’s Day. Porter had bought the dog on credit for $900 and is trying to get her money back from the company.

Porter said Tuesday that she has faxed the autopsy report to the company but has not yet received any financial reimbursement.

Under state law, if a licensed veterinarian states in writing that an animal is unfit for sale or has died due to a health problem that would have rendered the animal unfit for sale, the pet dealer is required to provide the purchaser with an animal of equal value, if available, or a full refund.

Get-A-Pet had given the Pomeranian the first of three parvovirus vaccinations before it was sold, Fraser said.

“The pet store was trying to do the right thing,” Fraser said, but because it transports so many puppies at once, diseases can be transmitted easily.

Get-A-Pet President Arvid Dahlbloom, who called from the company’s corporate office in Auburn, N.H., said the mass transport of dogs to the store had nothing to do with the outbreak of parvovirus. He said the disease could have originated from anywhere before or after the dog was transported to the store.

Dahlbloom said his company, which has two stores in New Hampshire and one in Bangor, gets all of its dogs from a USDA-licensed breeder.

The company president said all dogs are closely monitored for symptoms of parvovirus, but that especially with young puppies, signs of the disease sometimes will not show up before the dog is sold.

Fraser said no other dogs at Get-A-Pet have shown signs of the disease, but the store will remain under quarantine for at least 10 days, until May 23.

Under quarantine, the store remains open but cannot move any dogs in or out of the facility.

The state Animal Welfare Program is investigating the store’s protocol for keeping dogs from spreading diseases, according to Worley.

She said state law allows the department to refer the Bangor store to the Maine Attorney General’s Office for a hearing, but it will not make that decision until the investigation is complete.