BRUNSWICK — Midcoast Humane said it reopened its Brunswick shelter to cat adoptions Monday.
At least eight cats showed signs of an upper respiratory infection, and the Range Road shelter closed to the public last week so staff and volunteers could clean and disinfect its four cat adoption rooms.
Mandie Wehr, the veterinarian in charge of shelter operations, said last week that the shelter had about 50 cats up for adoption.
Monday, Wehr said tests came back showing typical pathogens that cause “kitty colds.” The shelter planned to reopen all of its cat adoption rooms.
“We have not had any additional cats become ill since Thursday last week and since we know we are working with typical pathogens for ‘kitty colds’ we are comfortable placing cats now,” she wrote in an email to The Times Record Monday.
It’s not unusual for cats to get upper respiratory infections and the shelter sees cases every year, Wehr said.
What is unusual is that cats fell ill in all four of the shelter’s adoption rooms, she said.
“It just seems that many of them are coming down with the symptoms,” Wehr said Thursday. “It can be a sign that it’s something that is not a typical virus … and that’s what we’re going to check for to make sure it’s not one of the more atypical viruses.”
Wehr said the cats are not suffering from feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, a viral disease the shelter has seen before in some cats. FIP has no cure and no vaccination.
The shelter reopened to the public for dog adoptions on Thursday.
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