Guilford County Animal Services has hit pause on taking in any new cats or kittens through Wednesday, Nov. 25, after confirmed cases of feline panleukopenia turned up at the county shelter. Three of the shelter's six intake halls are now under quarantine while staff scramble to keep the highly contagious virus from spreading any further.
According to Guilford County, the suspension is meant to protect the animals already in shelter care and limit additional disease spread. Per Jorge Ortega, director of Guilford County Animal Services, the pause follows confirmed feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) cases detected at the shelter, as first reported by WFMY News 2. County officials say the suspension is expected to remain in place through Nov. 25 as quarantine and containment measures continue.
A Virus That Spreads Fast and Hits Kittens Hardest
Feline panleukopenia is a highly contagious virus that primarily affects kittens and unvaccinated cats, and county officials say it can be fatal if not properly diagnosed and treated. It spreads through contact with infected feces, urine, saliva or vomit, including shared litter boxes and living areas, and the virus can have an incubation period of about 14 days before symptoms appear. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, dehydration, and in severe cases, sudden death.
That lines up with how the MSD Veterinary Manual describes the disease nationally: cats are infected through exposure to infected animals, their feces and secretions, and contaminated surfaces or environments, with an incubation period usually running two to seven days but sometimes stretching to 14. The manual notes the illness typically brings on depression, loss of appetite, high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe dehydration, and that outbreaks are relatively common in shelters that house cats worldwide.
Not the Shelter's First Brush With the Virus
This isn't new territory for Guilford County Animal Services. Back in July, abc45.com reported that roughly 30 kittens were quarantined at the shelter amid an earlier panleukopenia surge, with Ortega warning that stray, unvaccinated kittens — particularly those younger than two months — face the greatest risk. That report also found reported stray animal intakes had climbed from 1,066 to 1,434 during the January-through-July stretch compared with the year before, while shelter euthanasias rose from 163 to 361 over the same window, though the years behind that specific euthanasia comparison weren't specified in the report.
A year earlier, in June 2025, a county release said the virus had been detected in four kittens brought in from the High Point and Pleasant Garden area, prompting the shelter to close off two kitten halls and quarantine the cats and kittens already there. And a FOX8 WGHP report from July 2024 noted that quarantine had already been enforced at the shelter three times that year, including twice in a single month that May.
Guilford County Isn't Alone
The problem has popped up elsewhere in the region, too. Rowan County Animal Services recently confirmed its own feline panleukopenia cases, according to a report carried by yahoo.com, prompting that shelter to suspend cat adoptions and non-emergency feline intakes while still accepting emergency cases. That report noted no cat deaths had been reported there at the time.
Guilford County Animal Services staff are working to contain the virus and prevent additional cases while the current quarantine plays out. In the meantime, animal services officials are encouraging cat owners to talk to their veterinarians about vaccination, which they consider the most effective way to prevent feline panleukopenia and which can provide long-lasting immunity when a kitten's maternal antibodies don't get in the way. Humans cannot contract the virus, according to the earlier abc45.com report.
