Santa Rosa County Animal Services now fully open for adoption after dogs battled bacterial illness

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. ( WKRG ) — After weeks of battling an illness known as Mycoplasma cynos, the dogs of Santa Rosa Animal Services are once again healthy and cleared for adoption.

The bacterial illness caused dogs to have symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, and discharge from the eyes. But, after two weeks of medications and quarantine, all the dogs are healthy.

On Monday, adoptions fully resumed at the shelter.

Santa Rosa County Animal Services’ employee feeds a treat to one of the dogs available for adoption. (News 5 photo)

Randy Lambert, Animal Services Chief, said he and his team could not be happier.

“Our lobby’s full of adopters coming in looking for dogs to take home with them. We’re so excited to be able to get people to come in and be able to take the dogs home and find their forever homes,” said Lambert.

Oct. 7 was the first day Santa Rosa Animal Services had adoptions open in any capacity since the illness first spread around the shelter back in late September.

In the last week, eight dogs have been adopted from the shelter’s foster home program, and with the illness now treated, Lambert hopes that number will increase as more people learn the dogs are healthy again.

Although at least 12 of the shelter’s 75 dogs had confirmed cases of the disease, not one of the dogs died, including a dog who Lambert said experienced severe symptoms.

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