Outbreak sickening O.C. dogs

Orange County Animal Care Services has seen 51 dogs suffering from the disease since the beginning of August; usually, it would expect to see fewer than 10 in that time span. Most of the sick dogs brought to its shelter died of the disease or were euthanized, in part to keep them from infecting other dogs there, spokesman Ryan Drabek said.

“For us, this is a significant increase” in parvo cases, said Jennifer Phillips, the director of Animal Care Services.

The virus has hit Santa Ana especially hard; the city's animal-services agency has diagnosed 19 cases in the past four weeks. But county officials say the number of parvo cases seems to have increased throughout central Orange County, with many of the cases coming from poorer neighborhoods.

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