By Mary O’KEEFE

The Crescenta Valley Dog Park has been closed due to reports received concerning dogs becoming ill after attending the park.

The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation closed the park “out of an abundance of caution.”

CV Town Council President Harry Leon said the council began receiving calls concerning sick dogs. He related those concerns to Parks and Rec.

“We [initially] heard of the sick dogs from the CVTC, then observed comments on social media,” said Terry Kanakri, spokesman for the County of LA Dept. of Parks and Recreation.

The symptoms that pet parents reported seemed to be along the lines of kennel cough, but there were other symptoms described. According to the American Kennel Club, kennel cough is an infectious tracheobronchitis and is a highly contagious respiratory disease. Normally dogs contract kennel cough in areas where large numbers of canines congregate, like boarding facilities and dog parks. Dogs can spread it to one another through airborne droplets, direct contact or contaminated surfaces like water bowls. Symptoms include a strong cough, which has been described as a honking sound, runny nose, sneezing, lethargy, loss of appetite and a low- grade fever. The symptoms have also been described as flu-like.

Most dogs can be treated by their veterinarian for kennel cough.

“[Kennel cough] is one cause of what may be making dogs sick at the park,” Kanakri added.

No viral infection or any illness has been determined by LA County Parks and Rec as of yet; however, they are taking the reports seriously.

Another possibility was canine flu. Canine flu showed up about 20 years ago in Florida, said Dr. JD Speas of Crescenta Cañada Pet Hospital in La Crescenta.

“It showed up in Florida with a bunch of greyhounds,” he said. But cases of the flu have been spotty throughout the U.S.

“There was an outbreak in Chicago [not long ago] and then earlier this year in the Bay area,” Speas said. He added that flare ups of canine flu occur and then die out pretty quickly. Whether that is because pet parents decide to voluntarily quarantine their dogs or the flu just runs its course is unknown.

“Right now the one strain is H3N2 that gets identified most [often],” Speas said. “The virus is easy to kill. Once they disinfect the park it will be okay because the virus can’t live in an environment outside of the [the dog].”

But it has yet to be determined what is causing the dogs’ illness and if it is related to the CV Dog Park. That will be determined by the LA County Dept. of Animal Care and Control, whose veterinarian has been contacted.

Speas has not received any calls concerning kennel cough or canine flu from owners of dogs that frequent the CV Dog Park.

The LA County Dept. of Animal Care and Control veterinarian will be at the CV Dog Park today, Thursday, to begin investigating the reports of illness and trying to discover the possible cause.

The CV Dog was closed at 1 p.m. on Tuesday and will remain closed until “further notice,” added Kanakri.

  Mary Okeefe