The beautiful spring weather is melting away the winter snow, much to the delight of Airdrie residents. However, anyone who might be visiting Airdrie's off-leash dog parks or walking along Airdrie pathways may be in for a much different experience.

The melting snow is exposing a winters-worth of doggy "treasures" that are becoming increasingly a problem along pathways and in dog parks.

The dog waste has the potential of creating not just a terrible experience for someone not watching their step, but for dog owners who may have a puppy or dog that is unvaccinated from viruses like parvo.

Christina Holland, a Veterinary Technologist at Heartland Vet Clinic in Airdrie says that that, unfortunately, the leftover waste could be harbouring the virus.

"It's spread through poop basically.  That's how it's shed.  Then a dog comes along and either sniffs the back end of a dog who's got parvo or sniffs the poop that's been left behind long after they've gone and then that's how they pick up the virus, it gets into their system that way."

Holland says there is always the threat of parvo going around.

"There's always the risk of parvo going around.  Once in a while, there'll be a little increase in the number of dogs who have it because it is highly contagious, so once in a while, we'll have a run of parvo-puppies as we tend to call them."

An easy way to avoid the dangers of dog droppings, besides watching your step, is to get your dog vaccinated.

"Vaccines.  If I hammer no other point home, it's vaccines.  You need to teach the puppies immune system what parvo looks like in a safe way so that they can mount an appropriate response to it, so their immune system can get going when they eventually see it."

As well as the threat of parvo and other viruses from dog droppings, not cleaning up after a pet has gone can result in a fine due to Airdrie bylaw.

In Airdrie's off-leash dog parks, there are bags given out for cleaning up after. For those walking their dogs in the neighborhood, bring dog bags along to avoid leaving "surprises" everywhere.

 

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