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By Claire Osborn for Statesman.com

The Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter has euthanized 24 dogs and placed dog adoptions on hold until Jan. 12 because of an outbreak of a contagious respiratory virus. The dogs, euthanized last week, had symptoms of distemper, director Cheryl Schneider said.

The staff has placed 20 other dogs in quarantine, Schneider said. “Two-thirds of them are doing well and will come out of quarantine, and the others are having a runny nose but not running a temperature, so we are treating them for kennel cough,” she said.

Cats, which are not susceptible to the disease, are still available for adoption at the shelter.

The shelter in southeastern Georgetown has sent letters to people who adopted dogs from it temporarily over the holidays during a special program, Schneider said. A few of those animals that were returned to the shelter had a cough, she said.

Distemper causes fever, pneumonia, coughing, vomiting and convulsions. It is spread through the air by bodily fluids. Dogs can be vaccinated against it.

It is a rare disease because most pets are vaccinated against it, said Mark Venghaus, a veterinarian who works at Highlands Pet Medical Clinic in Austin.

“I get one or two cases out of the Town Lake animal shelter every five or six years,” he said.

Schneider said she thinks an unvaccinated stray dog may have brought the illness into the shelter, which had about 100 dogs in the middle of December.

The shelter suspended adoptions Dec. 29 after a chow mix named Red Rover tested positive for distemper, Schneider said. Another dog — an Australian shepherd mix named Margaret — also tested positive, she said. Both animals had been in the shelter for more than three weeks, she said.

The Town Lake Animal Center in Austin and the Humane Society of Williamson County in Leander don’t have any distemper cases, officials said.

The regional shelter is still accepting strays. The shelter vaccinates all dogs before releasing them into its kennels, Schneider said.

Owners who want to surrender their dogs can take them to the Humane Society of Williamson County, but the barn where it keeps the animals is already overcrowded, said Juliana DeRosa, the society’s director. More adoptions would help, she said.