{"id":337907,"date":"2026-06-16T03:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337907\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T03:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:24:18","slug":"animal-shelters-prepare-as-screwworm-spreads-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337907\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal shelters prepare as screwworm spreads in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TEXAS \u2014 New World screwworm (NWS) concerns are going beyond just the agriculture industry. Pet owners are staying on high alert as more cases of the parasite are reported in the Lone Star State.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many animal shelters and veterinarians are taking proactive steps to educate owners and those looking to adopt. Associate veterinarian at Austin Vet Hospital Dr. Sarah DeCiero said she has seen more owners come into the office with questions and concerns about NWS for dogs and cats.<\/p>\n<p>DeCiero explained that while alarming, the pest is treatable in pets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody wants their pet to get this,\u201d DeCiero emphasized. \u201cIt is something we can rectify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Treatment involves removing the screwworm from wounds and using medication. Last week, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/news-events\/press-announcements\/fda-issues-emergency-use-authorization-generic-over-counter-drug-treat-new-world-screwworm-dogs-and\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization<\/a> for an over-the-counter medication that can help treat New World screwworm in dogs and cats. While the drug is helpful, vets still recommend getting pets checked out if there is concern they have NWS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe might need to treat any wounds, and we need to report if it is truly screwworm,\u201d said DeCiero.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Travis County issued a disaster declaration for NWS and is urging Texans to stay vigilant and report early. There have been no reported cases in Travis County yet, and the closest reported case was in a goat in Gillespie County, home to Fredericksburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many Austin animal shelters say they are monitoring the situation but not changing anything yet. As of Friday, Austin Animal Services Director Monica Dangler said the shelter is not changing intake protocol because of NWS because they already include vet checks and anti-parasitic treatment if needed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen animals come in, we have a veterinarian check them over,\u201d Dangler explained. \u201cIf we see anything, we move forward with treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 New World screwworm (NWS) concerns are going beyond just the agriculture industry. Pet owners are staying&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5175,2160,132,134,133,1570,102,56,223,82,27,1569,2053,835],"class_list":["post-337907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-abigail-vaerewyck","tag-app-top-stories","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-houston","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}