Bentley's days at the former Naval Air Station are nearing an end.
Bentley, Nina Pham’s year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is Ebola-free.
That’s the breaking news from Dallas Animal Services, which on Monday began collecting his urine and stool samples to check for the disease his owner contracted while treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. But Dallas Animal Services wants to make it clear: He’s not yet completely out of the woods.
“Bentley will be monitored for a full 21-day period, similar to people exposed to the Ebola virus,” says a release from Dallas City Hall this morning.
A specimen collection will be conducted again before the end of that 21-day quarantine period at the Hensley Field Services Center on W. Jefferson Boulevard. His quarantine period should come to an end around November 1.
Today’s news follows yesterday’s note from the National Institutes of Health that upgraded Pham’s condition from fair to good. Sana Syed, the city of Dallas spokesperson, says city officials are providing Pham with daily updates about her dog’s condition. The two have been separated since Pham was put into isolation at Presbyterian on October 10, which is the last day she saw Bentley.
Dallas Animal Services is overseeing Bentley’s care, but it’s doing so with considerable guidance from copious other interested parties, among them the Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas A&M University and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control.
Early on, Dallas officials made the decision not to euthanize Bentley — a far cry from what happened in Spain, where 44-year-old nurse Teresa Romero’s 12-year-old mixed-breed rescue dog Excalibur was put down to the backdrop of violent protests. Romero has since tested Ebola-free.