NORTON SHORES, Mich. (WOOD) — The Big Lake Humane Society is closing to the public for at least a week after two more dogs have shown signs of distemper.

Alexis Robertson, the shelter’s executive director, says the two were likely exposed to the virus by sick dogs seized from a woman who faces animal cruelty charges.

“It had to have been them,” Robertson told News 8. “We have never, ever had distemper here before.”

Big Lake was one of four shelters to take in animals after 78 dogs were seized from Lisa Cober’s Norton Shores home on Jan. 30. Cober claimed to run a rescue out of her home called Cober’s Canines.

Jen Self-Aulgur, the executive director of the Harbor Humane Society, told News 8 in the days following the seizure that this confiscation was one of the worst she has ever seen.

“It was bad. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’ve been to a lot of horrible places and seen a lot of horrible things and to have something like this close in our backyard, disguised as a rescue, is a travesty,” Self-Aulgur said.

In the days after the dogs were seized, Self-Aulgur noted many of them were sick.

“A lot of illness. (In) two of the puppies that we have, one potentially has distemper, another potentially has pneumonia. We’re seeing a lot of evidence of kennel cough,” she said.

Big Lake and Harbor Humane Society took some of the most serious cases. Despite weeks of care, nine dogs claimed from Cober’s Canines died from distemper infections — six at Harbor Humane and three at Big Lake.

The shelters thought they were in the clear with distemper cases until two more dogs at Big Lake started showing symptoms in the last couple of days.

Distemper is a virus that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems in dogs and puppies. Vaccines are widely available and American Humane considers it one of the “core vaccines” for dogs.

Robertson explained that the two dogs were brought in after the dogs from Cober’s Canines had come in. They had yet to be vaccinated for distemper, so they were given their first doses when they were taken in at Big Lake. But it appears the virus was able to take hold before the vaccine.

One of the dogs is being held for observation, but the other is in “emergency care.”

The most common symptoms are lethargy and a lack of appetite. But, according to Robertson, the telltale signs of distemper are nervous issues, including loss of balance and twitches, which alerted her team.

Robertson says Big Lake will be closed for at least the next week while they await test results, but she is quite confident that they will come back positive. If true, Robertson expects the shelter to be closed to the public for the next three weeks. Big Lake will do a deep clean and operate with minimum staff, reducing the number of opportunities for them to spread the virus or for visitors to bring it home to their pets.

Cober faces one felony charge of cruelty to 25 or more animals, which carries a punishment of up to seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

She has waived her preliminary hearing, sending her case to trial in the Muskegon County Circuit Court. No date has been set yet.

Despite the charges, Cober still has legal ownership of the animals, meaning the shelters cannot adopt them out. The costs for the animal shelters tasked with caring for them are mounting. Both Harbor Humane and Big Lake say they both have spent more than $10,000 caring for dogs seized from Cober.

Just days earlier, Robertson says Big Lake put out the call for foster families to help the shelter by taking in dogs seized from Cober. Now, if tests come back positive for distemper, no dogs will be allowed to be released from the facility for the next month.