FORSYTH COUNTY -- The Forsyth Humane Society is back open for business after a couple weeks closed after canine flu reached Winston-Salem. The non-profit closed July 15 and tested every dog before reopening to the public Friday.

It takes a lot to care for rescue dogs at the Forsyth Humane Society. A confirmed case of canine influenza in Winston-Salem earlier this month put extra pressure on staff.

"What do we do to protect the general public? What do we do to protect the animals inside our facility? And how do we get the necessary information to be able to communicate effectively on how we can prevent additional transmission?” said Mark Neff with the Forsyth Humane Society.

The Humane Society closed July 15 as soon as the case was confirmed and reached out to an expert: Dr. Sandra Newbury, director of the shelter medicine program at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine.

"As soon as they saw it had made its way into Forsyth County, her assistant reached out to me and said, 'We're here to offer you any support if you need it.' First thing I did was pick up the phone and give Dr. Newbury a call," said Neff.

Neff said they talked for a long time about the virus, and Dr. Newbury offered to help the shelter check the 15 dogs in its care at the time.

"Her particular university has grant funding money that's available to facilitate testing so we could see whether or not we actually had H3N2 on site. So Dr. Newbury and her assistant sent all the supplies we needed to go ahead and do a nasal swab," said Neff.

After talking to Dr. Newbury about the influenza, Neff says they had to very carefully test each and every single dog for the flu.

"We used gloves, gowns, booties, and when we moved from dog to dog. We made sure we changed in between, so if any of the dogs -- during this testing process, as we were waiting for the results -- if they were positive, we weren't moving it from dog to dog," said Neff.

All the tests came back negative for the flu, but shelter employees are still being cautious.

"We're verifying information about where the dog may or may not have been previous to intake, and then we're doing a quarantine period. Rather than do a 48-hour hold, we're moving it to a 72-hour hold, so it gets us a little bit of additional time to spend some time with the animal before it becomes part of our general population with the other animals," said Neff.

It's extra care well worth the effort if it keeps dogs flu-free.

Canine influenza can spread between dogs through contaminated food and water bowls, collars, leashes or nose-to-nose contact.