The husband of the Spanish nurse infected with Ebola has launched an online campaign to save the couple’s dog, after health authorities told him it would have to be put down.

In a note distributed on social media by several animal protection organisations, Javier Limón Romero said health officials had asked for his consent to put down the dog Excálibur.

“I said no. And they told me that they would ask for a court order to enter my house and put him down,” Romero said in the note.

The appeal was sent from Limón Romero’s isolation ward in the Carlos III Hospital where his wife, Teresa Romero Ramos, is also in quarantine. The dog is currently at home alone, he said, but noted that before going to the hospital he set out “several buckets of water, filled the bathtub with water and left out 15kg of feed.

“The terrace was also left open so that he could do his business,” he said.

Limón Romero dismissed the authorities’ worries that the dog may be carrying the Ebola virus, arguing that Excálibur would not infect anyone. “If it bothers them so much then they should find other alternative solutions, such as putting the dog in quarantine and observation, as they have done with me.” He added: “But of course a dog is easier, it doesn’t matter as much.”

His plea spread quickly across the internet, with the hashtag #SalvemosAExcalibur, or Let’s save Excalibur, dominating Twitter. By Tuesday evening, more than 135,000 had people signed an online petition backing his plea.