Parvovirus...

[saden99]

If you don't know what parvovirus is then go here: Parvovirus: Serious Diarrhea in Puppies & Dogs


When my dog Junior was 4 months old he contracted parvovirus. At first I thought he was just sick until the diarrhea was a lot worse than it should be...

The symptoms he had were synonymous:

Lethargy
Diarrhea(watery and very bad smell)

Just two symptoms which devastated me. He would just lie down next to me and curl up until he needed to use the bathroom. It was raining all day and I couldn't take him to the vet(car wasn't with me at that moment). I took him out maybe 6-7 times in the span of 2 hours and then went to the vet with a friend and they told me he had parvo(after a test).

My vet was very annoyed at this point(not with me) as he was due for his parvo vaccine that following weekend. She told me that it would be quite expensive but if it is aggressively treated then the puppy can survive. There is no cure...you can only give fluids and offer the dog food.

Well where I live there are two vets. One is open from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM. At that point it was 8:00 Pm and they told us to take him to the emergency vet(which closes its doors in the morning for new patients....(odd). They wanted a lot of money to watch him and give him fluids. In both vets he had to be isolated and the only people he saw were the Vet techs and occasionally the veterinarian.

The first night he was in there I came home and talked to no one. I just lay down and went to sleep. I have never seen a puppy with such a look on their face. When he did look at me it seemed like he wanted to say "Help me!" but didn't have the energy. The next day the vet said he was doing "fine". We picked him up and took him to the day vet who isolated him and gave him fluids along with anti-inflammatory and anti-vomit(can't remember the exact name) medication.

We came back at night to take him to the E-Vet and my vet said he was doing great and that we should take him home for tonight. So I took him home and sat in bed with him(without sheets etc....I went crazy with bleach and ended up cleaning everything in the house to make sure the virus was at a minimum) and just lay there. I constantly had my hand on him and made sure he was not alone until he got up and vomited(not a good thing when you have nothing in your stomach).

I brought him upstairs with me and watched TV with him(it was 1:00 in the morning by now) and couldn't even pay attention to the TV. I couldn't stop thinking that he might have to be put down because I don't want him suffering. In the morning he went to the E-Vet and I talked to his veterinarian about whether or not he would eventually need to be put to sleep...

She looked at me and shook her head "No" and repeated "No, no, no, no, no!".

The reason for this post is because of something she told me when she kept repeating "No!". She said that I was lucky because he was brought in on the first day of the symptoms. His chances went from 10% to 80% just because of that.

Apparently some people end up bringing the puppy in on the third of fourth day because they thought the puppy was just normally ill. The chances for those puppies drop exponentially each day because they aren't being given fluids. They go from 10% to 30%(not a big increase).

The next day we came the day vet agreed to keep him overnight(with some people there to watch) because my vet thought it would be best not to move him to the E-Vet. I called constantly and they told me he was stable and "fine". Then somewhere around 6:00 in the morning I got a call from my Vet screaming that he ate his food! For four days he didn't eat his own food and finally he ate what was offered. I was ecstatic...she was ecstatic(was kind of funny) and we came in that night to pick him up.

We were given anti-biotics, special canned dog food(liver, chicken, rice in a can...mmmm) and a space-alien dog. He had two cones on his head because he liked to bite at his IV fluid line. On the car ride home he was all over my face with his tongue and when he got home I isolated him in my room with me to be sure he was fine.

After a week with no symptoms he was allowed to wander out of my room and around the house and boy...was he happy. He got small amounts of food every 5 hours for about 3 weeks along with anti-biotics to make sure his immune system could recover without having to deal with pesky bacteria.

We went to the vet and got him updated on all of his vaccines(he had some already, but he needed them again). The vet told me this was a precaution because vaccines only work if the immune system is well enough to deal with the dead virus. If Parvo was in his body and the immune system was dealing with it chances were slim that it would have grabbed hold of the dead virus.



Both Cymmi and Shrooms were never affected by Parvovirus and I really had no experience with a puppy as miserable as him. He went from 30 pounds to 15 pounds in a matter of 3 days because his body just wasn't dealing with it very well. Since then Junior has been sick only once(that I know of). I keep an eye on him every day and I've only noticed some diarrhea once for the past 5 months and that was only for a day. He's been as healthy as can be and whenever someone passes us on the street they always ask what kind of dog he is and they ALWAYS say he's such a pretty dog.

He even got a compliment from a kid that was trying to snatch his dog whilst it tried to run after Junior....



If you have a puppy than Parvovirus should be a serious concern. Get the puppy vaccinated as soon as possible and be sure to keep the traveling to a minimum until they are vaccinated. That means dont take your puppy on a 30 minute walk. They don't care to walk when they are 3 months old..they want to go outside to use the bathroom(or maybe not) and play...not walk.

I think he might have contracted Parvo from a new area that I had never taken any of my dogs on a walk to. Puppy's are the only ones that are truly vulnerable to the virus because their immune system just aren't fully built at that point. When your dog is a year or older then you don't have to worry so much because they will just have diarrhea and/or vomiting for a day and the next they'll be fine.

I posted this for two reasons:

1) To scare you. It's a true story. My Junior had Parvo and he survived it with aggressive expensive treatment. I've already paid off the $4,000 bills but it would have been better to pay for a $10 vaccine...which he was scheduled to get that Saturday(gerrr....).

2) Lethargy is ALWAYS a symptom of SOMETHING. A dog is not lethargic for no reason. If your dog is lethargic than I would take them to a vet so the vet can assess the different symptoms and diagnose the problem. Lethargy is when your dog lies around and doesn't pay much attention to anything around them.

There's a simple test for it...

If you think your dog is lethargic then they should be lying down somewhere for a few hours. Call their name. If they don't look up at you immediately then there is probably a problem. Get a treat you know they like. Throw it on the ground. If they don't go after it then there is a problem. If it takes them 5-10 seconds to react to it, then you have a problem.

[Dangels]

Something that I would like to add.... Many people don't know it, but puppies can be vaccinated for Parvo as early as 6 weeks of age. I usually give my puppies a 7 in 1 vacc. which is given at 6, 9, 12, and 16 weeks of age. I highly recommend that all puppies be vaccinated for Parvo, and be vaccinated when they are young, since Parvo is a very serious concern for puppies. It's always very costly to treat, and is often deadly....

[saden99]

If you read the link there have been studies for vaccination of Parvo on puppies. The vaccination usually doesn't succeed until around 4 months of age when it has a 95% chance.


But yes...get them vaccinated because even at 6 weeks there is a 20% chance it will succeed(which means it may not and the puppy is still vulnerable).

[Punkygirl0101]

We have had 2 dogs with parvo. Zen was a 4 month old pug mix and he didn't make it. He died 2 days after treatment.

Bob was 7 weeks old at the time he developed parvo...he spent 10 days in the Emergency vet..THEY told us we should probably put him down, but we didn't. $10,000 dollars later and hes a healthy 3 year old.

[saden99]

I'm very sorry to hear that...I know I would have been devastated if Junior had passed away and I see the picture of Zen in your signature...he looks so adorable for a pug.

I'm just angry about the vet bills. Apparently if you live in the middle of no where that has a great vet that $10,000 bill might be around $2,000...

But if you live where I do where development is going on and many people are moving in...vet bills soar.