A deadly virus known as Parvo, or parvovirus, is spreading quickly across Kentucky. Kentucky is ranked fifth for most number of cases across the United States.
Parvo is a virus that targets canines’ intestinal tract and their heart in some severe instances. Symptoms for this virus consist of dehydration, bloating, fever, loss of appetite, and bloody diarrhea.
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I had a friend who lost a dog to Parvo back in the 1980s. He had gotten him at 3-4 months old from a family that was moving and couldn't take the dog. He didn't last 3 days. James got him on a Friday and before he could get him to the vet on Monday for a check-up, it was too late. The dog was perfectly fine the first couple days, then suddenly had explosive diarrhea and vomiting.
Fauci?
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I have a friend who lost her beloved dog to old age in 2019. A few months later she adopted a puppy, Theo, to come into her life. A short time after that Theo got Parvo and her world went into a complete tailspin. But she did everything right for Theo, and she was lucky and Theo began to get better. He was still at the vet's at this point. A group of people from the meeting we attended where we knew each other got together and spent a Saturday cleaning and disinfecting her house. One guy in particular seemed to do most of the "heavy lifting." I really gained a lot of respect and admiration for him, that day! So Theo came home and continued to recover. Fast forward 5 years or so, I saw Theo - all grown up now - at the meeting recently and he was a complete sweetheart. So if you've lost a pet to Parvo, or anything else, my heart goes out to you. I hope many of you were on the lucky side of the coin-toss, too! Much love, Joely
ReplyDeleteA simple preventative shot eliminates this. Its called the 5 in 1 vaccine
ReplyDeleteCanine Parvovirus first appeared on the scene in 1978. I was an aspiring pre-vet student, working at a local small animal hospital. No dogs' immune systems had ever seen it before, and there was no vaccine at the time... it killed everything from puppies to geriatric dogs. My days were spent cleaning up vomit and bloody diarrhea, and moving dead dogs from their cages to the freezer.
ReplyDeleteEvery so often outbreaks of so-called 'Killer Parvo' sweep through, but investigations fail to support claims that these 'new' strains are any more virulent than those that came before.
It's primarily an issue of complacency and failing to get young dogs adequately immunized - and vaccinated or recovered bitches often pass such high levels of maternal antibodies to pups that we must take vaccination protocols out well past 16 wks of age to ensure that pups have received at least two doses after maternal antibody levels decline below the point that they suppress immune response to the vaccine.
Parvo is pretty nasty. And fast. I was going to go pick up a new GSD puppy from the breeder a year ago, and en route they had a problem with the entire litter with what they were initially told was parvo. So we aborted the pickup. They lost at least one pup from the litter. And the pups got intensive vet care and we watched and waited. They never were able to nail it down as to parvo or not. But it was similar.
ReplyDeleteEventually, the remaining pups were cleared, and I got mine. Lesson learned. I make sure everyone's canine vaccinations are uptodate.
My niece is a vet in LA , lower Alabama, Says it's going hot there too. With the economy like it is pets are low priority.
ReplyDeleteparvo shots are mandatory for small dogs in our area in the deep south. i have known of people who have treated and had dogs recover with one half pepto bismal and one half MT Dew. the key is to keep them hydrated.
ReplyDeleteplease get your baby's a shot when you get them. Parvo is a bad way for our small friends to go.
Parvo is a killer, especially for young dogs..
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Years ago my buddy Rick had a couple of pups that got parvo. He couldn't afford to have the vet treat them so the vet told him to get a big plastic syringe and a bunch of Gatorade mix. He told Rick to squirt a big shot of Gatorade down the pups' gullets every hour or two, said that's what they would have done at the vet's office anyway. I spent a lot of time over there barbecuing and drinking beer so I'd pitch in and do it myself for a day to give Rick and his sons a break when I was there. It worked great, in a few days you'd see a listless dog that couldn't even stand up would be back to normal like nothing ever happened .
ReplyDeleteWe had bred our German Shorthair to a bitch in a nearby town - we had very good bloodlines in our dog and we had asked for a puppy as the only price for the breeding. We picked up our pup and she was great and turned out to also be an excellent bird dog. We found out a week later that all of the rest of the litter had died of parvo over the next few days after we picked up Maggie. That was a real heartbreaker.
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