How Does Your Puppy Get Parvo:
The virus is shed in an infected animals feces(poop). This virus is super strong in the environment. It can live through a winter freeze and be infective once the ice melts!! It can live in your soil for at least 7 months if not more. It is so common in the environment it is impossible to prevent all exposure.
The puppy gets exposed by getting the virus in it's mouth(mucous membrane), this can be through direct feces eating or just getting a little infected dirt in the mouth. It takes a very, very small amount of the virus to cause infection.
Clinical Signs:
The most common clincal signs are vomiting and diarrhea. The diarrhea is often bloody and stinky. Most of these animals will refuse to eat or drink, very shortly into the disease. The puppy is usually very lethargic and inactive. The signs are very rapidly progressing and if not treated early can cause death.
What is Happening Inside?:
I try to make this complex diease, very simple to understand when I explain it to clients. The virus attacks 'rapidly dividing cells'. These cells are the bone marrow and intestinal cells. It first attacks the bone marrow, this is where the 'defender cells' are made. They help fight off unwanted disease and infection. It then moves onto the intestines. The intestines have these little finger like structures(villi) that absorb nutrients. The parvo virus goes and 'mows' them down, preventing the puppy from absorbing water and nutrients.
The puppy can die from two things: The vomitng and diarrhea can lead to such dehydration that shock occurs. And/Or the loss of the intestinal barrier allows bacterial to get into the blood stream and spread throughout the body. Septic toxins from the bacteria lead to death. This is a horrible disease and an even worse way to die.
Diagnosis:
Deciding if you puppy has Parvo is based upon clinical signs(vomiting/diarrhea) and a very simple stool test. This is a test specially designed to test for Parvo in the feces. It takes about 10 minutes to run and have a diagnosis. Further bloodwork may be needed to check the puppy's organ function and help with prognosis.
Treatment/Prevention:
Of course the best way to avoid Parvo is vaccination. Parvo requires several well timed vaccines. The puppy gets some immunity from its mom, in the form of colostrum. All puppies get a different amount of immunity from their mom, it depends upon how much colostrum they got and how much immunity their mom has. This mommy immunity is great but also inactivates the vaccines immunity. Since there is no easy way to 'quantify' when the mommy immunity wears off the puppy gets a series of vaccines. Many people think dogs need '3' puppy boosters, there is no magic number for the vaccines. They need them EVERY 3-4 weeks until they are AT LEAST 16 WEEKS old!!
If your puppy gets Parvo, then treatment needs to be started immediatlely. The very best thing to do is hospitalize the puppy and start it on intravenous fluids and injectable medications. These help support the puppy while it's own immune system fights off the virus. Be prepared for a 5 to 7 day hospital stay and substantial expense. Intensive care is needed to treat this infection.
There are people who just cann't afford the hospitalization and injections, and want to take the pet home. The chances of survival with at home care go down considerably but can be tried if the only other choice is euthanasia.
After Treatment:
Your veternarian will give you instructions for feeding, watering, exercise, repeat vaccination, etc; when the puppy leaves the hospital. Remember that your yard can be infective for up to 7 months and inside your house(after cleaning) for up to 1 month!! The treated puppy now has immunity against parvo, but any new puppy could get sick from the environment!! Make sure to call you veternarian with any questions. The veternarian and staff are always eager to share information.
Extensive Parvo Information
AAHA Vaccine Guidelines
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