The parvovirus is an extremely contagious virus that attacks a dog’s intestines and will result in severe diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration, and can even cause a dog’s death, especially if the dog is younger than 8 months old or elderly. The best way to go about treating this virus is to prevent your dog from getting it in the first place. This is possible if you practice effective care of your dog and get them vaccinated at the appropriate age and continue to follow up with the proper booster shots to keep your best friend from contracting this viscous dog killing virus.
When Should You Start Vaccinations?
You should begin vaccinating your dog when they are around 6 weeks old. If you got your dog from a reputable breeder, they are usually pretty good about keeping up with the puppy’s first shots, but you will have to continue on the vaccination schedule once you bring your puppy home. Your puppy’s vaccinations will continue until your dog is about 16 to 20 weeks old. During and about a month after this vaccination time, your dog will continue to be susceptible to the parvovirus, so you need to be careful of what you expose them to during this period of time (i.e. outside exposures).
You will definitely want to keep your puppy away from unfamiliar dogs, as well as, any place where other dogs may have marked (i.e. gone to the bathroom). You will also need to be careful that you don’t track any strange dog’s waste from your shoes, into your dog’s area. This is because the dog waste can contain the parvovirus, and seeing as the virus is extremely contagious, by just sniffing another dog’s waste, your puppy could contract the virus.
Parvo Symptoms:
While the extra care I have mentioned above will definitely lower the risk of your dog contracting the parvo virus, you can’t keep your dog away from everything, so the risk, even though lowered is still there. That’s why, being able to recognize the symptoms of the parvo virus is extremely important so you can get your dog to the vet as soon as possible if they do catch the virus, which will greatly increase their chance of recovery.
Extreme diarreah and vomiting are normally the first signs you will see. While diarrhea and vomiting can be caused by lots of other things, if your puppy has parvo, then there will most likely be blood in your dog’s stool and it will have a very strong, unique, smell. ADditionally, when a dog has parvo, the vomitting and diarreah is a common occurrence, which is not the case with many other vomiting and diarreah causes.
Another sign of the parvo virus will be your dog’s loss of appetite, lethargy, and slim to no water intake (however, this last point is not always the case, as my dog had parvo when she was a puppy and the only thing that saved her was the fact that she continued to drink water all throughout the virus, so she never got to the point of extreme dehydration, which can be a fatal result of the parvo virus).
If your dog is exhibiting any of these symptoms you should take them to the vet immedietaly no matter what time of day or night it is. The extra cost that you will pay for this emergency visit will be worth it if you catch this virus in time to save your precious puppy’s life.
Treatment of Parvo:
The treatment of the parvo virus can be extremely costly (believe me, I know, I probably spent about $1000 in emergency vet visits, medications, hospital stays, treatments, etc. working to try and save my dog’s life), however, the cost could not compare to my dog’s life, so just keep that in mind when you begin freaking out about how much this virus ends up costing you.
Hopefully, neither you nor your dog, will have to go through this horrific experience, but if you do, at least you will be ready to spot the virus the moment it shows it ugly head.
