Does your Dog Have Parvo Virus?
What exactly is parvo virus, what dog parvo symptoms do you need to look out for, and how is parvo virus spread?
Parvo virus was first identified in 1978 and within two years’ time it spread all over the world. Over the years, the parvovirus has mutated into two different strains and there is evidence of a third strain present in Italy, Spain and Vietnam. Every case of canine parvo virus or CPV comes from the first two strains. It was originally felt that this virus would mutate into feline panleukopenia, a feline parvo virus, but there was no truth to this. Every different specie has its own parvo virus and it cannot be spread outside of the specie.
Parvo virus cannot be spread from a dog to a cat or from a bird to a cat, but it can be spread by contact. For example if you cat happens to wander through your neighbor’s yard and picks up the virus on her feet, she can bring parvo virus into your home and your dog could be infected in this way. Unfortunately, our 8 month old puppy that we acquired from the pound recently came down with parvovirus. She had all of the classic dog parvo symptoms, yet we did not realize what was wrong. We took her to our vet and treatment was commenced immediately. After a four day stay at the veterinary hospital, Lucy was ready to come home. We were very pleasantly surprised by our vet bill!
The parvo virus works in one of two ways – through the heart or the intestines. The intestinal infection is picked up by an animal through oral contact with contaminated feces. In other words, a dog has to come into contaminated feces from another dog. The intestinal dog parvo symptoms happen when the virus attacks rapidly dividing cells in the intestinal crypts, lymph nodes and bone marrow. This allows normally occurring bacteria from the intestine to enter the blood stream make the animal contagious. The virus is shed in the stool for up to three weeks making this disease very contagious to non-vaccinated pets.
The cardio form of this infection is often seen in puppies that are infected from the womb or shortly after birth. It is well worth noting that the cardiac form of CPV is not as common since the mother passes immunity on to her puppies from birth. The parvovirus then attacks the heart in the infected pup and death results shortly thereafter.
Dog parvo symptoms are usually present within 3 to 10 days of contact. They include vomiting, lethargy, diarrhea and fever. The diarrhea will cause severe dehydration and secondary infections. Rather than dying from the virus itself, it is usually the secondary infections that kill.
A veterinarian will recommend that you get your pet vaccinated against parvo approximately eight weeks after the puppy is weaned. With the prevalence of this virus and its ability to kill, some precaution should be taken to protect your dog. Get your puppy vaccinated – we speak from experience!
But vaccinations don’t always give full coverage. Survival rate depends on how quickly parvo virus is diagnosed and treatment is begun. If it is not caught early enough, the usual conventional treatment is an IV through which fluids are pushed to re-hydrate the dog more quickly. In addition to the fluids, antibiotic and anti-nausea shots may be given intramuscularly. With the proper care the prognosis is good, but without it your dog is sentenced to an early death.
There are also natural methods of treating parvo virus. But whichever type of treatment you choose, choose it quickly. Do not delay in treating this deadly condition. A dog can die within hours of the first parvo symptoms appearing.
