Parvo and Puppies

August 21

Puppies & Parvo - Signs, Symptoms, and Home-Remedies

We dearly love our puppy. Playful, fun, devoted to your side, but what do you do when suddenly your dynamically charged, little ball of sunshine isn't playful. Doesn't run around your feet and jump at your every step?

Parvo, short for Parvovirus, is a very quick, quiet, killer of dogs, (Although some say that a similar, just as deadly form of this disease, does also attack felines and has made its way to the human immune system.) focusing attacks to coyote, wolves and puppies. The virus attack's and kills the red blood cells, causing diarrehea, dehydration, vomiting, lethargy, depression inflamation of the small intestine, severe abdominal cramping, discomfort, and suppression of white blood cells. This viral disease likes to grow in rapidly dividing cells. The intestinal lining has the most rapidly dividing concentration of these cells which speeds up the declension process of the intestines, making a puppies digestive system unable to absorb needed nutrients and necessary liquids. Parvo is a very rapidly progressing disease that can take the life of a puppy in less than 2 days from the time of on-set.
Symptoms usually come on very sudden. Loss of appetite, depression, no interest and energy, lethargy, diarreha becoming yellowish in color and having a foul smelling odor and upon progression of the disease blood may follow in the stool, vomiting and the inability to keep anything down, sometimes a high fever is also noticed. As the gastrointestinal discomfort and distress becomes more severe, the likeliness that dehydration, shock, and finally
death, increase. In young puppies it CAN infect the heart muscle and cause "sudden" death.

Understanding the ease at which this disease is spread and the strength in which it can withstand its envoirnmental factorsis a must, for your puppies survival. Parvo is NOT airborne, It is carried through feces from infected dogs (ie: birds, other animals, people, shoes, clothes etc.) steps in the contaminated feces and then comes into contact with uninfected factors) and does remain infectious in contaminated ground for extreme lenghts of time. Most of our household cleaning supplies are harmless in killing this virus.

A simple solution made up of 1 ounce of Chlorine Bleach to 1 quart of water will kill this parvo-virus. Spray down, and wash any infected areas, dishes, beddings etc. Remove all infected dogs feces from around the yard and anywhere else it happens to be, mix a solution of 4 oz. of Chlorine Bleach to 1 gallon of water and spray all of the ground and surround areas.
To make yourself more at ease, I suggest spaying all possibly infected areas at least 2 x's. If you have a lawn or grass, it is best to kill it and start anew (after the ground has fully been treated, of course).

The MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER IS WATER, WATER, WATER AND MORE WATER.
PLEASE if you cannot afford the veterinarian, if you can not afford the electrolyte waters, the medications, or anything else
give your dog (or puppy) water NO LESS THAN EVERY 20 MINUTES. There is really no set amount, just depends

on the size of your pet. The bigger the dog the more and more often you need to (probably) force the water down into his throat
making sure that it is swallowed and not spit or thrown back up. For the first day or two, expect for your pet to vomit most of what you get down his throat, will return back up.
Just keep putting the fluids into his stomach. and reassure them that you are there. ( I believe that it is best to let them know that they are not alone and they are loved.)
I believe that I have covered the most important parvo facts.
Water, Water, Water, Water, and never can give them too much water! If your pet survives the first 3-4 days, there is a better than 80% chance that your puppy will make it through.

I hope that this helps.


a gloomy reality is there is only a 50-50 chance that any puppy will survive, even under the best of veterinarians care.