Anyone who has ever cared for a puppy will know how delicate they can be. Above all, one of the main threats they face is the Parvovirus, which is the cause of the main canine viral disease and, as Neutro experts explain, “it is very serious, potentially lethal and especially alarming in puppies“However, it can also attack immunosuppressed adult dogs that have not been vaccinated. We heard experts from Survet, Veterinary Hospital specialized in Emergencies, Intensive Care and Veterinary References of Barcelona, and owners whose pets have gone through this condition to learn and prevent with their experience.
Symptoms of Parvovirus
A year ago, Rubén and his partner gave him a Labrador puppy from a litter that had just been born. When she arrived at her house, she was only a few weeks old and was just weaned so not yet vaccinated. Bad luck would have it that already, during the afternoon of the first day in her new home, the dog began to show symptoms that something was not right:
“He made some very ugly poops but diarrhea in puppies can be a normal consequence of a change”, Rubén tells us by phone. However, things got serious when he also stopped eating and drinking: “Eating, drinking, playing and sleeping is the life of puppies, if one fails, something happens”, warns our testimony.
Although, on occasion, the disease can occur without being associated with symptoms (especially in adult dogs, which resist better), as experts explain, Parvovirus usually manifests clinically as bloody, foul-smelling diarrhea, along with a deterioration in the general condition of the animal. And it is that, in general, the virus first attacks the lymphatic and intestinal tissue.
However, they warn that, in addition to diarrhea, The variety of symptoms that can appear are: vomiting, fever, lack of appetite and weakness, apathy and/or lethargy, depression, weight loss, abdominal tenderness and, in more severe cases, dehydration.
It was precisely the fear of dehydration that made Rubén rush the dog to the vet after realizing that you had whitish gums instead of pink. Under normal conditions, health professionals perform a blood test for diagnosis, although it is also possible to perform a rapid stool antigen test. On this occasion, the prognosis was so serious that they were referred directly to a hospital and, once admitted, the puppies entered intensive care.
Contagion
The professionals consulted consider Parvovirus very contagious. They tell us that their incubation period is short (between five and ten days) and that it is spread by direct oral/nasal contact with an infected dog, through the feces of infected dogs, and also intrauterine (ie, from infected mother to puppies during pregnancy).
Treatment
Unfortunately, we are told that there is no treatment that directly combats the virus: Although antibiotic therapy is necessary, treatment focuses on alleviating the consequences of the disease and helping the dog’s immune system.
Rubén knows how “fucked” the virus is. There are very few puppies that are saved and yours was not one of them. From his experience, however, he has learned that those who do survive, recover very quickly: “In three or four days you start to see an improvement and from there they go up,” he tells us. However, her dog went through many ups and downs, and when she seemed to start eating and drinking, she would come down again.
They stayed like this for a couple of weeks. with all the suffering that it entails for the animal and what a hospital admission entails at a monetary level. Therefore, to those who find themselves in a similar situation, our testimony recommends that “if the dog does not improve after a few days, have the cold blood not to go ahead even if it is very hard. After all, the improvements in my dog were due only to the medication and vitamin shots but, in reality, she was not overcoming the disease”.
One day, the vets called Rubén to tell him that they had just revived her again after suffering a new crisis and he had to make a decision. He asked the hospital to let her go and not to resuscitate her if it happened again. A few hours later she was sedated so that she would stop suffering.
Prevention
Experts agree that the best way to combat contagion is through vaccination of the puppies. In fact, Pepa, another owner whose dog also had the disease, tells us that Dobby had it just before he was adopted and survived. Even so, she continues to vaccinate him following the usual schedule. He was lucky and the only sequel that has remained of the disease is psychological, because he had to be isolated so as not to infect his siblings at a crucial moment in his social development.
Parvovirus is so contagious that the vets told Rubén and his partner not to adopt another dog for a year, since “the virus holds up very well on surfaces”. In addition, in a house in which this organism has entered, everything must be thoroughly cleaned with bleach and, “above all, throw away any object with which the dog has been in contact: bed, drinking bowls, toys…”, Rubén explains to us that, by the way, after a reasonable time, he adopted another puppy and, today, he is a healthy and happy dog.
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