I just picked up this report, via my trainer, of deaths from Parvovirus. A stark reminder of the need to vaccinate and ensure that we keep up to date, particularly as this outbreak is only around 12 miles away from my village. Take care of your precious pups http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/W...irus-illness/story-28762542-detail/story.html
I was a little scared to open this thread as I didn't know what you were going to say. I find it strange that there seems to be conflicting reports about how long parvo can last in the environment. The article says months, I've heard weeks but also as long as seven years! Is there a definite time frame or is it just that they don't really know?
@Emily I've read that it can survive in substances like soil for 10 years, which I guess is why we're so concerned about putting our precious pups on the ground. I know I was really nervous in our garden in France as we did have foxes in the area although we had never seen them close to our garden or any evidence that they had been around.
Our Jet was fully vaccinated but she got it anyway, at six months old. At the time it was thought to be a new strain or the vaccine had failed. Vaccines can fail. She was at the Vet's for four days, on IV. The Vet told me a healthy dog's red (or was it white?) blood cell count is 16, sick is 8, dead is 2. Jet went down to 4. She lived but it was touch and go. We were in obedience classes and Jet was far to weak to return before the session finished. The club held an emergency meeting to decide what to do about ME. Would I be safe to come back, even without the dog? They decided that if I put on fresh clothes that had not been near Jet that day and brought a bottle of bleach with me, poured in on the parking lot and walked through it to thoroughly clean my shoes, they would let me back in to finish the class as an observer only. That's what I did and my instructor thought this was overkill (never was that term more appropriate) and let my finish the class with his four month old Rottie puppy. This was a huge show of faith on his part as for some weird reason Rotties are particularly susceptible to Parvo, and the younger the puppy the greater the danger. Even with this awful first hand experience I still took Oban out to socialize and walk but tried to play it safe by going where few or no other dogs did. We did meet up with dogs we knew. And it being winter helped in that fewer dogs were out, though I know the virus can survive a long time, even in very cold.
You were lucky that your obedience class let you back in as parvo is very infectious. The only thing known to kill it is bleach in a 1:10 solution - cold has no effect upon it.
It is rare for a vaccine to fail but I do know someone whos vaccinated puppy was very ill indeed, but thankfully survived . Its a nasty cruel virus
Sometimes when a puppy is vaccinated it 'doesn't take' as there is still immunity from the Mother. I had this years ago when the vaccine first came out and my pup was tested after she had the vaccine and it hadn't worked, so she had another one at 16 weeks.
As I've been reading up on Parvo it seems that the recommendation is now for 3 vaccinations at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks to ensure a good response due to inherited immunity from mum which doesn't last but can interfere with the efficacy of the vaccine. I have to admit I'm a bit concerned as we're starting a Good Companion Award scheme on Monday in Grimsby ; at least our trainer insists on seeing the dogs vaccinations card before starting the course
I actually had a choice, they would refund me and I could apply the money to the next session of classes. Or observe the completion of the ones we were in, we were only half way. The next session I could attend would not be till Jet was over a year old and I had never trained a puppy in obedience so I thought if I observed at least I could apply what I learned when she recovered. Hah, I used pure bleach. It's a wonder the soles didn't melt off the bottoms of my running shoes. @MaccieD , it was scary but I did not mean to frighten people off of classes. That was in 1993, I think vaccines have evolved, we know more now. Back then was when Parvo was first becoming known here, and there was what some called an epidemic. It does seem to wax and wane, your Vet can maybe reassure you with incidence reports.
I've had the misfortune of having had two dogs gets parvo as pups. Our first got it before he had any vaccinations, he was very very ill and was lucky to survive. When we got our second dog we had moved to another house and so I was happy that I didn't have to worry about the soil being contaminated from the first dog, but he, too, got parvo but this time this dog had received his first vaccination and although he was quite sick he wasn't quite as bad as the first one. No fun at all, that s for sure. And the virus definitely isn't killed off by cold, it can get past -30C here in the winter.
