3 August 2008
How To Lower Your Vet’s Bill For Parvo Treatments - Part 1
Posted by Rae and Mark under: Health .
Parvo (which is formally known as Canine Parvovirus) is devastating, not only emotionally (mere words cannot describe how it feels to see your cherished dog healthy one minute, and incredibly sick the next, with vomit and blood-filled, foul-smelling diarrhea everywhere), but also financially.
From the minute you notice your dog is sick, the typical vet’s costs associated with Parvo treatment just keep adding up (and up).
To begin with, you’ll probably need to pay between $25 and $50 for each office visit, and there will be several.
Then, your vet will no doubt want to do take a stool sample for an immediate, in-clinic test, or a sample of your dog’s blood to send away for a full work-up, or even both. These will cost you anywhere between $25 and $100, depending on the type of test. (And note that these tests may not even be accurate - with the latest 2c strain, a dog with Parvo may still end up testing negative.)
If it turns out your dog actually has Parvo, then you should expect a bill in the region of $500 to over $10,000, per dog. These figures include items such as overnight stays ($50 a night), blood transfusions ($200 a time), medications ($100 - $200), etc. (And your vet will only give your dog a 50% - 80% chance of survival.)
Lastly, if the vet cannot treat your dog successfully, you will frequently be presented with the option every pet owner dreads - the decision to have your dog put to sleep, which will cost you up to $300.
So, all together, your bill at the vet’s for Parvo treatment will be between $850 and $10,450 - for just a single dog. (As many people actually own two or more dogs, and when one of your dogs is infected by Parvo, the chance of any others on the same property contracting the virus is very high, you can probably double these figures, at least.)
To put this in perspective, the average cost of owning a dog over its expected life span of 11 years is approximately $13,550, so you could spend up to 47% (i.e. just under half) of this amount treating him for a single illness over a period of a week or so.
But, it doesn’t have to be that way - you can both prevent Parvo and treat Parvo using chemical-free, safe products such as Parvaid, Vibactra Plus, Life Cell Support and Doggie Pain Relief for a fraction of the cost of taking your dog to the vet’s, and with a much greater chance of your dog surviving the Parvo virus (on average, 90% or better).
Parvo prevention usually starts when your dog is just a puppy, in the form of vaccinations.
The whole topic of Parvo vaccinations, and vaccinations generally, is a hot topic at the moment, and there are, of course, many pros and cons.
But perhaps the most serious downside, where Parvo is concerned, is that most current vaccines (excluding Continuum and PROGARD, which are manufactured by Intervet) are ineffective against the latest 2c strain of this horrific virus.
You therefore need other measures, because you cannot assume that your dog is safe just because you’ve had him vaccinated. Since early 2007, there have been many stories in the press of fully-vaccinated dogs, including puppies and adults, being infected by and dying from Canine Parvovirus.
If you want to know what these other options are, you’ll need to look out for Part 2 of this article!
