17 May 2009
Wake Up And Smell The Parvo!
Posted by Rae and Mark under: Health .
During the past two years or so, we’ve worked with well over 850 customers, and we’ve noticed one common thread, which is: dog owners don’t seem to understand just how fast-acting and aggressive the Parvo virus is.
You can go to bed one night, with a perfectly healthy-looking, happy dog, and wake up in the morning to a very sick one - and, yes, the smell of Parvo is unmistakable, as the diarrhea, which is frequently one of the first symptoms to appear with the latest 2c strain of this virus, is foul and unlike anything else you may have experienced before.
We had one customer, in the Pacific Northwest, whose dog first showed symptoms of Parvo on a Sunday morning, and by later that afternoon, it was already dead.
Even when this virus doesn’t claim your dog’s life quite so quickly, too many people sit around for days on end, with their dog clearly not well, and doing absolutely nothing about it, because they think they have time.
But they don’t!
You know what dogs are like - most of them, if not all, absolutely love their food, so if your dog stopped eating, for as little as one day, wouldn’t you be concerned that something might be gravely wrong?
Even if one of our dogs throws up, if they’re healthy (and ours are), then they are ready to eat again just minutes later, so a dog that’s off his food for several hours (which is in many cases the first sign you’ll see that your dog has Parvo, assuming that you’re observant, of course) should be a massive, red warning sign.
Unfortunately, there is so much misinformation about Parvo that many dog owners are lulled into a false sense of security.
These dog owners think they’re secure because:
- Their dog is vaccinated and up-to-date on all of its shots. And now for the reality: Parvo vaccines are ineffective against the 2c strain (which is why many of our customers are finding that even their adult dogs are being infected, and dying, from this virus, even though they’ve had all of their vaccinations), and your dog may even develop full-blown Parvo symptoms (especially if your dog is given his shot after he’s been infected, which is just about the worst possible thing you can ever do).
- They have an adult dog, and everybody knows that Parvo only affects puppies. Oops, wrong again! Parvo may still primarily be a puppy illness, but more and more adult dogs are getting it now as well. If this sounds like a broken record, then we’re not making any apologies, but vaccinations don’t work like they used to - the latest 2c strain of Parvo is just too strong and most vaccines on the market today are only effective against the older 2a and 2b strains (and that’s not to mention the long-term health problems with all vaccinations, which most vets keep quiet about).
- They try to do the right thing by having their dog tested for Parvo at the vet’s, but do nothing because the test comes back negative. Time for another reality check: the 2c strain of Parvo is well-known for generating a false-negative result, especially with the in-clinic stool sample tests that are very popular these days. This means that although you are told your dog does not have Parvo, he actually does, and that leads to more days of inaction while your dog is getting sicker and sicker.
- Their dog never goes outside, so it can’t get Parvo. This is another myth, as one of the most common reasons that indoor dogs get Parvo is because they get it from their owners / breeders! Yes, people walk this virus into their house without realizing it (or take it in on their clothes or hands). This is why we always recommend that people (including visitors) change their shoes whenever they go indoors.
So, given that there is a ton of bad advice and uninformed hearsay to be found, mainly on the Internet, of course, where can you go to get accurate and up-to-date information that you can use, knowing that, rather than harming your dog and making matters worse, it will actually increase his chances of surviving this most devastating of viruses?
This actually highlights another major issue to do with Parvo: many dog owners have never heard of Parvo (until their vet tells them that’s why their dog is sick), which means they don’t know what to look out for. Even more amazing, to us, is that we come across many breeders who know nothing about this virus either. It seems to us that this is basic information and knowledge that you must have if you’re going to work in the doggie business!
Well, the good news is that we have put together a 100+ page ebook all about Parvo, called Parvo Treatment 101, that you can download to your computer in minutes - and the best part is that it’s 100% free.
This book contains more or less everything you need to know about Parvo (e.g. the symptoms, including the different types of stool to look out for, treatment options), which makes it a great place to start.
If your dog is already sick, however, and by that, we mean that a vet has confirmed that your dog does have Parvo, or he shows one or more of the standard Parvo symptoms, or even if you believe or know that he was exposed to the virus within the last two or three days, then you should delay reading this book, because you need to administer Parvo treatment at once, because there’s one thing you don’t have with this virus, and that is time. Although this book contains a lot of useful information, you would be far better reading it once your dog is successfully treated.
Well, we hope you have found this article useful - it may even save your precious dog’s life - but we have a load more Parvo treatment information available for you, over and above what’s in our free book.
We’d like to close by encouraging all dog owners to at least be educated about just how devastating this virus can be, and about the various treatment options (you don’t have to take your dog to the vet’s and spend anywhere from $500 USD to over $10,000 USD, for a success rate that offers no better odds than tossing a coin, because effective, inexpensive, safe Parvo home remedies are available), so please, if you know anybody with a dog, then do forward this article, or our free book, on to them - you just never know who might need it, and there’s no better feeling than knowing that you’ve helped to save somebody’s beloved pet from an excruciatingly painful death from probably the most devastating doggie virus there is.
