Wake Up And Smell The Parvo!

July 14th, 2009 at 8:40pm

During the past two years or so, we’ve worked with well over 850 customers, and we’ve noticed one common thread, which is: people don’t seem to understand just how aggressive and fast-acting the Canine 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 can often be one of the first symptoms you’ll see 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.

Although not every dog dies this quickly, it can happen, but the point is, too many people sit around for days on end, watching their dog suffer, and doing nothing about it, because they believe 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 you noticed that your dog skipped even one meal, wouldn’t you be concerned that something could 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 even a few 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.

The sad thing is, there is so much misinformation about Parvo that a lot of dog owners are understandably but ill-advisedly complacent.

These dog owners feel secure because:

Their dog is vaccinated and up-to-date on all of its shots. Here’s the reality: Parvo vaccinations are not effective 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 can even give your dog full-blown Parvo symptoms (particularly if your dog was vaccinated after he was infected, which is about the worst possible thing you can do).
They have an adult dog, and everybody knows that Parvo only affects puppies. Sorry, 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 do not work like they used to - the latest 2c strain of Parvo is just too strong and the vaccine manufacturers really haven’t caught up with it yet (and that’s besides 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 often generates a false-negative result, and this particularly applies to the stool sample-based tests that most vets conduct in their clinics nowadays. This is another example of how the medical profession has not caught up with the development of the Parvovirus - you think your dog is OK, when in fact he does have Parvo, and that leads to your doing nothing while the virus quietly launches its attack on your dog’s body (mainly the immune system and his intestinal tract) for several days until, suddenly, you see symptoms.
They never take their dog outside, which means it won’t get infected by the Parvo virus. This is another myth, as one of the most common reasons why dogs who are confined to living indoors all of the time get Parvo is because it is their owners (or breeders) who give it to them! Yes, you can walk this virus into your house without even knowing it (or transmit it via your hands or clothes). This is why we always suggest that people (including visitors) change their shoes whenever they go indoors.

So, with so many myths floating around, not to mention bad advice, where can you go to get up-to-date and reliable information that you can use, safe in the knowledge that it will help your dog, and not make matters worse?

Because another problem we see all the time is that people have never even heard of Parvo - until their dog gets it, of course - and, somewhat amazingly, we even come across people who breed dogs commercially who don’t know what Parvo is. For people in the doggie business, this is basic knowledge that you simply should have!

Well, the good news is that we have written a free, 100+ page ebook all about Parvo, called Parvo Treatment 101, that you can download to your computer in minutes.

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 immediately, because the one thing you don’t have with this virus is time. Although this book contains a lot of useful information, you would be far better reading it once your dog is successfully treated.

We hope that you found this article both interesting and useful, and if it helps you save your dog’s life, even better. However, we do have a load more information about Parvo treatment for you, which is in addition to what’s in our free book.

If nothing else, we hope we’ve inspired you to find out more about this devastating virus, and about the various treatment options (you don’t need to take your dog to the vet 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 home Parvo 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 nothing better than knowing that you’ve helped to save somebody’s family pet from the excruciatingly painful death that the Canine Parvovirus often brings.