Written by There is one common thread that unites many of the 850+ customers we’ve worked with during the past two years, and this is it: dog owners don’t appreciate just how aggressive and fast-acting 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 can often be one of the first symptoms to appear with the latest 2c strain of this virus, is absolutely disgusting and unlike anything else you may have encountered before.
As an example, one of our customers, in the Pacific Northwest, noticed that their dog was sick with Parvo on a Sunday morning, and later that very same day, in the late afternoon, it had already died.
Although not every dog dies this quickly, it can happen, but the point is, too many dog owners sit around for days on end, with their dog clearly not well, and doing nothing about it, because they suffer from the mistaken belief that they have time.
But nothing could be further from the truth!
If you know dogs at all, then you know that 99.9% or more of them love their food, so if your dog stopped eating, for as little as one day, wouldn’t you be concerned that something might be seriously wrong?
Even if one of our dogs throws up, if they’re healthy (and ours are), then they are ready to eat again just a few 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 big, red warning sign.
Unfortunately, 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 has had all of its vaccinations (including boosters). And now for the reality: Parvo shots 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 (particularly if your dog is given his shot after he’s been infected, which is about the worst possible thing you can 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 do not work like they used to – the 2c strain is simply too virulent and most vaccines on the market today are only effective against the older 2a and 2b strains (and that’s besides the long-term issues 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. Reality check time again: the 2c strain of Parvo is well-known for generating a false-negative result, especially with 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.
- Their dog never goes outside, so it can’t get Parvo. Sorry to burst this balloon as well, but one of the most common reasons that 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 recommend 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 accurate 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. For people in the doggie business, this is basic knowledge that you simply should have!
Well, you’ll be glad to know 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 immediately, because there’s one thing you don’t have with this virus, and that is time. You can always read our free book later, once your dog is stabilized, or better.
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 treatment options that are available (you don’t need 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 safe, effective, inexpensive Parvo home remedies do exist), 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 when they might might need it, and there’s no better feeling than knowing that you’ve helped to save somebody’s family pet from an excruciatingly painful death from probably the most devastating doggie virus there is.
