Hi , any help would be very gratefully recieved ! A few weeks ago , my young dog was hospitalised for 4 days and was very poorly . She had been quite for a day or so and then on the friday evening threw up some foamy bile . The next morning she did it again , and also had a very watery poo . I took her straight to the vets worried that it could be parvo , and she was found to have a temperature , but given anti biotics and some anti sickness drugs and sent home . Next day she was back for a check up , and seemed a bit brighter , and had done a solid poo accompanied by some yellow/green jelly , so again was sent home . That afternoon , she seemed to go downhill again so I phoned my vets and they offered to see her again and we decided that she should be kept in .. so she stayed . We had 2 days where she was very poorly , but no real questions as to what was going on . She continued to vomit , was lethargic , and not eating . A parvo test came back as negative . On the Wednesday , my vet decided to open her up to look for an obstruction but nothing was found . On the Thursday , she turned a huge corner and was allowed home and hasn't looked back since ! A poo sample had also been taken which apparently just revealed enlarged lymph nodes . Sorry to ramble on , but I have since found out that the mother of a friend who one of my dogs had been to to be mated ) had had 3 dogs test positive for parvo just as my dog was at her daughters , and had visited her ... I now have a litter due in 3 weeks and it is still playing at the back of my mind that my pup could have had parvo but her results slipped through the net as it were .... so worried .....

I'm so sorry for what you are going through.I'll tell you about a recent scare i had in the hope it may give you some peace of mind.
I recently had a litter that at 6 weeks a couple of them developed watery diarreah.Worried about dehydration i called a vet out who immediatly mentioned parvo.She took a poo sample,gave them all anti biotics and left.
The poo sample came back positive for parvo, i was absolutely heartbroken,i had been so careful, and i then found out they had had a case of parvo in the practise a week earlier when i had visited,so then i really panicked.
I spoke to several experienced breeder who urged me to get a second opinion which i did as the symptoms did not follow classic parvo.
The second vet was very suspicious of the positive result and explained that quite often these inital poo samples give a false positive and are not reliable.She then did a more accurate test called a pcr test which came back negative,thank god.
Apparantly the first vet should have offered me the pcr test to double check due,i'm hoping that your friends mothers dogs had a false postive,it's very possible.
I asked the vet if she was seeing alot of parvo and she said they were getting alot of initial positives but if they then ran a pcr test they were actually negative and the actual true number of cases was not that common.
If you are really worried perhaps you could ask your vet for a pcr test which test the dna in the dogs gut to show for sure if it has been exposed to parvo,results take about a week.
I was also told by the lab that although false posives often happen,negative means negative so i really think you are ok.

Just to add i don't know what anti biotics your dog was put on but my litter were put on Metronizadole which made them very ill, never again.
From what i have learnt over the last awful couple of weeks i don't think you have had parvo but if worried maybe ask for the pcr test.
Hugs,

Ali

Hi , thanks , my friends mother lost another 5 young pups at weaning but they were not tested , it was just assumed it was the same . My friend took a different puppy home from her mothers , who became ill , was taken to vets for treatment and recovered within a few days . The gaps between the mothers pups being ill and my friends was 13 days , and it was the same from when I fussed my friends pup to when my girl became poorly . All tests for my pup came back negative for parvo , but without a decisive result as for what it was , I'm still worried as the mother had so many die . Maybe I am just being a worry wort , but this is my first litter and I so want it to all be ok ... I am waiting for my vets to phone me back just to double check all the results ( they probably think I'm a pest ! ) so fingers crossed ..... x

Perhaps also ask if the vet tested for giardia or cocci.  If not a fecal float test would give results for these two ailments.

I have just heard back from my vets who have confirmed that both my girls parvo test and poo test ( not sure of its exact name , but it had to be sent away and took 5 days for results ) came back as negative . My vet had said from the start that my puppy was certainly not a typical parvo puppy , to the point that they were so sure she had an obstruction that they opened her up in case x rays had missed anything ! They have said that they are happy to let me have some of their disinfectant to go over the house before my pups are born , if it helps to put my mind at rest .

My pup had Parvo at 6 weeks and the smell was so awful that you never forget it, it fills the house and is not a normal poo smell. I think you would have known if it had been Parvo from this. Also she would have been dead within 4 days without my vet, so they go downhill very quickly. ( by the way, she survived but cost an arm and a couple of legs with advanced medicine used for the first time by my vets, but worth every penny )

Bless her ... I'm glad she pulled through ! I think it will always be at the back of my mind , and will be very conscious when the pups arrive , but hopefully all will be well . They put us through so much at times , but as you say , are worth every bit of it :-)

I have also had a false positive test result for parvo, my vet was very shocked when the first test was positive, and that is why the sample was retested.

My dog made a complete recovery in about 3 days, so it was just a nasty bug, but a very worrying time as I had a bitch in whelp at the time and I moved out with her and my other dog for 2 weeks before the second more in depth results proved it was not parvo.

Even with all the upheaval I was overjoyed when we got that second non positive result and I had a lovely clean house after all that scrubbing lol .  Vaccine company told me that approx 1/100 tests are  false positives.

Where abouts are you? Just so you know, heard on the radio there is a parvo epidemic in Swindon at the moment.

We are in Newbury , so not far from Swindon ... my friend and her mother are in the Midlands... as I say , all my girls tests came negative but it is just niggling at the back of my mind ... my vets assure me there is no way she had parvo , her symptons weren't right and it was only because I nagged them to do tests that they did , and that was because I wanted to be sure . It is my first litter in years and I just don't want anything to go wrong , hoping it will all come back to me ;-)