Just wanted to let anyone know who doesn't already that there is a new ,very virulent,strain of parvo virus doing the rounds.Have heard of couple of deaths and several other cases.Usual signs..vomiting,diarrea(can't sp!!).
Just wanted people to be aware!!
Archer

Do you know whereabouts Archer? A friend of mine has an unvaccinated dog (makes him really ill) and if it's up North then he'll be grounded. 

Joe

Don't know if it is this new strain but we had a report in our local paper,written by the dog warden,to say that they had found a stray dog with parvo on our local common :( and warned dog walkers to avoid the area.This is in North Hampshire and it was in the papers about a month ago,so we are very careful to not walk Spice (she is fully innoculated) in this area,but who knows how far the stray had wandered,it is a worry.

I do know that there is a massive strain of parvo up in the north east of england.The vet told me that there's a lot of dogs dying in Bishop Auckland area and Darlington area. I work for a rescue kennels and there have been 2 deaths and both were confirmed that it is parvo, so anyone living up here must be very careful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 were lost to it a couple of weeks ago near me in Shrewsbury, fingers crossed our vaccinations are good enough to cope with it as there seems to be no treatment all affected in our area have died from it.

As the North East is a target area for dealers bringing in puppies from puppy farms in Ireland there is a possibilty that this maybe one source of this particular outbreak. 

Hi,
  If it's a new strain, are dogs protected who have had the usual vaccinations?
  Hilda

Hi just to add to this my local radio station had a report of this on the monday lunch time news, said there had been more cases in 1 month than they had -had in the whole of last year :(   I am in worcestershire but also within a couple of miles of the shropshire and herefordshire boarders !  mand x

Do you think because a lot of people are not having their boosters done they are forgetting to go and have the Parvo one done? Having said that my vet said the danger in not having a booster every 12 months was not having the Lepto done which does need to be done at regular intervals, and can be given separately. So may be this is a new Parvo strain, or may be people are not bothering to have pups inoculated at all.

This is my worry Jackie. I know some dogs suffer a reaction to the inocculations but most don't. The more unvaccinated dogs around the more chance of it getting a hold. Incidently, my vet, knowing what I'm involved with made the same comment to me about Lepto.

Did you know that a dog which is lucky enough to recover from Parvo can still pass it on for up to 8 weeks after recovery?

Best wishes, John

According to my vet John, Lepto is not only caught from water, rats & mice but also from rabbits and other dogs. So it is important to realise when your dog sniffs at a post or licks at the grass it could be contacting the disease.

My problem Jackie is that Anna is always around all these things. Feeders attract rats like the plague! we trap but only get a very small percentage of them. I'm very careful about both innoculations and worming. Worming shortly after the end of the shooting season and again around the end of the working test season.

Best wishes, John

Must say that is why I used one of the available wormers rather than the others, because I wanted to be sure we had no tape worm, Living where I do, on the Wash, we have a good deal of water and a good deal of wild life of all shapes and sizes. Concerned about the cases of Parvo as it is happening in places all over the country, if it is a new strain that is not covered by the inoculation that is bad enough, but if it is not a new strain, then I am very worried, what next, distemper. You and I remember how difficult it was to rear a litter years ago when these diseases were rife, and the pain of loosing pup after pup. Please lets hope we do not return to those days.

I'm in Ireland and have just lost half of a litter of 9 week old rescue pups, who were vaccinated and eight days later came down with parvo.

Four died very quickly, the others are all on the mend thankfully.
Our vet took fecal samples and they came back positive for parvo, but also for a bacterial infection called proteus, which is a bad infection also.

Hi Theresa, sorry to hear you lost some of the pups and it must have made difficulties within the kennels, hope you have no further problems and that the remaining pups make it OK.
Is the situation in Eire much the same as here, Parvo has not been common in recent years and has just started to rear it's head again? It is always possible to get infection even if inoculated and at 9 weeks it is a difficult time, wonder if the dam was carrying antibodies, something I suppose you will never know.

There was a very good article in this weeks Shooting Times written by the vet Ray Plunkett. In it he said that there were two forms of Parvo, CPV-1 first recognised in 1967, (This is the one I remember) and CPC-2, first recognised in 1978. He says he has come across several cases in 2003, his first encounters for 7 or 8 years!

From that it would appear to me that something is going wrong somewhere. Whether too many people have become complacant? I don't know.

Another little snippet of info in the article which I founf interesting was that there are actually two members of the Leptospirosis family. One causing severe kidney damage and the other, severe liver damage and jaundice.

Best wishes, John

I have just nursed my fully-vaccinated bitch over a bizzarre case of parvo, and the drugs company who produced the vaccine are paying all my veterinary costs.  Why?

Because she caught it from eating poo from her puppies, who'd just been vaccinated!!  That is why she had parvo, and why none of our other 3 dogs in the same house (plus the 2 pups) showed no signs whatsoever.  because she ingested the virus from a vaccine form, she effectively ingested a 'dead' form of parvo....which explains why it wasn't infectious.

Tests on her diahrroea (sp?) samples proved it was the strain synthesized in the vaccine, and thus the drug company are paying all expenses!

However, my vet here in Ireland claims that any parvo vaccination cannot possibly give you cover for all the strains that are out there.  And in response to Jackie H.  It is rife in my part of Ireland (midlands), and he's treating as many vaccinated dogs, as unvaccinated cases.

Caroline

Hilda asked "If it's a new strain, are dogs protected who have had the usual vaccinations?"

Does anyone know the answer to this before I panic? I'd have hoped info about a new strain not covered by vaccs would have been in the dog press but maybe I missed it.

It is quite worrying, not knowing.  My older dog has had regular injections until last year when she was 10, whereas my younger dog is up-to-date with his, but he has the part-injections, so last year didn't actually have parvo - he will be due for that again in June (2 yearly).  I haven't heard anything about parvo being rife round here, but it's rather frightening to hear it affects vaccinated dogs as well as non-vaccinated.  I would like to know why the vaccine isn't working then.
  Hilda

I'm in the midlands too Caroline

And have had a similiar experience to you in that no other dog in my house came down with the disease, vaccinated or not.

Interesting ?

Very interesting!!!  Whereabouts are you?  I'm near Roscrea

Caroline

Down the road in Portlaoise!

Hi,  in reply to parvo,  on the 17/11/02  i lost my 6 month old,  fully vaccinated puppy to parvo.  from the moment he was ill tto the day he died he was under my vet,    my vet (my puppy was not vacc by him but by another vet) has never had a dog die of parvo that has been fully vaccinated,  but he did stress, to make sure that the parvo vacc used must be the lasest in the medical profession,  as new and better vacc are  coming up all the time, and the vet should keep up with them.    I do not know why my pup died of parvo, but i did change vets,   so do question your vet,  i wish i had.     dougle