Hi I wonder if anyone could help me. My goldie puppys went to there new homes 2 weeks ago. Today I have had a telephone call from one of the buyers daughter to say her mum came home and the puppy had died in its bed. As you can imagin I am very upset, the lady said the puppy was not ill and it had just died. She said they had phoned the vet and had been told to take the dead pub in tommorrow. She said her mum was to upset to talk to me, but I could ring her in the morrning. I have sat here and to be honest I know I will not sleep tonight without finding out what has happened, so I rang her. She said the pup started with the runs on Saturday afternoon and was quite bad yesterday. She said when she came down this morning the puppy had had the runs and had been very sick. She went out and when she came back the pup was dead. I can not for the life of me understand why she had not taken the pup to a vet on Saturday or at the least on Sunday. I asked her if there was any blood in the stools and she said there was not. I have had e-mails today from two other people that bought pups and there is no mention of any illness. There were five pups altogether. When this lady came to veiw my pups we had a long conversation about cats and Parvo, she told me that there are a lot of cats around her house. Does anyone one know anything about Parvo and what the symtons of it are? I thougth it was passed on by cats am I right? any help would be gratefully received

Parvovirus FAQ.

Canine Parvo virius is transmitted only by dogs

are they having an ortipsy (sorry if its spelt wrong) that seems a bit odd to me i would question it.

Fiona, an autopsy is a sensible thing to do in these circumstances.

I have asked the lady to have the vet do a postmortom, I think pet plan will need this. I do think that the pup died from some sort of virus. I just hope that it has picked it up from the time with the new owner and not my house. They left me 13 days ago, so far no one else has rang to say they have any problems.

It is very upsetting to hear any news like this. I would be questioning the woman as to why she didn't take the pup to the vet at the very first sign of illness. She doesn't seem to have been concerned enough to do the right thing and take the puppy to the vet, so how she can now claim to be so "upset" is beyond me!

I would also ask the vet for a copy of the autopsy, to hand to my vet, as my vet would look at the reasons the puppy died and options then open to me, for example should I be warning other owners about a possibilty of a virus going round. It does sound like a virus infection to me, they can strike puppies very quickly.

Hi - so sorry to hear this sad news.

She must have a PM done - it is vital to find out the cause of death.

Although parvo is quite rare these days - there have recently been a few cases in the Worcester area where I know of at least 2 dogs that have died.

Best wishes.

Could also be posoning.  There are many things in the garden that new dog owners don't think of.  One of these is slug pellets, very attactive to pups, puppies especially, as well as poisonous plants.

this is very sad news and i can understand how upset you are, i would be very upset and also very concerned why the new owner left the pup when it was clearly ill and she went out, how cruel, i would have taken it straight to the vet and got an emergancy appointment, i would never have left such a young pup obviously so ill. Make sure she has a PM done this is vital to find out what happened, it does sound to me as if it was poisened by something, sending a {{hug}} to you im sorry about this sad news

JG i was only thinking of something to help it probibly isant then, im not the best at ths sort of thing sorry

Don't worry, Fiona - it's just that knowing the cause of death could be vital in preventing it happening again; better than having it remain a mystery with everyone left not knowing why. :(

Sorry to hear about the poor little pup.  I wonder why initially they said it hadn't been ill, then said it had had the runs and been sick
If only she had taken it to the vet......

Hope you find out the cause soon.

It was unfortunate it happened at the weekend when vets are not so  accessible.

Before we slate the owner, if it was just a case of the runs over the weekend and and seemed alright in it's self, how many of us would have said " If it has still got an upset tummy on Monday we will take it to the vets".  We all know puppies often get an upset tummy which clears up.

Very tragic non the less Guest for both you and the new owners.

I'm sure that dogs can get parvo without having blood in there stools....is there not a 14 day incubation period?

Sorry to hear of your loss :-( if only she had took the pup to the vets

one more thought, it might be a wise precaution to conact all the other puppy owners so they can be extra vigilent as maybe they have slightly poor immunity to that particular bug. It may just save another one having the same tragic end?

If someone has been with a dog with Parvo they can pass it onto another dog can't they or so I was led to believe?  Isn't it airborne like most viruses?  I always thought that this is the case and that's why people spray visitors etc. when they come to see their pups, so surely a cat walking in which has been in an area where there is parvo etc. surely they could bring the disease in?

Have I been told incorrectly over all these years?

The link I posted states very clearly that parvo is not an airborne virus.

Hi Guest, Im so sorry to hear about your puppy, you must be so devastated as well as very frustrated as you dont know why this happened.
SpanishWaterdog I am certain that you are correct it is highly contagious an can be passed so easily. Someone please correct me if Im wrong. All it takes is for someone in the household to have stroked a dog with parvo or a dog that has been in a parvo infected area and then take it back into the house with them and stroke the puppy without washing their hands, it can also be passed on the clothes etc. I know that when there are any signs of parvo where I work then every single puppy immediately has to be barrier nursed to stop the disease spreading any further, even then sometimes this doesnt always work. Unless I had a shower and a complete change of clothes between each kennel there is no way of being certain whether or not the parvo would of affected other puppies in different kennels. I have seen many puppies die of parvo in my line of work and the main signs are lethargy, loss of appetite, diarhorroea. But then these symptoms could be associated with just a small tummy bug. Puppies with parvo usually have a very high temperature but the owner obviousely didnt think to check this.

Usually puppies with parvo go down hill quickly, they can show the first signs and then 2-3 hours later be dead, but then others will have the symptoms for days and then die, the majority of them , if caught in the early stages will survive, depending on how severe the strain is and what treatment is given. Unfortunately the outlook isn't great for those that do survive as the chances are they will suffer from heart problems and probably heart failure later on in life and it does reduce the life span considerably.
Unfortunately in this case, the owner either didnt care enough or didnt think the puppy was ill enough to take it to the vets, after all like someone else said puppies can have sickness and the runs for a number of reasons.

I do hope this wasnt parvo as the incubation period is usually 10-14 days therefore the puppy could have taken it home from the breeders home, plus the owners of the puppy shouldnt really have another puppy in the home for at least another 6 months if it is unvaccinated as parvo can stay in carpets etc for up to 2 years if left.

Guest, I strongly recommend a post mortom is done, although this will take about 10-14 days to come back it will tell you what the pup died of and then you can maybe find out where the problem started. I would advise letting other puppy owners know what has happened and ask them to be extra careful and vigilant. Of course this is entirely up to you as you dont want to make the owners paranoid or worry them too much, they will maybe then find things that they wouldnt of thought about or noticed before, you know little things that dont really matter, but then you dont want them to let things go unnoticed if they are serious.

I really do hope the owners do a post mortom, let us know what the outcome is please.

Thinking of you :-(

Hi everyone,thank you all so much for your messages. The lady took the dead pup to vet on Tuesday. The vet said he thought it was parvo. I had asked her to have a postmortom. She telephoned pet plan who said that they did not need a postmortom just a death cert, so she decided against it. I am upset because I really needed to know the true casue, but she said it wouldnt bring the pup back. The litter have been gone 14 days today and although I havent told anybody else about the little one dying I have checked up on them all, and I am happy to say that as of a few hours ago all was well. I thought long and hard about telling them the other owners I decided that it would just panic them, had the pup died a few days earlyer and I thought that there were a strong chance it came from my house I would have acted diffrently, but because of the time involved, the incubation peroid with parvo is 7 to 14 days I do think that the infection would probably have come from her house. When I rehome my pups I am very carefull, I endorse all kennel club docs, I also have new owners sign a contract to say any problems with there pup, no matter how old there pup is they will come back to me, I vet people very carefully, but with the best will in the world people will only tell you what they want you to know. Each pup leaves my home with a deit sheet a full list of do's and donts and compleat instruction guide, a bag of food and most importantly 6 weeks insurance. This lady came across as a very caring person, I am finding it very hard to understand why oh why she did not go to the vet, or at the very least telephone me for advise. I offered to pay for a postmortom my self, but she would not allow it, this makes me very wary.

You couldn't have done more, this is one you'll have to chalk up to experience and hope it never happens again.

you sound to me like a very caring person who loves everyone of her pups I understand the stressful situation you are in at the moment I hope this is the end of it for the rest of the litter and as previous post said chalk it up to experience.
It does sound a little odd that she wont even allow you to pay for the PM but then she will have to live with herself.

take care

Roni