Please Please can everyone make sure that they get their dogs vaccinated from Parvo!! I've just taken my 14 month old labrador to the vets with the runs, she's been vomitting all morning with blood and diarohea laced with blood as well. The vet suspects Parvo as there has been an outbreak in our area. If everyone ensured their dogs are vaccinated and regularly boostered this would not happen.

Poppy was vaccinated last August, so fingers crossed it's not Parvo.

It's horrible being sat here waiting to find out if it is or not, all I hope is she gets better and that she'll be home soon. I don't know what I'd do if anything happens to her.

The vet has told me she'll be in over night and this will be the first time she's ever been away from me overnight being ill -  it's a really horrible feeling.

Lec

Sending prayers and hugs to Poppy and wishing her a full and speedy recovery.

Hope she's ok. - she's in the best place.

There have been a few cases of parvo recently. I know of at least 2 dogs in the Worcester area.

Keeping fingers and paws crossed for her

Lucy
xx

After a lot of thought and research many owners have chosen not to vaccinate their dogs - I am one.

I hope your dog soon recovers. If she was vaccinated last August I'm not sure why the vet is suspecting she might have parvo

Aren't the vaccines suppose to least for at least a year & in fact now three years with only lepto yearly ?

Maybe the vaccine didn't 'take'? If the dog does indeed have parvo, then it shows that frequency of boostering needs to be considered carefully.

Because vaccination does not mean individuals will not get it.   It reduces the likelihood of course in the dog population if all dogs are vaccinated but there has been individual cases documented that did not produce sufficient antibodies to the vaccination unfortunately.  

Unfortunately parvo is still out there. :-(

Why they can make innoculations last a life time in humans, but dog's, and other animals, need to have them done yearly? I use the term 'need' loosely.

Isn't there a similar infection that mimics parvo but needs slightly different treatment?  or am I barking up the wrong tree?

coccidiosis?

>Why they can make innoculations last a life time in humans,

They can't. Most last 10 years maximum, then need boostering.

What about BCG, MMR, as far as I am aware, these last a life time? I know they have to be given a couple of times but then I thought it was life long imunity?

Even if this isn't the case, why can't they make animal innoculations last even 10 years?

It varies by disease Natalie, I have had a polio, typhoid and tetanus boosters (all at varying intervals) so far in my life and I will need my Yellow Fever booster if I go into a risk area again.  The dog diseases just happen to be also ones where immunity is not generally life long.

The mumps part of MMR has recently been repeated for teenagers, following an outbreak even amongst those who'd had it when it first came out. Tetanus needs to be boostered every 10 years if you're not in a high-risk occupation, more frequently if you are. BCG relies on the fact that it's quite a rare condition in this country nowadays, though it's getting more common, but if you go abroad to countries where it's more common you often have to have it again. Smallpox vaccine (not given at all now) was reputed to only last 10-15 years, and up until about 20 years ago you needed to have a repeat vaccine if you visited the US, and it was over 10 years since your last vaccination. When travelling to tropical countries there are the usual jabs that need to be kept upto date if you're a frequent traveller (typhoid, paratyphoid, diphtheria etc). Polio vaccine (given orally to babies in drops on the tongue/on a sugar lump is known to shed live virus in the stools, and even parents who had the vaccine as children themselves have caught it while changing nappies. The list goes on ...

I knew all of the others you said needed a booster, but I thought BCG, and MMR, were life long ones. Thanks for all of that info though, it is quite interesting :D

I was given a BCG as a baby as my aunt had TB so when the time came at school to be tested I should have responded as carrying antibodies. I didnt and so was given another BCG by now I'm probably due another :)

The reason we don't need Smallpox vaccinations anywhere now is due to the tremendous drive by the WHO to get everyone across the globe vaccinated leading to the situation where it now only exists in laboratory flasks  :)  I wonder if the entire, or vast majority, of dogs were vaccinated in Britain we might make history of some of their diseases?

Only if the sole source of infection was purely from other dogs.

That is why I said some diseases :), I believe lions get distemper (although I am not sure if it is the transmittable) but I am happy to raise my fences :D

LOL! How high do they need to be to keep out your local lions? :D :D

Unfortunately, we'd need all the dogs (and closely related species, and rats in the case of lepto) in the world to be vaccinated to eradicate the diseases completely. But the fact that strict control eradicated rabies from this country shows it can be done to a certain extent.

Of course, now that only very few people have recently had smallpox boosters almost everyone has no immunity, opening up the scenario of escaped virus due to terrorist activity, and there would very quickly be an epidemic, and very many deaths.

Yes that is the scary part :( I believe stocks of the vaccine are still held too though and even with that threat I think it is a wonderful thing that the children in underdeveloped countries are now safe from it in all other eventualities.

Absolutely. With the demise of smallpox and (nearly) polio 'in the wild', babies stand a better chance of surviving to adulthood.

HIV has just replaced it unfortunately...................

Well I think its more a case that they would have had something else to contend with :(
Going back to the topic though. I know parvo can be carried on the person of other species but is it transmittable?  Certainly human parvo is different all together and is not zoonotic.  So therefore is this a disease that has the potential to be wiped out if the percentage of hosts drop to the necessary levels?

As far as I can discover, canine parvovirus only affects canines - but as that includes wolves, coyotes, foxes etc it may well be in the wild fox population by now, which will keep it active even if all domestic dogs were regularly vaccinated against it. If there was a way to distribute vaccine in the fox population it might be possible to eradicate it; after all, it's not really been around all that long - my first litter was bred before this disease existed.

BCG is not repeated if there is documentation of previous vaccination. This is a live vaccine and even if the heaf test shows negative following BCG it should not be given again. This vaccine has v. recently stopped being given to school children.
Amos

even vaccinated dogs can get parvo.

Exactly, vaccination is not necessarily 100% and some people/animals do not "take" vaccinations at all.

There are no guarantees unfortunately.

Were all preying that it was just misguided Lab eating

Bluebell xx

Hi,
I hope it isn't Parvo! But some other viruses can be just as threatening.
I hope she get well soon, I think she will if she is a healthly girl.

With regards to people!! some people have viruses like mumps more than once in the life others don't.
It does depend on your immune system. A lot of viruses we have as children we don't get again, only a very few people do. As a child my Mom would let me have NO vaccines I had polio when there was
an out break, and diptheria. But!! caught all the other childhood viruses. Only had them
once though. Never caught them off my children or my many foster children.

It does depend if the injection if it is a live virus.
Regards
Denese

Well So far so good, She's still at the vets and he seems 80% sure it's Parvo, I just hate the fact we did everything we could in terms of the vaccien and it's because of those that don't that it looks like a new strain is about!!

I'll let people know how we get on tomorrow! The vet has said we'll have to play it by ear, she's on a drip and antibiotics now so fingers crossed!!

Thank you for all those with positive thoughts for Poppy!!

Sorry to hear about your dog but my dogs who are blood tested do not need vaccinating(in the words of my vet)so how can they be causing other dogs to get Parvo & mutating the disease ?

Vaccinating one of my dogs cost him his life & I will not put my dogs at risk to make profits for a multinational company by vaccinating yearly BTW the company have now changed their stance It was the live vaccine that killed my dog & yes I have medical proof

Whilst I am sorry that your dog is ill, Lecy, I don't think you should be putting the blame onto those who choose not to vaccinate.  Like Moonmaiden I also lost a dog after a booster so there's no way I'm going to risk that happening again. My current dogs are 100% healthy and would not be too pleased to hear that they're the cause of a new strain of parvo!

At least because she was vaccinated she's probably less ill than she would have been otherwise. Until we can get all the dogs and foxes in the country immune (by whatever means - vaccination is easiest) I'm afraid these diseases will always be lurking. :( Fingers crossed she makes a good recovery.
:)

Moonmaiden that's why we stopped also 15 years ago having the boosters and we now have the first set of vaccinations with the dead vaccine, never the live one.  We lost too many Pomeranian's with the live vaccine that we could never go through that scenario again, and yes this was proven, two dogs died at our vets because they couldn't believe that it was caused through the vaccine so offered to have them for a few days afterwards.  They phoned about 1 at 9.15 at night to say that they had just finished playing with them and that the pups had just gone to bed, half an hour after this phone call the vet phoned devestated because one had died!

Since we lost our boy I have been advised only ever to use dead vaccine with cavaliers as they do have a "problem"with live vaccines

When there was a parvo outbreak here all the dogs who had it had all been vaccinated & mine even though they had been with one dog who went down with it never had a sign(had extra blood tests done)so mine must have immunity

Lecy, I'm so sorry about your dog and I hope she pulls through and makes a full recovery. 

There is no evidence anywhere to support the fact that there is a mutation of parvo.  It's a well known fact that there are dogs who simply do not 'take' to the vaccine.  Your vet will be able to blood test for it as there are other diseases that can mimic the signs.

Parvo is hardy; it can survive extreme temperatures, and is spread through the feces of infected dogs.  It can be carried by birds, on people's shoes, clothes etc and the only substance known to kill it is Chlorine Bleech. 

Some dogs can have parvo without showing clinical signs but are capable of spreading it in their feces.   Dogs who are vaccinated are also known to excrete the virus in their feces.  At the moment there is concern that vaccinating too much can weaken the dog's immunity to Parvo and research is still ongoing in this area.  

Or Parvocide I believe Spender, but I reckon ordinary bleach is somewhat cheaper

Can the ones on hee who don't vaccinate tell me what they do, do you just have the 2 puppy jabs and no more? and do you blood test or anything. I only have puppy jabs, and then booster a year later, but i'm getting a bit worried now :-s

I have the killed vaccine as a puppy & then have blood tests done, luckily I have a very good friend who does the titre testing for me I aslo use the homoeopathic noscodes as well

Of course MM, :-) I've heard that Virkon S works too?

The bleach is a lot cheaper but the other two possibly more environmentaly & animal friendly

If a dog has parvo I would also disinfect every time they went to the toilet as well as normal daily cleaning routine

Hi Lecy
Any news today. I saw a programme about a dog in the US that had Parvo, its a horrible diesease. The dog needed a lot of help with walking etc, but made a full recovery.
Let us know how she is.
Sarah

Hi

She's doing well, the vet has allowed her to come home as she gets a bit distressed away from here. She's definitely not herself and being sick seems to have slowed down, but she's still not keeping much food down. She's very sleepy as well - I imagine the heat doesn't help.
I'm sorry if I've upset people on here by blaming people who do not vaccinate but yesterday was a very traumatic day, I watched my baby throw up and pass blood for 2 hours before having the vet take her away from me.

It's the most traumatic thing I think a dog owner can go through and really hope no-one ever has to.

The vet still isn't 100% sure it's Parvo, but he's sent stool samples off and blood test are being done. I've got to take her back to the vets tomorrow to see how she's progressing. I'll let people know how we get on.

The Vet did say there is an outbreak of Parvo in the Bristol area and the vets have been on the look out for any symptons such as Poppy's.

Thanks

Alexis

Hi,
Alexis,  you won't have upset anyone on hear they are all very
understanding. Especially when it comes to your dog, they would
know how you fell!! Thing will be o.k.
I do wash everywhere down with J's fluid and bleach. Front drive back garden ect; ect;
I do not like taking my dogs a walk on the street only in parks.
I always avoid any dog mess I see  (from responsible owners egh!!)
I have always had my dog's Boosted but!! am not as sure now.
Havn't yet!! It is finding a happy medium isn't it?
If so many Vet's didn't worry so much about there profit margin I am sure
things would be more straightforward, with a lot of things.
Like taking a blood test routinely instead of just vaccinating for financial gain.
It is very worrying how they can panic us into having surgery on dogs,vaccine's
ect; Just to help there!!! profit margin!!!!!
Regards
Denese

Hi Lecy.  Glad to hear your girl is home.  My girl, Jet, had suspected parvo at 6 months, despite being fully vaccinated.  She is completely healthy (after a very, very scary three days on intravenus at the Vet's) and now 12 years old.  However, here are some things we learned.

"Suspected" parvo because I did not shell out the extra $70 to have the confirming tests done as my Vet said the treatment would be the same whether it was parvo or some other gastro. disorder.

Vet said there was possibly a "break" in the vaccine, meaning it just didn't take on Jet.  Or there was a mutated, vaccine resistent variety, which she had heard of, going around.

I was told some infected dogs continue to carry the virus for years and shed it in their stools.   The stools are investigated by other dogs and parvo can be spread in this manner to other unvaccinated dogs.

Jet was banned from the obedience classes we were taking.  She was too weak to go anyway.  I was nearly banned too, but our trainer intervened and I was allowed if I promised to change any clothes I had been wearing during the day that Jet had been near.  I also had to take a jug of bleach with me, pour it on the pavement outside and walk in it, before I was allowed in.

Jet had just boarded at a kennel that breeds Labs and was whelping puppies during her stay.  She was there one night and I had informed the owner that she had been a bit lethargic that day.  At that point she was still eating and I never saw bloody stool.  Anyway, to help with the whelping Jet's own breeder was also there and she went back to her own kennel where she also had litters of puppies.  I called both breeders and told them of Jet's suspected parvo and both had to disinfect their kennels as best they could and then lived on pins and needles for some time, but had no parvo themselves.

I appreciate that the treatment may be the same for a gastric disorder and it costs to get tests done.  However, how on earth are vaccine manufacturers, vets, experts etc going to get a clear picture of what viruses are out there and whether parvo has mutated, not mutated, common, not common etc without testing?  

How on earth can your vet say that there is a 'break' in the vaccine or a mutated vaccine  resistant variety of parvo going around if she advises her clients not to bother testing as it costs x amount? 

Lecy, how's Poppy doing?  I hope she's getting better by now?

You're right Spender.  My Vet soon wished that she had advised for the test.  It would have saved a lot of people a lot of anxious moments if it had come back negative.  She was gracious enough to admit this and told me so herself.