Parvo virus question - Page 1

If a German Shepherd puppy got infected with Parvo virus at age of 8 weeks before it had taken any vaccination, it then got medical treatment for a few days and recovered from the virus and is now healthy, eats and drinks normally and is energetic.
At the moment it is 10 weeks old. Two vets were asked about vaccination for the puppy, one  recommended usual 3 rounds of vaccination with 25-30 days interval between each. The other vet said no need for vaccination as the puppy has now immunity against Parvo and only Rabies vaccine is to be given at the age of 4 months. But I know same vaccination contains immunity for diseases other than Parvo.
What do you think is best for this puppy, vaccinate or not vaccinate?

Thanks a lot

Ibrahim

 

assuming the puppy was correctly diagnosed at week 8, i'd definitely go with vet #2: rabies only.

If he in fact did have Parvo, then no need to vaccinate for it.  You do however, still need to vaccinate for Distemper, and ofcourse Rabies.

The only thing I'd worry about is the puppy catching something the vaccines cover other than the parvo.. Most 5 in 1's protect against distemper, hepatitis, adenovirus cough, parainfluenza along with parvo.. If you didn't vaccinate him at all you might leave him unprotected against these other diseases.. I had a 6 month old fully vaccinated puppy catch parvo. We thought he had eaten something, but vet did a swab, and it came back positive. He said he had seen a few young dogs recently who had been fully vaccinated that came down with it anyways.. He didn't get very sick, and bounced back quickly..  Being a virus, It has ways of mutating and changing, becoming different strains, making vaccines less effective against it..

Your dog is now immune to parvovirus...but yes you still need the vaccine for the other viruses. Sorry, they don't make 4in1 vaccines...so we still use the 5in1 anyway.

Resistance to contracting parvo (or any disease) depends on the immune system functioning correctly.

At the moment the PDSA in the UK have reported a 34% increase in cases of parvo this year. It is affecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated dogs and vaccinated adults are losing their lives too from it.

Whereas it's always been thought the first few weeks of life animals are usually protected against disease from the immunity they receive in their mothers’ milk, some vets think that it can last a lot longer, anything up to 20 weeks is possible and this is why vaccinated dogs, both youngsters and adults are contracting parvo, as this maternal immunity may neutralise any vaccine given at this time. The maternal immunity declines to a sufficiently low level for the animal to no longer be protected. This also allows the animal to respond to vaccination and so at this stage it is possible to start the vaccination programme.... a lot of vets are now advising vaccinations be done when a puppy is older than the usual 8 & 10 weeks of age, also a lot are advocating a 3rd parvo only vaccination 5 to 6 weeks after the initial course, usually when the pup is about 16 weeks old. 
Initial puppy vaccinations are for distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus, coronavirus, leptospirosis and parainfluenza and full vaccination boosters for these are usually given every three years, with an annual injection against just one disease, leptospirosis. A lot of people are under the misconception that the annual boosters dogs get contain all the vaccines & also believe that if they have their pet vaccinated when they are young the immunity they receive will protect them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately this is not the case. After the last injection, the immune level reaches a peak and then begins to decline. The level of protection offered to your pet may no longer be sufficient and the only way to confirm this is to titre test regularly, say every 18 months or so.
 

If the dog actually had parvo then it is immune against it for his life. How was the parvo diagnosed? Did they run Parvo elisa snap test? Or did the vet just look at the pup and said: "This is Parvo." ???
These days there are strains of virulent corona which looks just like parvo and often is worse then parvo. If that is the case then there would be no natural immunity to parvo but only to corona. 
If you want to be sure then run parvo titer test. Parvo titer would show the amount of antibody against parvovirus that a dog has in it's blood. 
 Here also read this:
http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/vaccinations/a/FALC_vacctiters.htm

Thank you all, precious info and opinions, all dear to me.

Thank you Prager,

Yes a test was done in the lab and result was positive, early signs were diarrhea with rotten smell (but no blood and no vomiting), also loss of appetite and general weakness. I am positive it was Parvo. Treatment was by viral liquid plus Antibiotic (Augmentin), and then when he was much better they gave him boiled rice for two days and multi vitamin syrup for 7 days. I hope I didn't miss anything of what they did. Thanks a lot and I will read the article in the link.

Ibrahim

Hello,
I have expirience with dogs from 28 years.Symptoms of 5,6 infectious diseases
are the same, the cure is the same.In Bulgaria have alot stray dogs and from there 
, alot of diseases.Our vet doctors make vaccines step by step.The scheme of  the vaccines I've written in past topic. After the dog is cured from Parvo he got immunity lifelong . And no need from revaccination. If during treatment was used serum it includes at least 3 diseases and they enhance immunity.
Congrats Nedev.