What could have happened to this puppy? - Page 3

I'm not buying your vets diagnosis; everything you're telling us describes full-blown parvo.  As far as where your pups may have picked it up, it could be anywhere...it lives in the soil for months or years so it may very well have come from your own back yard or, yes, your training field if it was brought there by another dog or animal...even vaccinated ones.  Coronavirus can be severe but it usually isn't although it does increase susceptibility to parvo so...  It's a moot point either way because the treatment for both is nearly identical.

About the vaccines...jus because a puppy has been vaccinated against something doesn't mean it isn't susceptible.  Puppies inherit natural immunity from their mothers colostrum shortly after birth.  How long they have this natural immunity differs for every dog but shots for any given disease are ineffective until the natural immunity wears off.  This is why we give several series of shots to puppies, to minimize the exposure risk as much as possible.  It is entirely possible (probable, actually) that your pups had not yet lost their inherited immunity when they got their last shots, sloughed those shots off then lost their natural immunity and were exposed to whatever it is they have now.  The third pup has probably not yet lost his/her natural immunity and is therefore not sick...yet...but whatever this is is in your environment now so you need to be hyper-vigilant about limiting access to areas where the other two have been and get any of the other pups or dogs to the vet immediately if you even think they're acting sick.

I agree, I do not think that the vet now believes it is corona, that is what he thought initially, but since then they vomited a lot more which is not so typical of corona. I have been reading and it does sound like parvo, though not sure about all the mucus? Anyway, as you say the treatment is the same, and I think the vet is doing everything that should be done according to what I have read.

I do understand about the immunity from the mother and that if they still have this the vaccine is useless.  I have always vaccinated for the first time at 6 weeks and then again at 9 to 10 weeks, then again 3 to 4 weeks later.  I am very worried now about the other female puppy and what to do assuming and hoping that the two recover and come back, should I try to find somewhere completely isolated for them and if so for how long?  And if so do have to change my clothes and disinfect my hands between looking after them and the other puppies? I have already disinfected all the kennels (which I do quite regularly anyway) and I have not been letting any of the puppies run around outside, the  female puppy that has been with the others does come into the house and at the moment is super lively, it will be devastating if she gets sick as well, but of course i would take her to the vet at the first sign of any trouble.  I plan to use bleach outside on all the paved surfaces, but a big part is grass, soil and vegetation, I am not sure how to disinfect this.  The disinfectant I use in the kennels is quaternary ammonia (I think this is correct name as I am translating from the Spanish).

Normally if I have had a sick puppy I keep it in the house for convalescence as it is much warmer, especially at night, and I can keep an eye on them more easily.  But in this case how can I as my other dogs also come into the house and the other puppy as well - will this mean the virus gets spread around even more?  Or should I keep just the sick ones in the house and not let in any other dogs? All the adults are of course vaccinated but they could spread the virus around?  Then if we go out from the house across the garden to the kennels do we carry the infection with us???


The other thing I am unsure of is whether or not to vaccinate the the other 2 puppies, they were due on August 1.  I understand that if the little female is incubating the disease already vaccinating could be the worst thing, but if not and she may be exposed to the virus repeatedly, then it would be safer for her to be vaccinated again??? Any thoughts???

Thanks for any advice.

You don't have to worry so much about the adult dogs because they've been vaccinated and even if they hadn't, parvo is rarely fatal to an adult dog as it relies on the constant regeneration of cells in a growing puppy's intestinal tract to do its worst damage.  In an otherwise healthy adult dog whose immune system is not compromised, you might have some vomiting and diarrhea but the dog should be able to fight it off.

Do you have a large enough concete pad on which to put a kennel?  Bleach is the only thing that will kill the parvo for sure and, as you noted, you can't really bleach the yard...

Thanks Keith, I am not worried about the adults getting sick, but more about them possibly carrying the virus from one place to another.  I am more worried about the  2 puppies  which are still healthy and have only had one vaccination so far.  They are from the same litter but were living in separate kennels as the female was particularly dominant with her siblings and I was not planning to sell her, so she was kept with the two  older puppies that I was also planning to hold on to for the moment.  Luckily I had already sold most of the other puppies  and none of the ones I have sold have become sick.  But I still have one male, the smallest of the younger litter, and so far I have not put him together with his sister as I assumed she had been more exposed to the virus and could become sick (he had also been outside in the same area as the others, but not at the same time, and he had not been down to the training field).   I am not sure if I should sell this puppy now or if he should be in quarantine for a while, whether he should be allowed with his sister, and whether or not to give the second vaccination (the vet says these puppies will probably not get sick now as they have almost certainly been exposed to the virus, but to wait a while before vaccinating them).

 I am also concerned about keeping the infected puppies isolated from the other puppies when they come home, this is going to be difficult....I have four kennels 3 x 3m, these have concrete floors (I use wood shavings on top) with drains and are easy to clean and disinfect but they all open to the same outside area and all but one have doors that are just iron railings so the dogs can sniff each other from outside, one kennel has a solid wood over the door, this is where the male puppy is at the moment with an adult female, and is the most isolated, but not totally of course. The kennels also have windows, open just with railings like the doors, the adults can look out of these windows if they stand on their hind legs, but not the puppies.

I might have to look for a totally different place the other side of the house for the two sick puppies at first....
Any advice would be appreciated! Many thanks.

I have had good success (meaning every puppy I've treated has survived and bounced back quickly) treating parvo pups at home w/subcutaneous fluids and enemas, antibiotics, Parvaid (soothes the digestive tract and is a natural parvo remedy), Diarsanyl, Cerenia (for the vomiting) and once, Tamiflu.

For the pups not yet sick, I would try to get ahold of some Tamiflu if you can. I treated a 2lb Chihuahua pup (that the vet gave a 20% survival chance to) w/Tamiflu the first day he vomited  and tested positive and he never vomited again, and NEVER had diarrhea. He ate every day but one while he was sick, and about a week later, was the little hellion he was prior to getting sick.

Rather than kill yourself trying to disinfect the whole place (great thing to do, but I'd spend the energy on the pups before the property- you can disinfect the property when they're out of the woods a little farther), try to get a head start w/the pups you have left and get them the Tamiflu. If your vet won't give it to you, call around until you find one that will.

Thats interesting, many thanks -  I will ask my vet about tamiflu when i go in  this afternoon, I hope we can get hold of it here.  I probably cannot get parvaid but will look into this too, sounds good. Any other tips on convalescence would be useful . Again many thanks for the input.

Parvaid is easy to order. I can neither confirm nor deny their claims- all treated with Parvaid did live, but I did other things, too. Just google it; you can see what retailers near you carry it. It's supposed to be a great immune booster for those not sick yet as well.

I have some bad news, the first puppy died today, nearly a week after she first became ill.  I had thought we had got over the worst stages... she had seemed better this morning and the vet took out the IV and tried to give her a little fluids by mouth, but she vomited violently afterwards and was put back on the drip.  I saw her at mid day and she looked in pain and very weak, an hour later she was gone.  This is the first time I have lost a puppy, (other than newborns) and I feel so bad.  The other puppy is back home and very lively, she seems very hungry but I am giving her just a little baby rice and liquid protein food at a time until her digestive system has repaired itself some more - I did give her two tiny bits of chicken which she liked a lot...  She has lost quite a bit of weight of course but is actually nowhere near as skinny I expected.  She never had it as bad as the first one and I am hopeful that there will be no relapses and that she will recover quickly and completely.   The vet is looking into Tamiflu, I live in Ecuador and do not think it would be possible to order parvaid from the internet as i believe there are restrictions on sending and receiving any kind of medicines, but I will look into it anyway, it sounds like it could have been very helpful, and I still feel not out of the woods with regards to the other puppies that are still healthy.

So very sorry oso. Our prayers and thoughts will be with you. Sure sounds like Parvo stikes again.