What could have happened to this puppy? - Page 4

Tamiflu is not appropriate for use in canine parvovirus infection.  Tamiflu works by inhibiting Neuraminidase, which is a protein found on the surface of some viruses that allows the virus to bud away from the host cell. Unfortunately, Parvovirus does not  have Neuraminidase, and there are no studies that prove it is effective, it is expensive and appropriate dosing is unknown. Finally, innappropriate use of it could result in the development of resistance in human influenza that would make this drug less useful in the event of a human pandemic.  The key to parvo is prevention

Parvaid isn't a medicine; I'm sure you could get it straight from the company. ALL vets need to know about Tamiflu for parvo. I'm sorry you lost one.

Alopex, welcome to the forum and thank you for that revelation. I guess all of use who have used it and either had puppies whose littermates died of parvo not get sick, or puppies first testing positive never get sicker must be just the placebo effect .

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150648012285722&comments 
Dr. Jack Broadhurst's explanation of treating parvo w/Tamiflu

The success of using a neuraminidase inhibitor in treating canine and feline Parvo is due to the suppression the production of bacterial neuraminidase, and has no effect on the Parvovirus' ability to replicate. Puppies can still develop myocarditis and CHF...kittens can still develop cerebellar hypoplasia...the patient’s feces will still contain the viral antigen even while the animal is recovering. Tamiflu does not interfere with the replication of the Parvovirus, and as a result, no mutant or resistant strains of the Parvovirus will be created from the use of Tamiflu.



This was taken from the article of Jenni's by Dr. broadhurst

Oh, RS, you had to go and make it easy for everyone, didn't you? LOL

I considered posting that, but decided to be a brat and make people read it themselves to see why I was arguing w/the new person.

Thank you all, very interesting article about tamiflu, i had never heard of using it for parvo before this nor had my vet, but I will show him the article.

One thing that slightly confuses me in the article, it says it should only be used in dogs that have tested positive for parvo, but then goes on to say it can be used to prevent parvo in dogs that have been exposed but are not yet sick - presumably these dogs would not test positive (unless they had been recently vaccintated)?  I am wondering whether I should try to get tamiflu for my healthy puppies and when to give the second vaccination,  bearing in mind there are other dangerous things to consider like distemper.....

I'm really sorry to hear that you lost the first pup but glad to hear that the other one is on the mend.  Hopefully, this thread will serve as a reminder to those reading of the insidious nature of this disease and how important it is to seek immediate medical care if you even suspect that one of your puppies is showing any of the symptoms.  A couple of days makes all of the difference in the world.

Oso, I am so sorry that you lost the first sick puppy.....my condolences. 

You are doing everything you can and my heart goes out to you.

Oso, I understand your confusion on that point about giving it to the healthy ones. The thing is, you know they were exposed via littermates. That article, I think, is assuming someone only has one pup, and it's point is to caution people from giving Tamiful at the drop of a hat w/out cause, hence the advice to use only on + dogs. I will say that the Chihuahua was a very strong positive, had vomited that morning and wasn't eating when I gave him the Tamiflu. As I said, he wasn't himself for a few days, but did eat something every day but one and never vomited again, and never had any diarrhea. I did give him injectable Cerenia for nausea; imo, Cerenia is superior to the other options.

Another important thing to remember is that any underlying issues - giardia, coccidia, parasites, etc. will all make a pup more likely to get an especially bad case of parvo, as they are most prevalent in times of stress and serve to weaken the immune system further and cause gastroinestinal distress on their own; any combination is extremely dangerous. Keep them as healthy as you can, especially in those questionable weeks in terms of mother's antibodies. The best antiviral is a strong immune system.

I wouldn't vaccinate the pups who have been exposed already, at least until you know they are absolutely healthy and out of the woods, which I don't know when you'll know that. At any point they could be exposed through something you missed while doing the best you could to clean up; I would be very cautious about that, and of course, the one who's recovering will have lifetime immunity to it. Hey, at least one good thing came out of this horrible nightmare. If you choose to vaccinate the others, wait until you know they're not busy fighting parvo. Not every dog exposed will get it; it's one of those tricky viruses w/many variables. I personally would not risk it w/a stress to the immune system like a vaccine.