subject: Preventing Your Puppy From Contracting The Parvo Virus [print this page] Parvo is a very, very deadly virusParvo is a very, very deadly virus. In young puppies it will often kill 90% of the puppies that develop this nasty disease. As a breeder who has experienced Parvo I can assure you that this is a heart wrenching disease. You will lose a lot of sleep and spend a lot of money only to have most of your puppies die. And there is not much you can do-once they have it. But you can in most cases prevent it.
The parvo virus tends to grow in quickly dividing cells. The highest concentrations of these cells in a puppy are located in the intestinal lining. When the virus occurs it kills those cells, and the puppy will start having bloody, foul-smelling diarrhea. Depression will set in. There will be a lack of energy and the puppy will need to lie down. The virus will suppress the white blood cell count. Vomiting will begin and the puppy will be unable to keep food and water down. Dehydration will set in because of the lack of drinking and eating. In very young puppies, this virus can infect the heart muscles and cause "sudden" death. Even with veterinarian care, after this virus sets in, the mortality rate is very high, killing 80% to 90% of those puppies stricken.
Often, puppies will acquire the virus during a routine wellness visit to the veterinarian's office. Going to the vet for these checkups for your puppy is similar to taking your child to the emergency room at the hospital. It is not a choice, but a necessity. When taking your puppy for the vet examination, hold it on your lap, only setting it on the floor if absolutely necessary. The less exposure to possible contaminated areas means less chance of contracting a disease.
Vaccinate your puppy. Even if the breeder from whom you bought the puppy has given it shots, it does not mean that your puppy has built up the necessary tolerance for the virus. Neopar is an excellent and absolutely top rated vaccine which is available for your puppy. You can purchase this through many different sources. Simply do an online search. Neopar is basically a modified form of the live virus. This is not a dead or killed virus, so it has a lot more kick in it. Neopar can be successfully administered to puppies that are as young as a few weeks of age. The Neopar contains an extremely high titer level when compared with some of the various other vaccines available on the market. This titer level has over 3 million in each dose compared with the 15,000 to 150,000 often found in other brand name products that are very well known.
With that said. I am a breeder and not in any way affiliated with Neopar. But I can tell you that we have experienced Parvo in our kennel. But since we started using the Neopar vaccine to vaccinate our puppies we have never since had a puppy come down with Parvo. This is a nasty virus. But it is preventable. We recommend Neopar followed by 4 puppy shots that contain a Parvo booster. If you keep your puppy on track with a good vaccination schedule your puppy should be able to live side by side with a sick puppy that has Parvo without getting sick itself. The vaccine is very affordable and only costs several dollars to administer. Don't shortchange your puppy by skipping its Parvo vaccinations.
