A week and a half ago we had several puppies head home. The following week 2 of those puppies were diagnosed with Parvovirus. We immediately began decontamination efforts in full force in order to protect our puppies as best we could. We have vigilantly watched puppies and had them tested for the Parvo virus at our vet last Thursday, 2/29, even though we still were not seeing any symptoms of sickness. Every puppy tested negative.
However, the veterinarian did tell us that they would not test positive yet if the virus was still in the 3-10 day incubation period. We were at day 8 on Thursday when they were tested. She felt like we were probably going to be okay.
Sunday morning we had our first pup get sick and pass away with-in 8 hrs. It was sudden, dramatic and heartbreaking. We thought we were mentally prepared for this possibility, but we were still caught in the heartbreak of it all. I held this puppy held in my arms the entire 8 hours and nursed with continuous IV fluids and medications, but the virus had already caused sepsis, an infection in his blood stream. It attacked the bone marrow so the white blood cell count was depleted and he was unable to fight the virus. We didn't have a thorough treatment plan in place just yet, but we remedied that immediately.
Each individual puppy will respond to the virus in a different way. Some have stronger immunity than others. How quickly they get medical intervention is critical to their survival. We were blindsided by how drastic the virus attacks these puppies and wanted to make sure we were better prepared to protect our babies.
Monday, March 4th, we loaded all the pups in the car and headed to the vet office. We were there all day out in the parking lot. Due to the highly contagious nature of this virus, the Doctor and her assistants came out to us for evaluation and treatment of each puppy. Only 3 tested positive, but all pups were given an initial dose of long-lasting antibiotic and an iv injection of an immunity boost serum. We were sent home with all of the necessary medications, fluids, and supplies needed to give the full course of treatment to each puppy as soon as they exhibited signs of the parvo illness.
The Doctor said we should keep them quarantined for at least 2-3 weeks after the last sick puppy has recovered in order to keep them from spreading the virus to new locations. At this time, we're thinking of an end of March, early April go-home date.
We will be in contact with you directly regarding the health status of your puppy, if you have not yet heard from us, then your baby is not sick and doing well.
Please contact me with any questions. Send me a text or schedule a phone call. We are on 24/7 puppy care right now, so be patient with us and we definitely appreciate your prayers. Thank you.
Today's Update: No new sick puppies and the babies are holding on. One started to eat food again today already! None of them have had any fevers.
This article has a lot of good information as to what we are doing with the puppies. It's based in Australia, but is one of the more well written pieces I've read in the last few days: https://perthvetcare.com.au/pet-library/parvovirus-in-dogs/#
Blessings always,
Julie
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