Hi everyone.

Very sorry if this question's been asked and answered. I did a search on the site on parvo, etc. and there was just soooo much to weed through and I couldn't find the answer.

Feel free to skip the background and go straight to the bottom for my question.

Here's what happened:
Fri 3/14/08 We got an 8 wk old pit/rott/sharpei puppy from the local human society. His litter was turned in to them on 3/13 and vaccinated with the combo shot same day.

Tues 3/18 pup gets the sniffles and has a slight clear liquid discharge from his nose. He's in good spirits, eating & drinking well, firm stools. I don't panic.

Thurs 3/19 a.m. his snot goes green and he has a slight cough. No other symptoms until late afternoon. Late afternoon he pukes his food up. Still not panicing as he puked right after roughhousing with the other dogs and I think he's just overexerted himself and maybe a touch of kennel cough. Pretty thirsty. I think it's from the play.

Sat 3/20 morning - not eating, not drinking, not as playful, pukes white froth. I pinch his skin and he's dehydrated. Take him to the local vet office - vet not in. Tech's won't do anything for the pup. Won't sell me ringer solution even if I get another vet (my regular vet who's 2 hours away) to call in a prescription. I can't get to my regular vet on this day. I start putting pedialite into pup every 1/2 hour. Some time in the afternoon he poops diareah - it starts out runny, no blood, and finishes semi firm. I continue with the pediatelite every 1/2 hour until 1 a.m. Sunday. At that time he's still under the weather but chipper enough to try to run from me as he doesn't like being syringed the liquids.

3 hours later - he screams, pukes white froth, bloody diahrea and he dies.

I talk to my vet today and he says it was parvo, maybe with distemper. He says it didn't present classically (that's why I didn't panic as I should have).

I have bleached what I can in the environment and picked up what puppy poop I can locate.

I have the following other dogs in the household:

5 yo shep x - vaccinated 3 times as a puppy and no others.

6 yo ankle biter - vaccinated 2 times as a puppy and no others.

1 yo boxer - unk history prior to 8 mos of age. 8 mos of age vaccinated once at the pound, no others since.

2 yo ankle biter - vacc 3 times as puppy and once at 1 yr.

Question 1: Should I booster everyone as the vet suggests?

Question 2: How long before I can get another puppy? The humane society is offering to replace the dead pup. I'm in no rush and don't want to bring another dog/pup into the household if it's just going to be a death sentence for it. I'm worried enough about my 1yo boxer.
My vet's suggestion is to make sure any replacement pup has had at least its second set of shot.

Thanks.

Roz.

 Quote:

Question 1: Should I booster everyone as the vet suggests?

If it was me I would not give the other dogs a booster.

 Quote: Jason Sidener

 Quote:

Question 1: Should I booster everyone as the vet suggests?

If it was me I would not give the other dogs a booster.

Ditto. At a minimum, I'd do titres and see how strong a response you get before giving any more boosters.

I'm very sorry about the pup.

I think the older dogs will be fine without more vaccinations.
The one year old dog should be just past the susceptible age.
I think any new pup that is brought in should have a NeoPar vaccine at least 10 days before it comes home. I wouldn't trust any other vaccine (including combo shots) to provide adequate protection.

I am new to this site, so this is just my two cents worth.

Based on my limited experience with the newer ideas of not doing many vax, my question to the vet would be, aren't the other dogs already exposed? Would vax booster make any difference now?

Also, the titre is an excellent idea.

" aren't the other dogs already exposed? Would vax booster make any difference now?"

You know, those were my thoughts exactly. I like my vet, been going to him for years. But the past few visits he's been really annoying me - he seems to be getting comfy with just giving text book advice. His answers "not necessarily" "it depends" and then goes into some pat textbook answers... "vacc at 6 weeks, and then every 2 after that, blah, blah, blah" I'm considering a search for another vet.

I was thinking that the exposure to the parvo pup would stimulate an immune response in the other dogs, thereby eliminating the need for any booster shots.

It's just that there is so much information (a lot of conflicting info!), that it's hard to make an educated decision.

I've always (since my first dog 20 years ago) been strongly against over vaccinating. I've been put into "panic" mode as this is my first experience with infectious disease. This experience makes me reassess all my beliefs, etc. I just want to do what's best for my dogs.

I think I feel better now and will go with my initial decision of getting some parvaid for preventative purposes and doing the titer for the boxer.

Thanks all.

Roz.

When you say "he says it was parvo?", what does this mean? Did he test the dead pup? Or did he go off of symptoms described?

My thing would be, that if it did not present classically, I would have had tests run on the pup to be sure of what it was.

I am sorry to hear that you had to go through that and I would make sure that the shelter you obtained this pup from is doing a thorough cleaning and check up routine on all the animals that were exposed to this. Gads, what a nightmare.
Not sure I would get another pup from them. I was thinking there was a quarrantine type process for shelter, meaning they keep new animals for so long to ensure health and then place them up for adoption????

I'm a retard. I just noticed my dates were off by a week. It should start Fri 3/7.

The vet went by my description. He did say it could be other things and mentioned a few, but most likely parvo. The pup is "six feet under". I'm not going to dig him up.

What else do you think it could have been, other than the usual suspects - parvo, distemper, kennel cough?

Not all shelters quarantine or have a holding period for their animals. This litter was an owner turn-in so they put them up for adoption right away.

I called them, they know. They're cleaning. I guess disease is just a very real risk in a high turnover shelter situation. I called them when he first barfed. They said I could bring him back and exchange him. I inquired what they would do for him and was told either euthanize him or give him supportive care via oral hydration. I decided not to take him back. If he was going to die, I wanted to care for him and not let him die alone in a cage at the shelter.

Roz.

What did his diarrhea look and smell like? I have heard that parvo diarrhea is yellow and really stinky. Horrible to lose a puppy that way.

when I worked at the vet and cared for parvo pups the smell of the poop is horrendous, it was really really stinky and had a metallic twange to it, Im guessing from the blood.


I think your other dogs should be old enough and their already done vaccines sufficient to protect them.

I would not booster either for fear of it running down their immune system and making them more susceptible to getting sick.

Im very sorry about the pup, you did a good thing caring for him.