I am getting a new puppy, an American Bulldog in approx. 6 weeks. About two months ago I lost a 14 week old to parvo. I have since found this forum and have been reading about vaccinations. What do I need to do to prevent my new pup from getting sick? I have sprayed the yards with bleach and the interior with disinfectants. The pup was never out front, never new a thing until it was too late. He had his shots from a vet where I bought him and one cocktail shot. I will switch to raw when the new pup arrives, but am very nervous about the parvo and vaccinations. What should I do? Any help would be appreciated.

NeoPar (available from A to Z vet supply) will give the best titer results and it will overcome maternal antibodies. If I were you I would make sure your pup has at least one shot before it comes on your property.
Parvo is very persistant in the environment and only takes a very small amount to infect a puppy. I wouldn't trust disinfecting to prevent a problem with the next pup.

 Quote: Debbie Bruce

NeoPar (available from A to Z vet supply) will give the best titer results and it will overcome maternal antibodies.

Where did you see this about overcoming maternal antibodies? This is the big reason I don't vaccinate for Parvo, period; the whole antibody thing. Intriguing.

I would do a search for the other parvo threads on here recently, including Ted White's (I believe) whose pup bounced back from it in about 24-48hours, totally unvaccinated and raw fed. There have been a lot of parvo threads here lately.

For what it's worth, back when we used to vaccinate and I didn't know better we used NeoPar.

It certainly does do something to maternal antibodies, the last litter I vaccinated with it ALL got parvo about 5-7 days post vaccine. That was the last litter I vaccinated for anything.

To the original poster, bleach is the best thing to kill parvo. I would bleach the crap out of my entire house, yard, any shoes I had, etc.....

I think the most important thing is to start our with a healthy puppy, that hasn't had his immune system stressed with chemicals, vaccines and a substandard diet.

I feel that this is so important that I will no longer buy pups from anyone who isn't on the same page as I am with diet and vaccines. I won't take a kibble fed, vaccinated puppy no matter how much I like the bloodlines. I know I am a bit extreme, but seeing what "modern medicine" has done to our dogs makes me ill.

Will this new pup be vaccinated before you bring it home? How old will it be?

Interesting, Cindy. Nothing would change my mind about vaccines, but I would be curious about one that actually interfered w/maternal antibodies. Not so curious that I would try it, of course, but curious as to what ELSE it could do if it can do that. Not in a good way...

I think everyone is sick of hearing my take on vaccines, but if it were my puppy, I wouldn't bring a vaccinated dog on my premises if I'd had a parvo problem. I wouldn't chance bringing a vaccinated pup home at all. However, most of the breeders out there won't send an unvaccinated pup home, so that's up to the OP. I will be breeding my own dogs from now on, as I want several generations of unvaccinated, raw-fed dogs.

To the OP: I would do all I could in my power to enhance and bolster the immune system, and forgo any vaccines. I wouldn't want a pup fighting off a parvo vaccine AND actual parvo. Oh, and let's not all forget that parvo didn't exist until a feline panleukopenia vaccine mutated...so w/out it, we wouldn't even HAVE parvo. Is a parvo vaccine really the answer?

 Quote: jenni williams

 Quote: debbie bruce

NeoPar (available from A to Z vet supply) will give the best titer results and it will overcome maternal antibodies.

Where did you see this about overcoming maternal antibodies? This is the big reason I don't vaccinate for Parvo, period; the whole antibody thing. Intriguing.

I talked to one of the reps for the company who developed and manufactures NeoPar. They have been titer testing vaccinated puppies for 3 years to find out which vaccines give the best immune response.
Least you think that this company is pushing all vaccines - he also said that the corona vaccine was very bad for puppies because it creates a "bubble" in the puppies' immune system so that subsequent vaccines will not trigger an immune response, and that all adults show immunity without a corona vaccination.
Their recommendations are to keep the environment clean rather then give Bordetella vaccines.
The only puppy vaccines they recommend are Parvo, Distemper, and Adenovirus 2. He said that puppies in low risk areas probably could get away without vaccinations but that pups in high risk areas would be at a much greater risk of dying without vaccines. (I have no doubt that a healthy raw-fed puppy has the best chance of surviving an immune challenge.)
He didn't recommend any Intervet brand vaccines because of adverse reactions caused by the adjuvant.

My unvaccinated puppy was (unintentionally) exposed to parvo back when she was 3 months old.

I took her to visit a friend who also had a 3-month-old puppy and we let them play in their backyard for half an hour or so.

The following morning I got a call from the guy saying that his puppy was hospitalized with parvo. That pup had been vaccinated 3 times against the disease already and sadly died after 2-3 days of showing symptoms. Parvo was confirmed by the vet.

My pup Aja HAD to have been heavily exposed since she played with the sick pup in the sick pup's yard but she never showed a single symptom. She's an extremely healthy and energetic 9-month-old now and has still never received a single vaccine in her life.

I will keep her vaccine-free for as long as I possibly can get away with it. The only one she MIGHT get is rabies, but even that's unlikely, unless I have to travel with her (and can't weasel my way out of the requirement, which can be done ) or unless there is a high risk of her biting someone.

The fact that she was spared of vaccines, in my opinion, allowed her to be well protected by her maternal antibodies back when she was a baby. Once those wore off, her own immune system was mature enough to deal with the virus.

She was also raw-fed her whole life (weaned onto raw).

I know that not everyone agrees with the 0 vaccine protocol for pups, and I won't try to convince you either way.
Just research vaccination issues before you decide how to proceed. You'd be surprised just how incredibly sick a vaccinated pup can get from the disease against which it was vaccinated.

Vets will usually give horrible advice on anything vaccine-feeding-neutering related so I wouldn't rely on them to inform you in those areas. Good for you for doing your research, your pup will be far healthier as a result

The pup will be at least 8 weeks when we pick him up. I think I will talk to the people and see if they will not give him shots and let us take care of him. I will also see if they will let me give him some probiotics to give him a jump start. Thank you for all your advice.