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**mistified247** · 04-10-2010, 10:04 AM

Thanks a lot Dee! This could be very useful & at the least has been very informative.

**DextersMomma** · 04-10-2010, 11:08 AM

We have used Tamiflu for a lot of Parvo patients, works best if you can get it in them at the very first sign of illness with Parvo. Not proven to work but can't hurt! The only problem is that with all that H1N1 going around, it was impossible to get and expensive when we did find it.

**faust** · 04-10-2010, 11:43 AM

Thank you Dee. What a great post and incredibly helpful. While a lot of people in the United States own pets but have fallen on hard times economically this could seriously give some light to those who could not afford the full traditional treatment. I do not advocate treating parvo at home, but it would be a great article to bring to your vet with your sick pup and see if there was an economical way to fight the illness. Much better then surrending your dog to the pound in which case it will likely pass away because you did not have the funds needed.

**KeikosMommy** · 06-08-2010, 09:54 PM

My Baby Girl is Sick.....

I have a 4 month old dane and just found out yesterday that she has parvo.... the Vet said that I caught it early.

The day before yesterday she wouldnt eat dinner, and she was tired, the next day (yesterday) she didnt want breakfast and then she threw up once, I knew this wasnt like her at all so I rushed her to the vet to get her checked out.

They said she is positive and gave me the option of taking her home to do fluids and meds... I am doing this now.

They have given her Tamiflu, 4mL every 12 hours for 3 days and then 4mL every 24 hours for 4 days.

I have never had an animal with Parvo, I am ashamed to say I didnt really even know what it was until I was at the vet with my poor baby and with tears streaming down my face....

My husband is deployed so I have no one here to help me. One of her littermates mommys told me about this forum to ask for advice.

I have been pushing fluids like they said, Pedilite at least 24mL every 20 min., she did really well last night only threw up once to make that a total of 2 times in a day..... then today she threw up 4 times. They are not big piles at all, but still this scares me.

She has tried to take a small bite of boiled chicken and rice that I was told I could offer her but not force on her. She didnt hold it down though. She is getting up and walking around and she goes back and forth from her kennel in my room to my bed.... she will lay on me and wag her tail when I talk to her.

I am just scared and not experienced with this disease. I have been reading on it but I feel like I would benifit from information from anyone who knows or has delt with this before.

The vet said she has a really good chance cause of how early I caught it, and the fact that I was able to get my hands on the Tamiflu (which as I have read in former posts is expensive, cost me $110, but I hear it is worth every cent!)

Anyone at all that can give me any pointers on things to do for her, I would so greatly appreciate it!!!

Thanks so much everyone, in advance!!

**DextersMomma** · 06-09-2010, 08:41 AM

First things first, stop trying to feed. Your pup is still vomiting and food will only exacerbate this. What meds is she on? If they haven't started Cerenia, please call them and as for it. You can also use Reglan/Metoclopramide to help with vomiting too. I wouldn't be trying to feed until the vomiting has stopped and hasn't returned (wait at least 24-48 hours from the last episode of vomiting). SMALL amounts of water at a time IF she can hold it down, if not, stop forcing it and return to your vet for either IV or under the skin fluids. Hydration is MOST important, this is how they die. Also, you should be monitoring her temperature rectally at least twice daily. It should be between 99-103, if it goes above or below this, get to the vet.

Feel free to ask any questions, the Tamiflu can help for sure but isn't a cure.
Hope this helps and your baby gets well soon.

**andipanda 1** · 06-09-2010, 09:03 AM

One suggestion for tamiflu -- for you, your family, and pups too. Last year, I lost my dear brother to H1N1. His doctor gave my sister-in-law, myself and my dad script for 2complete runs tamiflu, each. He suggested we fill it, and hold them at home, in case we caught it. We all did just that. I caught it, my SIL did too, but my 84 year old dad did not. We each still have one course at home.

So, if your doc can or will prescribe it ahead of time, to have a course of it in the house, to ONLY be used at your doctor or vet's discretion, it might be easier to find tamiflu now, outside of the flu season.

Andi

**NavyWife** · 06-09-2010, 09:49 AM

Steph, I really hope Keiko is doing better and I am glad you took my advice and came here for help. If you can't find an answer here, there probably isn't one!

Anyway, I hope she is doing better and will be back to her usual self soon. The whole family is rooting for her and her brothers send a special "woof" of goodwill her way. Let me know if you need anything at all.

**KeikosMommy** · 06-09-2010, 09:50 AM

For my last two replies...

Thank you both very much for the information.... She has been on Tamiflu for two days now. I made sure to get it from the vet first thing.

I also was up really early this AM cause I didnt wanna keep making her drink fluids, felt like if she is throwing it up it isnt helping her.

You read my mind, I went to the vet first thing this AM and got her some lactated ringer and all the needles i will need for the next few days..... already started her on IV fluids and stopped giving her fluids by mouth.

20 minutes after her first round of fluids, she got up was walking around, even jumped the baby gate out of my room to come find me.... I put her back in my room and was watching TV with her when she just pops up out of no where and jumps off my bed goes to her bowl and starts lapping up water!!!

I have to say I got the biggest smile ever on my face.... then she just jumped back up on the bed and started watching TV with me..... I have been talking to the vet today and they think she is doing great and I am doing great by her! I couldnt have done this without my breeder (who is GREAT) my facebook friends, and of course the new friends I have made here on DOL..... thank you all so so much for all the advice you have given me, I hope to report back soon that she is all better and eating like a baby cow..... I love her very much and it was really nice to have somewhere to turn to vent my worries and get such great and positive feedback!!

Thank you all again SO much!!

KeikosMommy

**deb9017** · 06-09-2010, 10:29 AM

I am really glad your baby is doing better. It is so scary when they are sick!

**KeikosMommy** · 06-09-2010, 12:15 PM

Thank you Deb, and yes it is very scary.... especially when you are a new pet owner!!

I am glad that she wont ever have to go through this again, and I hope I dont with my other doggie!!

**CADRMNDANES** · 09-12-2011, 06:38 PM

Parvovirus

July/August 2011 Issue
By: Patricia Jordan DVM, Catherine O�Driscoll and Dana Scott
Back in June of 1997, the Sunday Times featured an article by Clare Thompson about emerging viruses, with the heading: �DEAD RECKONING� Beneath the title, the summary stated: �New killer viruses are emerging every year, unleashed by the very medical and technological advances that promised to control our environment. Nature may be telling us to stop, but who is listening?�

The article went on to state �Newly emerging viruses are now the biggest threat to mankind. In the past 20 years, scientists have discovered around 30 new diseases, a staggering rate of one or two each year, most of them spread from animals to man. All are immune to antibiotics, and they can mutate so fast that the handful of antiviral drugs available quickly become obsolete.�

�Medical technology has spawned its own demons�there is no doubt that new medical developments, such as vaccines grown in animal cells or animal-to-human transplants, might easily contribute to an epidemic.� The article then offered an interesting example of a man-made epidemic that directly affects our dogs: it stated that parvovirus was created when vaccine manufacturers cultivated the distemper vaccine on infected cats� kidneys.

In 1978, dogs around the world suddenly began to die, developing bloody diarrhea and rapidly (often overnight), progressing to fatal dehydration. Canine parvovirus arrived and exploded round the world within a few mere months, infecting millions and killing thousands of dogs. �Most viruses go into a new host and just die out,� says Laura Shackelton, a postdoctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University, who has studied the evolution of parvovirus in both dogs and cats. �This one took off.� How could this happen?

Canine parvovirus is very similar to the long known feline panleukopenia virus (FPV). Soon after its appearance, parvo was classified as a mutation of FPV � in fact, the first vaccines used against parvo were FPV vaccines. Prior to the parvovirus outbreak, the only widely-used vaccine for dogs was distemper. At some point, cats� kidneys were used to develop the distemper vaccine and this was shipped around the world and injected into dogs. If Clare Thompson is right, the distemper vaccine was grown on cat kidney cells and the cats were infected with FPV.

Another possibility is that cats that were vaccinated for FPV shed that vaccine through their feces � a very real risk with modified live vaccines. The feline parvovirus could have easily mutated into canine parvovirus. In Vaccines For Biodefense And Emerging And Neglected Diseases, the authors state that the trouble with modified live vaccines is: ��there is a high probability of back mutation and reversion to virulence once introduced to the animals.�

Regardless of how canine parvovirus originated, it is well accepted that it is a man-made disease and it is the result of vaccination, either for canine distemper or FPV. This much is obvious because the outbreaks were sudden and massive and they first surfaced in countries that regularly vaccinated dogs and cats.

As with all �new� viruses, parvo is constantly evolving and mutating but it has a faster mutation rate than most other viruses. Today, nearly thirty-five years later, parvo remains the most common viral disease in dogs.

There are two canine parvoviruses: canine parvovirus-1 and canine parvovirus-2. CPV-2 is the primary cause of the puppy enteritis that we commonly see. Over the years, parvo has mutated from CPV-2 to CPV-2b to CPV-2c. �This wasn�t a reversion,� Shakelton notes. It seems that dogs may be getting the ultimate revenge on cats: the CPV-2c strain of parvovirus is now crossing species and infecting cats with another brand new virus.

Now that parvo is apparently here to stay and is mutating at a rapid rate, how can we protect our dogs and, most importantly, our puppies from this potentially fatal disease? Many vets and dog owners would quickly reply �vaccinate them!� and that might protect your dog. But the real question is, �at what cost?�

Unvaccinated dogs have long been targeted as vectors for disease. Vets and immunologists claim we need to vaccinate at least 75% of the dog population to keep deadly viruses like parvovirus under control � they call this herd immunity. Dog owners who do not vaccinate are blamed when viruses like parvovirus continue to spread and mutate. The vets tell us that as long as there are unvaccinated dogs, parvovirus will always be in the environment. And so we vaccinate.

Few people have stopped to ask if the vaccine itself is responsible for the spread and mutation of parvovirus. If this seems far-fetched, take a look at the history of the polio vaccine. Poliomyelitis is a virus that attacks the spinal cord, causing muscle weakness and paralysis. When the polio vaccine was introduced in 1955, it was fully credited for the decline in polio. Like influenza, measles and whooping cough however, polio was already in decline before the vaccine was introduced. What happened with all of these diseases is exactly what happened with parvovirus.

When parvovirus hit in 1978, it exploded because dogs had never been exposed to anything like the virus and they had no immunity to it. A single exposure to parvovirus however, provided dogs with long-lasting immunity and this immunity could be passed to puppies by nursing dams. Dogs soon became immune to the initial CPV-2 virus and although that original virus is still with us today, it isn�t usually a cause of epidemics because as more dogs were exposed to the disease, they developed immunity.

The same thing happened in humans with polio, influenza, measles and whooping cough � eventually, enough people were exposed that the viruses were effectively controlled by the immune system. Many people credit the decline in mortality from these diseases to vaccination. In 1977 however, McKinlay revealed that these diseases were already in serious decline before the vaccines were ever introduced.

Getting back to polio, if we take a look at this disease today, there are some interesting and worrisome trends. Today, polio is only prevalent in a few third world countries with poor sanitation. In Nigeria, the polio vaccine is mutating and the World Health Organization is blaming the unvaccinated children. The WHO claims that the virus in the water supplies � passed by vaccinated children � is supposedly safe but is picked up and mutated by unvaccinated children, becoming a new virulent strain that is infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

As more Nigerians give in to the pressure to vaccinate however, more of their children are infected with the mutated virus. In 2007, 69 children were paralyzed and in 2009, despite more children being vaccinated, that number reached 127. A virologist with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Olen Kew, says that there�s no difference in virulence between wild polio viruses and the mutated form. �The only difference is that this virus was originally in a vaccine vial.� What this means is that as long as children are vaccinated for polio in Nigeria, the polio virus will remain in the environment.

Official concern is that the new virus will spread beyond Nigeria�s borders into surrounding vaccinated countries, and that it will spread from there to people outside the African continent. Are we facing a new polio epidemic, caused by the vaccines sold as a panacea to prevent it?

This is not unlike what is happening with the Bird Flu virus. Virologist Chairul Anwar Nidom has done some pretty interesting research showing that mass inoculations keep the disease in the environment by:

1. Producing weakened forms of the antibodies to develop in vaccinated populations

2. Which means that more birds are vaccinated

3. Which means an increase in genetic mutations in the birds which, in turn, increases the virulence and severity of the virus.

Avian disease specialist Dr. Charles Rangga Tabbu has also spoken out against mass inoculation for the Bird Flu as a scientifically baseless policy. Veterinary pathologist Dr. R. Wasito has noted that vaccination for the Bird Flu has allowed it to mutate and that other animals including dogs, cats, raccoons and flies can now carry the mutated virus.

Could the same thing be happening with parvo? According to an article in The Veterinarian by Mark Kelman, �animals that have received at least one vaccination (for parvovirus), represent 28% of puppies infected, and 11% of adults infected.� That�s a large number.

There are a lot of reasons for vaccine failure, the most relevant being blocking of the vaccine by maternal antibodies. These days, there are many high titre/low passage vaccines that claim to override maternal antibodies. The good news is, most manufacturers show that these vaccines protect most puppies when given at 12 weeks of age. The bad news is, high titre/low passage is just a fancy way of saying there is a lot more antigen (up to 65 times more) in the vaccine that will be shed into the environment through vaccinated puppies.

Ironically, another human intervention that is increasing the threat and spread of parvovirus is the use of Tamiflu to treat infected dogs. Historically, antiviral medications, like vaccinations, will result in further mutations in the virus as it adapts to its environment. Tamiflu has been banned for human use in Japan because of the high incidence of psychotic reactions. Interestingly, Tamiflu is manufactured from an extract of Chinese Star Anise; a herb which is also associated with neurological effects.

Meanwhile, as Clare Thompson predicted, parvo has continued to mutate rapidly since 1978. It has moved into a new ecosystem, and is adapting to that ecosystem in a hurry. Viruses that successfully switch hosts are rare, but potentially catastrophic. Canine parvovirus has now become a major threat to the conservation of wolves. About half of the wolf puppies in Minnesota have succumbed to canine parvovirus. Carnivore parvovirus isolates have caused disease in Lynx, bobcats and raccoons.

As tempting as it is to blame unvaccinated dogs for the spread of parvo, the fact remains that if the original CPV-2 strain was all we had to worry about, there would be only a few minor outbreaks because most of our dogs have developed immunity. But as parvo mutates through the use of modified live and recombinant vaccines, it will remain one step ahead of our dogs � and now our cats. Vaccinated dogs are virally active, and for 21 days after vaccination, they are shedding the virus every time they go out in the yard, on a walk, to the dog park, the vet�s office or to training class. And now, with their immune system compromised by the vaccine, and with the ability of recombinant vaccines to mutate and create new viruses, vaccinated dogs become a viral incubator.

Does the parvo vaccine protect our dogs? The answer is, protect them from what? There is a heart disease called cardiomyopathy that is associated with parvoviruses. Cardiomyopathy did not affect dogs before the parvovirus outbreak or was very rare. Since the parvo pandemic of 1978, cardiomyopathy is prevalent in many breeds and breeding dogs are routinely screened for this often fatal disease. It is believed that the parvovirus vaccination is likely to be the cause of most cases and that vaccination created the heart muscle association in parvo that is not seen in natural infections.

Like polio and the Bird Flu, the parvo vaccine may not only keep the virus in the environment, but it may be responsible for the new and dangerous mutations that allow it to cross back into cats and other species, transmit through the air and cause other potentially fatal diseases such as cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, 28% of vaccinated puppies still get the disease. It would appear that in the long run, parvo vaccination may create more problems than it solves. But people are myopic at times and, in our fear of our dogs dying from preventable disease, we vaccinate them today but don�t worry about what can happen tomorrow.

If there is one lesson life has to teach us, it is that life goes hand-in-hand with risk. Too many people believe they can eliminate risk with vaccination and this just isn�t the case. In a short term clinical or field study, parvo vaccination may appear protective: unfortunately, nobody is taking a long, hard look at the long-term fallout and what it can mean for our dogs, for us and for the environment.

In the September 2011 issue, we will explore the impact that parvo vaccination can have on individual dogs.

**CADRMNDANES** · 09-12-2011, 06:45 PM

Here is another link on Parvo
http://www.parvobuster.com/blog/parv...posed-to-parvo

Remember DO NOT Vaccinate if you think your pup or dog has been exposed to Parvo.

**vraiment** · 09-12-2011, 06:49 PM

My prayers are with you guys.

And on a POSITIVE note....my Goliath was very very sick with parvo. He is now recovering and will most likely make a full recovery.

SO IT DOES HAPPEN! Some DO live through this. I know others on here have as well.

I swear the reason Goliath made it was i gave him ester c daily prior to it which I believe helped his immune system fight it at least...and tamiflu. My vet told me it does not kill the virus but rather stops it from reproducing.

**Greenmagick** · 09-12-2011, 06:52 PM

Yes, many many dogs do make it through. I admit, I am very concerned with the amount on here that have not as of late.

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