An Essay on Parvo
An essay I wrote for my English class. Basic overview of the parvo virus.
Parvo:
From its Dramatic Beginning to Uncertain End
Canine parvovirus, or parvo for short, is a deadly, highly contagious virus that has killed many puppies since its appearance in the 1970’s. There is no cure. Most dog owners are either unaware of the existence of parvo, how deadly it is, or how to prevent it. For anyone who owns or plans to own a puppy, knowing the causes and effects of this virus can help motivate preventative action. Ideally, informed and appropriate actions prevent a beloved companion from becoming infected and dying.
Many factors can cause this deadly virus. It can be on anything and anyone and be carried by many means. It can be spread directly from an infected dog to a healthy dog through saliva, feces (for instance, when a healthy puppy sniffs an infected dog’s stool), and nose-to-nose contact. Also, since parvo attacks growing cells, the virus only affects growing puppies. Fully-grown dogs, with fully-grown cells, are therefore immune to parvo. However, adult dog may still be carriers. Sometimes, puppy owners let their puppy come in contact with a parvo-infected adult dog, but will be unaware that that dog is carrying parvo since it is symptom-free. This is similar to situations where someone contracts HIV but doesn’t know it because of a lack of obvious and instant symptoms. They then may accidentally pass it on to others.
Indirect transmission methods include people bringing it into their home on their shoes, clothes, or hands. The virus is everywhere because it is unaffected by extremes of temperature and most chemicals, including alcohol and common detergents.
However, many puppies which come in contact with parvo do not necessarily become sick. This is because only puppies with weak immune systems cannot fight the disease. A puppy may have a weak immune system because it became weaned too early (before seven weeks) or because it didn’t receive adequate nutrition and exercise. Though many believe vaccination is an absolute preventative, it is not. Many vaccinated puppies have become contaminated with the virus and died. Very young puppies which are vaccinated for parvo while their immune systems are still weak are even more susceptible later on.
The result of contracting parvo is an unpleasant experience for both a puppy and its owner. Within the first week to ten days after contracting parvo, a puppy will act fine and not show any symptoms. After that, the first visible symptoms include vomiting and excreting large amounts of bloody diarrhea. Even after days of not eating, a parvo puppy continues defecating because parvo sloughs away the lining of the intestines. The result of this continual loss of liquids is dehydration. Another obvious symptom is lethargy. Some parvo-infected puppies can look on the verge of dying for days, being unable to walk more than a few steps, bark, and in extreme situations, even lift their head or wag their tail. If a parvo puppy can still perform any of these actions, it is considered to be faring fairly well.
A puppy can die within hours of showing symptoms. If the disease continues to go untreated, the puppy is highly likely to die from dehydration even before the virus itself has killed it, taking days, hours, or even a week. Untreated puppies almost never survive.
Effects of parvo on human owners are heavy as well. Financially, treating parvo with clinical care is a huge burden. Overnight stays at vet clinics, which include antibiotics, IV fluid, and solitary confinement, can run as high as $1000 a night. Emotionally, being far away from a beloved pet and knowing it can die in a cold, hard, lonely cage at any moment is scary, stressful, and causes much worry. On the other hand, treating a sick dog at home using holistic medicine may be cheaper, but carries other burdens. For example, the energy and time required for this approach forces an owner to temporarily make lifestyle changes, including possibly taking time off of work to stay home and monitor and treat the puppy, and giving up consistent, adequate amounts of sleep so the puppy can receive hourly doses of medicine. The result, either way, is intense stress. Therefore, the best choice between the two treatment options is subject to each owner’s priorities, abilities, and flexibility of lifestyle.
If a puppy dies from parvo, possible effects on the owner or owners, including families, are grief, depression, and a loss of desire to get another puppy in the future. The responsibilities required to raise a puppy, including training, feeding, monitoring, playing with and exercising it, and cleaning up after its messes, on top of it being at risk for a deadly virus, may discourage people to get another puppy. An adult dog may possibly become more desirable.
If a puppy survives, and its owner truly understood the seriousness of the disease and how close their puppy came to death, likely responses are utmost gratitude and a new or renewed desire to take better care of their dog so it doesn’t get sick in the future. This could include exercising the dog more, giving it nutritious and adequate amounts of food, learning about other possible canine sicknesses and how to avoid them, and in general keeping the puppy happy. Though, ideally, having a puppy get sick and almost dying from a disease like parvo should not be required to motivate dog owners to provide the best care for their dog.
Obviously, the effects of a puppy suffering at the hands of a virus that dog owners are largely uneducated about are substantial. For a few days of torture lives change dramatically, whether it’s a canine or a human life. The change is apparent during and after the ordeal. The effects during the ordeal are always scary and stressful, whereas aftereffects can be positive (the puppy survived) or negative (the puppy died). Current and prospective puppy owners who are aware of the causes and effects of Canine parvovirus, and who keep their puppy healthy and strong, can avoid a stressful and often unnecessary ordeal as well as a possible tragedy.
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Vet Clinic vs. Home Treatment
Although I stand strongly for home treatment using holistic medicine, there are both pros and cons to vet clinics and home treatment. Weigh both options seriously before choosing one.
Vet Clinic
Cons: Vet clinics give puppies a 50/50 chance of survival. If your dog is taken to the vet early, the chances may be higher. Vets charge hundreds of dollars per overnight stay (this includes antibiotics, IV fluid, etc.). Emergency vet clinics will be especially expensive. Even after a week and $6000+, your puppy can die. Antibiotics given by vets are not as powerful as natural antibiotics (of course, vets will disagree).
Pro: You can continue to live your life normally (work, kids, school, whatever keeps you busy) while others take care of your dog.
Home Treatment
Pro: Wolf Creek Ranch in California has saved 97% of all puppies that have come in. As long as you follow their guide closely, your puppy has a high chance of survival. With their help, my puppy survived.
Natural antibiotics are stronger than clinical medicines and are much more affordable. I bought almost everything as far as medicines, supplies, etc. that was recommended by sites online and spent no more than $200 on everything. This was less than the cost of merely one of Haley’s overnight hospital stays.
Con: The puppy will need EVERY HOUR ON THE HOUR medicinal doses, even through the night. It may be a few days, probably at least two full days, that your puppy will need this intensive treatment. You will get very physically and emotionally tired. It will not be easy going through so much trouble and not even knowing if your puppy is getting better – in fact, your puppy will probably look like it’s laying on it’s deathbed before you start to see improvement. This will take a lot of fortitude to deal with.
So that’s the two options in a nutshell. IF you are insistent on doing whatever it takes to help your puppy get better…
The Third Option…
The third option, of course, requires no physical sacrifice – no sacrifice of money, time, or energy – and that is choosing to let the puppy go. If you are considering this decision, you’ll know in your heart what the right decision is. I’m not necessarily saying your heart will tell you, “Keep the puppy alive!” That’s not what I mean by heart. It’s perfectly understandable to choose this route if you’ve only had the puppy a very short time, or it’s had many health problems already, or many other reasons. Maybe it’s personality, that you’ve seen so far, is very aggressive and potentially dangerous.
I don’t believe choosing to let your puppy go is wrong. If you’re only going to resent the time/cost that has to go into healing a parvo puppy, and therefore resent the puppy, there’s no point. Also, if money is a very big issue for you, yes, it may be cheaper to adopt a new puppy rather than keeping your sick one alive.
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Haley’s Story: Part 1
Haley was 5-months old when she was diagnosed with parvo. It seemed to happen suddenly – one night, she threw up all the meat she’d eaten that day. She couldn’t sniff food without gagging and sometimes throwing up more. I didn’t know what parvo was, so I didn’t think Haley could possibly have a deadly disease. A bad stomach ache at most.
So, for three days, Haley went without food or water (except for the little water she drank the first two days), and I kept hoping she would be better the next morning. By the third day she’d stopped drinking, was skinnier than ever, and her gums were slowly turning gray. Going online, I found articles on Canine parvovirus and realized how seriously sick she might be. I took her to an emergency vet that night.
The tests confirmed parvo. The vet clearly insinuated that I was a fool for waiting so long to bring her to the hospital and for failing to have her vaccinated. He said Haley could die any minute. He said that after seven days and $5,000worth of medicine and overnight stays, she could still die. He said if I couldn’t afford that, to consider putting her out of her misery.
I kept Haley there overnight, and for the next two nights (which ended up costing almost $2000). During that time I researched like a madwoman on parvo, and prepared for home treatment. I bought natural medicines and cleaned and prepared the living room to be her “treatment center.”
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Part 2 will consist of a log of everything I did (with my mother’s help) to heal Haley. It is not a step-by-step guide for all owners of parvo-stricken puppies to follow – it’s merely an example, so you can see what worked for someone else. Depending on your puppy’s situation, different approaches may need to be taken (such as more of one medicine, less of another, et.).
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