How the infection is spread:
Parvovirus is very easily transmitted illness. It is especially prevalent in places where unvaccinated dogs congregate. The virus is shed through stools and urine and remains active in the environment for a long time. It is not an air-borne virus and canine-specific, but it is very easily passed on by even the slightest contact, through footwear, or handling with food utensils or beddings of the infected animals. Even a bird pecking at the infected fecal matter and then landing next to peck into your pet's food bowl could pass on the disease. The symptoms of Parvovirus appear around about 10 days after the dog has being exposed to the infection.
Symptoms of Parvovirus:
The first signs of Parvovirus are a high fever and a general depression. The dog usually stops eating and soon suffers from intense vomiting and foul-smelling, yellowish diarrhea with bloody traces. If not controlled, this can rapidly lead to dehydration and death.
Chances of Survival:
The younger the infected dog the more high are the chances of the disease proving fatal.
The Parvovirus directly attacks the heart muscle of puppies and this usually leads to immediate death. On the slim possibility that the puppy survives, it is not likely to have a long and healthy life. The Parvovirus infection will in all likelihood have left it with a permanently damaged heart. Such animals sooner rather than later succumb to heart failure.
When the Parvovirus strikes older dogs, the result is usually, as mentioned, a severe case of enteritis, often of the haemorrhagic sort, together with vomiting. The affected dog will soon collapse from dehydration and will require an intravenous drip to keep alive. Recovery is very slow and again with lasting damage. The Parvovirus will have destroyed the intestinal lining and this leads to permanent digestive problems.
Treatment:
There is no definite cure for Parvovirus as yet, but the disease can be controlled by giving antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and preventing the rapid setting of dehydration.
Dogs who have survived parvo can get it again.
Prevention is the Best Cure:
The only way to avoid this illness is by vaccinating your pets and avoiding all contact with unvaccinated animals.
At the time of the mass outbreak in the nineteen-seventies, vaccines intended for cats were used to treat the illness in infected dogs. Now canine-specific vaccines for dogs have been produced.
Vaccinating puppies against this disease, first when they are about 6 weeks of age and then with an interval of a month, is highly recommended. Vaccinations against Parvovirus are continued in this manner till the puppy reaches the age of 20 weeks and from then on a yearly inoculation is considered enough.
It is an illness that can be easily avoided and it seems a great pity that many dogs still contract Parvovirus and die from it because of a failure to vaccinate on the part of the owner.
Destroying the Parvo Virus:
Special care should be taken to clean the area and its surroundings after or during an infection, as the Parvo Virus is a rather tough customer and not easily destroyed. Unlike the Canine Distemper virus, which is not particularly stable outside a host body, the Parvo Virus doesn't need a host body for survival. It can remain active on its own in the environment for several years. It is also immune to most disinfectants – to destroy it you need chlorine bleach and other disinfectants made from the aldehyde group. |