Parvo in Dogs
Is extremely dangerous but it can be prevented by building up their immune system



Parvo in dogs is still an extremely serious and potentially fatal threat to your canine friend.

This is especially true if you live in a large metropolitan area like New York City, where hundreds of thousands of all sizes and breeds of dogs live.

However, it can also occur or in a rural area where a vaccination is not readily available.

This is still today a very serious form of virus, and also one of the perplexing viruses to the science world.

If you live in a large metropolitan area, you may actually be infecting your dog and you are not aware of it.

This disease is not an airborne disease, but can actually be brought into you home by your shoes, your hands if not fully sanitized, and even by the tires on your car.

Even if your dog or puppy does not leave your yard, they may contract this disease.

OVERVIEW OF PARVO IN DOGS

Parvo in dogs, when it first was diagnosed in 1978, was perhaps the number one killer of dog’s world wide, it was that serious, and still can be a very serious threat to your dog.

Cats cannot catch this disease from dogs but they have a very similar disease called Feline Panleulopenia disease, or feline distemper.

Some medical circles speculate that parvo is a mutated form of this feline disease.

Treatment of this disease will involve electrolyte solutions that will include the B-complex of vitamins, dextrose, and potassium chloride.

So it is only common sense, that even though there is a very effective vaccine that is now available, you also must protect your dog through vitamin supplementation.

This will help in building their immune system early to protect against this virus.

Vitamin C emulates the immune system itself, as it reaches into every cell of your dog’s body.

Your pet’s immune system will benefit tremendously with Vitamin C supplementation as this nutrient plays a major function of the immune system.

With Parvo disease in dogs, your pet will certainly get diarrhea with varying degrees of severity.

The body, ours and our dogs, can and will lose several of the B-class Vitamins that are mandatory to the immune system to function properly, by elimination through feces.

Because of this it is extremely important that it is built up prior to pronounced forms of diarrhea.

This water-soluble class of vitamins must be reintroduced with supplementation in the case of a treatment stage after the fact, via intravenously feeding.

A simulation of this example and how it is so important to your dog is how alcoholics need to be given large doses of Vitamin B12.

THREE DISTINCTIVE TYPES

Walking city dogsParvo in dogs is especially dangerous in a large city

It’s basically the same thing with your dog and the symptoms of Parvo disease.

Your dog will need this vitamin, that is why it is used in treatment, and logical to make sure it is there to start with through supplementation.

Vitamin A plays an important role in cell division and differentiation and helps to maintain the lining of the intestinal tract, something that this virus will attack directly in your dog.

This valuable vitamin also helps prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the body by maintaining the skin and mucous membranes.

Parvo in dogs has three distinctive types of the disease; Asymptomatic, Cardiac, and Intestinal.

Dogs that have the asymptomatic form of this disease have been vaccinated properly and will show no clinical symptoms of having the disease at all.

Cardiac Parvo in dogs, although rare today if the puppy has been properly vaccinated, does still occur.

Infected puppies may contract severe inflammation and or scaring in their hearts from the virus which will cause chronic congestive heart failure.

This quite often leads to the death of the puppy in a couple of months.

The most common form of Parvo in dogs today, however, is the intestinal form.

With this form of the disease, the virus will grow very rapidly and divide the cells in your puppies or adult dog’s intestinal lining, which has the largest concentration of rapidly dividing cells.

Like most any virus, Parvo in dogs is using the host’s (your dog) cellular mechanisms to basically produce replications of itself.

By doing this, the virus can over a period of just a couple of weeks, spread over 1 billion virus infections into the feces that can survive for up to 5 months.

This is why Vitamin C and the B-Class of vitamins are so important in building the immune system from the beginning.

This disease will start by multiplying in the lymph tissue of your pet’s nose and throat.

Than it will go to the bone marrow putting pressure of the infection fighting white blood cells, and than enter the small intestine.

The virus from Parvo in dogs may also prevent digestive bacteria from entering and thus cause a system wide infection.

If these bacteria are in a dog with a depleted white blood cell count, it has now become a life threatening situation.

The symptoms in your dog will be immediate, and can be some or all of the following.

Loss of appetite, lethargy which may be extreme, a high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea that is bloody or a very foul smelling liquid-yellow soft stool.

Dehydration will almost certainly set in immediately after.

This virus is one of the hardest known viruses to the science world as it can live outside of the body and lay dormant for up to two years.

A puppy that may be shedding this virus can defecate on a surface and than another puppy may come by and just sniff the area, and contract the disease after all of that time has passed.

That is why it is so very dangerous for dogs in Metropolitan environments.

THERE ARE SUCCESSFUL TREATMENTS

Treatment for Parvo in dogs will include intravenous feeding to control the dehydration, medication to control the losing of fluids, and antibiotics to prevent other infections.

In the worst case scenario, blood transfusions will be used. 

Prevention of this virus can only be 100% complete through the proper usage of today’s vaccination process and must be followed exactly as your veterinarian instructs.

If you do not go through the entire process of vaccinations, your puppy is at risk.

However, a puppy that does survive this virus has immunity for life.

Summary

The only way to actually destroy the virus by further contact is by burning any contaminated material such as blankets, newspapers, or linings, and than a very dilute solution of Clorox washing.

Sprays such as Lysol and others will have no affect.

Life long preventive measures of building your puppies and than adult dogs immune system will help them with this and other viruses and bacterium.

Pet Medications for Parvo in Dogs

Dog Vitamin Store

Canine Infectious Hepatitis