Parvo in Puppies, Pictures, Symptoms, Causes, Home Remedies, Treatment Survival Rate & Prevention

What causes parvo in puppies? Explore the signs and symptoms of parvo in puppies. Learn how to get rid of parvo in puppies including effective treatments and home remedies. What is the survival rate of puppies with parvo? Read on to get more facts about parvo disease.

Table of Contents

Parvo in Puppies Symptoms

The major symptoms that are associated with intestinal parvo in puppies’ infection are severe, bloody diarrhea, lethargy, fever and severe weight loss.

The intestinal form of parvo in puppies affects the body’s ability to absorb the nutrients, and an affected pet can then quickly be dehydrated and so weak due to lack of protein and fluid absorption.

The wet tissue of mouth and eyes can become red and the heart can start to beat too rapidly. When your vet palpates your puppy’s abdominal area, your puppy responds with pain or some amount of discomfort.

Puppies that have contracted parvo can also have a low body temperature, rather than having a fever.

Parvo in Dogs Pictures (Images)

We have inserted excellent images or parvo disease in puppies throughout this post. The images will enable you to understand and notice the signs of parvo in your puppies,

What Causes Parvo in Puppies

Parvo in puppies is shed in feces of dogs for weeks after they are infected. Clinical disease is brought about by oral contact with an infected fecal matter, which might be present on a puppy’s fur, crate, bed, carpet and any other objects.

This is known as infection by “fecal-oral” route. When a puppy licks or even ingests anything that is contaminated by the parvovirus, it can be infected.

Puppies, immunocompromised dogs, highly stressed dogs as well as dogs having other illnesses are susceptible to the parvo infection. The incubation period that is recommended for parvoviral disease is between 7 and 10 days. But, infected puppies usually start shedding the virus in feces well before they show any signs of sickness.

CPV infection happens worldwide. It is common in warm, wet seasons and the environments, and in spring when most of the puppies are born. The parvo in puppies is very resistant to household detergents and disinfectants and may survive at normal room temperature, indoors or even outdoors, for many months.

How to Get Rid of Parvo in Puppies

Should you suspect that your puppy is exposed to parvo or they have acquired it, then you can take them to the vet who will do some tests so as to determine whether or not the puppies are infected. Generally, parvo in puppies is diagnosed based on symptoms and the lab tests.

Currently, a common test used to diagnose parvo in puppies is Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbant Assay. This is a kit used to detect whether the parvovirus is present in your puppies stool.

The entire test usually takes about 20 minutes and is done in your veterinary’s office. But, due to the fact that the test is not fully specific, your vet might want to run additional blood work and various other tests to be sure if your puppy is infected.

Home Remedies for Parvo in Puppies

Parvo-K: Natural Homeopathic Parvo Treatment

This amazing formula provides the puppies with the strength to get rid of the Parvo in puppies.

A natural remedy against parvo in puppies is used to maintain normal body temperature, digestive harmony, and also support healthy hydration in the dogs. Crucial benefits:

An oral, natural homeopathic remedy
Supports firm, healthy stools in puppies.
Calms a puppy’s digestive system.
Helps to maintain a healthy fluid balance.
Assists in promoting the natural cooling mechanics of a puppy’s body.
No indicated side effects.

Put Your Puppy on a Temporary Fast
This can definitely give the puppy’s gastrointestinal tract some kind of relaxation and enough time to recuperate. With a break from various meals, then there ought to be less amount of diarrhea.

Normally, a fully break from food is important for mature dogs while puppies shouldn’t fast for more than 12 hours. Don’t fast any puppy under the age of seven months.

Puppies under 1 month may die fast with diarrhea, and if you have a young puppy then you should seek out a vet urgently.

Keep Your Puppy Hydrated
Your puppy is better off if kept from taking an excessive amount of water, but if the diarrhea isn’t severe (small amounts of water are good). If he has extreme diarrhea then he requires as much water as possible.

Supply Yogurt
Give plain yogurt or cheese to give the puppy some good bacteria. You may also add a dollop to the bland diet, which is described in details below.

Probiotics
Living bacterial cultures assists the body’s naturally-occurring flora which can additionally assist to speed up the healing process from parvo in puppies. The live microorganisms are found in yogurt, but they can as well be accessible from own health-food shop.

Your vet can have high potency powdered acidophilus cultures, which are very powerful for diarrhea than how the yogurt is. Combine the cultures with rice water that you’re serving your puppy throughout the fasting period.

Bland Diet
Following the fast, remove the ordinary meals and substitute with boiled chicken. If you are using chicken, then make sure that it’s skinless.

Keep the puppy on a bland diet until the stools are better formed. After that, you may then reintroduce the routine food that you’ve been giving it. This ought to be done slowly over the course of many days.

Rehydrate
Do a hydration check after some unflavored Pedialyte. See how quickly the skin returns to its original form by pulling up some back skin. If it takes long (more than 2 seconds) then you should take him to see a vet as he isn’t getting hydrated well.

Examine His Gums
Ordinary gums are supposed to be a bubble-gum pink. When gently pressed with a finger against gums, they should return to pink quickly (after a whitish color from a finger).

Your puppy must be taken to a vet immediately in the event that it takes more than a few seconds.

Parvo in Puppies Treatment (Cure)

Unfortunately, until recently there were no any drugs that were found on market that was proven to get rid of parvo in puppies. The virus was treated by use of extensive supportive care.

It is crucial to boost the puppy’s immune system and thus provide it with support so that it may fight off the disease on. Intravenous fluids are part of the supportive care routine in trying to avoid dehydration.

All these methods for treatment of parvo in puppies together with close monitoring are the only known methods that can assist a dog fighting to whether the onset of dehydration and a compromised immune system.

Despite all these interventions, sometimes the virus still prove to be fatal. This is the reason why it was stressed to be sure that your puppy was properly and thoroughly immunized against the virus.

Owners should be aware that should the puppy end up in the veterinary office for this kind of care, it can be highly expensive, even if it does not save the puppy’s life.

A typical stay for the parvo in puppies is about seven days long and each of the dose given so as to treat symptoms might cost from $400 to $2100. Complete inpatient care is also estimated to cost from $1500 to $3000 per puppy for every single outbreak.

As of last year, it appeared that a cure might have been found for treating of the virus. A company named Avianix came together in Dakota so as to investigate an unknown illness which affected the geese in the region. The disease was discovered to be West Nile Virus. Avianix developed antibodies that were used to combat parvo in puppies.

The same technology was then put to work in trying to develop a cure for parvo in puppies. An antibody-based treatment was harvested from goose egg yolks and then named parvoONE was developed and cured at a rate of 90 percent against the parvo in puppies.

Alternative Treatment

Given that parvo in puppies is such a dangerous virus which needs extensive and aggressive supportive measures and care for your puppy to survive, most people recommend alternative treatments not be attempted.

The claim that puppies that have parvo should be taken to the vet and treated in a veterinary office believed to give them the best chances of pulling through with very minimal lifelong effects.

Although this might have been happening for several years, there has been developments in supportive medicines that can allow owners so as to treat parvo in puppies at home. This option is helpful for owners who cannot afford to admit their puppy for an extensive veterinary hospitalization.

This option is possible by the existence of drugs that were made available by Pfizer Animal Health. One of them is Maropitant which is designed to target and reduce nausea, which in turn assists to prevent dehydration. This is administered under the skin at least once every day.

The other medicine is known as Convenia. It is also administered under the skin and is an antibiotic that lasts for up to a period of two weeks.

These particular medicines, when combined with fluids that are given under the skin several times per day, is more affordable, at around $300, and gives puppies a chance to survive the virus.

Supplements like Thomas Labs Meg-a-Cal, that are used for nutritional support for puppies who are recovering from Parvo may be found through the entirelypets.com and is also available in many different quantities.

Supportive medications for at home use to assist control symptoms like vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, and low white blood cell count may be purchased online. Recommended products for the treatment of parvo in puppies may also be found on amazon.com.

Further instructions on how to treat parvo in puppies:

Inspect the puppies for parvo

The first thing that should be done is identifying the parvo in puppies is by checking the symptoms. To do that, it is crucial to understand the most frequent symptoms, as outlined in detail in this article in the above section.

Once it is identified, you should take your puppy to the vet so as to get a canine parvovirus diagnosis. Once it is diagnosed, the first step that should be taken is to counteract the dehydration. To do this, you should ensure that you give your puppy the serum that is prescribed by the vet.

Understand the symptoms of the disease

To know if there is parvo in puppies, it’s crucial to understand the symptoms of the disease, something that may assist you to check your puppy’s health. Parvovirus usually affects the gastrointestinal system directly, bringing about the below symptoms:

Fever
Gasping
Nausea and foamy sickness
Diarrhea with blood and strong smell
Dehydration

If you see any of the above symptoms in your puppy, then take it to the vets as it can provoke sudden death.

Follow healthy recommendations

You must understand that you may avoid parvo in puppies following easy health recommendations. This article would like to give you tips that you may follow so that you can protect your puppy from the virus:

Follow the schedule for vaccination against parvo in puppies that your vet has suggested.
De-parasite your puppy frequently.
Keep your puppy’s hygiene and up to standard including the environment
Avoid them getting into contact with own feces

If your puppy is infected by parvo and then recovered, then you must understand that it’s possible that the virus is still at home, that’s the reason why it’s important to disinfect your house so as to make sure that the puppy is living in a very optimal space.

Fluid replacement therapy

Usually, the veterinarian will perform fluid replacement therapy, by administering a serum to assist re-hydrate the puppy. Fluids which have isotonic crystalloids (for combating parvo, according to the veterinarians, is Ringer-Lactate), which may also be combined with the colloids like the dextran or even the hydroxyethyl starch. This particular treatment is administered intravenously.

In severe cases where parvo in puppies causes heart or even the kidney problems, the crystalloids should be administered with caution as they can’t be tolerated in these particular cases as easily as they can by puppies having normal cardiac and renal function.

Use the correct rate and amount

The rate and the amount of serum that is used to administer can be calculated by a veterinarian and depends on the size and weight of the puppy and how advanced the disease has gone. In addition to fluid therapy, parvo in puppies can be treated by use of blood transfusions.

Due to bloody diarrhea brought about by the parvovirus, the puppy will have lost so much blood and will require to recover and replenish the blood supply so as to slowly do away with the virus. For both the puppies and the adult dogs, the donor blood should be from a healthy adult dog which has had all the mandatory vaccinations.

Rehydrating serum and the blood transfusions

Having taken both the rehydrating serum and the blood transfusions, a puppy which is suffering from parvovirus can then start to recover and thus compensate for each deficiency brought about by the virus.

Once rehydrated, the vet can continue with using a fluid maintenance programme, which consists of a glucosamine isotonic solution which is supplemented with the potassium chloride. But, the specific fluids can vary depending on puppy’s condition.

It should be the vet who determines which kinds of treatments are most appropriate against parvo in puppies, the dosage amounts and the rate of administration.

In most cases, parvo in puppies can lead to a state of hypokalemia (potassium deficiency) or any other deficiencies, implying that the puppy should receive potassium so as to make a full recovery.

You can administer the treatment at home

If you do not want your puppy to be at the vet office, then it is possible to administer the treatment at home by use of serum bags. The veterinarian supplements fluid therapy with the antibiotics and the anti-emetics.

These should be prescribed by a vet, who will provide also the information on how to administer it. If you treat your puppy at home, then you should go back to the vet on agreed days so that the vet can check on your puppy’s progress. Even so, the first fluid therapy blood transfusions can be done in the veterinary hospital.

If you treat your dog at home, you must thoroughly clean and disinfect all the items (blankets, bed etc.) and areas of the house where the dog has been. Remember that parvovirus can survive even in extreme conditions for many months.

The treatment might not work for all puppies

It’s crucial to know that although this is one of the effective treatment, it doesn’t have the same effect in all the puppies. The progress of the disease, as well as the health of the puppy, also have an impact.

The disease is more dangerous for puppies; they normally need additional medicines so as assist boost the natural defenses as the virus can leave them being very weak.

Occasionally, it is possible that the vet can give you a homemade serum for you to give the puppy by yourself at home (do not make a serum yourself without consulting a professional). It is crucial that you initiate treatment at the veterinarian office to and combat the canine parvovirus.

Use Tamiflu

Tamiflu is used to combat parvo in puppies, with good results. This is a drug that’s used to treatment of the influenza virus. The dosage is 3 ml per kilo, implying that if your dog weighs 8 kg you would administer 17 ml. You should also administer a dose every other day for 14 days, at the same time each given day.

Tamiflu is used as a supplement to the usual veterinary treatment of parvo in puppies; using it have no effect. Seek professional advice from a specialist before giving it to your puppy. Also, although it has successfully been used in several cases, that doesn’t imply that it can counteract parvo in all puppies, as each puppy can present very different reactions.

Parvo in Puppies Recovery Time

Puppies which are treated swiftly and then survive the first 4 days of infection are most likely to achieve a full recovery in around 1 week.

Once vomiting has subsided for up to 24 hours, easy-to-digest foods which are low in fat can be given at recommendation of a veterinarian, like cottage cheese, boiled chicken, and rice.

The companionship and the attention of owner can assist to ameliorate stress

Parvo in Puppies Survival Rate

Although puppies who usually recover from parvo are very immune to reinfection, the amount of contamination that they have spread might be significant, and thus the puppy itself is contagious for up to a period of six weeks. Parvo in puppies is difficult to get rid of, is resistant to most of the common cleaners and disinfectants.

In normal humidity which is at room temperature, then the parvo in puppies may be dangerous for many months. All cleanable materials should be washed using a bleach solution or a peroxide. All non-cleanable material are supposed to be disposed of such that no other pets come in contact with it.

Owners are also supposed to take extreme care in washing the hands and cleaning the shoes before leaving the area after petting their puppy or even cleaning up the contaminated areas.

Is Parvo in Puppies Contagious

Parvo in puppies is very contagious, transmitted through an infected puppy’s feces. Being very concentrated in stool, the virus may infect any other dog which sniffs an area where an infected dog has already eliminated. This fecal-oral transmission is the common form of transmission.

This transmission may happen for at least 4 weeks after being infected even though the infected puppy do not show any outward signs of the virus. This incubation period allows the virus to spread very much rapidly.

No breed, gender or age is safe from an infection. Though it is very rare, survivors may carry the virus for 1 full year after infection.

The parvo in puppies can survive outside of the body on surfaces for as long as 8 months, infecting any puppy that comes into contact with contaminated surfaces. Only bleach and sunlight destroys this virus.

How to prevent Parvo in Puppies

Keep your puppies away from public places for the first 20 weeks of their lives.

During those first few weeks, keep the puppies inside your home or even outside in a private backyard. If you live in an apartment complex, then the grassy common areas are not private and thus can pose a risk to the unvaccinated puppy.

This is considered before adopting any new puppy under the age of 4 months old, and it is recommended that you carry out an evaluation of all your options so as to keep your new puppy safe and healthy from.

At 20 weeks, strongly consider having your puppy vaccinated against parvo in puppies, after which you may feel secure with your soon-to-be routine dog park visits.