Confusion over Parvo death?
I adopted my 4 month old shepard mix from the shelter on 9/18. He had been in the shelter about 8 days prior to adoption. He was healthy and active until 9/22 when he started to show symptoms of Kennel cough. Hacking up mucous, but was still very active and had a healthy appetite and drinking plenty of fluids. I took him into the vet on 9/24 and was given antibiotica and a cough syrup. On the 26th he began to lose his appetite Ithough possibly due to meds. By the 27th he was lethargic and not eating, had become suddenly thin and had a bloody bowel movement of diahrea. I took him into the vet and he was diagnosed with parvo and had a white blood cell count of 2200 and temp of 106 degrees. The vet said that with intensive treatment he only had a 10% cahnce of survival. We opted to put down and while waiting for the euthanization he died in front of us. Based on my research I do not understand how he could have died so quickly after showing signs. Is is possible the symptoms may have been mistaken for kennel cough and were really parvo symptoms? Or is it possible he contractyed parvo at the vet visit on 9/24 and it hit him hard? based on timelines for incubation had no symptoms before initial vet visit it seems hard to beleive that he contracted parvo in the shelter if he had been there over a week.
Please help.
Devastated
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Tagged with: adoption • antibiotica • blood cell count • bloody bowel • bowel movement • cough syrup • diahrea • euthanization • healthy appetite • incubation • intensive treatment • parvo symptoms • shepard mix • signs • survival • Symptoms of Kennel Cough • timelines • vet visit • white blood cell • white blood cell count
Filed under: Kennel Cough Treatment
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I am sorry to hear about your loss. I am a Vet Tech and we see many dogs and puppies especially that are adopted from a shelter and then come in for their first puppy visit and shots, only to be incubating the parvo Virus and we see them again in a couple of days with Parvo symptoms. The pup most likely came in contact with the virus at the shelter and the kennel cough as well. This is not uncommon and you will start treating on problem and the pup is debilitated from that condition and then another disease can hit them hard and fast.
There is a test for Parvo that can be done, but you still may have a lag time between when the exposure happened and when the pup actually becomes infected and will test positive.
Nobody is to blame here, it is just an unfortunate circumstance that we all see when dogs of unknown vaccination history are under stress and in a shelter type situation. You and the vet did the right things, the situation was bad from the start. When Parvo gets to the heart and causes an increased heart rate and high fever on top of the rapd dehydration, most pups ususally succumb to the disease. If they are put on IV fluids and given good nursing care and treatment, they still may or may not survive. Every case and every dog/pup is different and respond differently to the disease process. Parvo is everywhere and remains in the ground for long periods of time unless below freezing temps are maintained for many months.
Your pup could have come in contact with the virus at the shelter, outside your house, at the clinic, or virtually anywhere, but my guess is the shelter.
I am sorry this happened, but give it a bit of time or go to another shelter at this time to find another possible pup.
Can’t really answer your questions but wanted to say how sorry I am about your dog. I know this must have been terrible.
Sorry for your loss.
The pup should have had it’s shots before you got him. Parvo is wicked & progresses rather fast.
Now you have parvo all in your house & yard. Bleach will kill parvo but I don’t know what you can do on a carpet.
Ask your vet.
Sorry about your loss. I had a puppy that died from parvo too. There are tons of sites you should look through to get more information on it.
my vet told me that parvo can start affecting dogs 2-5 days after the virus has been contracted so ur pup may have just had a hard hit. it can act n unfortunately kill very quickly. i doubt the vet could have confused kennel cough with parvo as kennel cough is another word for a cold. just in dogs not people. parvo is characterized by bloody diarrhea, vomiting, high fevers, dehydration, n weakness. im sorry for your loss. the vet should have told u tho, if u catch it early enough n spend every second by ur dogs side making sure shes well hydrated, they can sometimes pull through it n be fine.
it makes me wanna cry b/c just 2 weeks ago i spent 150 dollars on an 8 week old puppy n the second day i got her she was facing the same fate ur dog was. the vet sed it was probably parvo (maybe sever worms, but probably not). he told me i might as well leave my dog at the hospital to be put down. but i wasnt giving up that quick. a friend told me stick by her side n force water n pedialyte down her throat n she might make it.
after 48 hours of no sleep, i saw a big improvement and now 2 weeks later she is thriving n has grown so much. we dont know for sure what it was but we do know she did have really bad worms, we saw the evidence in her feces, but i dont think thats all she had.
u will be in my prayers. im sorry n i hope u find another healthy sweet dog someday wen ur ready.
Yes it is possible for him to of contracted it at the vets. I always carrier my pups and don’t put them down (in public places, especially the vets). I’m sad for you, but parvo can actually kill with in the same day. It is a wicked disease. Some breeds including GSD are more susceptible to getting it and so are Dobe I always get them an extra shot of that. The kennel cough was most definitely contracted at the pound and you should notify them and complain to them that he was not healthy from the start and show them your vet records. I know it won’t be the same dog but maybe they will let you select another one. Bless you for trying to rescue. Also make sure that you bleach EVERYTHING including your yard before you get another one. Ask about the carpet and furniture.
I’m sorry for your loss. Parvo puppies can go downhill very quickly as you have unfortunately experienced firsthand. I have seen parvo puppies go from normal to dead in less than 2 days. I’ve also seen them be just lethargic and a little under the weather for several days then all of a sudden they get much worse.
You’ll never know where he picked up the virus, but usually they don’t get it from vet clinics. The virus is killed by the cleaners they use (assuming they cleaned their clinic well).
The virus itself is stable in the environment for years if not cleaned…esp in the dirt or yard areas where other dogs have been.
It’s also not unlikely that your pup had kennel cough on top of all of this. Kennel cough usually appears about 1-2 weeks after exposure and in an otherwise healthy dog, is actually normally self-limiting, but vets usually treat it because owners don’t like having a coughing dog and no medication to give it.
Poor pup. It sounds like your vet did everything they could. Parvovirus doesn’t always behave in textbook fashion…there are different strains therefore differences in the course of the disease in each dog.
I feel your pain, I have had a dog die from parvo. Parvo is very quick and sometimes it is hard to detect. It could have been a misdiagnoses. But vets are usually very good to determine if it is or not. Parvo is very common for puppies to get. did the puppy have his first shot? When they have their shots it cuts down the chances of catching it.
I am so sorry for your loss. Although I can not answer all of your questions, I do know that parvo is a very quick acting virus that aggressively attacks a dogs system. A lot of times a dog dies from the dehydration, which can be helped by feeding them pedialyte by syringe hourly along with antibotics. I would think the dog probably caught parvo at the dog kennel, and progressively got worse. The vet should have known the symptoms if it were parvo at the time (9/24). Just make sure wherever you kept the dog at your home is cleaned with bleach to kill the virus. This virus can survive many years if not cleaned up well. Make sure any new dogs at your home have their parvo shot before coming in contact with the area.
when my puppy had parvo the first sign that we had was a runny, mucousy nose. The vet at the shelter I got him from said that it was caused by the anestassia. he ended up having parvo, but did survive with treatment. He may have had parvo but it was not affecting him too badly yet when you got him. Parvo is contracted through the injestion of feces, so unless he ate poop or stepped in it and then licked his feet he couldnt have gotten it at the vet. He probably got it from either the shelter or the home he was in before coming to the shelter. Small puppies to die quickly from it though just from the dehydration. Sorry to hear about your puppy but it sounds like you did everything you could.