Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So quite recently, the shelter puppy I adopted came down with parvo a week later and, despite treatment, did not recover (died Friday night...ugh). It was awful and it makes me heartsick to think about it.
All the same, I am dying for some canine companionship. The vet said I should avoid bringing puppies around the house for the time being and to make sure that if I get an older dog, it is fully vaccinated. He suggested bleaching the house and yard to kill as much of the virus as I can, as well.
At any rate, I went over to a shelter in town to take a look around, and the guy who was working there freaked me out by saying that in his experience, older dogs are at risk too and there was a 50/50 chance they would get parvo if exposed to it...that I should beware of bringing another dog home, and that he wasn't sure the shelter would adopt an animal out to me anyway. I think he was full of crap, but now I'm feeling really paranoid about the whole thing. The message I got from the vet was that I should take precautions, but that an adult vaccinated dog should be fine even if I don't manage to bleach all the virus away.
I took the puppy all over the place and I don't think I'll be able to ensure that the house and yard are completely free of parvovirus.
When I was looking for a dog before, there were a couple of them that I was interested in...the puppy which I ended up adopting and an adult dog that was playing with her. The adult dog is still at the shelter...I know she's had at least one set of vaccinations (not sure yet if she has the full set). BUt she must have been exposed to the parvo...right? She and the puppy were together in the same vicinity? But she is still healthy, two weeks later...
If I adopt a vaccinated dog, how safe would she be here? I thought it was rare for them to get parvo if vaccinated...isn't this accurate? If I can't remove all the parvo infections from my home, will I end up killing the next dog too? I wouldn't be able to stand another dead dog.
BLEACH BLEACH BLEACH... My whole kennel got parvo & yes I lost some. For 30 days I Bleached Everything!! YOU have a higher chance of Getting another Parvo Puppy From the Shelter than it getting Parvo from your las puppy. Just make sure you BLEACH!! Oh! I carried bleach & water spray bottle for the bottom of my shoes!!
Find out how long parvo lives outside a living host. I.E. on bushes, grass, furniture, you...whatever. then, be patient and double the time that a living expert tells you is safe and you should be OK. Note: living expert not internet!
you said, "The vet said I should avoid bringing puppies around the house for the time being". find out what "time being" is and double it! Parvo is a living THING. it cannot live forever, be patient. do yourself and your future dog a BIG favor. outlast it...
Indoors, parvo lives several months according to the vet (4-6). Outdoors, I shouldn't bring a puppy around for a year or so, to be safe.
But I was hoping a vaccinated dog wouldn't have a problem... it is so disappointing to lose my puppy first off, and then even the chance of getting another one for the next year... I get kinda lonely living by myself during the week, and will be in the same situation at least another year and a half...just wish I could have a dog to keep me company.
Parvo Lives for YEARS!! But Bleach will kill it. Its transfered in dog Poo! So cleaning after your dog IS important. I raised pups for 10 more years after it went thro my kennel. Never had another dead or sick puppy. I did on my vets approval add an extra parvo shot to the shots I was already giving. My adults got shots Every 6 months instead of yr. And most lived and are Still living at 16 yrs old. DONT give up...go ahead & paln your next dog. Do the bleach... Ask the next person to take the dog & get shots & again 2-3 weeks later BEFORE you bring them home. & Follow up with Boosters!! You can walk thro a park & carry parvo home..its out there it a fact of life.
Parvo is almost everywhere outdoors. Birds carry it from yard to yard. People carry it on their shoes and clothing. However, an environment where a dog has had an active infection has a high concentration of the virus, and this is what increases the risk of subsequent infection. You won't be able to completely eliminate the virus but you can reduce the concentration to a level that should be safe for a healthy, vaccinated adult dog. Shelters and vet hospitals do this all of the time. If there wasn't a way to make environments safe after a parvo outbreak, shelters and vet hospitals would have to close for months after taking in infected dogs.
In the house, wash/spray everything that you can with a half-cup of bleach mixed into a gallon of water. Outdoors, wash down all hard surfaces with bleach and wash down grassy areas with plain water as often as you can. Be sure to pick up any left over feces. Wash bedding and clothing with bleach and hot water.
After doing the above, it will probably be safe to bring home a vaccinated, healthy adult dog. Some dogs don't develop good immunity even after vaccination, so you can ask your vet to run a titer check on a prospective dog to see if the dog has an effective immune response to the virus.
Here's a link to an article from Shelter Medicine magazine on how to clean a home environment exposed to parvo: http://www.sheltermedicine.com/documents/controlling_parvo.pdf (broken link)
Ooh, good suggestion to do a titer test. That way they can check the dog's immunity to parvo before you even bring him/her to your home. I agree, just try to do a diluted bleach/water spray solution to everything you can.
Do you think that your puppy contracted the virus from her time at the shelter? If so, that adult dog must have also been exposed. I would contact the shelter, explain the situation, and ask if they can do titer testing. If they don't titer, ask if you can bring the dog to your own vet to have him titered for parvo. Don't give up! A very lucky dog will soon make his/her way to your home successfully.
Some dogs don't develop good immunity even after vaccination, so you can ask your vet to run a titer check on a prospective dog to see if the dog has an effective immune response to the virus.
[/url]
A titer test does not and cannot measure immunity, because immunity to specific viruses is reliant not on antibodies, but on memory cells, which we have no way to measure. Memory cells are what prompt the immune system to create antibodies and dispatch them to an infection caused by the virus it remembers. Memory cells don't need reminders in the form of re-vaccination to keep producing antibodies.
If the animal recently encountered the virus, their level of antibody might be quite high, but that doesn't mean they are more immune than an animal with a lower titer.
One of our rescue fosters does nothing but puppies and if she gets a case of parvo she can't take in any new pups for 6 months and has to bleach clean EVERYTHING. She is so dedicated to the rescue effort, she had one of her bedrooms converted to a dog and puppy room with industrial tile floors and she just mops it up with bleach.
The other thing is anyone who is fostering a puppy and it has not received all of it's vaccinations yet and we bring them to an adoption event we are not allowed to let the touch the floor or ground. We can put them in the cages but if someone wants to see the dog we have to hold it and not put it on the floor due to parvo. We have events at pets stores and other dogs and people can track it in from stepping in it and then walking across the floor. Once the puppy had gone through it's complete round of initial vaccinations then we can place them on the ground.
Last edited by Thursday007; 04-13-2010 at 09:22 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
