Preventing Parvo

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Baloo25

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Hi all,

There is currently an outbreak of Parvo in my area :(. Is there anything I can do to prevent my 7 month old puppy from contracting this disease. She has been vaccinated. But a friends 8 month old puppy has caught parvo even though she has been vaccinated.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
You say your friends pup caught Parvo did they actually take samples and confirm it, some many other conditions can mimic Parvo and its easy to say its got Parvo without confirmation.

Some of the problems with pups with Parvo is when they are born with immunity, its my understanding this immunity only lasts a short time and if they are vaxed within this time then the vaccinations do not work. Im sure vets, nurses can explain it a whole lot better than me and are more knowledgeable than me, the information I have given is given from the latest from the Parvo Alert fb group.

If I was in your situation and knew my pup had her vaccinations after her immunity was finished I wouldnt be worried, I would be careful where I walked her and would obviously keep an eye on her health.
 
Ditto DG...has this been positively confirmed as parvovirus, lots of symptoms mimic parvo. I have 8 dogs and they all come in and out of work with me, 2 inc my rottie accompany me every shift where I deal with and im arms deep (literally) in cases of parvo and my dogs have had nothing more than a mild case of gastroenteritis at a time where lots of dogs in the area where presenting with it (so cant even blame work) the best prevention is to have your dog fully vaccinated. Im always sceptical where I hear of fully vaxed dogs coming down with parvo. Like I said lots of other symptoms and viruses present as such. You have protected your dog sufficiently try not to worry.
 
Hi both,

Thank you for your replies. yes it was cnfirmed by the vets as parvo and the dog was addmitted to the vets over night. I'm not sure if the dog is home yet.

I have heard of a number of dogs that have gone down with it in my area, however I'm not sure if those particular dogs have been vaccinated.

My dog if fully vaccinated so I will try not to worry too much. Thank you for your replies.
 
Make sure when people buy pups that they are vaccinated by their own vets and not vaccinated by the breeder as there are a lot of breeders who claim to have vaccinated but haven't. So get your own vet to always do it.
 
CAYLA said:
Ditto DG...has this been positively confirmed as parvovirus, lots of symptoms mimic parvo. ........ Like I said lots of other symptoms and viruses present as such. You have protected your dog sufficiently try not to worry.
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The whole protocol of vaccination is one that the punters, that's us, need to have a better understanding of. It would seem to me that vaccination is no finite guarantee of protection. Any immunologists out there?

Alec.
 
Alex im no immunologist,but it is one the of areas I studied and understanding the vaccine response is fairly important to of all types of vets so we covered it fairly well.

The in's and outs of it are explained in great but fairly easy to understand detail in the two links below.
http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/how-do-vaccines-work.html#vaccine-work

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2115&aid=955

Il throw up the basic idea here for those who doesnt feel like using links.

The basic idea is always you have a newborn.they have an immune system which has the capacity to respond to attacking outside forces(bacteria virus's etc) but as it is naive,having never been used before,it has no already set up defences. This means it can take a while for the immune system to kill of some diseases and in many cases this mean's the newborn dies of the disease before its immune system is working.

The mothers colostrum however helps.It provides a supply of antibodies to diseases the mother has come across in her lifetime to the pups.This includes diseases she was vaccinated against.But it is a short term protection and varies in time it stays in from mother to mother. Not getting enough colostrum or a mother with poor colostrum however can make a hugh difference to the health of the newborn in the future.

As the pups are between 6 to 12 weeks they are at an age where their own immune system is getting up and running and where their mothers shared antibodies are fading.This is the ideal time period for the first vaccination,and one of the high risk periods for infection.

But mothers immunity can interfere occasionally with vaccination.Her shared immunity(antibodies) from her early colostrum can stop the pups immune system from meeting the vaccines as they are still present and protecting the pup and killing off the incoming threat, so the pups immune system does not get properly exposed and does not learn to recognise the disease. Or in some cases the response it learns is not strong enough.

As a result a second booster is given two weeks later to take this into account and in some cases a third booster is given at 14 weeks where there have been problems noted(rotties seem to be one of the breeds where maternal antibodies stay on extra long protecting)

However the second booster is not just a reassurance booster in case of maternal antibodies.It and subsequent boosters also all work in a useful way as they all increase the level of priming,preporation and speed of the reponse, of the immune system for the bugs in the vaccination,meaning that in the case of exposure to the disease the primed the immune system can respond quicker stronger and faster.

The system does occasionally fail.Nothing is 100 percent reliable.
Vaccines allowed to get warm before administration meaning they may no longer be active and able to cause a response when administered,
an animal with a lowered immune system to start with,
a animal who responds inadequately to vaccination and doesn't raise a good antibody titre inspite of the correct procedure(this is reason why rabies used to be titre tested before being allowed to enter the british isles..its not that uncommon to get a low unprotective titre post rabies vaccination)
or a very very high burden of the attacking bacteria or virus causing the system to respond but be overwhelmed(rare!)
These are all possible cause's of the system to fail and the animal to get ill.But all of these failures are thankfully quite rare.

OP your pup is vaccinated and otherwise in good health I am assuming?
THe only advise if you are very worried about would be careful about walking him/her in very popular areas where potential outbreak suspects could have been(in our town its the local woods,is a dog walking hotspot but a disaster as no one picks up poo it would seem) that would hughly reduce the chance of him coming in contact with potential virus spores... but in general I would feel quite confident that your pup should be fine. Its very very unusual for a correctly vaccinated pup thats a few months old to catch the Parvo virus.
 
Aru has made some very good points there. With my work, we are requesting all pups have three vaccinations due to the increased cases of parvovirus. As a rule, parvovirus is passed on from dog faeces so ensure your pup stays away from any poo left in parks. It is due to the increasing number of dog owners who don't vaccinate their dogs and also don't pick up after them that are causing this outbreak. Also, be careful with what dogs your pups socialises with. A dog could be a carrier of parvo and not exhibit symptoms, but if your pup gets in contact with that dog through saliva and bodily fluids, potentially they can contract it that way.

Edited just to say generally puppies are prone to getting parvo as their immunity hasn't fully developed. However in my work we have had three reported cases of adult dogs that contracted the virus and they were fully vaccinated.
 
Echo did those dogs just get a mild case and recover? no vaccine is ever 100% but its the best way of preventing Parvo, I would never not vaccinate without titre testing first and making sure they had good immunity.
 
Thanks everyone for this informative post. My pup is 10 weeks, it is now 2 weeks since his 2nd vaccination (his first was administered while with the breeder). My vet didn't reccommend a third, would this be the best way to keep him safe and if so how big a window in time do I have to give him a third vac?
 
If you go back and read Arus post she did say 14weeks for the 3rd jab and why vets are now doing 3 as opposed to 2.

My own vets(Langford) recommend 3 which we did with our pup a couple of years ago and If memory serves me correct we had her done between 14-16 weeks.
 
if the first vacc is given early meaning the second one has to be given before 10wks then yes a third one would give your pup better protection.

whilst a pup is still feeding from mum it gets antibodies from her milk, this means the pup is unlikely to build up a high immunity to anything you vaccinate against so the antibodies are short lived
 
And in the case of decent breeders a booster Parvo shot a fortnight prior to whelping will give that clostrum antibody feed a kick into maximum .Always do this because dog shows can be rife with viruses .
 
EAST KENT said:
And in the case of decent breeders a booster Parvo shot a fortnight prior to whelping will give that clostrum antibody feed a kick into maximum .Always do this because dog shows can be rife with viruses .
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Which in turn means that maternal immunity can be higher so vaccines need to be given later. I used to have pups first vaccs at 8-9 weeks when checked over by my vet & before going to new owners who got their vet to check over when doing the second vaccs at 11-12 weeks. A third LP booster was recommended a month later.
 
which is the way I prefer ,the later the finish to the course the more likely as complete uptake as possible.It makes me nervous to leave a window of opportunity at any stage for this disease.We did once have in some litters,due entirely to me taking a couple of terriers to a hunt terrier show ,they brought the virus home but were unaffected themselves.Dreadful dreadful disease.
 
I lost puppies to this vile disease in the 70's before there was a vaccine. People who refuse to vacinate don't know the horrors of loosing half a litter & then having the surviving pups droping dead months later.
 
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