Understanding Parvo Puppies
Over the years, I’ve had 2 parvo puppies in my own life – Ginko and Lilly. Thankfully, both of them survived, but it required veterinary hospitalization and a whole lot of money to save them. It’s easy to panic when your puppy gets so scary sick so quickly. I’ve written a lot about parvo puppies and why it happens, even in vaccinated puppies. To help out, here are links to all prior articles to help you better understand puppies who end up sick with parvovirus.
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USDA Approves New Parvo Treatment
In early May 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a conditional license to Elanco Animal Health Inc for a new parvo treatment that uses antibodies. Until now, veterinarians only could provide so-called “supportive care” rather than an actual canine parvovirus treatment. In other words, this is pretty big news. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before it’s available. Here’s why.
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Pinpoint Timing of Puppy Vaccinations
This is the last post in the series spawned by that canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. So far we’ve talked about how outbreaks happen, the window of risk for puppies, and vaccine nonresponders. Today, let’s look at ways veterinary researchers and veterinarians can pinpoint when is the best time to begin vaccinating puppies. It’s pretty cool stuff … though, not new. It has been around since the 1960s.
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Canine Parvovirus Explained – Dogs Who Don’t Respond to the Vaccine
One in 1,000 dogs will never develop immunity to canine parvovirus no matter how many times they are vaccinated against the disease. When parvo first roared onto the canine scene in the 1970s, these genetic “non-responders” (as they are called) came primarily from certain breeds. Today, you’ll find non-responders in dogs of all shapes, sizes, and breeds. Keep reading to learn more …
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Canine Parvovirus Explained – Window of Risk for Puppies
Today, let’s talk about the window of risk that ALL puppies face and how that small gap in immunity will NEVER go away.
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Canine Parvovirus Explained – Outbreaks
A bit unexpectedly, I found myself digging into the details of a recent (and ongoing) canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. Regular media tends to report just 2 things: (1) There is an outbreak. (2) Vaccinate your pets. That’s NOT nearly enough information for dog people like us, so I’ll be writing a series of posts with more details and more science behind parvo outbreaks and parvo immunity. This is the first post in the series. It explains what I want you to think when you first hear about a parvovirus outbreak.
