What could have happened to this puppy? - Page 6

Thanks for the advice on vaccination. I actually know people here who vaccinate their puppies at 1 month on vets advice,  I have always told them this is useless, and their reply is but the vet told me there is (eg) an outbreak of distemper and we have to vaccinate quickly!.......  My vet has explained to me that some puppies start losing the immunity from their mother at around 6 weeks, that is why he recommends the first vaccination then, but he says as well that this first vaccination will be useless in many pups which still have the defenses from the mother, which is why we give the second one at 9-10 weeks, in a good proportion of pups this will be equivalent to a first vaccination.   Unfortunately we do not have the facilities to do lab tests which will tell us whether a dog is immune or not. Also here some diseases, particularly distemper which is fatal, are very common as there are a lot of unvaccinated dogs around, so I think vets tend to err on the side of caution, not that it always works as we have seen....interesting that some vaccines are failing.  My vet says that the virus constantly mutates, also that the vaccines we use here are developed in the US and not specific for the parvo strains we get here. Sometimes I worry how long the vaccines have been kept and under what conditions.  I did mention a simillar situation i had with two puppies a while ago, but in the vast majority of  cases I have not had any problems using this vaccination schedule. Maybe next time I will leave it a little later before giving the first one.

Alopex, thanks for your input, I understood the first time what you meant about the indiscriminate use of tamiflu possibly reducing its effectiveness against human disease. The article seemed to suggest that it was very helpful in curing and preventing parvo, but we would need to study all the relevant data to know more about sample size, how tests were carried out, percent success etc...in any case I think it will be difficult for me to get.

I think my puppies did have all the supportive care possible, including everything that you mentioned above, and I am still shocked that one died.  The surviving one is doing quite well, in good spirits and eating chicken and rice, though still producing quite liquid stools, presumably to the intestinal damage and not absorbing nutrients properly yet.  Anyway will consult with he vert this afternoon, I have to go in and pay the bill.........

Omg im so sorry to hear about your puppy. Thats soo sad. :(

Four of my five pups in this spring's litter came down with parvo despite having their shots. It was like you describe: mucus vomit then diarrhea then they looked like they lost half their weight overnight. Of course it didn't show until 3 had gone to their new homes. All fully recovered after a couple days except one which wasn't taken to the vet until 3 days after the onset. He recovered in about 4 days.

On top of that, a rat terrier pup who visits (completed on her cycle of shots), came down with parvo too. New strain or bad vaccine? I don't know, but it was a LOT of stress and worry.

After posting this I noticed your first pup had died. So sorry for your loss.

Thank you.  The surviving pup is doing very well and the other two, one of which was in direct contact with the pups that got sick, are still fine, but I am having to keep all three isolated from each other which is difficult and means they don´t get played with as often as I would like.    I really do not know when to give the other two their second vaccination.....

so sorry to hear your story oso I have a similar story. In one litter several yeas ago, all 9 pups were healthy active, beautiful pups at birth. One mysteriously died around 24 hours. and another two days later. The other seven grew up healthy and happy until vaccination day, around 71/2 weeks. The pups had their shots at 1:30 in the afternoon, by 3pm two pups had diarrhea and vomiting, by the following morning all seven pups were ill. Very ill. We called the vet, who said not to worry, just a reaction to the shots. By mid afternoon the second day the first two who were sick had recovered and were fine. The others went downhill very quickly, We spent 3 days giving them sub-cu fluids, every two hours. The pick female had very bloody diarrhea, and had to be put down, the others did eventually recover. The vet told us it was parvo, but parvo diarrhea has a distinctive smell, non of the diarrhea from our pups had any odor - none. There was no smell whatsoever. So we do research, lots of research, and we found that certain combinations of vaccines and de-worming meds should not be given at the same time, as they cause the exact symptoms we had. Of course the vet denied it. The blood tests "proved" it was parvo. (it would the parvo vaccine will give a positive test as it reacts to the antibodies in the blood) Long story short, New vet, new vaccination protocol (thanks to Dr. Jean Dodds - look it up her protocol is on the internet). All the pups grew strong and healthy, and the one we kept we are hoping to breed later this year, once she has her SchH1.

Thats very interesting, desertgsd, maybe its best not to give the parasite treatment at the same time as the vaccinations, I will bear this in mind in future.    The diarrhea of my puppies, at first when there was lots of mucus, also did not smell at all, but later they did some that did smell strongly, however, my vet also said it was not a typical parvo, he thought it might have been a new strain.  I believe all puppies will test positive for parvo within 10 days of being vaccinated so my vet did not do the parvo test, it would not have affected the treatment anyway.  It must have been terrible for you having so many pups get sick but glad to hear the one you kept is doing well and without repercussions.  I had been hoping to keep these two puppies for a while as I was undecided which to keep, sadly that decision was made for me in the end.  The other two puppies are still fine, but I am dreading giving them their next vaccination,  will have to soon I guess.