My Home Treatment of my Puppy Doberman Fighting Parvo Virus

  
What is Parvo Virus?
is a contagious virus mainly affecting dogs all ages, but mostly occurs 6-30 weeks of age. Type of breeds usually attacked of this virus are the Doberman Pinscher and Rottweiler which is still unknown why they are more susceptible.

Signs and Symptoms
- depression
-vomiting
-diarrhea which is profuse and contains mucus or with blood
-dehydration

Treatment
 -With this disease requires intensive veterinarian management and monitoring.
- For mild cases, the dehydration and electrolyte imbalance are treated
-  Intravenous (IV) fluids are given
- Antibiotics are also given to prevent bacterial complication
- For severe cases, blood transfusion is needed

Chances of survival
The dog dies because of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and blood loss if not treated immediately.

My Experience

Not so long ago my Doberman Pinscher, named Ginger had Parvo. She was 2 months and 21 weeks old back then.   The first thing we noticed was she keeps having liquid poops. I didn't  take it seriously because I thought It might just be a food problem that her stomach not use to digest. So I try not to give her puppy food and gave her instead a rice with milk.
 

This was taken before she had Parvo Virus. She was 7 weeks old in this photo.

The next day, she vomited many times and gave her immediately water. But well my dog don't drink just plain water she didn't drink the water that I gave her so I gave her milk which she really likes. She's really thirsty and had 3 bowls emptied. My mom tells me that we should wait maybe she's still sensitive in everything she intakes. 

 

After that, things went well. She seems normal. She have good appetite and playful as ever. She did not vomit that day nor had liquid poops. So we thought that the food is the problem so we make sure she had clean water, milk and food when I serve it to her. 

 

The next day, as I approach her she seems dehydrated and lethargic. The reason why, was the whole day and night she had liquid poops and vomited many times. That night me and my brother decided to take her to the vet because her poops are colored red which is disturbing. She's been having bloody liquid poops, continuous to vomit and lethargic at the same time.   

 

The doctor  advised us to confine her in his clinic for strict monitoring and invasive treatment. He told us that my dog has Parvo virus.  He ask us If she had shots or vaccines for parvo virus prevention and told him that she had shots for that. We showed our records to him and said she might not had proper vaccination. Because the documentations of the vaccination was not complete.

 

You see Ginger, my dog Doberman Pincher we bought her in the net to be specific in the sulit.com website.  We meet up and had transaction with them and ask them if she had shots already and told us she had. They gave us this folded index card with stickers on it saying that she had shots already. 

 

This is the record that the person in the net gave us. 

 

And the doctor in the vet told us the possibilities that we might forgot to follow up for her next vaccination last October  and November 2. Which is also our fault. So Ginger confined for 6 days and we decided to treat her home because it's too expensive. Were not that rich and my mom said that we might broke if we continue to let her stay in the clinic.

  

 

So as you can see below we spend 4,300php for her stay in the clinic.

  

My Home Treatment

 

We take her home the next day and ask the doctor if he can remain the dextrose line in her leg. That I will monitor her fluid intake and drops per minute of her dextrose. Then he let me do it and teach me how to put an IV on a dog.  Besides I'm a registered nurse and a certified IV therapist in human though so he gave me tips and techniques.

 

As you can see she was so thin. Poor Ginger.


The next day, Ginger been very quite. She's not barking nor standing. She looks so weak. I decided to remove her IV line because it's out of line already. She had infiltration on her right leg. Infiltration means the tip of the catheter slips of the vein that the fluid unintendedly infuses into the tissues surrounding the venipuncture site causing it to swell. So what I did was I let her leg elevated so the fluid will flow  back into the rest of her body. Then after few hours her swelled leg subsided.

I tried to search in the internet how to treat dogs with parvo at home. There are many websites that gives informative treatments how you should handle or manage a dog with parvo. The key is "patience" in taking care of your precious pet.

You need to be patient because you need to continues to take care your pet day and night. You should give her water every now and then in order to be hydrated.   What I do  was I flushed fluids on Ginger gums on the cheek sides in order to her to be hydrated. I used syringe and aspirate water and flush her gums on the cheek sides and teeth only. I just always make sure that her gums are always wet and I do it every minute. I don't forced feed her of food nor forced her to give fluids because that's dangerous. She might aspirate ( forced fluid on lungs) If you force something on your pet might die.

I always updated Ginger's doctor by texting him on what management I do to ginger and he gives approval also tips regarding what should I give her. He also prescribed Metronidazole which is an antibiotic/ antiprotizoal for 3 times a day for 1 week. So this medication is given for dogs and cats for it is used for antidiarrheal medication to treat inflammation of the large intestine. What I noticed after taking 3 days for 3 times of metronidazole Ginger's poop become yellowish. There's no blood on her poop anymore though the consistency of her poop was still liquid.

I tried to feed her with liver spread because she lost a lot of blood she might need some iron on her body. So what I did was I put small amount of liver spread on her bowl. She ate it. I only give her small amounts of liver spread because her stomach was still sensitive to occupy big amount of food which she might throw it up. What I noticed was her vomits lessen. I only give her small frequent meals of liver spread.

Then after a week doing patiently of the things that I mentioned above I see improvement on her. She starts to bark. She seems hydrated. Her poop becomes semi solid which is yellowish in color. She starts to walk and jumping around her crate. Though she not fully recovered yet but I see hope that she can surpass this disease.

I added rice on her diet which is rice and liver spread that I mixed together. Though I continue to give her small frequent meals. She started to drink on her own but I only put small amount fluids on her bowl same goes for the concept of small frequent applied for her fluids.

After 2 weeks of consistent home treatment of Ginger she finally recovers!! Her poops becomes solid yellow. You can see that her weight becomes normal. I tried to give her big amount of meals and the result was great!!! She did not throw up. She's really looks happy, playful and wants to go out of her crate but her doctor said that she's not yet allowed to go out. She's still susceptible for having parvo because she don't have a complete vaccination yet. So her doctor texted me that she can have her shots after a week and that she can go back to her dog foods but in small amounts until her stomach can get used to it.
 

 

So her doctor gave her a new vaccination booklet. I always assure that her vaccination scheduled is on time.

 

So these are the vaccination records of Ginger. The first picture above was her old record and the 2nd picture was her new record. So as you can see the Feb date was empty because Ginger's doctor accidentally writes on the next page of her booklet instead of this page. 


As you can see the documents are complete with the doctor's signature on her new vaccination booklet and while on the top picture was her old document of her shots that was on index card and has incomplete information.



            Now Ginger is doing great!! She's happy, playful and loving as ever. She's now 7 months old. And hopefully She becomes a healthy dog until she have babies and gets old someday.  I f you are a pet lover like me and really loves your pet you can do anything for your dog's sake as long as you have the patience in you in taking take of your baby dog everything is impossible I assure!!! <3


Thank you for dropping by!! and I hope that somehow I enlighten you!!