One of the advantages of having an online community is that I can get out information quickly in the case of an emergency. Last weekend Brandee from the Eastern Maine Emergency Vet emailed me with the news that they had seen 16 cases of Parvo within the past 2 months.

I'd say this is an emergency.

For those of you who opened this thinking "What is Parvo?" , let me catch you up. Parvo is a very dangerous virus that was first described in the 1970s. I remember in the first veterinary practice I ever worked in (I was 17) was having an outbreak of this disease. Affected dogs have severe bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and are very lethargic. Without treatment, most die. Even with treatment, our success at the time was less than 50% survival with aggressive therapy.

Since then we have instituted routine vaccinations in all puppies (this is the 'distemper'' shot your puppies get once a month and then every 3 years in adulthood). In addition, the virus is more effectively treated with the addition of some anti-viral drugs...but treatment is still expensive and many puppies die nevertheless.

The vaccine is very effective. Most if not all of the local cases were unvaccinated dogs.

If your dog is up to date on the DHPP or DHLPP vaccine (Parvo is the second P), then you are all set. We generated a list and will be sending cards out this week to all dogs in the practice who are not up to date.

I am happy to report in the 5 years that we have been open I have not had a single case of Parvo. Although we have a very compliant clientele (that would be you), I'm still concerned that we will see some of our patients affected during this outbreak.

The virus is dangerous because it kills the cells of the villi, which are the small fingerlike projections in the small intestine that help absorb nutrients. The intestines cannot absorb fluid or nutrients, and the dog is at risk of dying of dehydration or sepsis (bacterial infection in the bloodstream). In addition, Parvovirus can also affect the heart causing sudden death.

If you are interested in knowing more click here

More Parvo Info 

If you are not into the details, know that we will be contacting you if your pet is not protected.

I don't expect this to be a huge issue because although there are pockets of dogs that are not protected, most dogs in our practice are protected. Remember too that this vaccine does not abruptly wear off ...but rather a smaller percentage of dogs are protected the farther out you look. Imagine that I vaccinate 100 dogs for parvo today and that they had all their regular puppy vaccines and the one year booster. More than 90% would be covered three years after the vaccination, and less than 80% covered after 4 years, and continuing to decline each year after that. Make sense?

The most important time to do this shot with optimal timing is between 8 and 12 weeks and then again between 12 and 16 weeks. Maternal immunity interferes with some puppies developing adequate protection early on...hence the importance of timing the puppy vaccines.

On the brighter side, we are getting the growing pains under control. For those of you who have been on hold, we now have several songs for you to hear.

...and I have gotten quite a few particularly funny links. We are currently working on a part of the website to highlight some of the funnier links we get each month. But until that is up and running, I hope you can enjoy this week's link.

Not suitable for all viewers. Has reference to intestinal gas (turn on sound)