Treating Parvo

The page is for the treatment of a dog that is diagnosed with Parvo or show parvo symptoms of any dog or puppy, ANY age, vaccinated or not.

• lethargic


• vomiting


• bloody diarrhea or no stools


• fever or chilled


• not drinking/not eating


• excessive drooling, not swallowing

Remember that your dog may not show ALL of the above, and maybe some additional things.

List of things you MUST HAVE

• Parvaid and Vibactra Plus (if you do not have these the Amber Tech Labs website has a free E-book on treating parvo HERE and there is a rescue tea for until you get the parvaid)


• Colloidal Silver (highest QUALITY you can afford, Soveriegn Silver is a good brand, anything boasting above 20ppm is not as effective)


• Pepto-Bismol


• Bentonite Clay


• Activated Charcoal


• Diatomaceous Earth


• Adizone or MSM or both


• Aloe Vera Juice with no alcohol- unfiltered preferably


• molasses


• coconut WATER- not milk


• rolled barley


• turmeric


• milk thistle seed


• lemon juice


• vitamin C (the complete complex like Ester-C, not the cheap ascorbic acid)


• Yogi Tea Throat Coat- has awesome ingredients


• Ginger


• raw cow, goat or sheep milk


• childs enema bottle or childs syringe for small dogs or the bulb type


• lots of needless syringes varying from 1cc to 20-30cc


• paper bowls (you will do a lot of mixing of ingredients for enemas an oral fluids)


• paper towels


• spray bottle of bleach solution for disinfecting

Treatments

There are other sites that help with parvo homecare: Wolf Creek Ranch, ParvoBuster, Amber Tech Labs, Canine health101. I won’t go into the hour by hour advice, like these other sites have already done since that would be just simply redundant.

Antibiotics

All dogs will need an antibiotic, whether you choose a natural one or conventional one is up to you. Colloidal silver covers many more things than conventional antibiotics. Vibactra Plus is a natural antibiotic. I personally, would not give any dog a conventional antibiotic while they are vomiting as the antibiotic can be vomited up and sit in their mouth and “burn” the tissues in the mouth. We had this happen with our Blue, and it prolonged his recovery. It also eats the enamel off of the teeth and turns them gray. We switched to natural antibiotics after one dose and it helped our Blue tremendously.

Enemas

The enemas purpose is to hydrate the puppy enough to administer oral fluids that will not be immidiatly vomited back up. You should not have to do this for more than 24 hours, but the more extreme cases may need longer. Herbs can be mixed into the enema to be absorbed directly through the lower intestine. Some vets that virtually nothing happens in the intestine while parvo is going on, that they can’t absorb anything due to the sloughing. There is reduced absorption, but it is never completely destroyed- or the dog would have NO intestine. If you are worried though, you can get half the amount of Sub q fluids for your dog and half the regular enemas and oral doses.

If your dog is not presenting stools, enemas help to stimulate this.

How to administer an Enema:

The dog can be laying down, flat on its side (not curled up). Insert the needless syringe or enema bulb 1/2″ for small dogs or 3/4 ” for large dogs. SLOWLY administer the fluid. Two teaspoons will take about 7 minutes.

lethargic

A puppy is lethargic from stomach and intestinal pain, usually more so when they’ve got food in their belly. Parvo sloughs off the lining of the intestines so to say the least they are in a great deal of pain. Dogs who have a low tolerance to pain may breathe heavily and half-way moan upon exhale.

Vomiting

From light to constant vomiting. Can be clear, watery, mucousy, yellow tinted or bloody and any combination of those. Vomiting is usually almost because the dog is dehydrated.

Stools

In the very beginnings of parvo, the stools are coated in mucous or have some mucous in them and are normally shaped. This indicates intestinal upset. Eventually the stools will be diarrhea and can be bright red, dark red, further along parvo they are more redish-tan, to tan with no red–All along smelling like nothing you have every smelled before. Nothing will jar your gag reflex like parvo dogs’ diarrhea. And there is ALOT of it, diarrhea can dehydrate your dog very quickly **ESPECIALLY** in a small dog.

Some dogs do not have stools, in this case the intestines may be swelled shut OR the presence of a worm overload. Enemas are very important in this case. Dogs whose intestines have swollen shut will not survive at the veterinarian on IVs. Parvo puppies should have AT LEAST 3-4 bowel movements per day. It is your choice, but I personally would NOT accept anti-diarrhea medication from a vet, this is a contradiction in practice. You would not try to block up a cyst that wants to drain? Why would you block up intestines that are trying to eradicate the virus by sweeping them out with watery diarrhea? Yes, this can and does dehydrate the dog, but there are other less invasive ways that re-hydrate them that ALSO lets the infection drain.

Without stools, continue to do the enemas and make sure to use adizone orally. You can also use it in the enema, but boil out the alcohol first by dropping the same number of drops you dose for your dog of water into a bowl, then suck it back up and put it in the enema solution, but remember this counts as a dose, and the box says not to exceed 3X per day. If you do not have Adizone, you can use MSM- in the enema. DOSE:

If it is a worm overload, which there really is no way to tell the difference if the intestines have swollen shut or if its worms- you will need to dose Parasite Tea until you can get some diatomaceous earth. Usually the worms respond right to the worm tea, but you may not get all of the worms. DE insures all of the worms are swept out. Dose orally or through enema. DOSE:

Dehydration

Puppies initially start vomiting as the bodies way of ridding the virus, but the vomiting takes precious fluid and soon the puppy is dehydrated and now is vomiting because it is dehydrated.

(pull up on neck, back, thigh to test for dehydration if the skin does not bounce back immediatly the puppy is dehydrated, capillary refill- check gums if they are bubblegum pink and if you put your finger over the canine and release, the color should return within 1-2 seconds. White gums indicate dehydrate as does a dry mouth. The pulling the skin method does not work for dogs that are extremely emaciated- there is no more elasticity to the skin, work off of capillary refill method if your dog has reached the point of extreme emaciation.

Excessive drooling

Your dog may drool if he is nausous or dehydrated, or both. They may be so nauseous They may not swallow or it is a chore to get them to swallow. Dogs also drool if they have vomited up the antibiotics and it sat in their mouth, killing the tongue and gum tissue. We experienced this with Blue, and I personally would not give any conventional antibiotics if the dog is still vomiting.

Chilled or Fever

Anything under 100.5 is a chilled dog, anything over 101.5 is a fever. Parvo dogs chill easily, especially if they are emaciated, do not let them remain chilled or they will be wasting their effort keeping warm instead of fighting the virus. A warm water bottle or a heating pad will keep them warm, just make sure to keep taking their temp so they don’t overheat. A fever indicates a secondary infection. Anything above 104* is dangerous, cool wet rags help fevers but remember, a fever is the body’s effort to kill the infection, let the fever go as long as it is not going above the 103-104 range. Otherwise seek veterinarian care or apply cool, wet rags. In some cases plunging the dog into cold water is necessary if veterinarian care cannot be sought and the fever keeps climbing. Over heating means they are using their fluids faster, so you may have to give enemas or oral fluids more often.

Lagging On

Sensitive breeds, breeds prone to parvo, recently chemically wormed or vaccinated puppies can lag on or stay the same for days. Sensitive breeds include any dog of greyhound build or any sight hound, some breeds prone to parvo are Labradors, Rottweilers, Dobermans, and other black and tan colored breeds. These dogs may take twice as long to heal from parvo than other breeds. Our 7 pound Italian Greyhound took 12 full days to completley heal, while his 9 pound sister on preventative was only mildly sick for 3 days. She still ate and drank, vomited once or twice and had semi-solid bowel movements, with tiny bits of blood. Prevention really is the cure.

Don’t lose hope if your dog seems to be lagging on, even if he won’t even lift his head or swollow- he can still bounce back. Just make sure that he is hydrated properly, he is warm and his heart rate is not going through the roof. This can indicate the beginnings of cardiac arrest, but usually if the dog is hydrated properly the organs will not have to work so hard so you shouldn’t have to worry about cardiac arrest UNLESS the dog is dehydrated.

Lagging on can also be caused by toxin build up in the system. Try dosing orally and through enema a bentonite OR activated charcoal and water solution. Sometimes this really helps those that are lagging on- but only do it every 8 hours for 1 day. Do not consistently dose either of these because they can coat the stomach and prevent absorption of nutrients and they also sweep out not only the bad things but the good things also. DOSE:

Lastly, the lagging can could be an indication of liver failure. If you have been giving conventional anti-nausea meds, anti-diarrhea meds, pain meds, and the antibiotics from your veterinarian, your dog is more susceptible to liver failure. The dog is trying to filter and detox and utilize all of these meds ON TOP OF trying to fight parvo and infections. We took our dog off of the anti nausea and pain meds and he got a little better. AGAIN, use your own judgement this is was just my experience. Live failure can cause pooling of fluids in the legs, yellow spots in various places on the body, and white gums but sometimes not all of these things or any of these things may present themselves. Just be sure to be diligent, know what your dogs norm is. For liver issues, milk thistle seed, dandelion, the cabbage tea in the parvaid self help site, and lemon juice is used. DOSE:

Beginning Treatment

A couple of things first, in order to boost the chances of your puppy surviving you will need to either have someone take care of your dog while your at work or take some time off. If you work an 8 hour job and come home without anyone caring for the dog during the day, it is almost certain that your dog will have passed from dehydration during that time.

If your dog goes from bad to worse, try to stay calm. Sometimes they have to get worse to get better. If he is your best friend, it is very hard to see them lying on the floor lifeless and the possibility that you may see them again happy and wagging their tail seems so far away. Keep in mind that even if you catch the symptoms late, your dog or puppy still has a good chance. Even when they are wasted to skin and bone, there is still hope.

1. You will need to dose the Parvaid and oral fluids hourly if your dog not eating. Let me say this again: EVERY HOUR UNTIL THE DOG IS EATING AND KEEPING IT DOWN  The Parvaid website says before each dose of oral fluids rub molasses on the gums. I did not have good luck with this. My dog vomited BECAUSE there was molasses on his gums. The way I see it is if you are feeling the most nauseous you have ever felt in your life and someone rubs something pungent all over your mouth, your going to vomit too. Depends on the dog though, my point is to keep this in mind if you can’t figure out why your dog is doing (fill in the blank). And keep in mind it may be that the dog personally does not like the taste of something.

2. When you dose orally, use Coconut Water, vita coco is an excellent brand. Coconut water is superior to Pedialyte or barley/oat water. It has all 5 electrolytes, is an anti-inflammitory, anti viral, antioxidant and antibacterial. It has sugar, so your dog cannot become deficient in glucose either. It is easily and rapidly absorbed, and even can be used intravenously as a replacement for plasma in an emergency. I had better results with coconut water, than using the pedialyte or barley water. When a dog first starts coming around but still won’t take water, try offering some coconut water instead, sometimes this is just enough to get them to drink the coconut water but plain water is still unappetizing. This will stimulate them to want to drink water in the future if they take the coconut water.

I also replaced the enemas with half coconut water and half aloe vera juice. I had greater results and the both combined are EXTREMELY soothing.

3. There are some times when your dog seems like he is not keeping the fluids that you give him in. He may diarrhea right after an enema several times and not be able to keep anything down. This is usually not the case but it can happen. In this case I would suggest sub q fluids, these are inexpensive and fast. Dose Oral or enema doses full strength until your dog is not dehydrated any longer, then dose the oral or enema half strength.

There is some info on the Parvaid care at home site that warns that sub q fluids may cause overhydration. I’m not really sure why they put that in there, it would be extremely hard to over hydrate a parvo dog. Do not worry about over hydration.

What is Wrong with Vet’s Hospitilization of Dogs?

Parvo is a money-maker, plain and simple. Some vets just put a puppy in a stainless steel cage with some IVs and hope for the best and that’s that. Problem is, you don’t know if your vet is one of those vets. They always recommend IV hospitalization because it is the most profitable, not because it is the best decision. I literally have had a vet throw a fit at me over not allowing my dog to be hospitalized.

Dogs are kept in air-conditioned areas where the drafts can easily flow into the hard kennels. Parvo dogs and puppies can very easily get chilled, they don’t get a comfy quiet spot where they can rest they must lie on a hard surface in an unknown place with unknown people and their owner is nowhere to be seen or smelled. Top it off with other smells of dogs that may be around, whining and barking and that is a very terrifying place for a little one who is very sick.

Fevers are usually not addressed. The vet or helpers do not have time to keep taking temps.

Unless you can find a 24 hour manned hospital, your dog will be alone all night with maybe one check in during the night if you have a good vet place. Even then, be very careful with the 24 hour pet hospitals- unless you have got a really really good one- the trainees and vets are usually new in training or cast offs from other employers.