Chief is sick...Update, he has parvo. (Ratsicles)

Gonna bleach his doghouse, the barn, everything outside he comes into contact with. The only problem is this: I straight up cannot bleach my pastures. I just can't. I totally understand why I need to do it, I get it- but my goats, chickens, and horses eat that grass. We are in a HORRIBLE drought, AND it's almost winter, and every blade of crappy thirsty grass is precious- hay is hard to get here, and low quality, dusty, crappy bales of hay are approaching $8-$10 a square bale here...IF you can get enough, which you probably can't, because most suppliers just don't have enough hay. There isn't enough to go around. To give you an idea of how insane that price is, hay in a good year- no drought, summertime- should run about $2 a bale. Now I can keep my chickens penned up and not free range them if I really need to, but the horses and goats I can't. If my horses didn't have access to grass, they'd eat a bale or more of hay a day each. I just plain can't afford to spend $30-$40 a day on hay for my horses. That's not even including their grain. My goats, if kept inside and not allowed to browse or graze, would probably eat about half a bale of hay a day between them. That by itself wouldn't be too bad...but I've got the horses too.

Plus, even if I COULD afford to not allow my horses and goats to graze...I would have nowhere to put them where they wouldn't have access to bleach-treated grass. In order to keep them from eating grass treated with bleach, my horses would have to stay stalled 24/7, and I'd have to build some kind of seperate shed to lock my goats in and never let them out. Keeping my horses stalled constantly would be the equivalent of locking a dog in a small crate 23 hours a day and only letting it out for short, structured walks with no playing allowed. It's just not feasible or realistic. I understand that it's going to live in the ground if I don't bleach my entire almost 8 acres of land. Unfortunately, I've got my horses and goats to think of too- and short of selling them off so that I can destroy every piece of vegetation on my property, there's just not much I can do there.

I'm going to bleach my actual yard since the animals don't graze there. Don't know how much good it will do, since it's the one area Chief didn't have access to- the yard belongs to my other dogs, Chief had the rest of the property- but I suppose we tracked it through there so we'll go ahead and do the yard. The rest of my property is, unfortunately, not an option.

The other thing you need to ask the vet is will your livestock get parvo? I don't know -- I have NOT a clue if it's at all zoonotic. But you need to ask it.

That was the first thing I asked. Pigs (which I don't keep) apparently carry their own strain that isn't transmittable to dogs, but my goats, horses, chickens, etc are all clear. It doesn't affect them.

HOW can it have gotten on your property? Easy -- you've had kids on your property that didn't belong there, and other people have been there. All it takes is literally a couple of molecules of parvo virus to spread it -- way too tiny to 'see' -- a tiny bit in dirt on someone's shoe who walked to their own car on their own driveway because the neighbor's dog was sick and the paperboy tracked it from that house to their house. They got in their car, walked on your property and it was there. You could have picked it up on your own shoes just from walking into the grocery store and back to your car. It can be anywhere -- this is why the big huge mega deal about vaccinating got started -- it's just so darned easy to spread.

Who knows...but I'm betting I brought it in on the stupid pig I recently butchered for them. It just fits perfectly. The incubation period for parvo is 9 days. I brought that pig home, and on the 10th day after I brought it home, Chief got sick. I gave my dogs pork contaminated with parvo. They ate some as recently as 2 days ago. I feel absolutely horrible, but it just makes the most sense as to where this came from.

But it also kinda gives me hope...the other dogs had been eating the pig too. Punchy has been exposed to it for just as long as Chief has. He isn't sick yet. Since it's been about about 12 days now since he's been exposed ( if it truly did come in on the pig) does that mean he might be in the clear??

Is there a way to test him before any symptoms show up. You know, get a jump on the illness? I've heard that the sooner you catch it, the better the chances are... or rather, the longer you wait, the worse the chances. But you never hear anything positive about parvo.

Well, theres no treatment for Parvo itself. Parvo inhibits the absorption of nutrients, and causes them to have horrible diarrhea and vomiting- it really just kills them through dehydration. Because it's a virus, you can't use antibiotics to treat it. Basically when a dog gets parvo they just continuously give them intravenous fluids (and I think they're giving Chief anti nausea drugs too) until the disease runs its course. If they stay hydrated, they usually survive. At least, that's my understanding from the research I've done since yesterday afternoon.

So at best I can just bleach everything, and do what I can to boost Punch's immune system and try to KEEP him from getting sick...but there's no way I can pre-emptively treat him...you just can't treat parvo until they start showing symptoms, sicne all you can treat is the symptoms. The good news is that I know to take Punch in the SECOND I even see a dry heave or some slightly loose stool- there won't be any "well lets just wait and see if he feels better tomorrow." So if Punch gets sick, he'll be getting tested and treated sooner than most dogs with Parvo will...hugely boosting his chances of survival.

Coyotes can definitely get parvo. It probably got lost in all the flack that you received when you first got Chief, but I suggested the Neopar parvo vaccine because of the coyotes when you first got Chief. You must always assume that parvo is on your property as long as you have coyotes.

Chief may have picked up a strain of parvo from the coyotes that his vaccines didn't fully protect against. What vaccine was used (manufacturer) and at what ages was it administered?

http://www.drugs.com/vet/neopar.html

Crap, I must have missed that- I have no clue what the vet used. I can call and ask tomorrow since they're closed this afternoon. I know we started him at 10 weeks, and it was done every 3 weeks after that. So, 10 weeks, 13 weeks, 16 weeks, and 19 weeks...I think. I know he finished up sometime last month. I'll have to find the paperwork to check everything exactly.

Parvaid (link)

Thanks Janet, that stuff looks awesome. I'm ordering some. It probably won't get here until next week, so Punch may get sick before then if he's going to, but it definitely looks good to have anyway.

At the very least, administering vaccines stress the immune system so that alone is reason enough not to vaccinate now. And he's "exposed" to already so his body is likely already trying TO make antibodies.

So when do you think Punchy should be vaccinated next? I'm asking for your opinion Callie, and if you don't feel comfortable posting it I'd love it if you PM me. He's due for his next set soon...really we could take him in tomorrow. Should we wait or should we go ahead? I keep reading conflicting stuff on this- some sources saying that it will tax his immune system and increase his likelihood of getting sick, and some saying that it may be the only thing that keeps him from it. I'm assuming I should wait...but I don't know. I just want to do the right thing and I don't know what that is right now.

Brittany, please be sure that all of your dogs have been vaccinated for adrenovirus. That vaccine cross-protects against hepatitis which can be carried by coyotes.

http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/Coyotes.asp

I just want to make it REALLY clear that my dogs are all vaccinated. I would NEVER have unvaccinated dogs running around out here with all of the crap they come into contact with. Chief got it despite being vaccinated, and Punchy is at risk because he's a 4 month old puppy who hasn't finished his vaccinations yet. He may have immunity and he may not. My other dogs are all at least a year old and are all UTD. If they get it, I don't know how much more I could have done to be prepared. They're vaccinated. If my dogs get parvo despite being vaccinated, I really don't know what more I could have done to prevent it.

Do NOT go to the feed store. Do not handle animals that have not had exposure to you or to Chief in the last 10-15 days. Do not pass go and do not collect $200. This disease is deadly and super contagious.

I understand what you're saying, but frankly I can't stop my life because I came into contact with parvo. I can bleach all of my clothes and my car and hope for the best, and that's about it. I don't have anyone that can go shopping for me, if I need something, I have to go get it. Not much to be done about it, in all honesty. I'll avoid other people's pets for a while. That's about the best I can do.

Thanks again everyone for the support and advice. The good vibes are surely contributing to Chief getting better...so please don't stop sending them.