Pawsitive Progress with Pit Bull Parvo Pups

Doc Pawsitive loves a happy ending! We have had great success recently with a small parvo virus outbreak thanks to our team of hardworking nurses and nursing assistants. In total over the last 2 weeks we’ve successfully over 10 cases of parvo virus in a group of pit bulls, all young pups except one adult. Treatment for canine parvo virus infection is very labor intensive due to the course of the disease. The virus attacks the lining of the intestinal tract and causes profuse liquid diarrhea, uncontrollable vomiting, lethargy and weakness, and eventually dehydration due to fluid losses. Parvo virus infections can be fatal. The six ppit bull puppies most recently hospitalized by Doc Pawsitive, Clair Thompson, “Leader of the Pack” at East Stroudsburg Veterinary Hospital and PAWS/Pocono Animal Wellness Services were all started with intravenous catheters to permit fluid replacement intravenously. Remember, people understand and tolerate IV’s well; puppies do not! It is a challenge to manage 6 puppies on IV fluids, IV antibiotics, IV medication to stop vomiting and IV medication to heal the damage done by the virus. The whole time there is profuse vomiting and diarrhea to deal with, all while trying to keep these puppies isolated and quarantined from other dogs to fight the virus from spreading to other dogs. We’ve also had success recently incorporating Tamiflu into our treatment protocol. These pups are part of a group of 6, and their vomiting and diarrhea have stopped …