My three month old Yorkie has parvo?

Question

Over the weekend, my parents took our three month old dog to our cabin.she started throwing up and vomitting all weekend. Today, when they came home she didnt move or eat. we thought she had eaten something that sheshouldnt have. We decided we would take her in, next morning. As i was holding her, she started bleeding from her behind and we immediately took her to the vet hospital. When we got there, we got the worst news parvo. It was sad to digest, as she doesnt leave the yard and has all of her shots. The vet said our chances range from 25-50% survival and that we got lucky. The vet wanted to keep the pup up to three days on an IV but the deposit was $500 and the overnight fees ranged from $1000-2000 dollars. Something we wish we could do but cant afford. So option two, was to nurse her ourselves and were given 5 meds. they hooked her to meds on an iv that she said would leave a temp. camels hump but we have to bring her in everyday. What are her chances of survival? she is walking

Answer 1

The vet told you the truth:
Without 24 hour intensive care, the dogs chances are 50/50.
With intensive care his chances are more like 80/20 that he will survive.

All you can do is support him.

Go to the baby aisle of the grocery store and get meat baby food (turkey and lamb), Pedialyte and a medicine shooter.

Mix the baby food with the Pedialyte and see if she will lap it up.
If not, use the medicine shooter to put the food in the back of her mouth, on the outside of her teeth.
Careful. She can choke or drown.

Dehydration kills.

Answer 2

I don't know where you live, but the fee sounds a bit high (at least for my area). First thing in the AM start calling other vets. Also, most DVMs will work out a payment plan.

In the mean time, follow the vet's instructions. Remember... parvo kills via dehydration. Be VERY careful in manually administering food/fluids. Make SURE that your dog is swallowing the liquid/food, otherwise you will drown it.

As far as where/how you dog contracted Parvo, it can be transmitted in many ways, including bringing it in on your shoes. The best defense are immunizations.

Please check the links below for more Parvo info...

Good luck, I hope it all works out OK.

Answer 3

If I got this right, she has a cathiter in so that when you bring her back the next day she given the 5 meds there at the office?
The last part and I understand you are upset, is confusing.

To better understand, what does the treatment plan say for her, the Vet should have gone over this with you.

Basically

No foods for 24 hours to 48 hours.

with a planned diet, VET RECOMMENDS not what has been suggest on this forum..

Give X amount of water.

Exactly What medicines were given, and how many times a day are these give.

What times are you supposed to return to the Vets?


Why is she up walking? That I can answer right now, she needs to be placed in a crate (Pet approved) with very limited activity, eaning going out to relieve herself and that is it.

Answer 4

He gave you pretty good odds... the chances are slim, very slim that she will survive since she has already started with gastrointestinal bleeding.. do NOT feed her -- feeding her is putting food on a severely mascerated stomach and intestine and it doesn't need to be having that happen. FLUIDS is what she needs and IV fluids are best but even with them, she will likely succumb to the GI bleed and kidney failure before you could get enough fluids in. She needs fluids all the time.. I have dealt with parvo a lot... we had one of the first dogs infected with it when it was first around - they initially thought the dog had phosphate poisoning but tests later confirmed he died of parvo... he had contracted it at a dog show in south Texas... there was no vaccine for it for a long time.. or it seemed like forever... The best that could be done was to constantly try to hydrate the puppies -- subcutaneous injections of NS or LR and if they have veinous access, rare since dehydration made veins difficult to hit, then fluids via IV slow but steady... the guy that said 'dehydration kills' is right -- the dehydration is deadly since the pups are so small and even slight diarrhea or vomiting will dehydrate them in not time at all -- but with the volume of blood and fluids lost with parvo, it is just almost impossible to keep up with and they go into total system failure pretty fast... Hopefully your girl will survive - she had some immunity on board since she was vaccinated and we had success with a litter that came down with parvo that were vaccinated with the feline leukopenia shots (before parvo vaccines) in that two puppies bled out and died within 8 hours, two were very ill but pulled through and two showed symptoms but did not bleed out and got well pretty fast. So it sort of depends on a dog's immunilogical response to the vaccine and that is individual... A puppy throwing up is an indication that they need to be seen emergently - just like a baby human, they dehydrate in a few hours... Hope your girl makes it...

Answer 5

If she had parvo shots, she should NOT be getting parvo. Take a look at what the vet gave her in terms of vaccinations on your last invoice. Parvo vaccines should have been given. If she did not get that - ask why! That should be part of the typical vaccination appointment.

Now that she has it, give her Pedialyte by full eyedropper, as much as possible - at least a full eyedropper every half hour/15 minutes. She will be dehydrated, plus her the meds. Give her puppy milk or puppy milk powder mixed with water (pet store) as much as possible. Give it by eyedropper if she will not eat it alone. Give her a place to lay where you can clean her area easily - a kennel with blankets or puppy pads will suffice. Clean it often. Giver her lots of affection to help her hold on.

Go back to the vet that said he gave her shots - parvo is a standard vaccination. He must have ripped you off!!! Not to mention the dog!!! Makes me really angry!!!

Answer 6

I really hope the poor little thing gets better.

You have already answered your question, you told us the vet gave her a 20-25% chance of survival. That is the best chance you're going to get unless you take her to another vet and get a second opinion. No-one online is going to be able to answer your question becuase we are not all vets and even if someone is, they can't examine her for themselves so they can't give you the answers you are looking for.

Answer 7

The number one thing with parvo is dehydration. Just make sure he is hydrated good also. A dog can live up to 10 days wthout food.

Answer 8

no one can say given no one here, to my knowledge, is a vet and we cannot see the dog or read the clinical files.

just keep doing what you are doing and do it well.

just curious.. where did you get this dog? how in the world did she get exposed to parvo?

Answer 9

Does it matter her chances? Do everything in your power to save the pup. If you don't, you'll regret it, I'm sure. If you're diligent with the meds, there's a chance. Keep fighting.

She has all of her shots and got parvo? That's not good...