Parvo in Dogs
Learning how to prevent parvo in dogs is a very important part of keeping your dogs safe, especially when newborn puppies are concerned.
Parvo, short for parvovirus, is a dangerous viral infection which for most dogs will be fatal without fast treatment. Preventing this virus from infecting your dogs is an extremely important part of raising and taking care of healthy dogs.
While it’s hard to guarantee a 100% parvo free environment, there are many steps you can take in order to minimize the rest of any of your canine friends from being infected with parvo.
Parvo in Dogs: Vaccinations
The surest way to prevent parvo from striking is with vaccination.
Vaccination for the parvovirus is not a one time thing, and in fact requires multiple vaccination shots.
The biggest reason for this is that early on in development the maternal antibodies from a mother’s milk can interfere somewhat with the active working agents of a the vaccine.
For this reason, there is a definite need for follow up shots to make sure your furry friends have the protection they need to grow from healthy puppies to full sized dogs.
Normally, the process starts at around six weeks old.
This is when the puppies should get their first parvo vaccination shots. This is followed up with another shot every three or four weeks until the dog is 20 weeks old.
Most dogs will be in pretty good shape at this point, although even so it’s important to remember when the last vaccination was since most vets will recommend a yearly touch up vaccination to make sure that your dogs have protection from parvo.
Risk Factors for Parvo in Dogs
One of the major parts of learning to prevent parvo in dogs is limiting the risk factors which can cause an outbreak to begin with.
This means keeping a clean yard, especially with keeping dog feces and waste picked up. Exposure to infected feces is one of the biggest ways that healthy dogs end up catching the parvo canine virus.
Keeping dogs away from feces is one of the best ways to make sure you prevent parvo from spreading.
Parvo Decontamination
If one of your dogs does catch parvo, or had parvo in the past, it’s important to thoroughly clean the environment.
Indoors that means a thorough house cleaning using bleach whenever possible since bleach is the only household cleaner which has been shown to actually kill the resilient parvovirus.
Any dog recovering from parvo should be quarantined from other dogs for a minimum of six weeks to make completely sure that the virus isn’t passed on, as the virus can stay around even after the symptoms have long since disappeared.
Preventing Parvo
The best way to prevent parvo is by following all of these steps.
This means getting all the dogs vaccinated, keeping the area clean (especially of feces), and ideally limiting access from any other dogs you don’t own.
Parvo in Puppies
Parvo in puppies spreads extremely quickly and it only takes one contact from an infected dog to end up infecting an entire litter.
Use caution, watch for signs of the virus, and don’t forget those vaccinations to prevent parvo and raise a very happy and healthy litter of puppies.
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