New Virus
Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 4:02 am
I would like to make people aware of a virus that's going around that, essentially in symptoms, looks like Parvo for adult dogs. I don't know what it is called, I don't know if they've identified it, heck I don't know if it's a mutated version of something else. All I know is H caught it, despite not being around other dogs, and it almost killed him.
If your dog gets violently ill within 24 hours, it may be this. For H it started out as watery dire rear, which is very unusual for him. It was followed by the inability to control his bowels (which is extremely unlike him - the number of times he has pooped in the house I can count on one hand since he was a puppy, and two of them were sedation involved) and unable to keep anything in his system. Then the bloody dire rear started. He had no appetite, no motivation for anything, and getting him up to move was extremely hard. I was pushing electrolytes and water every half hour, but it wouldn't stay in him, and he still needed emergency medical care to stop extreme dehydration. This came on EXTREMELY FAST. Within 24-36 hours from first symptoms he was in the ER despite my best efforts at keeping him hydrated. One vet said he hadn't seen this level of dehydration in a dog with the owner actively pushing fluids. H would only drink maybe 2 -3 tablespoons at a time and even that was a chore.
This lasted for 3 days. I finally calmed his GI tract through slippery elm syrup, and at the advice of my friend, withholding meals for 24 hours and feeding a couple of tablespoons of "orange fibre veggies" every few hours. After a few hours of this he began to show hunger and we transitioned to easy to digest foods. He's bouncing back now, still slow to move some days and lethargic, but I'm told it'll be another 2ish weeks until complete recovery.
I'm told some dogs will also vomit. Think norovirus for humans - it's like that but for dogs. So just be aware guys and I sincerely hope your dogs never catch this.
If your dog gets violently ill within 24 hours, it may be this. For H it started out as watery dire rear, which is very unusual for him. It was followed by the inability to control his bowels (which is extremely unlike him - the number of times he has pooped in the house I can count on one hand since he was a puppy, and two of them were sedation involved) and unable to keep anything in his system. Then the bloody dire rear started. He had no appetite, no motivation for anything, and getting him up to move was extremely hard. I was pushing electrolytes and water every half hour, but it wouldn't stay in him, and he still needed emergency medical care to stop extreme dehydration. This came on EXTREMELY FAST. Within 24-36 hours from first symptoms he was in the ER despite my best efforts at keeping him hydrated. One vet said he hadn't seen this level of dehydration in a dog with the owner actively pushing fluids. H would only drink maybe 2 -3 tablespoons at a time and even that was a chore.
This lasted for 3 days. I finally calmed his GI tract through slippery elm syrup, and at the advice of my friend, withholding meals for 24 hours and feeding a couple of tablespoons of "orange fibre veggies" every few hours. After a few hours of this he began to show hunger and we transitioned to easy to digest foods. He's bouncing back now, still slow to move some days and lethargic, but I'm told it'll be another 2ish weeks until complete recovery.
I'm told some dogs will also vomit. Think norovirus for humans - it's like that but for dogs. So just be aware guys and I sincerely hope your dogs never catch this.