Parvovirus

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Ms. Roper,

My dog Kita, a black lab, had a "fatty" place on her leg a year ago. My vet told me it was nothing to worry about. As time went by, the "fatty" place got bigger. The vet still wasn't vexed about the "fatty" place. Kita was very energetic, had a healthy appetite, looked healthy (except for this tumor) and showed no signs of any ailment. Friday she had an appointment because the nothing to worry about place became really big and irritated. The vet told me she had cancer. Because of its size and location on her thigh, it wasn't a good idea to remove it. It shocked me. Kita was my heart. Whatever we needed to do to help her was my priority. He did not do an x-ray, blood tests, etc. He just said that it had likely spread. Euthanasia wasn't discussed, but quality of life was discussed. She had gone to this vet since she was a pup. He seems to love animals and I always thought he was excellent. My concern here is that he administered her vaccinations in this same appointment for the tumor. Several hours later she started vomiting. She vomitted 17 times. I called the vet the next morning. The vet tech put me on hold to go ask the vet. She told me to just give her pepto and zantac. My dog had never, and I mean never, been ill before. I gave her what they advised. She urinated and drank plenty of water throughout the day and night; however, she still vomitted. This was Saturday. She hardly slept and neither did I. Sunday afternoon, she wouldn't get up. She would drink water, but she hadn't gone to the bathroom. I paged the vet and got her to his office. Even though she drank water, she was very dehydrated and had a high fever. He told me that the fever was his biggest concern. He hooked her up the an I.V. and I had to leave her there. At 7:30 a.m. Monday morning I went to check on her condition. I spent hours there. She was semi-responsive to me. She wagged her tail once, but pretty much she was kind of out of it. I was told that she was given a pain killer. The vet wasn't at the office and I was told I'd have to wait until 9:30 to talk with him. He called me around 11:30 ish. Her condition hadn't improved and to wait to euthanize her was prolonging the inevitable. I spent all day, save a few hours, at her side. At 5:45 I finally realized that she wasn't going to recover and she could quite possibly be in a great deal of pain. I don't understand because she was still wanting to play fetch on Saturday even though she had vomitted 17 times the night before. I would just like to know if the vaccines (rabies, cpv + cv, DA2LP) had anything to do with her rapid decline? I mean, we only talking about three days here.

• Hi Cindy,

First, let me offer my condolences on the loss of your dog. It's always a shock when things happen that quickly and you have no time to prepare for the loss.

I'm not a vet, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. As I understand it, your vet felt there was nothing that could be done about the cancer, but decided to vaccinate your dog anyway? This seems unnecessary to me. The cancer was advanced and your dog's immune system was engulfed in fighting it. Why vaccinate and ask the immune system to respond to the vaccine too? In my opinion as an owner, if the dog was going to succumb to the cancer, I don't see the point in vaccinating her. Some dogs do have adverse reactions to vaccines, and some do get a small case of what they are being vaccinated against. With your dog's immune system so over taxed, this could be what happened.

As I said, I am not a vet, but I do suggest you run your scenario by another vet independent from the clinic you currently go to. My gut feeling is that your current vet could have held off giving most of those vaccines, although it may have been necessary by law to give the rabies.

Thanks for your question, and again, I am so sorry for your loss.

Hi Carlos,

I had to use a Spanish translator to understand the gist of your question. I believe that you're saying you're concerned about finding blood in your three-month-old puppy's stools, and that your puppy has received its first two shots. While it is still possible for your puppy to contract parvo, the blood could also be related to things like a large worm infestation, a bowel infection or even constipation. My best advice is to collect a sample of your dog's bloody stool in a baggie and take it to your vet for analysis. I think the fact that your pup isn't vomiting is a good sign that this isn't parvo.

Best wishes for your puppy's health.

es ke tengo una perrita pitbull y la feca sale con sangre y ma da miedo por lo ke escuchado de la enfermedad parvovirosis pero no vomita y va a...plir 3 meses pero tiene las primeras 2 vacunas

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