Parvo Police
Parvo or parvovirus is a highly contagious disease found all over the world, at current there are over 150 cases of Parvo in Australia alone.
Parvovirus attacks the cells in the dog’s body, not only spreading itself through the whole body but splitting cells especially related to the intestinal tract and damaging the white cells leaving long term cardiac issues.
So what does all this medical mumbo jumbo mean?
Ultimately Parvovirus is a life threatening disease, which is transmitted by any person, animal or object that has come in contact with the infected dog’s faeces. Immediate treatment is the only life saver here so if you little baby is suffering from: Bloody Diarrhoea, excessive vomiting, depression or loss of appetite your best bet is to contact the vet straight away.
Now this is where my police reference comes in.
As the virus is extremely contagious and long living within the environment it is crucial that dog’s showing these symptoms are isolated and a vet is contacted. As we ourselves can transmit the disease vets may opt to do a home visit or arrange for a specific time for the dog to be seen.
I know, I know this may seem like common sense to many of you dog lovers but let me share this little tale with you, of a man and his dog.
During my regular volunteering shift with my rescue dogs, I was confronted by a very distressed man. Without going into too many details it turned out his dog was ill and waiting in the car. Unfortunately this man did not have the money or the time to visit a vet. Once we discovered the extent of the dog’s condition it was clear that the parvovirus had taken yet another victim.
Now my point here is that, the virus was exposed in the shelter causing a lot of inconvenience and panic. The aftermath of exposure like this is a whole lot of cleaning and disinfecting taking time from our other important tasks.
This disease is no joke and I urge you to join my campaign of awareness so that we may endeavour to stop the spread and not lose more innocent lives over silly mistakes.
People, objects and animals are all transmitters of this disease, if a dog is showing these ill signs it needs to be treated asap and everything it contacted including ourselves be disinfected to try to reduce the risk of passing on the parvovirus.
Alannah