Archive for January, 2009
Terrie bought our products back in June 2008 when her neighbour brought a Parvo-infected dog on to her property.
Quite rightly, Terrie was very concerned about the risk to her own dogs, and so ordered our products so that she could give her dogs a preventive dose.
Six months later, just before Christmas, she emailed us to say that her granddaughter was meant to be visiting for the holidays, but her puppy had just developed Parvo, so what should she do to protect her own dogs.
Our reply was as follows:
In December 2008, we received an email from a customer saying that she lost six dogs, and that our products did not work.
Now, we’re obviously sorry to see anybody’s dogs die from this horrific virus, and as we say on our website, we are, sadly, unable to save every single dog from Parvo – sometimes, you can do absolutely everything right, and yet it’s still not enough.
So, why are we telling this particular story in the Dumb & Dumber category?
Well, this customer’s case illustrates two fundamental errors.
As a result of the many emails we receive from both customers and others, we have created two new categories on our blog:
(The film buffs among you will no doubt recognize these as movie titles, although the first one is an oldie, from 1920.)
So, why have we created these categories?
Well, we want to draw attention to the sort of things that people do correctly and wrongly when it comes to Parvo.
The Dog-Gone Clever category is meant to highlight what some of our customers have done correctly in their approach to treating Parvo; which a lot of this boils down to common sense and not being afraid to ask for (and take) our advice, which is based on dealing with hundreds of cases.
The Dumb And Dumber category, on the other hand, is to not only show you the sort of ill-informed and sometimes offensive emails we receive (mainly from people who are not our customers), but also draw your attention to what people (and this does include some of our customers) have done that is just wrong.
We do this in the hope that other dog owners will not make the same mistakes, but follow the actions and share the same thought processes and attitudes as those who have done exactly the right thing.
We hear time and time again from our customers, especially those who are breeders, that their puppies have never ever set foot outside the house and yet are still getting Parvo.
Not surprisingly, they want to know how this is possible.
Well, in most cases, it’s almost impossible to track down the source of the Parvo infection, but here are a few ways your dog can get sick, other than the usual method of coming into contact with infected feces.
- Infected vomit can also carry the virus, and with this often looking like a clear / off-white mucus gel at first, it’s not as easily spotted as feces.
- Nose-to-nose contact with other dogs can transmit the virus.
- Although Parvo is not an airborne virus in the traditional sense of the word, once feces dries out, particles can get blown around in the wind, and that can carry the virus on to your property.
- You can carry the virus on to your property on your car tyres (e.g. if you happen to drive over some infected feces).
- Birds, insects and other animals can transmit the virus to your property. They only need to land or step in some infected feces (or vomit) elsewhere, and then land in your back yard, and now you’ve got the virus too.
So, all of these can explain how your property can become infected with Parvo, but that still doesn’t explain how dogs that never go outside can get it.
Well, we hate to say it, but the most likely culprit is Read the rest of this entry »
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