Parvo

Missy and Hypoglycemia

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

She was so small that her big sister was a Beanie Baby. She’d been sold straight from a cardboard box in the parking lot of a Big Box store. Her owners were entranced from the moment her fluffy 1 ½ pound body hit their hands. The sellers were short on details like birthdates. We guessed her to be 2 months old? She was christened Missy, her basic exam checked out, and she had her first vaccination before they took her home.

The roller coaster ride had begun. Sadly, Missy had already been exposed to Parvo virus. Parvo is dreaded throughout our Valley, as we seem to see a lot of this viral disease in young, usually unvaccinated dogs. With no immunity, they fall ill, exhibiting extreme vomiting and a watery bloody diarrhea. The virus further attacks their body by dropping their white cell count, so they can’t fight off the infection. Many puppies die from the disease. Supportive therapy in-hospital with intravenous fluids and medication provide life support while their body recovers. It’s a puppy’s best chance to survive. Missy was sick so quickly we knew that she had been incubating the disease when she was brought in and the vaccine wouldn’t have had time to provide protection. (The vaccine itself does not cause the disease) Further complicating matters was her very small size. She had no body fat to speak of. Placing an intravenous catheter in her threadlike leg vein was a miracle. And like many tiny, tiny puppies she couldn’t keep her blood sugar up without constant eating – and Missy couldn’t keep anything down. If her blood glucose levels plummeted she might faint, seizure or even die. To counteract this, we added dextrose to her IV fluid drip. And then we worried about overloading her tiny body with fluids or we might flood her heart! We have an IV syringe pump that carefully meters each drop to these most extremely small of all patients.

Missy was a fighter. She gamely held on and after four days Missy turned around and successfully fought off parvo. Hurrah! But within days it became obvious that Missy’s body couldn’t regulate her blood sugar levels on it’s own. She would appear dazed and weak at home for no obvious reason. I had to explain that Missy couldn’t waste a mouthful on treats – many treats are high in sugar (check the labels for corn syrup, dextrose, sugar beets, etc) and just as with diabetics, it gives a quick sugar high and then just as quickly dips back down. The dangerous Sugar Rollercoaster. Don’t take that ride! Missy needed to eat dog food, with protein, fat, slow-release complex carbohydrates (carbs are the sugars in food) and the calcium, vitamins and minerals a growing puppy needs. For several days she had to be fed every two hours, including at least once during the night. We expected her to outgrow this…. but when?

Missy’s body did learn to self-regulate. She grew to over 4 pounds. She finished her series of puppy shots and had no further health set-backs. We set the date for her ovariohysterectomy /spay for 8 months of age, when I could reevaluate her teeth – tiny dogs often have delayed dental eruption (they are slow to lose their baby teeth) and if retained, the baby teeth will crowd the adult teeth, trapping food particles and eventually rot out both teeth! It is so much easier on the puppy to remove these excess baby teeth under the same anesthesia they undergo for their spay / neuter surgery. We schedule the surgery when the adult teeth have come in. The big day came. We checked Missy’s blood sugar before surgery. Normal. We checked her teeth – she had retained three deciduous canine (fang) teeth. We extracted them. Hurrah!

Monitors beeping calmly, we proceeded to spay Missy. She acted like a completely normal patient, recovering beautifully. Hurrah! Postoperative blood glucose tests were all normal. Another hurrah! I don’t know if her little feet ever touch the ground (spoiled by love), but in addition to all the other miracles, Missy is a superb outgoing doggie friend to everyone she meets. Hurrah!


Christine B. McFadden, DVM
drmc@mcmenagerie.com

“Parvo Land”

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / 1 Comment

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She didn’t look like much. A tiny puppy weighing in under 6 pounds, all black with just a white tip to her nose, she seemed exhausted. She had been dumped off with her brothers a few days earlier and had the good luck to be rescued by a kind hearted man. After only 72 hours in her new-found home she was clearly very sick and about to test the generosity of her benefactor.

Today little “Callie” wasn’t playing, wasn’t eating, and had passed some pinkish tan diarrhea. We were all worried about Parvo. Sometimes I think Merced could be re-named “Parvo Land”. The Parvo virus was first recognized in the early 80’s, attacking mostly young puppies by settling in their stomach and intestines and sometimes literally causing the lining of their innards to slough out. Affected pups vomit, pass bloody diarrhea, become very dehydrated and often die. The virus drops their white cell count, the body’s blood cells that fight off infection, so the body’s natural soldiers to disarm the enemy virus are out of commission! Pills, antibiotics and such, don’t work against viruses. Once a puppy has contracted the disease, intensive support of their body systems and time are the only things that will help them live through it. No guarantees.

Parvo can be prevented by vaccinating young puppies, starting at 6 weeks of age. They need a series of shots, just like little kids, before their immune system has developed enough to fully protect them. Most puppies should have received 3 to 4 Parvo vaccinations (properly spaced) by the time they’re 4 months old- then they’re protected!

We didn’t know anything about Callie’s past, but guessed that whoever abandoned her probably hadn’t vaccinated her at all. We waited for her Parvo test to run, a simple fecal swab that can be run in-office in minutes. Her brothers were still playing in the backyard at home. The Parvo virus is highly contagious to other, unvaccinated dogs. We all knew that she might have been exposed to the virus by another dog directly, or indirectly by something as simple as a fly. The bloody diarrhea passed by affected dogs attracts flies, which then serve as “mechanical vectors” (they get right down and walk in it, spreading it around their little fly feet) and do what flies do – buzz around the neighborhood, spreading a little parvo with them sometimes. (Note to self : keep yard clean with frequent poop patrol and clean up. Fewer flies!).

Callie’s test was positive for Parvo. We felt defeated: she was so young, so terribly thin, not enough time in her new home to respond to regular meals and a warm bed. The chances that her brand new owner would spring for the intensive care she required to pull through was unlikely – even the most generous hearted rescue groups have been fazed by the unpredictable response to treatment by this disease and may put their hard earned dollars elsewhere into a more “sure thing”. There are no guarantees with Parvo.

Callie was fortunate – we had permission to proceed with hospitalization. Everyone dove in. She had a blood test to check her white cell count (a little low, it was under 8,000). Her little arm was shaved and an IV catheter placed in her vein. Her blood sugar was monitored, and a regimen of fluids to rehydrate and support her through the IV began. She received injections into her blood stream to stop her nausea, calm the pain of cramping, counteract against possible sepsis (secondary bacterial infections that take advantage when the white cell count drops and can cause death). The first 24 hours were neither good nor bad. Because she wasn’t given anything by mouth to eat or drink, her vomiting stopped, but the trickling diarrhea continued. She stayed cocooned in her little blankets in isolation. By Day 2 her white cell count was dropping – not a good sign. We fought on. On Day 3 her white cell count dropped under 1,000 and we predicted death and gave her owner the option to end treatment. Her owner allowed us to proceed against all odds. Callie hovered another 24 hours, my staff shaking their heads, miserable that we couldn’t just MAKE her better. And then the blood test showed her white cell count was up. We knew she had turned the corner, and just as quickly as she got sick little Callie began to rally. She ate a little food later that day. She came off her IV’s the next and just that fast, began to yip at us and gripe about being confined to a cage bed.

Callie’s brothers contracted Parvo, also, and survived. With  more time and a whole lot of Tender Loving Care (thank you, Jim) they grew into cute Border Collies. If we share the word of Callie’s story and get our puppies vaccinated there will be much less disease around Merced to spread to other puppies – and wouldn’t that be a lovely ending to the story?

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com