Never buy your dog from a breeder in Mexico.
Sure, it seems like a good idea at the time. The little fluffy puppy in a super center parking lot needs a home, and what a deal! $400! The ones at the store at the mall are $1200! The dog looks cute, if a little disheveled. Happy little fluffy buddy.
So, you take him home, and give him some puppy food. He eats it for a day or two, and then on the third day he vomits it up.
Worms, you think. Maybe it is roundworms. You give him a dewormer. He gets worse.
He’s looking depressed, now. He’s just kind of laying there. Your 12 year old is distressed. “I think he’s sick, mom! We need to take him to the vet.” You’re not happy about this, but you know she is right. He isn’t even keeping water down.
The vet takes one look at your pale, vomiting puppy- who was right as rain not 3 days ago- and starts talking to you about parvo. Parvo? But my dog was vaccinated! You procure the record, with one vaccination sticker on it. The vet nods sadly and says she still would like to run the test.
10 minutes later, the vet comes in. You know before she opens her mouth what the result is, since she isn’t smiling. “I’m sorry,” she says. “It is parvo.” She explains that your dog’s white blood cell count is severely depleted, and the virus has invaded the bone marrow. You dully try to take in what you are hearing- “no cure” – “hope they pull through” – “intensive care” – “24 hour hospitalization”, and put your arm around your sobbing 12 year old. You know, as well as she does, that this is bad.
So your choices are: Spend hundreds- or into the thousands- and take the gamble that your puppy will pull through- some do, some don’t, despite every attempt; or euthanize your puppy, who for a dog you’ve had for less than a week has created a large and cozy niche in your heart.
What do you do? Aside from wishing you hadn’t gotten suckered into buying a sick dog.
If you think that isn’t exactly how it happens, over and over again, come visit me anytime. I hate it as much as you do, because I’m the one who has to euthanize them.
And you can kiss the $800 you thought you saved goodbye. Or better yet, adopt :p
How widely pushed is Tamiflu for parvo in your area?
Lisa, not that much to be honest. Most of the vets I’ve worked with shrug it off. In this case the dog had a WBC count of 1.4 so it wouldn’t have helped anyway.
I had one with a 0.9 WBC count
3000 dollars and some pretty durn intensive care later, it had to be euthanized
I am doing my presentation on her on tuesday
Hey if people want to help puppies in need from Mexico they can always adopt one through Friends of Humane Society de Tijuana. http://friendsofhstj.org/