Why are vets so evil?

[graymouser]

I am sorry to hear that Moonrabbit had such a bad experience. I am not sure if this was simply a communication problem or diagnosis/treatment problem. Either way, I would agree with what has already been said. Watch those other puppies carefully and clean up thoroughly. The virus is hard to kill and most household cleaners will not be effective. Lysol, peroxide, alcohol DO NOT kill the parvo virus. Everything needs to be bleached or thrown away. Be careful with even shoes and clothing. It can spread to other areas of the house on the bottoms of people's shoes/socks/slippers/feet.

Exactly. Which is why I said a "normal" fecal test, as opposed to something more specialized. It occurs to me that, depending on the area of the country you're talking about, there might be different tests more readily available. It's very rare to see parvo in this area (northeast), so most vets don't even carry parvo test kits. It would be something sent out to an external lab. Further south, I've heard that parvo is a bigger problem.

I forget about that. I am a vet working in San Diego. I see parvo about once a week. When I worked emergency my record was seven new cases in one night. Its tough to get rid of. Its one of the reasons I tell pet owners not to take their dogs to the local dog parks and beaches until they have completed the entire vaccine series. It just takes one sick dog to contaminate an area (lasting in the environment for at least a couple of months - up to a year in shady/protected areas). The incidence does seem to decrease the further north you travel; even within San Diego county. The US/Mexican border neighborhoods seem to be the hardest hit.

Most vets in Southern California are very familiar with parvo. In fact, it is so common in San Diego that many hospitals here have a separate "parvo ward" or section set up just for these cases. There is also a standard "parvo protocol" that most local vets follow starting from the moment a pet owner calls in with a depressed puppy with vomiting and/or diarrhea. Due to familiarity with the disease, success rates here are about 75%-80%. The biggest barrier for most people is cost. It involves a long hospital stay with many medications, possibly multiple blood tests (to save money some people decline progress check testing and just hope for the best), and a lot of nursing/clean up care due to the large volume of vomit and bloody diarrhea. Unfortunately, home care with medications rarely works. I usually give people about a 15% chance taking that route. The main reason that home care fails so often is that it is extremely difficult to stay on top of the dehydration without IV fluids and almost impossible to get oral medications to stay down in a dog with severe vomiting (in hospital medications are given by injection - up to seven daily depending on the particulars of the case). With such poor odds with home treatment many people elect euthanasia.