It wasn’t that long ago that I posted my interest in acquiring a puppy so that I could try my hand at training a new hunting buddy and possibly some hunt tests. I was fortunate enough to receive several replies with advice and recommendations. After some research I settled on a black lab male from a breeder in Kansas City and literally could not sleep the night before picking him up.
Once we got him home, the pup was everything I hoped he would be. He was house and crate trained within days and seemed to soak up every bit of training as we started to work through Hillman’s puppy training DVD.
On Father’s Day, my little buddy, Cash, began vomiting out of the blue. The diarrhea kicked in the next morning and I had him at the vet by 7:00 AM. A couple hours later the vet called to tell me that he had tested positive for parvo.
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. She had warned us about parvo when we brought him in for his second round of shots. I made sure to not bring him to any public areas and to generally restrict his exposure to anywhere but our yard. I did bring him to a ranch one weekend and to some friend’s houses with vaccinated dogs, but that was really it.
The vet thought he would recover, but Cash just got worse as the week progressed. On Thursday night he started having seizures. I got thecall that next morning that he didn’t make it through the night.
I just wanted to share my story so that other new puppy owners understand how dangerous this virus can be. I just keep going over and over the places Itook him trying to figure out where he might have picked it up, which has obviously proven fruitless.
Its crazy how attached you can get to a pup in a month and a half. I really miss coming home and working with him in the evenings. The kicker with parvo, is that I will have to wait another eight or so monthsbefore I can get another puppy since my yard is now contaminated.
I’ve visited with the breeder and am hoping he will have another litter around that time. He has been very supportive and even offered to loan me a trained dog through hunting season. If he doesn’t end up with another litter in the right time frame, I will come back to this forum to seewhat is available. I would like to find a breeder who is willing to keep a puppy through his third round of vaccinations, just to try and play it as safe as possible.
Thank you for everyone’s support in getting newbie going. I’ll keep reading and soaking upinformation in anticipation of my next little buddy.
Once we got him home, the pup was everything I hoped he would be. He was house and crate trained within days and seemed to soak up every bit of training as we started to work through Hillman’s puppy training DVD.
On Father’s Day, my little buddy, Cash, began vomiting out of the blue. The diarrhea kicked in the next morning and I had him at the vet by 7:00 AM. A couple hours later the vet called to tell me that he had tested positive for parvo.
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. She had warned us about parvo when we brought him in for his second round of shots. I made sure to not bring him to any public areas and to generally restrict his exposure to anywhere but our yard. I did bring him to a ranch one weekend and to some friend’s houses with vaccinated dogs, but that was really it.
The vet thought he would recover, but Cash just got worse as the week progressed. On Thursday night he started having seizures. I got thecall that next morning that he didn’t make it through the night.
I just wanted to share my story so that other new puppy owners understand how dangerous this virus can be. I just keep going over and over the places Itook him trying to figure out where he might have picked it up, which has obviously proven fruitless.
Its crazy how attached you can get to a pup in a month and a half. I really miss coming home and working with him in the evenings. The kicker with parvo, is that I will have to wait another eight or so monthsbefore I can get another puppy since my yard is now contaminated.
I’ve visited with the breeder and am hoping he will have another litter around that time. He has been very supportive and even offered to loan me a trained dog through hunting season. If he doesn’t end up with another litter in the right time frame, I will come back to this forum to seewhat is available. I would like to find a breeder who is willing to keep a puppy through his third round of vaccinations, just to try and play it as safe as possible.
Thank you for everyone’s support in getting newbie going. I’ll keep reading and soaking upinformation in anticipation of my next little buddy.