Natural Pet Health

Parvo is a serious viral disease that can be deadly even if treatment is given. Parvovirus is a disease that attacks dividing cells. The most prominent location for dividing cells in your dog’s body is the intestinal lining or the lining of the digestive system. When this disease attacks and kills these cells it causes dogs and puppies to not be able to absorb nutrients or liquids. Parvo is seen more in puppies than in adult dogs, but both can catch the disease.

Symptoms of parvo include diarrhea, vomiting and lethargy. Most dogs stop eating or have a loss of appetite, diarrhea, high fever, and depression. Their stool can be very liquid, foul smelling, usually yellow in color, and contain blood. The secondary symptoms appear as severe gastrointestinal distress, which includes vomiting and bloody diarrhea. In the later stages of parvo dehydration, shock, and death.

There are many different diseases and conditions that can cause canine diarrhea. It isn’t a disease unto itself, but simply a symptom of an underlying problem. If left untreated, diarrhea can lead to dehydration and eventually death. Let’s take a look at some of the things that can cause it.

Food

Food is one of the main ways that your dog can develop diarrhea. It can occur because of a sudden change in diet or just eating too much table food. The good news is that diarrhea caused by food can usually be resolved within a day. You simply have to allow your dog’s digestive system to settle down for a day by withholding food but giving plenty of water.

Worms

Pathophysiology

The canine parvovirus is a DNA virus that is single stranded and very contagious, found in canines. The first time that this virus appeared was in 1978, but it can be found in every country in the world right now. Canine parvovirus will come in two variants, intestinal and cardiac. In the form that is cardiac, the parvovirus will infect the puppies either after they’re born or while they’re still in the uterus. Very fast, the virus will attack the muscle of the heart, causing heart failure soon after that.

About Parvovirus

Parvo is a viral disease that affects dogs. This illness can cause severe digestive symptoms, as well as fever and shock and may even prove fatal. Parvovirus attacks rapidly dividing cells like those in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract as well as developing white blood cells.

In this way parvovirus leads to symptoms like bloody diarrhea, vomiting and loss of proper immune system functioning. Puppies are more commonly and more severely affected than adult dogs due to their still-developing immune system. Puppies can easily succumb to this disease, especially when the virus infects the muscle of the heart.

Like all the domestic animals, dogs are susceptible to many diseases. So in order to keep them healthy, it is necessary to understand the various diseases they can suffer from. Here is your quick guide on common dog diseases:

Rabies: This disease is caused due to a virus which affects the central nervous system of the dog. It generally spreads through the saliva. Rabies has several stages. In the first stage, there appears some behavior changes in your dog. As it reaches the second stage, the dog becomes very aggressive and by the third stage the body parts of the dog stop coordinating with each other. Once encountered the disease, there remains no cure.

A recent outbreak of canine Parvovirus (CPV) — a highly contagious, potentially deadly, and the most common infectious disorder in dogs in the United States — caused a great upset with the Pennsylvania SPCA.

The PSPCA handled 25 cases in one week alone, breaking an unfortunate record of the most cases they have encountered in such a short time span. There is still much to be learned about the disease itself as well as the best ways to control it, but prevention is possible.

Vaccinations need to be undertaken always by the pet owners and the dogs need to be vaccinated at the appropriate time. This helps to improve the resistance of the animal against some specific diseases causing frequently problems in dogs. The dogs that are orphaned due to the death of the mother have lesser protection in their immune system.
Such animals are to be particularly protected against various diseases.

Vaccination is usually started at the age of five to six weeks and prior to this age, the maternal immunity will be helping the animal to have natural disease resistance. It is always better to deworm the animal before the vaccination and this is given emphasis many times. Vaccination against the parvo virus is done at an early age because pups are often being affected by parvo viral infections. The booster dose for each vaccine needs to be given at appropriate time and this helps to build up the immune status to an appreciable manner. Vaccination is carried out in many countries against rabies disease.

Dogs can be infected by different kinds of throat infections and conditions. The saliva in the mouth plays a critical role in the prevention of such infections.

The parotid and mandibular glands in the mouth of a dog produce most of the daytime and nocturnal saliva. Besides these there are two more glands that secrete saliva.

Dog saliva is alkaline and it contains antibacterial enzymes, which along with the normal flora of bacteria provide protection against throat infections. Despite this protection, canine throat infections can occur due to a number of reasons. These are:

- Cuts
– Burns
– Foreign bodies stuck in the mouth
– Diseases of the gums
– Structures that support the teeth
– Metabolic diseases like kidney failure.
– Systemic diseases like parvovirus infection, distemper, herpes and pseudo rabies

First identified in 1978, the Canine Parvovirus attacks the gastrointestinal tract, is highly contagious and can lead to heart tissue damage in puppies. The majority of deaths from parvovirus occur within 2-3 days after initial symptoms, largely due to dehydration. Parvovirus is spread by contact with feces passed by infected dogs. Even trace amounts on shoes, pants legs, bare feet, paws, etc. can carry the contagion. The most common symptoms include …

* Lethargy
* Loss of appetite
* Fever
* Vomiting
* Severe diarrhea (often bloody)

If your dog exhibits these symptoms, we urge you to contact your veterinarian immediately. While no known drug can eliminate the virus after infection, treatments to address primary symptoms in combination with antibiotics to prevent secondary infections can be effective in combating the virus if caught in the early stages. Be sure to follow your vet’s advice and vaccinate your canine friends against this insidious virus.

Pets, especially dogs, occupy a special place in the hearts of their owners. Like that of any other family member, the dog’s health is your responsibility. Whereas common ailments like ticks, skin problems, anal blockages, can easily be handled with the aid of Homeopathic medicine for your pets, Cat Herbal Remedies, and Dog Herbal Remedies some of the canine health problems are serious in nature but can be avoided by regular checkups by a veterinarian who will advise you of the prevention and cures for these.

One of the major threats in canine health is a heart disease that can be acquired or congenital in nature. Heart disease in dogs occurs mainly when normal blood flow is restricted when the dog’s heart valves do not close properly or the muscular walls of the dog’s heart are thinned and weakened.