My husband and I recently bought a puppy. 5 days later she was very sick and after taking her to the vet hospital we found out she had parvo. We did everything possible to help her get better but after 5 days of 24 hour treatment we had to put her to sleep. We've now learned that she contacted the disease from the breeder and we are working on shutting down this breeder ( puppy mill) and working on getting PA to change their Puppy Laws. My question is that I was ready to be a mommy to my little puppy and would like to know when its right to get a new one? She was part of our family and we are caring people who want to bring another puppy into our family.

please help??

shygrneyzs

I do not think there is a definite set aside time in this case. Certainly you grieve and you will miss your puppy for awhile, possibly for a long time. But that does not mean that you are not ready for another puppy and it does not mean you should run out today and get one. My oldest son lost his first basset hound pup to distemper. The breeder assured us the puppy had all her shots. We found out when the pup got sick, that the breeder lied. His pup got distemper from the neighbor's dog who was using our backyard as his bathroom and eating from the puppy's dishes. My (now ex) husband, after a month or so, took our son to a different dog breeder and they both fell in love with a little basset hound. I was not too crazy about it at first but within a week all was well.

You are the only one who can speak for yourself on when it is right to get a new puppy. Go and see some pups. Perhaps one will tug at your heart and perhaps none will.

Good luck.

labman

Only your heart can say when you are ready. As for your home, the virus will be there for 6 months on anything you don't treat with bleach. Soap and water won't touch it. And another dog or even a breeze can reinfect your yard. For a reliable source of information, check
http://www.avma.org/communications/b...o_brochure.asp

There are a lot of websites I don't trust. I don't try to check out all the ones I see posted.

steph3216

My husband and I aren't seeing eye to eye on this issue and I'm trying to figure out if I've done everything I can before I would get a new puppy. We threw out anything we had from our other puppy. We used the 3-1 water/bleach solution on all our rugs (love the bleach stains) and also on our wood floor. We cut our grass and then bleached it. We recently bought our new house and are planning on getting new rugs but I wasn't sure if you think we need to do this before we would get a new puppy? We only had a puppy at our house for 5 days but I do understand that it doesn't take anytime for the disease. Anything else I can do?

doggie_poopie

"The disease is most frequently seen in puppies between six weeks and six months of age. Most adult canines gain immunity either through vaccination or natural infection - an imnmunity that is passed on to newborns through maternal antibodies. Susceptibility is increased by keeping puppies outside, where parvovirus can last in the soil for up to two years, or in contact with other dogs" from http://www.msu.edu/~silvar/parvo.htm Michigan State University

"If your sick puppy was indoors only, wait at least one month before any new puppies come to your home. If your sick puppy was outdoors, remember that it can take 7 months before the virus is eliminated from soil. (Freezing will preserve the virus so that any time during which the ground is frozen, that time does not count in this 7 month period.)" from http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Con...=585&SourceID=

I wouldn't get a young puppy for sure, but maybe one that had at least 2 vacs and after a few months.

I hate it when we get a Parvo case! The poor puppies!

labman

doggie_poopie and I disagree on some things, but her suggestion of a slightly older dog is a great one. Little puppies besides being vulnerable to parvo and other diseases, are very demanding of your time and you are running to the vet constantly for more shots. Some of them even cut back on their chewing once they have their adult teeth.

One of the best sources for dogs with a predictable personality is the rescue
dogs. These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home
to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them. You may
find a rescue near you starting at
http://www.akc.org/breeds/rescue.cfm The rescues charge a fee to help cover their expenses, but is much less than the price of a puppy plus all its medical expenses the first year. www.petfinders.org is good too although they don't do the retraining or match the dog to the home as carefully.

badams007

I see you have gotten plenty of technical details about the safety of the parvo virus, but I wanted to take a second to applaud the fact that you learned about the horrors of puppymills and the sources of pet store puppies.

Please keep up spreading the word. Gov Rendell of PA has taken some significant steps in the right direction and is the proud owner of a couple of rescued golden retrevers. And now that Sen. Santorum was defeated maybe PA will have someone at the Federal level who is knowledgable as well.

As a rescue volunteer, I foster about a dozen dogs a year, often trying to heal the mental and physical scars of the millers.

Thanks for listening

-Beth

steph3216

My husband and I are doing whatever we can to get PA to listen and change their puppy laws. We've written a letter and have been sending to anyone in the government, tv, news and radio who will listen. We are also working with a lawyer. We are going to do everything to close down this women's puppu mill. What kind of dogs/puppys do you have. We've been working especially close with someone from the Main Line Rescue who also had a similar issue with this women.

GiGi1

We just recently lost our 8 month old Shih-Tzu, Mack, to parvo. As a matter of fact, we just lost him this past Sunday (Feb 11th 2007). My mother wants to get my daughter a puppy, not to replace Mack (we never could, not in a million years) but to fill that void that his death has left in her life. We took our adult Shih-Tzu, GiGi, to the vet Monday just to make sure she is okay and not carrying the virus and while we were there we asked him how long we should wait before we bring a new puppy into our home and this is what we were told. He said that since our dogs were inside dogs (they only went out to potty and that was on a leash and they walked on a sidewalk until they would "go")and that we do not have a yard (we live in an apartment), and that we have sterilized everything from top to bottom with a bleach solution (I even steamed cleaned my carpet and furniture using a bleach solution, plus spritzed back over it with a bleach solution), and provided that the puppy is up to date on his shots, that we should be okay bringing a new puppy in at any time. I do not think it is a good idea to get a puppy with only one set of shots, but I think it will be okay to get an older puppy that has had 3 or more rounds of his shots.
If anyone else has a different opinion than what our vet said, please post...because I would never bring a new puppy in if I thought he would be in danger of getting this virus. I would like to have all my bases covered so any advice would be appreciated!

labman

The one thing I would add to your vet's advice is to carry the new puppy out and past any area Mack may have used. This is the technique I use bring a new puppy home when we stop at a rest area. I carry the puppy way out the entrance ramp and then put it down on leash close to the road where other people are unlikely to have taken a sick dog.

It only takes one shot to protect a puppy from parvo, but it must come between when any immunity for its mother wears off and 2 weeks before it is exposed. Most vets just keep giving shots hoping to hit the window. So an older puppy is more likely to be immune, and can hold it longer while being carried to a safe area. The sticky I refereed to in the other question has some good material for any new puppy.

I hope you read through this thread. It has some good material.