[darlene v]

Hello my name is Darlene and here is my story. I just lost my 10month old great dane to parvo he was hospitalized for 3 days before he passed I miss him terrible he passed on jan 21. My husband has just bought me a new great dane pup 8 weeks old I get him in a few weeks he has started his shots.I have bleached my house but am scared I will make my new pup sick I could not live with myself if I give my new pup parvo. What should I do ? Should I take the pup in my home ? Also I want you to know my dane that just passed was spoiled and had all his shots and boosters also. I just don't want to claim a life of a little poor innocent great dane if I don't have to but I want him so bad ?

[labman]

Parvo is a nasty disease quickly leading to a terrible death. It is usually accepoted the virus may survive 6 months. I would hesitate to bring a new puppy into the house now. You only need to miss one little spot with the bleach, and I am not sure how effective it is outside. I would talk things over with your vet. They can do what they call a titer. It shows whether a puppy have antibodies to parvo. The problem is, it could have antibodies passed on from its mother which interfere with vaccines, but wear off leaving a window the puppy is vulnerable to parvo. You should be able to find more information at Canine Parvovirus, What you should know about Unlike many sites, I think you can trust the AVMA.

My vet is paranoid on parvo, insisting on more shots than the accepted schedule, including one more at 9 months.

Perhaps you should forget a puppy for now and adopt an older dog. Puppies are fun, but not if it gets parvo. There are plenty of dogs available that are old enough to be sure of their shots. Try to find a Great Dane rescue. 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 has even more dogs, but doesn't do as good of a job matching the dog to its home and retraining it as the better rescues.