Originally Posted by hmark
i have an eleven yr old lab/mastiff mix. he's a mostly outside dog for the past few yrs. because he can't control his bladder much anymore. after doing a little research, it looks like he has parvo. the first symptoms that we noticed was on tuesday. at first i figured he ate something bad. on thursday we called a vet because he still didn't want to come out of his dog house, even though he did drink some water if we took it to him. he was very alert, just showed no interest in getting up. they said that if it was bad food that it would take a few days to work through his system. on friday we carried him into the house. not easy, he's about 120 lbs. he seemed happy, but weak. saturday late morning he started having bloody diarrhea and really dark urine that smells horrible. he will try to move, but winds up messing himself. a friend mentioned parvo, so i've spent time looking and that's what it sounds like. i plan on contacting my vet first thing in the morning, but i have concerns about my other animals. i have a 2 yr old basion/maltese and 5 cats. none will go near the sick dog, but i wonder about them getting parvo. we clean the messes up right away and use bleach water for final clean up. the sick dog has gotten up and walked short distances a couple of times the last couple of days, so we were hopeful. but now reality is starting to set in. after reading about parvo, i'm worried about our other animals. could you tell me if this is a real thing to be concerned about?? it's bad enough that it looks like we're going to lose one pet, i really don't want to lose more. they're a part of our family.
