Diagnosing and Treating Canine Parvovirus

Canine parvovirus is a highly contagious acute disease and one of the deadliest threats to dogs, hitting weaned puppies hardest. It takes two forms: the gastroenteritis type (vomiting then tomato-juice-red, foul diarrhea, fever, low white cells) and the myocarditis type (sudden death in young pups from heart failure). It spreads by mouth from infected stool, urine, and vomit, and vaccination is the real defense — isolate any sick dog and disinfect with 2% caustic soda or 10–20% bleach.