Little Diva

[Nienke]

While I’m watching little Diva, I’m thinking what an absolute great dog this is. What a character, quitting just doesn’t exist according to her.

Only 4 months old, Little Diva, a gorgeous female white Husky with one bright blue eye and the other one half brown/half blue.

Diva came in with another Husky, Platina a male but different bloodline, and Muffin a female miniature bull-terrier. All around the same age.

For a week they played their puppy play vigorously and ate very well. Then the misery started. First Muffin with soft feces and some blood strain in it, followed by two neighboring dogs, later two more were added. With some herbs I had it quickly under control. But then Diva developed a very high fever and skipped her last meal. Alarm bells were ringing already but then they started working overtime. Next day my fear became true. Diva tested positive for parvo-virus, a highly infectious disease with a very high mortality rate under young pups.

She didn’t get the virus through the normal way, from the environment. No, she got the virus from the vaccines (confirmed by the vet)! The vaccines (except for the rabies) are modified life viruses, so they can give the disease, especially when giving too many which was the case with Diva and Platina.

The vet gave her an antibiotic shot, and shots to bring the fever down and stop her from vomiting. She couldn’t even keep water in. As she wasn’t dehydrated yet, she went back to the kennel with me. Unfortunately it didn’t work. The virus was so destructive that the next day she was laying on the vet’s table more dead than alive. In one day her glucose level, red and white blood cells and platelets had plummeted. Her feces were water with lots of blood, almost bright red.

After seven days fighting for her life at the vet she could come back to the kennel. Still didn’t want to eat anything, sometimes vomited her food and water out, and her feces were still water with some blood. Every day in the morning I delivered her at the vet where she received all sorts of shots and IV and in the evening I collected her. Till two days ago, her feces became worse, increase in frequency, smelled very bad again and changed color. I asked the vet: “The virus has destroyed her intestinal track, didn’t it? She can’t digest anything, and thus is only surviving because of shots and IV. Plus, that when a dog has ongoing diarrhea for a while it can develop ulcers and Diva’s white blood cells were sharply increasing to way too high.” The vet confirmed my fear.

He decided to X-ray her intestines and based on what he saw (which was not good although no ulcers thank goodness) changed the antibiotics and gave her digestive enzymes.

Since yesterday she is holding the food inside much longer and does not vomit anymore. Every two hours I need to force feed her, but this afternoon she started licking the syringe with liquid food and that after 10 days of completely refusing food and many days without any food! She is also a little more alert and walks around a bit more.

Diva received her first shot against kennel cough at the age of 2 weeks and 6 days, the second shot against Parvo and Distemper at 6 weeks and 4 days, 2 weeks later a four-in-one shot (parvo, distemper, hepatitis and leptospirosis) and again 2 weeks later the second 4-in-1 shot. The owner told me that both Diva and Platina developed a high fever after the last shot, which is a side-effect of the vaccinations. Two weeks later both developed parvovirus. Yes, also Platina got the symptoms, but luckily I had that quickly under control. And as said before, not only those two showed symptoms, dogs in their close neighborhood showed symptoms as well.

I tell this story as so many pet owners just follow whatever the vet tells them. Both pups were vaccinated by a vet, another than the one I go to. The first one almost killed them, the second one saved Diva’s life. Well at least I have now good hopes she is going to make it.

Last year I had a similar story where pups developed Canine Distemper after receiving a major amount of jabs before the age of 4 months.

I don’t say ‘don’t vaccinate’, but I do say ‘be very careful with these vaccines’. Don’t start too early, have a considerable amount of time in between the jabs (about 4 weeks than the 2 weeks which is the norm here) and personally I prefer single vaccines and don’t like the combination ones.

Diva is quite an amazing tough little puppy. Neither quitting nor whining exists in her vocabulary. I don’t know what permanent damage has been done, though. That will show up during her life.

Oh, and her owners are fully informed and involved.

Nienke