Avoiding Parvo for Puppies

The responsibility of raising a puppy is intense. How do you keep them safe, train them to be well-behaved, and stay sane while doing it? The 2-month period between when a young puppy comes home and when they are fully protected against parvo, a potentially deadly virus, can be stressful, confusing, and frustrating. It can be hard to know what to do. This article explains the seriousness of parvo and our personal experience navigating through that time with our puppy.

Preventing and treating parvo in puppies

Parvo, also known as Canine Parvovirus, is a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus that primarily affects puppies. It is important for pet owners to be aware of the symptoms of parvo, as well as how to prevent and treat the virus.

Symptoms of parvo include severe vomiting, diarrhea (often bloody), loss of appetite, and dehydration. Puppies who are infected with the virus may also have a high fever and appear lethargic. If your puppy is showing any of these symptoms, it is important to take them to a veterinarian immediately as the window for treatment is small.

One of the most effective ways to prevent parvo is through vaccination. Puppies typically begin their vaccination series at six to eight weeks of age, with boosters given every three to four weeks until they are at least 16 weeks old. Adult dogs are also regularly vaccinated.

Until the puppy is fully vaccinated, preventing exposure is key. It is important to avoid exposing your puppy to other dogs who may be sick or unvaccinated, as well as public places where other dogs may have been until they have completed their vaccinations. More on this later.

If your puppy does contract parvo, treatment will typically involve hospitalization and supportive care. This may include administering IV fluids, electrolytes, and antibiotics to help prevent secondary infections. In severe cases, blood transfusions may be necessary.

While parvo can be a serious and potentially life-threatening illness, it is also preventable. Talk to your vet about what is best for your puppy.

Our experience avoiding parvo

When we picked up Tuna at 8 weeks, we were well-prepped on some basic ground rules we had learned from the internet. Because Tuna hadn’t even started his parvo vaccine series, we had to:

• Avoid contact with dogs that weren’t fully vaccinated
• Avoid areas where dogs that were infected could have peed, including grass and dirt ground

What this meant for the flight home was actually clarifying. Don’t say hi to any other dog (easy since he was just a puppy anyways). Don’t let strangers say hi to him (people will line up to ask you at the airport to say hi, so I used the line “he doesn’t have his vaccines yet, so we aren’t saying hi to keep him safe.” That line works 95% of the time). Don’t go potty where other dogs go potty (instead we tried to go on a potty pad in a large family restroom, unsuccessfully).

But the realities of raising a dog in New York City are cruel. Rats have parvo. Rat urine carries parvo. And rats are everywhere. The only way to avoid every risk would be to never let the dog leave the apartment. But as we were already successfully potty training outside and wanted a well-socialized dog, that was not a reasonable option.

So we developed boundaries and adjusted them over time. Looking back, here was our personal experience. This is what we actually did. You should talk to your vet for any veterinary advice.

Age	Walking	Play with other dogs	Potty	Visits to the Park
8 Weeks	Only for the designated potty spot	None	Only in our single, designated spot	Only in a carrier
12 Weeks	Up and down a pre-scouted block	At the vet’s puppy playdates	Only in our single, designated spot	Short walks on a clean road
16 Weeks	Any sidewalk that looks clean	With other known dogs	Anywhere appropriate	Walks on road
Beyond	Any sidewalk, looking out for things-not-to-step-in	Any we are comfortable with	Anywhere appropriate	Walks on dirt/gravel (when not eating rocks)

Puppy playdates

Luckily, our vet had scheduled playdates with other puppies that were in the same stage of vaccination and healthy. This made a great cohort of puppies that would get together and learn how to play. It was also wonderful having the vet staff there to offer advice on play behaviors and break up any inappropriate play. Meeting other new dog owners and comparing sleep stories was also helpful. And the joy of seeing a room full of puppies romping around was worth every minute.

Picking a designated potty spot to reduce parvo risk

Picking a designated spot for potty took more analysis than expected. We wanted somewhere close to the apartment, as we needed to carry Tuna in the elevator and outside until he was trusted not to soil on the way out. But immediately outside our apartment is piled with trash two days every week and it wasn’t clean enough for us to be comfortable. Trash attracts rats.

We instead moved up the block a few hundred feet between two tree plots. A few reasons why we picked that spot related to avoiding parvo. It was well-lit at night under a streetlight, so we could see other pee/poop that we needed to avoid. It was on a slope, so pee, trash juice, and rainwater drained away. And finally, the building responsible for the sidewalk was very clean and would wash the sidewalk two times a week with a low-powered power washer. I still don’t think there was a better spot for us to potty train.

The dreaded parvo puddles

But when it did rain, small puddles would form in cracks or covers. Tuna, and many puppies, loved to experience the world by putting it in his mouth. I have no idea nor interest in knowing the appeal of puddle water, but after one sip this dog would seek every puddle out for tasting. As we were at the start of winter, a rainy potty break was guaranteed at a reasonable frequency.

These puddles became known in our family as “Parvo Puddles,” and rebranding them as such helped us remember that Tuna was interested in them and that they should be avoided for his health. Little inside jokes like that help keep us sane and on track. And they are still something we laugh at today.

Remember my puppy, my rules.

People can be cruel. In dealing with avoiding parvo, we ran into two opinions from others that were difficult to deal with and tested our boundaries.

First, when Tuna was almost done with his parvo vaccine series, our primary goal shifted from safety to social behavior. In the end, more puppies are killed by being given up to shelters than by parvo, and so it is a fact that good behavior can be life-saving. So we tried to find puppy playdates from a neighborhood dog Facebook group so he could start learning the rules of play in a safe, clean and supervised environment. Well, the number of replies from people saying “you really shouldn’t do that” or implying we were putting our dog at unnecessary risk was a bit overwhelming. Avoiding parvo is about having a plan to manage and balance the risks to the puppy, but you will never bring every risk to zero.

Second, the entitled dog owner. As a dog owner, you determine which dogs you allow your dog to say hi to, not the other dog owner or the other dog or even your dog. This is extra true with a puppy because they often won’t understand the signs of an aggressive dog as well as you. Is the owner in control and present? Is the other dog showing aggression or even just overstimulation that might hurt your puppy? Is the other dog just much bigger to play with? Regardless of the reason, you can always say “No.” When approached by another dog and saying “No thanks, we aren’t saying hi because we aren’t vaccinated yet” works 95% of the time. When it doesn’t, we’ve gotten the entitled response of “Well we didn’t do that when we raised our dog,” or “that’s just what they say but it isn’t true,” or “at his age, my dog was saying hi to everyone.”

It is frustrating to have such a simple boundary challenged. Rather than engaging with that owner, our typical reply was simply “Well that’s what our vet recommends and we trust our vet.”

The more significant point is to figure out what your boundaries are, how they will change over time, and how you will enforce them.