surviving parvo virus?

[stacey]

Hello there. Thanks for this site, its good to have other shepherd owners to compare stories with.

I was so distraught after losing my 14 year old super shepherd many moons ago I have had a long period of time without a shepherd. Recently though I have had more and more to do with the Mountain Rescue team that I decided that a search and rescue dog would be in order. For me there is only one breed of dog worthy of walking by my side on a regular basis.
ok...so i decided not to go for a rescue dog....search and rescue dogs need to be trust worthy....so i searched for the ideal puppy and what i found was a puppy in need of rescue.
She (Seren) was born in a cold dark stone shed to a bitch that decided that she wanted her pups to be born there. The farmer decided not to distress her by insisting on moving her and so the pups spent their entire time confined in the dark shed. A few days after she had her first Parvo shot i took her home. I weighed the pros and cons of removing a pup from her mum unneccessarily at 6 weeks and thought it the best rightly or wrongly to get her out of the dark confinment as soon as poss. She had not felt grass on her paws, felt the sunlight on her face or the wind in her coat. My last GSD also left his mum at 6 weeks and as i have already said....best dog ever. Was he deprived of k9 instincts....oh no, first time he saw sheep he rounded them up herded them into the next field and didnt even make them run (or walk fast). A true shepherd.
Anyway....got my new pup home, tail wagging, inquisitive and delightful, but as the day wore on I became concerned because she would not eat or drink.
Next morning she had a bad case of the runs which contained blood and still wouldnt eat. I rang the vet and she said leave her until tomorrow morning and see how she is. Tempt her with weetabix and warm milk. By the afternoon she did have some water but it bounced straight back. I took her to the vet because the deterioration of her condition alarmed me.
She was given injections of antibiotics antisemetics and painkillers and told that if she is worse by 10.30 that night she was to go back to the vet.
We got to tea time.......then she was on a drip for the next three days.

The results showed she had parvo and she is still recovering but the vets said that they are surprized that she made it at all!
She is now just 9 weeks old. And being a recovering Parvo victim is not without its own issues.
Our biggest problem is a combination of a) not knowing how to play properly and B) suddenly finding that she has energy again after being so ill. The vet said that she didnt know what else to do with it.
What does she do? She attacks....bites (draws blood)......shakes...rips and tears and all the while growling and not the furniture but people! Not the best behaviour for a search and rescue dog!
The only thing i can think to do is to no longer approach her but wait for her to approach us. If she is soft and gentle we reward her with affection. If she comes to us for a fight we give her the oppertunity to change her mind and if she doesnt then she gets put in a small room on her own for a 10- 15 second break and see if she stops biting. if she comes out and bites again she goes back in the room. She is fast to learn everything else but is stubborn about this.
Don't get me wrong. She does show times when she has the temperament that attracted me to her in the first place. She can be a very sweet and loving gentle dog and she has bonded well with the family but i have an 11 year old daughter who has the unfortunate disability of sounding like the best shrieking toy you have ever heard (if your a young pup).
And they both so bad want to play with each other!
So as well as the punish and reward thing going on....i have every type of toy you can imagine. stimulating...chewing...squeaking....bouncing....a nd i throw ...i chase...i retrieve....i roll but little gets this dog playing in a calm and happy manner for long. I also take her out on 10-15 minute walks so many times a day its not funny (we are rather limited in the walks coz we still haven't had the second injection.)
Someone said to pad up and let her chomp away to her hearts content but she worked herself up to such a frenzy i was on the verge of being scared....of a puppy?
So i dont think that is an answer at all.
I would really like to know if anyone has come across this before. It doesnt fit with the usual types of aggression that you read about.
and how best to deal with it. The vet claimed it would settle down in a few days, but in order to resume normal family life it would be good to know the right way to handle it rather than waiting and bleeding and finding out we were wrong to wait.
Just in case anyone is interested she is eating boiled chicken and rice having tried normal puppy foods but found that they irritated her tummy too much.

[J&J]

One of my dogs had pavo virus way back in mid 90's, very touch and go with a weeks stay at the vets...

He was around 2 years old (difficult to tell his age his was a stray) he lost over half his body wieght... So we had to spend time slowly increasing his weight...

Sam made a quick recovery, didn't take long to get the weight back on him the only problem he faced long term from his ordel, was a very sensitive stomach we had to keep him on a very bland diet of chicken and rice, any other type of food would immediately upset his stomach and straight through...

With such a young pup, you will still be able to train but will need to keep an eye to ensure that the get enough rest between training session, and be carefull what training treat you use, just incase it upsets their stomach..

[DelsMum]

Originally Posted by stacey

so i decided not to go for a rescue dog....search and rescue dogs need to be trust worthy.....

Extremely unfair generalisation IMO

[jesterjenn]

Originally Posted by DelsMum

Extremely unfair generalisation IMO

Couldn't agree more!!!

Both my two pups (I say pups, but one is nearly 15 months and the other nearly 5 year) are rescues and are immensely trustworthy!!!

In fact, our friend has a GSD who is around 3 and he was gotten from a puppy and he is agressive to people!!!

[stacey]

ok guys....what i meant was you can never be sure exactly what a rescued dog has gone through in its past. Everything can be truely hunky dory and then one day something really obscure happens that can trigger an adverse reaction. If i was just searching a family pet i would happily take on a rescued dog. But my point was... a search and rescue dog is often the first to find a casualty and often the handler is far behind! An unsupervised dog.
My intention was not to start a war between the virtues of puppy v rescue. People (or should i say some....before i start another war) tend to be nervous about GSD's in the first instance and so when a GSD is in public service it is wise dont you think not to risk any form of incident such as barking at that quirky hat for the good of the breed.
I am though very pleased that the two responses i have had about my stupid generalisation have had the good fortune to have had success stories so far. I know of a fair few that have ended in tears.

[DelsMum]

The thing is Stacey, and this is only MO which obviously means no one has to take it, that you have have effectively rescued a pup that had a dodgy start so really, you seem to be in the same position as someone who has a rescue dog. If that waffling makes any sense at all.

And just as an aside, and I am not suggesting for a moment that this next comment is aimed at you, if I had a pound for everyone I have spoken to who insisted on getting a puppy as they didn't want to take on a dog with 'issues' and promptly did everything wrong and totally effed it up I could probably give up work!

[J&J]

Originally Posted by stacey

ok guys....what i meant was you can never be sure exactly what a rescued dog has gone through in its past. Everything can be truely hunky dory and then one day something really obscure happens that can trigger an adverse reaction.

Yes I would agree that to select a suitable dog for a particular purpose from a rescue source is a lot harder than looking at a known litter, as you have to not only consider whether the dog is capable of carry out the task you want it to, but also do a lot of consideration of propable background, and assessing this within a working context etc...

You be surprised how many rescue dogs do go on and into working lives with great success... More so with shepherds as a lot actually end up in rescue because their previous owners have negelcted to give them a purpose in life...

In truth I very much suspect if you'll half way up a mountain with a broken leg with an up most of fear of a shepherd, you really not going to be bothered about one turning up signaling that help is very near to hand..

[TiasDad]

Hi Stacey & welcome to the forum.

If I am wrong in my opinions, as I have very little medical knowledge, I hope someone on here will put me right as I want to learn.

From your original post, it seems Seren was innoculated at/before 6 weeks which in my opinion is a little early and may have contributed to the onset of the Parvo. Her immune system may not have developed enough to cope with what amounts to a mild dose of the disease.

As to her biting behaviour, she hasn't had the chance yet to trust a human being. Her first real contact is someone sticking needles in her, then someone takes her away from her family when she's not ready where she is then poked and prodded when she doesn't feel well and just wants to be left alone. Unlike fear and hate... love, trust and reassurance take time to develope so all I can advise is to be patient, gentle and consistent for a few weeks more.

Chastise gently and where possible use distraction techniques while you build a bond which will eventually result in trust, love and a fantastic girl.

Good luck

[kita]

As regards the Parvo. was the mother vaccinated?

The only reason vets do not vaccinate before 6 weeks is that the pup still has antibodies in its system from the mother (if she was vaccinated), therefore they would render the vaccination useless. The vets like to wait until the antibodies are all gone out of the pups system before they vaccinate. The pups then make their own antibodies in response to the vaccination.

They are not waiting for the pups immune system to develop.

As regards the biting I would continue doing what you are already doing, she will learn in time, she is still only very young yet and if she has been alone for a while (because of the Parvo.) she has not had the chance to learn bite inhibition from playing with the other pups in the litter. This means you have to teach her that when she bites too hard everything stops NOW. It has to be instantaneous and consistent. Stop the game, totally withdraw by either turning your back on her or walking away. If necessary put her in another room for a minute. This has to be done by everyone.

It does not sound like she will have learned much about anything to be honest and having parvo. will have set her back even more. You really need to socialise her as much as possible as soon as possible.

Six weeks old is a bit young to leave the mother, but what is done is done and cannot be helped now. Did you meet the mother?

Sue

PS NEVER punish her for growling - if you do she may stop growling and go straight to biting. Growling is not always a sign of aggression, some dogs do it when playing/talking.

[zetstaff]

Bless her heart

I have no experience of parvo + don't want to get into the breed/rescue thing as everyone has their own thoughts, but welcome + hope your princess thrives, as I'm sure she will xx