On the way back from the vet's office, I stopped at my mailbox and was very happy to see that the herbal remedies that I had ordered had arrived. Even though the vet said that the Parvo test came back negative, Petey was exhibiting all the symptoms of Parvo. Could the vet's test be wrong?
I immediately started Petey on the herbal medication and started following a Parvo Self Help guide. I was still going to treat him as if he had Parvo with these herbal remedies regardless of the vet's test result. I continued on with Petey's half hour to hourly treatments to keep him hydrated and tried to nourish him. I did not take Petey back to the vet the next day. He did not appear to be getting better, but he wasn't getting worse. I had read that the duration of this virus could be as long as fifteen days.
Petey had made it through Wednesday. Every half hour to hour I was administering Pedialyte, Oat Water, Vitamin C, his herbal remedies, and liver puree. I was following the Parvo Self Help guide to the "T". I decided to call the vet's office to give them an update, since I hadn't received any calls from them to check on Petey. This is when I received very interesting, yet very disturbing news.
I asked the vet if their Parvo tests were accurate, because Petey did in fact, have Parvo. He then told me that the tests are very accurate and asked me why I thought Petey had the virus. I went over all the symptoms and stages that Petey had been going through. He told me then that yes, Petey did have Parvo and proceeded to tell me that Petey evidently wasn't shedding the disease at the time of the Parvo test. If the dog is not shedding the disease at the time of the test, the Parvo test will reflect a negative result! Well, I can't express in words how extremely frustrated I was by hearing this. Why wasn't I told that there was still a possibility that Petey had Parvo and that it may be too early for an accurate test?
I continued on with Petey's routine day and night. He started drinking water on his own, but then started vomiting, so I limited him in his water intake and continued to hydrate him with Pedialyte and Oat Water. His bowel movements were a runny dark brown; they were "old blood" stools. I closely watched all of his symptoms from day to day. His stools started getting a little thicker, but were the same dark brown color, and he started exhibiting a little more energy with every passing day. However, he still wasn't eating. Finally Friday came. It had been a full week since he starting showing symptoms of the Parvo Virus; he still wasn't eating. Then over the weekend, he began to act like food was starting to smell good to him. He gradually started eating more and more of his bland food diet, until he was able to try his regular food. As of the day I'm writing this article, he is finally back to eating his normal amount of regular dog food. His bowel movements are back to normal and he's extremely energetic. He's still somewhat thin, but not nearly as bad as he was the week before.
Needless to say, I am extremely happy with the outcome of Petey's home-care.
Another interesting note: This veterinarian's office is the same office that had treated my ex-husband's dog for Parvo and the dog died. I did not know this at the time I took Petey in for his test. Would Petey have died had I left him at the vet's office that day? What if I had listened to the Vet's prognosis and had stopped treating Petey for Parvo? These are questions that will remain unanswered, however, this experience, again, leaves me feeling uneasy and not in a hurry to make any more visits to our local vet.
