Puppies coming down with parvo following Mega-Adoption Event
Five puppies adopted at the Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Mega Adoption Event have passed away after contracting parvo, a deadly and extremely contagious disease.
Dr. Walter Orth with the Atlantic Veterinary Services explained, “Like most viruses, unfortunately there is no treatment for the virus. You can do aggressive supportive therapy, but you can’t really cure the virus itself.”
The heartbreak of losing your dog is a feeling many of us know all too well. That feeling of heartache is still fresh for Cyndi Truitt, who lost her family dog just six months ago.
Cyndi told 47ABC she ventured out to the Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Mega Adoption event on Saturday looking to fill a void. She came away with two beautiful puppies.
Sadly, within a matter of hours of adopting the two, one of the puppies became very ill.
Cyndi Truitt said, “We adopted the dog at the event on Saturday, by Sunday he was symptomatic.”
Unfortunately the dog, who Cyndi named ‘Little Man’, was diagnosed with parvo and did not make it.
Truitt said, “He was just so small and too weak to recover and he did pass away.”
Little Man’s sister, Daisy, is now battling parvo as well.
Truitt said, “She is currently at our veterinarian hospitalized. She will come back to spend the night at the Pets ER again and hopefully will recover. She’s a little older a little stronger but again, there’s no guarantee.”
Little Man and Daisy aren’t the only pups from the Mega-Adoption Event who have come down with the disease.
In total, six cases of parvo have been confirmed, and five of those six pups have passed away.
The Brandywine Valley SPCA provided the following statement:
“This Mega event placed 1181 animals in homes. Many of them came from overcrowded shelters where they had little chance of survival. Others had been waiting in no-kill shelters to find a family without luck, such as nine year old Heathcliff, who found a forever family at Mega after 358 days in the BVSPCA’s care; a partner’s Hurricane Harvey survivor who got a great match after more than a year; and another shelter partner’s 10-year old long-timer finally went home.
Our hearts break for the six puppies impacted by parvo and their families. Each family has had the opportunity for free care at our clinic or a VCA hospital, and all adoption fees have been or are in the process of being refunded. We’ve also proactively reached out to families that might have a risk of disease spread, such as littermates of the affected puppies. These are unfortunate cases that are a small minority representing 0.5% of the population in an event that has saved thousands of lives in its three year history.
All puppies available for adoption through the BVSPCA have received age-appropriate vaccines. “Vaccinations for puppies involve a process staged in time phases over a period of months, and a puppy isn’t fully vaccinated until four months of age” said Dr. Sheri Wood, BVSPCA Medical Director. “Properly vaccinated puppies can be susceptible to various diseases even when all the proper protocols are followed.”
Wood continued, “Parvo testing is known to be unpredictable. Usually a dog doesn’t test positive until it’s symptomatic,” said Dr. Wood. “We see very few parvo cases, and the ones we do have a high treatment response and survival rate. All of the puppies at the event were examined several times by veterinary staff, and none were symptomatic prior to or during the event.”
Parvo is an unfortunate reality in sheltering, and every shelter faces it from time to time. The shelter veterinary medicine community is divided on quarantines, as doing so can increase the risk of stress and disease outbreak while also delaying the lifesaving process. That said, all puppies at the event had been held at least five days and in many cases two weeks or more by either the BVSPCA or the sending rescue prior to being available for adoption. In addition, any puppies transferred from another shelter or rescue had health certificates issued by a veterinarian as part of an exam prior to transport.”
On the other hand, Cyndi says she believes more needs to be done to ensure the health of these pups moving forward. She wants to stress that she is very pro-adoption, but she doesn’t believe mega adoption events are the best way to find homes for dogs and cats.
“I do feel that there needs to be something changed with these mega events,” she said.
Cyndi has started a Go Fund Me page to help her and others affected with medical costs, but now that the BVSPCA is reimbursing them, she is going to use the money collected to raise awareness about parvo and other common shelter diseases.
You can find that Go Fund Me page here.
If you have a puppy, you are encouraged to get them vaccinated for parvo, as it is the best form of prevention.
Tags: bvspca, cyndi truitt, death, die, disease, diseased, five, mega adoption event, parvo, puppy, sick, six
