To vaccinate or not – and if not, how to guard against this killer disease.

When parvo strikes, it moves fast. Infected dogs may appear to be in perfect health one day and violently ill the next. Emergency veterinary care is expensive, and unless dogs are diagnosed and treated early, many die from this serious disease.

However, reactions to parvovirus vary widely – both among dogs and their human caretakers. In a world in which parvovirus is ubiquitous – it is literally everywhere except environments that have been sterilized – parvo kills some dogs and leaves others unscathed. And in the debate about vaccination against this disease, some people vaccinate their dogs early and often, while others refuse to vaccinate against parvo at all.

One good reason to avoid taking your puppy to ûheavily trafficked public parks – at least until ûyou have reason to believe his antibody levels ûare at protective levels – is the pervasiveness ûof parvovirus.

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