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Complimentary Care for Dogs with Cushing’s

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Editorial Staff
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Cushing’s Disease eBook from Whole Dog Journal

Because the diagnosis and treatment of Cushing’s disease can be confusing, expensive, and fraught with adverse side effects, many caregivers turn to alternative or complementary therapies.

For those who prefer treatments that have been proven in double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials, unconventional therapies are themselves fraught with peril. Product testimonials and anecdotal reports don’t prove anything, and by turning first to an herbal preparation or glandular extract, one might deny the patient an opportunity for effective treatment. Online reviews of nutritional supplements or herbal preparations range from reports about dogs that appear to be cured to heartbreaking stories of dogs whose condition deteriorated rapidly. Success stories are often not documented by laboratory test results, leaving readers to wonder whether the dogs that improved so dramatically actually had Cushing’s.

At the same time, the cost of veterinary tests, surgery, or prescription drugs for a dog is sometimes simply prohibitive. Because drugs can only relieve symptoms and cannot cure Cushing’s disease or slow its progression, there is little harm in trying alternatives if your dog’s quality of life is not impacted.

For some, the decision to pursue nutritional and alternative treatments is philosophical. Holistic veterinarians look at Cushing’s disease and every other canine illness from a different perspective than do conventionally trained veterinarians. They are likely to try holistic or natural treatments first and turn to symptom-suppressing conventional therapies later instead of the other way around.

For more detailed information on the diagnosis and treatment of Cushing’s Disease, purchase and download Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Cushing’s Disease.

Signs of Cushing’s Disease

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Editorial Staff
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Cushing’s Disease eBook from Whole Dog Journal

Clinical signs of Cushing’s, no matter its primary cause, may include one or most of the following:

  • Polyuria (increased frequency of urination), polydipsia (increased thirst), and polyphagia (increased, ravenous hunger).
  • Weakening and atrophy of the muscles of the extremities and abdomen, resulting in gradual abdominal enlargement, lordosis (sway back), muscle trembling, and weakness.
  • Weight loss. While most dogs appear fat, they may actually lose weight due to the loss of muscle mass.
  • Fat deposits in the liver, resulting in diminished liver function.
  • Skin lesions are common and are often the most recognizable symptoms of the disease. The skin may thin, or mineral deposits may occur within the skin, especially along the dorsal midline. The dog may also exhibit hair loss in a non-itchy “hormonal pattern” (bilateral and symmetrical hair loss, not patchy as typically seen with allergies, and often associated with thinning of hair and poor regrowth, rather than a complete loss of hair). This hair loss may be concentrated over the body, groin, and flanks, and spare the head and extremities. In chronic hormonal conditions the hair thinning may be associated with a thickening and a black discoloration of the abdominal skin called acanthosis.
  • Behavior changes: lethargy, sleep-wake cycle disturbances, panting, and decreased interaction with owners.

A tentative diagnosis may be inferred from the clinical signs, but positive diagnosis requires laboratory confirmation. Differentiating pituitary-dependent from primary-adrenal Cushing’s is impossible without lab tests.

For more detailed information on the diagnosis and treatment of Cushing’s Disease, purchase and download Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Cushing’s Disease.

Training Regressions

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Editorial Staff
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Culture Clash Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

People are terribly mystified by any change in their dog’s behavior and go on a lot with the “why? WHY” as though there should never be any variability whatsoever in this living organism’s behavior. Training regressions are a frequent occurrence and no big deal. It is so important to remember that behavior is always in flux, constantly subjected to whatever contingencies there are in the environment as well as being influenced by unknown internal events. In the case of behavior problems, there are three main reasons for behavior that had seemed to be “fixed” to break down again:

  1. Undertraining: the behavior was never that strong in the first place
  2. Contingency change: the behavior extinguished or another one was trained by the owner or environment
  3. Failure to generalize: the behavior falls apart in the a new location or context

A “contingency change” example: Inadvertent New Rules

A contingency change might look like the following. The dog has learned that it’s safe and often reinforcing to urinate in the yard and dangerous in most places he has tried in the house and so a fairly solid yard habit is in place. The owner has become upset about the yellowing of grass from dog urine and has decided to limit the dog to eliminating in one corner of the yard. The owner takes the dog on leash at elimination times for a couple of weeks, always going to one corner and praising the dog for urinating. The first couple of times the dog goes out off leash, she urinates in the wrong area. The owner punishes the dog. On the third day, the dog will not urinate in the yard. The owner sees this and takes the dog for a walk. The dog has a very full bladder and finally urinates and is praised by the owner. The owner likes the idea of the dog urinating on the walk rather than in the yard and starts taking the dog around the block to eliminate, which is successful and keeps the yard urine-free.

A few months later, the owner is in a rush to prepare for guests arriving so lets the dog into the yard to pee while finishing the cooking. The dog does not urinate in the yard and comes back in full. When the guests arrive, the owner puts the dog on leash to calm one of the visitors who is afraid of dogs. The dog urinates on the Persian rug. The owner thinks the dog sensed that one of the guests didn’t like her and urinated to demonstrate her resentment. In fact, the dog has learned to urinate when on leash only, based on the new contingencies inadvertently set up by the owner. Dogs aren’t into big agendas. They just need to know where and when it’s safe to pee.

From Jean Donaldson’s thought-provoking book, Culture Clash, dog owners will learn and get a better understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans. Purchase Culture Clash from Whole Dog Journal today.

Jumping Up

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Editorial Staff
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Culture Clash Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

A classic culture clash example is greeting rituals: in most human cultures, we shake hands or bow. In dog culture, they buzz around excitedly, lick and sniff each other. The origin of jumping up is in infancy. Wolf pups will jump up to lick the corners of adults’ mouths, triggering the latter to regurgitate food that the puppies can eat. This jumping up and licking is retained into adulthood as a greeting ritual. It’s extremely common in dogs though its root has faded: only a minority of adults regurgitate. Greeting may become exaggerated when dogs live with humans because the social group is continually being fractured, then reunited: we leave and come back a lot, necessitating constant broad rituals. We’re also vertical: the dog wants to get at our face. We also tend to let tiny puppies get away with it and then change the rules when they grow larger.

The main reason dogs jump is that no one has taught them to do otherwise. I’m not talking about punishments like kneeing dogs, pinching their feet or cutting off their air with a strangle collar. This sort of abuse has been the prevailing “treatment” but is inhumane and laden with side-effects. Imagine yourself being kneed in the diaphragm or pushed over backwards for smiling or extending your hand in friendship. It’s not the fault of dogs that their cultural norm is at odds with our greeting preferences.

The key to training dogs not to jump up is to strongly train an alternative behavior that is mutually exclusive to jumping. The dog cannot jump up and sit at the same time. Nor can he dig through walls while working on a chew toy, lie on a mat and annoy dinner guests, or hold eye contact while chasing cars. The applications of this technique – DRI (differential reinforcement of an in compatible behavior, or “operant counterconditioning”) – are limitless.

From Jean Donaldson’s thought-provoking book, Culture Clash, dog owners will learn and get a better understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans, including ways to control jumping up. Purchase Culture Clash from Whole Dog Journal today.

Barking

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Editorial Staff
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Culture Clash Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons.

  1. Watchdog Barking serves the dual purpose of alerting other pack members that there is an intruder or change in the environment and warning the intruder that they have been noticed. Dogs bark much more than their ancestors, wolves, who hardly ever bark. In domesticating them, we have selected for more barking. The predisposition to watch-dog bark varies among breeds and individuals. The modifying principles are the same, though, whether you’re trying to coax a little more barking out of a couch potato Newfoundland or tone down barking in a hair-trigger German Shepard or miniature schnauzer.
  2. Request Barking starts off as a behavioral experiment by the dog, kind of a “let’s see what this produces.” Typical requests include opening doors, handouts from your plate, invitations to play attention, and being let out of a crate or confinement area. This behavior is a problem not because the dog tries out the experiment but because the experiment usually succeeds: the owner reinforces the barking by granting the request and a habit is born. Dogs zero in on whatever strategy works.
  3. Spooky Barking occurs when the dog is fearful or uncomfortable about something in the environment. It’s the dog’s way of saying: “Back off – don’t come any closer.” This is much more serious than garden variety watchdog barking because the dog in question is advertising that he is afraid and therefore potentially dangerous if approached.
  4. Boredom Barking can result when the dog’s daily needs for exercise and social and mental stimulation aren’t met. The dog barks compulsively. This is very much like pacing back and forth, tail-chasing or self-mutilation. Chained dogs and dogs left outdoors in yards are at high risk.

From Jean Donaldson’s thought-provoking book, Culture Clash, dog owners will learn and get a better understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans, including ways to control excessive barking. Purchase Culture Clash from Whole Dog Journal today.

Tug of War

By
Editorial Staff
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Culture Clash Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

Dog owners have been admonished for decades by trainers, breeders and veterinarians to never play tug of war with their dogs because it risks increasing aggression and/or dominance in the dog. I think they’ve muddled predatory behavior, which tug actually is, with agnostic (conflict resolution) behavior, which tug is not. Played with rules, tug of war is a tremendous predatory energy burner and good exercise for both dog and owner. Like structured roughhousing, it servers as a good barometer of the kind of control you have over the dog, most importantly over his jaws. The game doesn’t make the dog a predator; he already is one. The game is an outlet.

Tug, or any vigorous activity for that matter, played without rules or functioning human brain cells is potentially dangerous. But the baby has been thrown out with the bath water in this case: why deprive dogs and owners of one of the best energy burners and outlets there is? It’s good because it is intense, increases dog focus and confidence, and plugs into something very deep inside dogs. The owner becomes the source of a potent reinforcing activity, and there is a payoff in terms of lowered incidence of behavior problems due to understimulation. It’s also extremely efficient for the owner in terms of space and time requirements, and it can be used as a convenient reinforcement option in obedience.

The “tug might make him more dominant” argument is extremely lame. The implication is that dogs or wolves ascertain rank by grabbing the ends of an object and tugging to see who “wins”. If anything, the best description of tug is that it is cooperative behavior. It’s not you vs. the dog, it’s you and the dog vs. the tug of war toy. When you’re playing tug of war with a dog and he “wins,” i.e. you let it go, a tug addicted dog will try to get you to re-engage in the game rather than leaving and hoarding. You have control of the supreme, ultimate reinforcer here: the ability to make the toy appear to resist, to feel like living prey. The dog learns this.

From Jean Donaldson’s thought-provoking book, Culture Clash, dog owners will learn and get a better understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans, including rules of tug. Purchase Culture Clash from Whole Dog Journal today.

The Dominance Panacea

By
Editorial Staff
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0
Culture Clash Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

One model that has been put forth as a quasi-justification for the use of aversives in training is pack theory. Ever since the linear hierarchy was postulated in wolves, dog people have gone cuckoo in their efforts to explain every conceivable dog behavior and human-dog interaction in terms of “dominance.” We really latched onto that one. It is a great example of a successful meme. Dogs misbehave or are disobedient because they haven’t been shown who’s boss. You must be the “alpha” in your “pack.” Aside from amounting to yet another justification for aversives-oriented training methods – the dog is supposedly staying up nights thinking up ways to stage a coup so you’d better keep him in his pace with plenty of coercion – dominance has provided a panacea-like explanation for dog-behaviors.

For the owner, this simple explanation makes unnecessary the work of boning up on a myriad of other topics, like how animals learn. Notions like dogs rushing through doors ahead of their owners or pulling on a leash to exert dominance over their owners are too stupid for words. Some poor people have it so backwards that they view appeasement behaviors such as jumping up to lick or pawing as dominance displays and thus fair game for aversive training. The dominance panacea is, once again, a case of leaping to a conclusion before ruling out more obvious explanations. Dogs chew furniture because what else could furniture possibly be for? They are disobedient because they have no idea what is being asked of them, are undermotivated to comply, or something else has won the behavioral gambit at that moment in time, like a fleeing squirrel. Rank is not likely on their minds.

From Jean Donaldson’s thought-provoking book, Culture Clash, dog owners will learn and get a better understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans. Purchase Culture Clash from Whole Dog Journal today.

Signs of Bloat in Dogs

By
Kate Basedow, LVT
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0
Bloat in dogs can be caused due to eating too swiftly.
Eating too quickly is a suspected cause of bloat, so feeding dogs in separate areas to avoid racing to finish their chow is a wise management practice. Credit: Su Arslanoglu | Getty Images

Bloat, officially known as gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV), is an extremely dangerous condition where the dog’s stomach fills with gas and can twist upon itself. Bloat without a twisted stomach can be treated medically, but if the stomach twists the dog will need emergency surgery. If your dog shows a distended abdomen or other signs of bloat, get treatment immediately.

Bloat is most likely to occur a few hours after eating a large meal, but it can occur at any time. If you notice any signs of bloat in dogs, act immediately and call your veterinarian or a veterinary emergency hospital.

Symptoms of bloat in dogs include:

  • Distended abdomen
  • Dry heaving and attempting to vomit without much coming up
  • Panting and difficulty breathing
  • Swollen abdomen sounds hollow when tapped on
  • Pacing, unable to get comfortable
  • Looking at the stomach
  • Drooling
  • Collapse
  • Death

Dogs at Risk for Bloat

You may see signs of bloat in any dog, but bloat most commonly occurs in large dogs with a deep chest, such as Dobermans and Great Danes. Male dogs are more likely to bloat than females, and anxious dogs also seem to have an increased risk.

A genetic element to bloat is possible. If your dog has close relatives who have bloated, he is more likely to bloat during his own lifetime.

Causes of Bloat in Dogs

While it’s unclear exactly what causes bloat in dogs, the suspected causes of bloat are:

  • History of bloat in a particular breed line (hints to a possible genetic predisposition)
  • Dogs who eat too fast (ingest excess air with the meal)
  • Using elevated feeding bowls (promotes ingestion of excess air with the meal)
  • Feeding dry food with heavy fat/oil content
  • Feeding a large meal vs. multiple smaller meals
  • Exercising on a full stomach
  • Drinking excessive amounts of water at one time

Signs of Bloat in Dogs

The first stage of bloat is pain. If the stomach is twisted, things get really bad. As the stomach twists, blood vessels are cut off and circulation is lost to the stomach and possibly the spleen. Eventually these tissues will die.

The stomach also becomes completely sealed at both ends, meaning that the gas has no outlet to escape. In extreme cases the stomach can rupture.

Treating Bloat in Dogs

The vet will likely take at least one X-ray. This will show if the stomach is filled with gas, and whether it has twisted and become a full GDV.

If the stomach has not twisted, your vet may be able to release the gas by passing a tube into your dog’s stomach. This may require sedation.

If your dog’s stomach twisted, he will need emergency surgery. The veterinary team will first take measures to stabilize his condition, then open the abdomen to untwist the stomach and make sure that all the tissues appear healthy. Your dog’s stomach will also be tacked to the abdominal wall to prevent it from twisting again in the future.

Dogs at high risk for bloat sometimes have their stomachs tacked as a preventive measure. This is usually done at the same time as a spay or neuter procedure.

Could You Defend Yourself in a Dog Attack?

By
Nancy Kerns
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A litter of bully breed puppies, and their father and mother bark aggressively at passersby beyond the fence line.
As large as he was, the presumed father of the pups (far right) wasn’t nearly as scary as the mother (second from right), who repeatedly attacked her own pups when they got in her way as she ran back and forth barking at passersby. Her intensity and frustration was terrifying.

A few weeks ago, I went to a local park to watch a flag football tournament that my 11-year-old grandson was playing in. It was being held in a park in a residential neighborhood; the boundary fences of two sides of the park are also the fences of houses’ back yards. I couldn’t help but notice that whenever someone at the tournament went down the park sidewalk by one house’s back yard, a cacophony of barking and snarling would arise – a concerning sound, coming from a location with a couple hundred kids and families present, separated by a single fence. Between games, I wandered over to take a look.

Yikes! It was worse than I imagined. In a muddy, junk-filled back yard, I counted six bully-breed dogs: four pups, about 4 or 5 months old; a gigantic intact male, and a smaller female who was, judging by her elongated nipples, the mother of the pups (and likely not her first litter). There wasn’t a shred of bedding or even the tiniest bit of shelter in the yard. As I approached, the mother dog barked and lunged and bit at the chain-link fence – and, occasionally, as the puppies joined her in barking, she attacked one of them, eliciting violent snarls and skirmishes among all of them in a classic mess of what behavior professionals call “redirected aggression.” Arousal plus frustration equals attack anything that moves. Oh boy.

I scrutinized the fence; it seemed adequate for holding the dogs. But there was some firewood and some other junk stacked against it – and a really motivated, athletic dog could certainly climb or jump to the top of the junk and scale the fence. I walked around to the front of the house, took down the address, and then went back to where my husband and grandson were waiting for the next game to start. (I also texted information about the situation and the address to a friend who is one of our town’s animal control officers; he promised the department would follow up with a welfare check.)

For over five hours – the length of time we were at the park – I listened intently every time I heard the dogs erupt in barking, and each time, it devolved into snarling and fighting sounds and gradually stopped.

Am I the only person who starts wondering what I would do if an aggressive dog (or dogs!) appeared on the scene and started attacking people – or attacking me, or my dog? I have witnessed a couple of dog fights (which were broken up fairly quickly) and one terrible incident in which a bully-breed dog attacked a small cattle dog (which took forever to separate the aggressor from the screaming victim dog). At my local shelter, I once saw a dog who was being held for the duration of an investigation into the mauling of an elderly woman, who was nearly killed in the attack (and actually had her lower leg amputated due to the severity of the injuries she suffered to her foot and ankle).

But I’ve never seen a dog attack a human, and every time I read or hear about a human victim of a dog-mauling, I wonder: Would I fare any better? Would I know what to do?

I thought about this again after viewing a TikTok video in which a dog trainer discussed an incident in which an owner was mauled by his own dog and had to be rescued by passers-by. The trainer commented, “In my professional opinion, if you choose to own a large, powerful breed, especially one that is bred for aggression, be it guarding behavior, be it protection, be it a dog bred with dog aggression – you need to be able to physically disable that dog if it decides to attack someone or something. You should know the techniques and you should have the physical strength to do it…”

I agree; all dog owners, but especially people who own large, strong dogs should know what to do in case their dog attacked someone (or themselves) and be capable of doing it. But what about the general public? Would anyone at the park where I watched kids playing flag football know what to do if one (or more) of those frustrated, neglected dogs got out and attacked someone?

We’ve published just a couple of articles over the years about defending yourself (or your dog) if you or your dog were attacked by a dog (here and here). I didn’t find any perfect videos or other sources of good information on this topic elsewhere; this video is probably the best thing I found (besides the articles in WDJ!).

Maybe it’s a weird thing for a dog lover to be thinking about during a nice day in a park – or for a couple of weeks afterward. What do you think? Have you ever wondered how or whether you could defend yourself against an attacking dog? Or have you had to do so?

Water Intoxication in Dogs Can Be Deadly

By
Dr. Eileen Fatcheric, DVM
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Water intoxication in dogs can be cause by too much or too little sodium.
Dogs naturally ingest water when swimming, which can lead to dangerous sodium levels in the dog’s blood. Credit: Maisie Patterson | Getty Images

Swimming dogs can experience “water intoxication,” or hyponatremia, making it wise to monitor the dog’s time in the water. It’s all too easy, especially with small dogs and dogs retrieving toys from the water, for the dog to accidentally ingest too much water and get water intoxication. The term “saltwater poisoning in dogs,” or hypernatremia, is the result of ingesting too much saltwater.

Both causes are your dog ingesting too much water, which affects the sodium levels in your dog’s blood and can make your dog extremely ill. There are other causes, too, like illness and behavior problems. Regardless of the cause, too much or too little sodium in the blood is a veterinary emergency that can cause either hyponatremia or hypernatremia in dogs, both of which are life-threatening imbalances of sodium to water in the dog’s body.

Critical Sodium Balances

Water balance in the body is handled by several different physical mechanisms involving the brain, the kidneys, and the endocrine system. It is strongly dependent on sodium levels in the bloodstream. Too much sodium in the bloodstream is called hypernatremia, and too little sodium in the bloodstream is hyponatremia. Both conditions are bad and, when severe, can lead to death.

Brain cells are especially sensitive to sodium imbalance, so it’s not surprising that the classic symptoms of both hypernatremia and hyponatremia in dogs are neurologic. With hypernatremia, water flows out of cells into the bloodstream, causing neuronal dehydration and shrinking of brain cells. With hyponatremia, water is pushed into cells, resulting in cerebral edema and brain cell swelling.

Signs of hypernatremia or hyponatremia in dogs include:

  • Lethargy
  • Weakness
  • Incoordination
  • Disorientation
  • Muscle twitching
  • Vomiting/diarrhea
  • Loss of appetite
  • Seizures
  • Coma
  • Death

Hypernatremia in dogs results from either significant water loss from the body or significant sodium gain. Causes of significant water loss in dogs include:

  • Vomiting/diarrhea
  • Kidney disease
  • No access to drinking water
  • Diabetes (both forms: mellitus and insipidus)
  • Neurologic disease resulting in decreased water intake
  • Heat stroke, fever, seizures
  • Medications (diuretics, steroids)

Causes of sodium gain in dogs include ingestion of:

  • Seawater
  • Saltwater pool water
  • Table salt
  • Beef jerky treats
  • Homemade Playdough
  • Overeating anything salty

Hyponatremia in dogs results from either excessive water gain or excessive sodium loss from the body.

Causes of sodium loss in dogs include:

  • Vomiting/diarrhea
  • Diseases causing fluid to accumulate in the abdomen or chest (third space phenomenon)
  • Thermal burns to skin
  • Urinary loss caused by diuretic medications, Addison’s disease, kidney disease, and cerebral salt-wasting disease

Causes of excessive water gain in dogs include:

  • Behavioral overdrinking (psychogenic ploydipsia)
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Excessive freshwater ingestion while swimming

If your dog starts showing any signs of hypernatremia or hyponatremia, consider this an emergency and get to the vet right away. Treatment will vary depending on severity and underlying causes, but typically involves hospitalization and intravenous fluid therapy.

Things you can do to avoid these life-threatening conditions include:

  • Regular veterinary examinations and recommended health screening tests
  • Avoid environmental hazards like salty foods left within reach
  • Keep clean, fresh water always available
  • Protect your dog from seasonal heat stress by providing shade, fans, and/or air conditioning.

How to Stop Dog Nail Bleeding

By
Kate Basedow, LVT
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0
Cutting too high when clipping a dog nails is possible. Stopping a dogs nails bleeding is fairly simple.
Even professional groomers can accidentally cut a nail too close, and most have styptic powder ready to use. Credit: PixelsEffect | Getty Images

If you cut your dog’s nail too close to the quick, it will bleed. For a dog’s bleeding nail, a dab of styptic powder will get the bleeding to stop. If styptic powder isn’t available, try some corn starch (see below) or apply pressure with a clean cloth or your finger to stop the bleeding. Talk to your dog in a slow, calm voice to calm her – a broken or bleeding nail is painful.

Styptic Powder for Dogs

Styptic powder (active ingredient ferric subsulfate) clots the blood and stops small bleeds. Simply apply the powder to the tip of a bleeding nail, and the nail will stop bleeding.

If you just nicked the quick, a small amount of powder will do the job. For more dramatic incidents, you might need to reapply powder several times. Most dogs tolerate styptic powder well, though some do react with discomfort as you apply it.

Silver nitrate sticks can also be used to stop dog nail bleeding, but they do sting so your dog likely won’t enjoy it.

Is Styptic Powder Safe for Dogs to Lick?

Licking up a small amount of styptic powder won’t harm your dog, but prevent her from consuming large amounts.

Homemade Styptic Powder for Dogs

If you don’t have styptic powder available, there are several household items you can use to help stop your dog’s nail from bleeding.

  • Cornstarch, with or without baking soda and flour
  • Ivory soap (press the nail into the bar of soap)
  • Liquid bandage

None of these options work quite as quickly as styptic powder, but they will help in a pinch.

For the most optimal results when trimming your dog’s nails, be sure to use proper tools and be sure you understand proper nail length. Never hesitate to ask your veterinarian for advice on trimming your dog’s nails or the name of a good professional dog groomer.

How Long Can Parvo Last in the Environment?

By
Dr. Debra M. Eldredge, DVM
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0
Parvo lasts a long time and is highly contagious through contact meaning these four puppies are at risk of contracting it from a surface.
The virus that causes canine parvo can last for months on any surface and is highly contagious. Thorough cleanup, including using a disinfectant effective against the virus is a necessity. Credit: Debbishop | Getty Images

Parvo is a devastating canine disease caused by a tough virus that can survive in the environment for a surprisingly long time.

Reports vary, but basically the parvo virus can live on any surface for weeks to months. Parvo can live on concrete for up to nine months. It will live on untreated carpets for six months. Parvo can live on human skin, too, but it’s the rare individual who would not immediately clean up dog feces on their skin. (Parvo is a highly contagious disease spread by contact with feces from infected canines.)

Cleaning up outdoors is a major challenge. While sunlight helps destroy parvovirus, some reports say parvo can live up to nine years in untreated ground, depending on temperatures and humidity. Many reports say seven to nine months is more realistic, but still, it’s a long time.

How to Get Rid of Parvo

Because it’s so highly contagious, parvo is difficult to control. Obviously, keep infected dogs clean and free of feces debris. If you want to get rid of parvo, pick up any fecal material as best you can. It helps to put some bleach on the spots you clean, if possible. For small outdoor areas, you may want to spray of mix of 10:1 water:bleach.

If dealing with a parvo outbreak, assume all fecal material is contaminated. All organic debris needs to be removed or it will harbor the virus. Use a strong detergent followed by a disinfectant.

Follow the deep cleaning with bleach – bleach is one of the few effective disinfectants – where you can. This includes hard surfaces, including floors, bowls, and crates (both in the home and the car). Any disinfectant should be in contact with the area to be cleaned for a minimum of 10 minutes. After that, you can clean the area to be sure no cleaner residue is left behind, especially on bowls and crates.

Most families prefer not to bleach their carpets. Some commercial cleaners such as TekTrol are approved to kill parvo virus and claim to not damage your carpets.

Stop the Parvo Spread

Canine Parvoviruses include the smallest known viruses and some of the most environmentally resistant. Meaning parvo can last in the environment for a long time.
Canine parvoviruses include the smallest known viruses and some of the most environmentally resistant. Each particle consists of DNA surrounded by an icosahedral protein capsid. It is highly contagious. Credit: Roger Harris/Science Photo Library

It is easy for people to unwittingly spread parvo virus. It is not an airborne virus, but it can survive on your skin, your clothes, dog bowls, dog beds – basically anywhere. Excellent hygiene is important to rid your home or kennel of this virus:

  • Wash your hands after handling an infected pup or dog.
  • Use a bleach hand wipe to help physically remove the virus.
  • Wear gloves that you can then bleach.
  • Change and wash your clothes and shoes (or use disposable shoe covers) after being around an infected dog or puppy. You may want to have a “parvo outfit” that you then bleach and discard when your dog is better.

Phew! It’s easy to see why doing preventive parvovirus vaccinations is the best way to deal with parvo.

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