Parvo - Editor's Choice

Again, the three almost finished everything. I am so happy and relieved that we pulled through and now on their way to recovery! We'll folow the rest of the advice here and continue to give them the mixture for a week. Thank you to everyone who contributed! You are all heroes to my three pups: Muffin, Coco, and Kitkat. on hindsight, I know I would have been able to save Oreo with this had I reacted swiftly enough and understood the early warning signs of parvo.

To anyone reading this, going through what we all did - don't hesitate, save your puppies and doggos by strictly following this regimen/treatment!

1. Hot English Mustard Powder

Reasoning: Parvovirus is an intestinal parasite (Bacteria, viral etc). The bacteria multiply in the intestines similar to that of worms. Administering Hot English Mustard powder eliminates and helps eradicate these parasites inside the intestines and bowel.

Dosage: A tiny little bit - around the size of a small capsule 5mm size.

Administration: This should be administered dry, and directly onto the tongue/toward the back of the throat. Have a syringe ready with some boiled and cooled (sterile) water to wash down the mustard powder. It does burn, but subsides very fast. As soon as the pup/dog has swallowed most of it, slowly syringe it down with some cool (room temperature) water. Any change in temperature may affect the very sensitive intestinal area. You can either use your finger to put it at the back of the tongue (safest), or a spoon (not advised as most pups will bite down on this and damage their teeth).

References: Parvo rescue missionary - rescuing more than 22 out of 24 puppies since 2006.

At that point we force fed him the meds for the worms and we started looking home remedies for the parvo since we didnt have money for what he needed from the vet. So after talking to friends that familiar with the virus, we was told to force feed him baby food, Apple Cider Vinegar with chicken broth and going behind that with gatorade to replenish his electrolytes but everything kept coming up. We went back 2-3 days later to the vet to get him an IV and a shot for the weak stomach which was around $35.

After that point his stomach was fine to keep fluids and food down which was good. I took a chance and came across this forum and seen the charcoal tablets and at this point he was showing no change in his status, so I went out to the vitamin shoppe and got Charcoal Tablets from Nature's Way.

I cracked 2 of the pills open and added to his gatorade, stirred, and force fed that along with baby food and gatorade every 2-3 hours. That was around noon on Sunday, by 7 pm that night he started walking around a little bit more and I did a test and gave him a little bit of his hard puppy food and he started eating some of it on his own.

Although he was coming along better, I still fed him the tablets and the gatorade throughout the night and by the next morning he was almost back to normal. It is now 3 days later and he is now back to biting on things and people lol and eating and drinking on his own. The worms are gone and all of his energy is back along with his weight. Thank you guys so much for posting your best practices on here because it really helped!

List of things I needed:

1- Chart to record everything you're doing. I found that after 24 hrs of everything I was wiped and forgetting what to give him. Keeping a chart was so helpful!!

2 - 2 syringes (1 for Activated Charcoal (AC) solution, 1 for electrolyte solution) the pharmacy at Walmart told me they didn't sell them so they just gave them to me for free. (non needle!)

3 - 4 towels (our pup struggled with sleeping on hard surfaces so we always had a clean one ready to be rotated in when the last one got soiled.)

4 - Puppy pads for quick catch and clean up

5 - Bleach (to clean all surfaces and towels that get soiled on)

6- Colloidal silver with dropper

7 - Activated Charcoal Solution (If you're buying the capped AC I did 1 cup pedialyte, 1 cup purified water, 25 AC capsules opened and poured in solution. Shake before each use) Recipe: https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/parvo.html

8 - Arsenicum Album from Boiron (2 pellets dissolved in 5 ccs of purified water)

9 - Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth

10 - Lots of Electrolyte Solution and left in cage Recipe: https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/parvo.html

So last week Wed Dec 28th, 2017 our puppy went into SPCA to get its final visit (microchipping & nurturing). Due to scheduling conflicts I couldn't pick him up until the next day. I picked him up and he was erratic. He was super skinny and wanted me, until I picked him up to hold him and then he was clawing me to get down. It was very weird behavior for him. Fast forward to the following Tue Jan 3rd, 2017. He's been doing fine all day. He eats that morning. That night he throws up everything he'd had in his belly. He refuses to eat/drink anything that night. The next day he's back to normal. He's eating, drinking but super lethargic. All he wants to do is snuggle all day. Again, very abnormal behavior from a puppy. At this point we've had him for well over a month (foster then adopted from spca which is why we had to neuter/chip/vaxx up to date). He's 4 months old at this point. Thur he refuses any food. He refused water unless I forced it in with a dropper and he is literally throwing up every 20 mins with yellow mucus diarrhea. I know somethings up so I take him to the vet. Surprise! It's Parvo season!! The vet lets us know that it will cost $1700 for them to tend to him. Theres no cure for Parvo, they've got to ride out the virus. But they wanted to charge extra for different things while he's in there, even though he has a record of every vaccine he's had up to date. In the end we had to refuse them because we didn't have the money. I found this site, my saving grace, and this is the schedule that I came up with:

As soon as we got home from the vet he started bloody diarrhea. For the first hour I did the electrolyte solution. But he didn't hold anything down, and the diarrhea kept coming up so I did some research and found this site that boasted Activated Charcoal and colloidal silver!! I did 3 ccs of AC electrolyte solution every hour and the electrolyte solution in between the AC doses so that I could check up on him every 30 minutes. He stopped diarrhea and vomit instantly. After four hours of this routine, we went to every 2 hours of AC dose. In the hour between the AC dose I did 2-3 droppers of Colloidal Silver and Arsenicum Album. (The Arsenicum Album I took 5 ccs of purified water and syringed it into a small bowl. I put two of the AA pellets in and let it sit until it fully dissolved. Then I syringed it in him). I also did 1/2 tsp of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth up to 1 tsp per day. Each time he got a dose of something he also got a dose of electrolyte solution. It was so important to me that he stay hydrated so I always did the skin test to make sure he was good and not once did my pup's skin stay up, good sign!! It took about 3 days for him to fully come around again. He started drinking water last night (Fri Jan 6th, 2017). I stopped giving him the Electrolyte solution when I found him drinking on his own. I tried to give it to him anyways just as a back up but he threw it up which told me he was getting enough. I switched to AC mix twice a day today as he was showing signs of getting better. He finally ate some food tonight at dinner time!! He refused scrambled eggs with rice, burger (raw, cooked and mixed with rice), chicken stock, and wet dog food. But he loved the Natural Balance duck treats so I mixed about three up with dry dog food and he started in on it instantly. He's relaxing and sleeping now. 30 min later and no throw up makes me feel like a success!! I don't know if this will help others, as every dog is different. But the specifics of dosing medications and when was the hardest part for us to conquer. That And seeing our poor pup declining so rapidly. So far we've made it. Good luck to anyone else going through this nightmare!

-Syringe

-Pedialyte

-Gatorade

-Cephalexin or Amoxicillin

-Pepto Bismol

-Nutri-Cal either for a pup or an adult dog

-Chicken Broth

-Activated Charcoal

Those are basically all the things I used.

The Pedialyte & the Gatorade are to keep your dog hydrated & give them some electrolytes I would give her tablespoon or 2 every half hour with a syringe, I tried not to rush her so she could hold it down. You have to force feed them so don't be afraid to hold the sides of their jaws open & put the syringe down on the side to make sure they swallow it. P.S the syringe you could buy it at a petco or any pet store. & when they say be prepared not to sleep it's serious, this a 24/7 thing, not a oh I'll take care of her/him in a little bit. They have to stay hydrated all the dehydration is what kills them. If you can't take off of work just call it a quit.

The cephalexin or amoxicillin are antibiotics, I already had some Cephalexin from a previous time I took one of my other dogs to the vet I'm sure if you were to ask the vet could hook you up with some. I tried not to give her so much of it since it doesn't do anything towards the parvo it's just to prevent a secondary infection in their intestine but when I did give it to her it was every 8 hours, I stopped after the 4th day.

The Pepto bismol they say it's to coat their belly and intestine to control the diarrhea and vomiting I tried my best to give her some every two hours but I failed at that I was more worried of keeping her hydrated plus she's so young I didnt want to keep giving her so much medicine but when I did give it to her I tried to do it at least 3 times a day I would give her half a table spoon with the syringe.

The nutri-cal I've used previously on my other dog when she was pregnant she wasn't eating so she had no nutrients in her. I bought the nutri-cal supplement for my pup I gave her 1/4 tablespoon 3x a day once in the morning, noon, and evening. It won't make them eat but it's just so they have some type of nutrients in them. & also you have to force it to them just dab it on your finger & try to put on the roof of their mouth.

The chicken Broth I didn't try giving it to her until the 4th day which is also when I started giving her the nutri-cal I made sure I gave her the broth first then the nutri-cal ... I would only feed her a tablespoon of the broth 3x a day just to see if she could hold it down.

The Raw Egg ... Man this was a tough one I only gave her a tablespoon of it I was pretty grossed out by it but I was doing whatever could get my dog back to health. I cracked one raw egg & fed her a tablespoon of it once again I tried not to rush her to eat since its so slimy I wanted to make sure she was able to swallow it, then I would wash it down with half a tablespoon of pedialyte. I only tried this once just to see if she would get better, I tried it 3x in one day she kept it down the first time & the third but the 2nd time she didn't. I tried this but I felt like it didn't help I've read stories of other where it has worked but I'm just throwing what I experienced with at home with my pup, so it might work for yours but I suggest you do it if you see they're some what holding things down.

Last but not least, The Activated Charcoal. I was reading about this back and forth. I thought I was suppose to get a prescription for it until I read it's an over the counter vitamin & well I read more into it & decided to give it a try I figured it wouldn't hurt to try what do I got to lose she'd probably just yak it back up. So I did more research on it because some didn't specify exactly what it looked like & well I decided to go buy some I didn't buy the powder one they have for fish tanks I was scared to buy it and make my dog feel worse , they have charcoal tabs at Walgreens but they're like 22 bucks, Walmart was out of stock so I went to CVS Pharmacy and bought ACTIVATED CHARCOAL CAPS they were like 11-12 bucks. I took them home cracked to caps I suggest you put some paper wherever you plan to crack them open they could be pretty messy to clean up.

Anyways 2 caps cracked open 1 Ounce of pedialyte I threw a splash of gatorade in their just cause I thought it looked gross so I felt bad for my pup having to taste that awful looking drink. I gave her 1 tablespoon of it once again I tried not to rush her so she could hold it down and she was doing pretty good after the egg so I figured she'd do good with keeping it down I don't recommend you give your dog this if they're not keep anything down it'll just come right up. It's already the 5th day with my pup feeling like this, I let 2hours go by and she got up to drink some water which she had already been doing on the 4th day after I had given her the nutri-cal and the broth I guess it would get stuck in her mouth so she'd feel like washing it down to get the taste off. I waited 2 hours to give her some more & here come my nieces they opened the door to my room and once she saw them she began to wag her little tail which she hadn't done since a week ago she was being playful so I decided to make her something to eat I made her a scrambled egg & fried some ham for her I didn't add anything to it just cooked it . & boy did she tear it up her eyes got so wide when she smelled the food my poor baby ate everything like she hadn't ate in years she ate so much she couldn't stand so I picked her up and put her back in her bed.

About 3am she woke up crying wanting me to sleep in my bed so I did she was being a wild sleeper as she usually was before she got sick. & well I kept an eye on her the next day I fed her the same thing that morning then I fed her the same for lunch for dinner I smashed up some of her kibble and added a little bit of water in it I didn't give her any tap water, I kept giving her filtered water she ate it right up she was back to her usual self I left for a few hours came back home to her wagging her tail waiting for me to get in the house lol im still keeping a close eye on her to see if any of the symptoms are coming back. I have to say the charcoal did work but also the hydration with the pedialyte helped a lot I could've lost my dog if I didn't get right to it..... I hope this is helpful for anyone .... I did a lot of praying too & also I would give her lots of TLC they need to know youre there for them & that you love them that they're not ready to go yet ....

Two years later Sage caught it again, she start not eating her food or drinking and throwing up and there was blood in her stool. We knew we couldn't afford it again so I started doing research and I came along activated charcoal.

So we gave it a shot, here's the steps

1) Get activated charcoal in the caps, then get Pedialyte (clear), white rice, beef or chicken broth, and a one ounce syringe

2) You don't want to give them the capsules until they can hold something down so every 30 minutes for two hours give them one ounce of Pedialyte. After they are not throwing up the Pedialyte, break two capsules open and mix it with ounce of Pedialyte and give them this solution every 30minutes for 4hrs

3) Just in case they want to eat or drink, keep water and rice with the broth in their bowl.

4) When they begin to become more active, only give the dosage once a hour and every other hour replace Pedialyte with cold water

5) When they are eating and drinking again and their stool doesn't contain blood and starts hardening up again you can stop the charcoal treatment.

6) Continue the rice and broth 7 days after the symptoms are gone and switch back to dog food.

Sage made a full recovery and is about to turn 3.

I fed her every hour with 5cc gatorade. I was losing hope because she was always lethargic and didn't react even if we injected her with medicine. I saw this website and learned about activated charcoal. It was very hard to find activated charcoal here in the Philippines because the drugstores don't usually sell it but I managed to find one in a City nearby.

I mixed the activated charcoal with gatorade as what I have read here, fed her 10cc of the mixture every 2 hours. I wasn't able to sleep for a couple of days but it was all worth it.

Zoe is back to her old self after 7 days of home treatment. Thank you for this article our dog is still alive. Please don't let your dogs suffer this illness and have them vaccinated. Don't give up them because they will never give up on you.

I have a 7 week old pitbull puppy he about 8 pounds, he's showing every sign of parvo and its hitting him quick. I need to know how much activated carbon I should give him with water and gatorade?

You can find Activated Charcoal (AC) at your local drug store; aquariums stores have some in a pinch, but it's granulated and you would need to use a coffee grinder or food processor to pulverize it into fine powder.

Activated Charcoal works especially well when used with electrolytes to combat the dehydration that occurs with the diarrhea. If you can't find Pedialyte or Gatorade, you can make this recipe at home:

Homemade Pedialyte:

4 cups of water (boiled or bottled drinking water) 1/2 teaspoon Morton lite salt (because it has potassium in it as well as sodium chloride) Can use regular table salt if you have to. 2 Tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon flavored jello or sodium free broth to add some flavor

Start with 1 cup of electrolyte solution in a small jar with a lid; add 2 heaping tablespoons of AC and then put the lid on and shake to blend. This goes into a syringe well and then can be placed into your dog's mouth; tip the head back and gently depress the plunger to allow him to drink it slowly.

Dose him 10cc every 2-4 hours for the first 48 hours.

If your dog has an appetite, you can mix the AC into canned dog food and make that a bit wetter and sloppier by adding the electrolyte solution to the wet food.

It is key to understand that the virus generally does not kill the dog - its the resulting dehydration that does the damage - so make sure you get those electrolytes down.

If he is taking food and appears to be bouncing back after the first regime of 48 hours, give your dog the wet AC and electrolyte loaded food am and pm for 5 days and up to 7 days. If he is hungry between meals, give him extra AC and electrolyte feedings.

Good luck and please keep us posted!

You can find AC at your local drug store; aquariums stores have some in a pinch, but its granulated and you would need to use a coffee grinder or food processor to pulverize it into fine powder.

Activated Charcoal works especially well when used with electrolytes to combat the dehydration that occurs with the diarrhea. You can make this recipe at home:

Homemade Pedialyte

• 4 cups of water (boiled or bottled drinking water)
• 1/2 teaspoon Morton lite salt (because it has potassium in it as well as sodium chloride) Can use regular table salt if you have to.
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon flavored jello or sodium free broth to add some flavor

Start with 1 cup of electrolyte solution in a small jar with a lid; add 2 heaping tablespoons of AC and then put the lid on and shke to blend. This goes into a syringe well and then can be placed into your dog's mouth; tip the head back and gently depress the plunger to allow him to drink it slowly.

If your dog has an appetite, you can mix the AC into canned dog food and make that a bit wetter and sloppier by adding the electrolyte solution to the wet food. The virus generally does not kill the dog - its the resulting dehydration that does the damage - so make sure you get those electrolytes down.

To start, dose the plain electrolyte solution every 20 minutes or so - however much he will take - to combat the dehydration. Every 2 hours or so dose the AC and electrolyte mixture - however much you can get down. You don't state the breed of your pup, so a Chihuahua might get 2 cc's while a pitbull might get four times that. Now, a 4 week old puppy would normally have 4-6 solid food meals or more since he should still be nursing on his mom. So offer your pup the wet AC and electrolyte loaded food at least 4 times a day for 5 days and up to 7 days. In the early stages it is critical to get the electrolytes and AC down, so if he won't eat canned food don't force him, just focus on getting the electrolytes and AC down for the first 24-48 hours.

Please report back on the progress of your sick pup!