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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!
