How To Save Money On Costly Parvo Treatments - Part 1 | Pets and Animals

By Rae&Mark
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Parvo (more formally known as Canine Parvovirus) is devastating, not only emotionally (mere words simply cannot do justice to how it feels to see your beloved dog healthy one moment, and incredibly sick the next, with vomit and blood-filled, foul-smelling diarrhea everywhere), but also financially.

As soon as you notice your dog is sick, the vet's costs that are typically associated with Parvo treatment just keep mounting.

To start with, you'll probably need to pay between $25 and $50 for each office visit, and there will be several.

Next, your vet will more than likely want to do take a stool sample for an instant, in-clinic test, or a blood sample to send away for a full work-up, or even both. These will cost you anywhere between $25 and $100, depending on the type of test. (And note that these tests may not even be accurate - with the latest 2c strain, a dog that has Parvo may still test negative.)

If it turns out your dog actually has Parvo, then you should expect a bill in the region of $500 to over $10,000, per dog. These figures include items such as overnight stays ($50 a night), blood transfusions ($200 a time), medications ($100 - $200), etc. (And your vet will only give your dog a 50% - 80% chance of survival.)

Finally, if the vet cannot treat your dog successfully, you will frequently be presented with every pet owner's worst nightmare - the decision to have your dog put down, which will cost you up to $300.

So, all together, your vet's bill for Parvo treatment will be between $850 and $10,450 - for just a single dog. (As many people actually own two or more dogs, and when one of your dogs is infected by Parvo, the chance of any others in the same household getting the virus is very high, you can probably double these figures, at least.)

To put this in perspective, the average cost of owning a dog over its 11-year expected life is approximately $13,550, so you could spend up to 77% (i.e. just over three quarters) of this amount treating him for a single illness over a period of a week or so.

But, it doesn't have to be that way - you can both prevent Parvo and treat Parvo using safe, chemical-free products such as Parvaid, Life Cell Support and Vibactra Plus for a fraction of the cost of taking your dog to the vet's, and with a much higher chance of your dog surviving the Parvo virus (typically, 90% or better).

Parvo prevention normally begins when your dog is still a puppy, in the form of vaccinations.

The whole topic of Parvo vaccinations, and vaccinations in general, is much debated at the moment, and there are, of course, many advantages and disadvantages.

But perhaps the most serious downside, where Parvo is concerned, is that most vaccines available today (excluding Continuum and PROGARD from Intervet) are not effective against the latest 2c strain of this dreadful virus.

You therefore need other measures, because you cannot take it for granted that your dog is safe just because you've had him vaccinated. Since early 2007, there have been many stories in the media of fully-vaccinated dogs, including puppies and adults, being infected by and dying from Parvo.

If you want to know what these other solutions are, you'll need to look out for Part 2 of this article!

About the Author

We specialize in Home Parvo Treatment with our Parvaid Silver & Gold Value Packs, but we also carry a wide variety of other safe, herbal, chemical-free products to treat Canine Heartworms, Feline Distemper and many other common pet ailments.

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