3 August 2008
How To Save Money On Costly Parvo Treatments - Part 1
Posted by Rae and Mark under: Health .
Parvo (more correctly 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 minute, and incredibly sick the next, with vomit and blood-filled, foul-smelling diarrhea everywhere), but also financially.
From the minute you notice your dog isn’t well, the typical vet’s costs associated with treating Parvo just keep adding up (and up).
To begin with, you’ll probably need to pay between $25 and $50 for each office visit, and there will usually be more than one.
Next, your vet will more than likely want to do take a fecal matter 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 from $25 to $100, depending on the type of test. (And note that these tests may not even be accurate - with the latest 2c strain, a dog with 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 costs 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 surviving Parvo.)
Lastly, if the vet is unable to treat your dog successfully, you will often be presented with every pet owner’s worst nightmare - the decision to have your dog put to sleep, which will cost you up to $300.
So, in total, your vet’s bill for Parvo treatment will be between $850 and $10,450 - and that’s just for 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 on the same property contracting 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 expected life span of 11 years is about $13,550, so you could spend up to 77% (i.e. over three quarters) of this amount treating him for just one 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 Immune Support, Vibactra Plus and Doggie Pain Relief 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 (on average, 90% or better).
Parvo prevention usually starts when your dog is still a puppy, in the form of vaccinations.
The whole topic of Parvo vaccinations, and vaccinations generally, 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 PROGARD and Continuum, which are made by Intervet) are ineffective against the latest 2c strain of this dreadful virus.
You therefore need other measures, because you cannot assume that your dog is safe just because he’s had all of his shots. 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 find out what these other options are, you’ll need to look out for Part 2 of this article!
