Disclaimer: Some of the content in this post is pretty gross. I won’t go into to much detail. However, I do describe the parvo symptoms to a degree. Anyone familiar with parvo knows the symptoms are horrendous. If you are uncomfortable with this type of content, you may want to skip the “Unexpected Symptoms” section.
We had been looking to add a guard dog to our family with the hopes of adopting a Great Pyrenees. This breed makes an excellent livestock guardian while also being family-friendly. Given we have our Golden Retriever, Enzo, it was important to us to find a compatible breed. I had been stalking local rescue league websites for months with no luck. Therefore, I decided to join some rehoming Facebook groups for our state. I watched these for a couple months as well, remaining faithful that something would work out.
Meant to Be
One Sunday night while pulling up Facebook, an adorable 5-month-old Great Pyrenees puppy appeared with beautiful blue eyes. The post said he hadn’t had puppy shots and had not been neutered. No problem to us. I chatted with Chris, and we sent the guy a message. I asked him plenty of questions for a couple days.
We discovered the puppy was originally from a farm where he was abused, but the young man rescued him from that. Knowing this, we wanted the puppy even more to give him a good life. A cute little connection I loved was this man originally called the puppy Julius Caesar. That night when I sat down to read my Bible, one of the first sections was about Julius Caesar in Matthew. I knew this had to be a sign.
Thankfully, this kind soul chose us as the puppy’s new family. He said he had spoken with some others, but no one seemed to care nearly as much. The Pyrenees needed to be rehomed quickly as the rescuer was facing some landlord issues. We spoke over the course of Sunday night, all the way until Tuesday evening when we picked him up. I had already decided on the name Ozzy as Ozzy Osbourne had passed away just the week prior. We soon discovered our newest family member was in poor health.
Monday night the gentleman informed me that Ozzy had stopped eating, was puking, and having loose stools. I asked if there was any blood, and he confirmed there was some. Talking further, it sounded like there could be a chance it was a change in food, or this sweet boy had gotten into the garbage. Regardless our plan was to take him to the vet for a checkup ASAP. We decided to drive 2.5 hours roundtrip to get our little angel. We waited at the public library where we planned to meet. It was then we discovered our new baby was even sicker than we realized.
The Beginning
We adored Ozzy the first moment we saw him. Unfortunately, he had not eaten in a couple days and wasn’t drinking water. We could see his ribcage and he had barely any muscle to move his own body. All we wanted was to get him home. We paid the rescuer a very small rehoming fee to help cover some of the costs he had, and went on our way.
Chris carried Ozzy to the truck and set him in the backseat. He was happy but clearly unwell. He laid there most of the way home, except for the time he puked. Bless Chris as he loves his truck and was a great sport for all of this. Ozzy decided to stand up off of the towel he was laying on, and walked over to the fabric truck seats and threw up. Sadly, the symptoms didn’t stop there. We got home around 8:30pm.
Unexpected Symptoms
As we got him inside, all of our other pets did very well with him. However, we noticed they kept smelling his rear. We chalked it up to being normal animal behavior and thought nothing of it. He kept puking on the carpet, so I just kept cleaning. He was still responsive and being sweet, so I just figured I’d make an ASAP vet appointment in the morning to get him some fluids and medical attention. When it finally seemed like he was laying down, I decided I could go to bed. Around one in the morning I finally got into bed. It was this exact time, right after I laid down, Ozzy had his first diarrhea stool in the house.
I never got mad, but simply got up to inspect. I’ve been around animals all my life and have never witnessed a symptom this horrific. TMI here, but it smelled like stool mixed with something rotten. I felt so bad for the poor baby and starting cleaning in a bit of a panic. As I stood there in shock and starting to cry, I called my mom and told her what happened. It was after this I knew we needed an animal hospital. After filling her in, I woke Chris because I was going to need his support.
After he fully woke up, he changed clothes and helped me get the dogs ready. We didn’t want to leave Enzo home alone with the confusion, so we took them both. As Ozzy was walking through the kitchen to get to the door, he had another stool accident there. Thankfully it was on hard floor, but it splattered and would require much cleaning. We were in such a rush I decided to save it for when we returned. Chris lifted Ozzy into the back of his truck, and off we went completely exhausted and mildly hysterical.
A Complete Whirlwind
Thank heavens Ozzy didn’t have an accident in Chris’s truck. Both he and Enzo were in the back, and Enzo was a wonderful angel the whole time. He was almost like an instant big brother. Ozzy did puke on the floor in the back, but nothing worse. It was a long and anxious ride since the animal hospital is half an hour away from us. Once we finally parked there, Chris carried Ozzy into the building.
We walked in, and before I could even finish explaining the problem, Ozzy had an accident right on the lobby floor. Bless the veterinary nurses because she instantly came out to start cleaning it up while I stood there in shock explaining our night. Everyone in the lobby was amazed we only knew Ozzy for a few hours. After cleaning, she carried Ozzy to the back room asking us if we were familiar with parvo. I had already accepted reality by this point, so I said yes.
Necessary Medical Care
We waited in the lobby with Enzo. After a while, they finally brough us into a smaller patient room so the nurses and doctors could speak with us. He tested positive for parvo and was going to be in there for at least a few days. The plan was IV fluids and different medicines in case he contracted a secondary illness. The staff at the hospital said that if we hadn’t rescued him, he probably wouldn’t have survived the week.
What I consider to be our saving grace here was the monoclonal antibody shot we agreed on. Without this, I don’t think Ozzy would have had a good fate. They couldn’t guarantee he’d make it, but said there would be good odds with the shot. Although uncertainty is scary, I had a good feeling about treatment and knew we wanted to. They had offered an at-home treatment plan, but I knew that would yield no success and we’d be cleaning up messes constantly. This wouldn’t have been good with our other animals.
We were in this room for hours, with the doctor and nurse occasionally coming in to talk to us. It was around 6am when we were finally paying the initial amount for Ozzy’s stay. The staff expected the price would increase, but that depended on his recovery. We arrived home around 6:30am, to the joy of the kitchen accident I left and zero electricity in our house. All night it was storming both at our house and the hospital.
The next day I discovered from Facebook a video of part of our tree-line on fire from the electric wires there. Luckily that had been put out long before we got home, but it was still another cherry on top to this chaotic night. In the end, we were just grateful Ozzy was going to get the care he needs and hopefully improve.
Photo of Ozzy from the animal hospital
Ozzy On the Mend
Thanks to the animal hospital’s wonderful care, Ozzy made a quick recovery. They originally told us that some puppies are in the hospital for ten days, whereas Ozzy only spent three days there. We were given a bunch of details during his stay. The positives were that his bloodwork was constantly showing improvement and he was gaining personality back. The downsides were that he wasn’t eating much and wasn’t peeing. To us, common sense said that he just needed to touch some grass to go to the bathroom. When puppies go in with parvo, they’re taken to a special isolation area so that the virus doesn’t spread. Once we were finally able to get our baby to our home, he had no problem using the restroom outside.
We originally took him in Tuesday night and were able to pick him up from the hospital Friday morning. Fortunately my family was able to join me for this since Chris was at work. The nurse gave us a slew of information, and we walked outside to meet our boy once again. He was still an angel and was so happy to see us. I was worried since he barely knew Chris and I, and we’re the ones that took him to the hospital. We got him home and he instantly loved it. Ozzy was happy to see Enzo again and enjoyed being in better health walking around outside. We were thrilled that he improved so much, but the home-care didn’t stop here.
Animal Care in the Home
It took days and multiple vet calls before we were able to get him to eat again. The hospital gave us a dewormer, antibiotic, probiotic, and appetite stimulant. Again, common sense said this was just too much for a recovering body to handle. We paused everything and followed our vet’s advice – at least get him to drink some water. All day Friday and Saturday he refused to drink anything. I was resorting to give him syringes of water and electrolytes. Chris and I were at our wits end until I found the missing piece. All he needed were some subcutaneous fluids to give him a boost.
I went to our local farm store and got the necessary syringes to do “subcut” fluids at home. You aren’t required to find a vein, so it is possible for a pet parent to do. In fact, many people do it for their dogs with kidney problems. I do highly recommend watching some videos to ensure you understand how to do it. I distilled some water for the fluids and we were able to get most of a syringe in. Shortly after, he seemed to have a little more energy than he did before. We gave the fluids in the late morning, and later that afternoon Ozzy was finally eating by his own choice.
Recovery
We were so grateful that Ozzy was eating and drinking. The only downside was this meant he was going to the bathroom more, often with intense urgency. He’s had numerous accidents in the house. Each morning when I’d wake up there’d be accident spots in multiple places. Sometimes, he even managed to pop a squat during the day. I never got mad at him and just kept cleaning it up.
Luckily the accidents have been fewer and farther in between, but it’s still not a fun process. Overall we’re just filled with so much gratitude that he finally reached a turning point. We are still cleaning up accidents here and there and trying to heal up his GI tract. From what I hear about parvo, this might go on for a while. This virus takes a horrific toll on these poor young animals.
This whole experience was a complete whirlwind to say the least. We never would’ve guessed that rescuing that sweet 5 month old I saw on Facebook would lead to an emergency rush to the animal hospital. However, Ozzy has been an amazing addition to our family and has greatly enriched our lives. He’s become the goofiest boy and has so much fun playing with Enzo. We’re very sad Ozzy went through everything that he did. In the end, we would do everything all over again just to make sure we have Ozzy with us.
