Canine parvovirus is one of the most serious and welfare-impacting viral diseases in dogs, causing severe gastrointestinal disease and death without prompt intensive treatment.
Parvovirus causes one of the most severe welfare emergencies in companion animal medicine. Affected puppies experience profuse bloody diarrhoea, relentless vomiting, extreme pain from intestinal damage and a rapid deterioration toward septic shock. The suffering is intense and the disease progresses quickly. Even with intensive treatment, some puppies die despite best efforts. The welfare tragedy is that parvovirus is completely preventable through vaccination, yet outbreaks persist in communities where vaccination rates are low and in rescued or abandoned puppies who never received primary vaccination. Every parvovirus death represents preventable suffering.