This is a story about Miss Snowy and how she flipped the NBKC world into 24 hours of utter chaos. She introduces to us the Parvovirus Paradigm Plot. It is a cuppa-type read, so grab a beverage!

Miss Snowy is an adorable Red Heeler x Jack Russell and she was boarding with us for around a month during January 2023. Miss Snowy, and her house buddy Bo, are happy, rambunctious, tail wagging and love to zoom. Always excellent guests at NBKC.

This is how our story pans out.

Intro…

As a responsible boarding establishment, we adhere to our vaccination rules. After all the safety of our guests, and the longevity of the family business is at stake.

Admittedly we often felt guilt, pressure or sadness for turning customers away – and occasionally, if timelines were reasonably ‘close’, we shifted the boundaries, just a tiny little bit. However, this Parvovirus Paradigm Plot shakes us back into strict control.

Each day the staff religiously monitor the health of our 4-legged guests. Naturally.

The Purple People communicate with each other during the workday via a message thread.  It is a practical method of comms, but not very pretty. If you were to scroll through, you would find pictures of shit – literally! Any waste product that is not formed properly or is an odd colour – is snapped & uploaded. This practice helps the purple people to identify emerging health issues. 

Faeces with blood in it is quite common in dogs and can be caused by innumerable reasons. At kennels where dogs play in small packs, bouts of gastro are an unsavoury but normal occurrence. Yes, they are man’s best friend, but they do have the most disgusting habits – they sniff, lick, drink, taste, chew and eat all manner of gross things.

Usually, a fix of chicken and rice (bland and not terribly nutritious) will fix a wayward gut and a dog will bounce back.

It is when other symptoms present themselves that we begin to worry.

Miss Snowy’s Symptom Trail

Snowy’s first waste picture was uploaded on the 17th of Jan. Another on the 18th. Miss Snowy was quiet and withdrawn. By the 19th, Miss Snowy’s behaviour was alarmingly lethargic, and her gums pale. Buddy, Bo, was not impressed and couldn’t figure out why she didn’t want to play. “Come-on, let’s zoom!”

‘Pooping’ in the office, where she was placed for monitoring, meant that staff could smell just how acrid the discharge was.

Yes, in our line of work, we do place our noses very close to all manner of weird disgusting! Although, in this instance, noses did not have to go anywhere near Snowy’s wafting deposit.

We promised Miss Snowy that if she did not improve by mid-afternoon then a vet visit was in store. Her owners concur.

She did not improve.

Vet time

‘Faeces with blood in it’ is a tiny red flag to veterinarians but mentioning the pale gums, lethargy & metallic smell makes the red flag zoom high on the flagpole. Flutter!

This calls for a strip test for Parvo, administered at the car.  (Much like the human Covid test).

We are told, whilst waiting on the result, that ‘Parvo’ is currently on the prowl – the wet weather has seen the virus re-surface and case numbers grow.

The vet was confident, given the age of Miss Snowy, and her fully vaccinated status, that the test would prove negative.

However, when the first test glowed positive, the vet frowned, ‘this can’t be right – let’s do another test’. 

“Oh, shit!” Eyebrows shoot skywards. “Positive again?” “Into the isolation ward for you young Miss Snowy!”

And when they say ‘isolation’ it means that she sees only gowned, gloved & goggled humans for the next few days. Bio-security is as tight as a bongo drum.

Poor Miss Snowy! We feel terrible leaving her behind but know that she is in very capable hands.

Feathers metaphorically fly

The news about Snowy’s diagnosis filters back to the purple people, and, like a fox invading a chicken coop – feathers (feelings) fly around in confused disarray. 

Miss Snowy has triggered the dreaded kennel owner’s nightmare! Parvovirus on our property! Nooo!

The chickens cluck confusedly, Phwark!! Phwark!! Phwark!!

One-thousand doubts and questions tick over our heads. 

How can this be? All of our guests are vaccinated for Parvo! Where did we go wrong? Is there Parvovirus in our soil? Has recent heavy rains brought it to the surface? How long has it been here? How long does it last? Did other dogs with gastro symptoms have Parvo and we didn’t know it? Will my dog get Parvo (most purple people bring their dogs to work)?  Will other dogs be at risk? Can current boarding dogs go home? Can new dogs come in? What do we tell our customers? Do we have to close down? Nooo!

Our questions could fill an unfurled toilet roll, and beyond.

After the initial shock, and in true purple people form, our team squares their collective shoulders, wipes their tears away, blows the dust off their fore-fingers and then hit the keyboards to ask Dr Google for answers.

Yes, we know that search results can be dubious, but we were also consulting with our buddies at Numurkah Veterinary Clinic plus Jodie, our regular visiting vet (4-Paws) . We also tapped into some very informative podcasts.

We grip tightly onto the following fact: 

Parvo Scoop

Accuracy aside, here is the summation of our research. We present this to you in a fun, factually questionable and gross manner.

Parvovirus is:

• available in two strands, type A and type B. Type B is nastier. A new C strain is now joining the party. Not sure yet about its ferocity or veracity.
• spread via faeces. A new victim only has to:
  • step in it (lick paw), 
  • roll in it (then preen)
  • eat it (gross, but they do!), or 
  • sniff it. 
  • even ritual butt sniffing is dangerous. 
• like a leech, it clings to the surface wherever the deposit (aka poo) lands. 
• common, meaning it can loiter anywhere – on footpaths, dog parks, gardens, backyards, and cinemas (just kidding, unless it is a dog cinema).
• not common on kennel grounds, particularly if the owners are extremely strict with vaccination rules. Vaccinated dogs cannot spread (or shed) the virus.
• seasonal (will resurface in mud after heavy downpours)
• found worldwide. Ooh, la lah!, or, Opa!
• deadly for puppies
• an assassin, it attacks the intestines & the lining of the gut and chews away at bone marrow – destroying white blood cells.
• gut-wrenchingly painful, causing acute & profuse diarrhoea, vomiting, loss of appetite and lethargy. It makes the gut work like a demonic unstoppable out-of-balance washing machine.
• avoidable – with a vaccine
• a tad stubborn/lazy – whilst there are three strains, the virus does not mutate and adapt as quickly as other viruses. Thus far! 
• self-preserving and opportunistic – able to laze around in the soil for up to 5 to 12 years (times are debatable) – waiting for the perfect wet season.
• like a vampire, does not like sunshine, and is more likely to live in soil that is shaded. Draugr.
• killed quickly on hard surfaces, with the right disinfectant. Bam!
• contagious 4 or 5 days BEFORE symptoms show, and for two weeks AFTER recovery. Usually around 3 to 4 weeks in total.

Not only that but Parvovirus:

• poop has a distinctive ‘metallic’ smell that burns your sinuses. And grabs like glue so you feel you need tweezers to pull the smell from your nostrils, hair and all. Ouch.
• poop mesmerises other canines. Like bees to a honey pot. Bingo!
• can’t be treated, but the symptoms can. eg. dehydration, septic shock, secondary infections and nasty toxins.
• survival depends on how quickly you can get your pet to the vet, and which strand is involved.
• rate of survival is between 70 to 90 per cent, or conversely out of every 100 patients – 10 to 30 die.
• can cause ongoing gastric issues for survivors.
• vaccines cost around $100 p.a.
• treatment costs around $2000 AND ongoing health issues could harm your credit rating.
• vaccines must be administered annually, or tri-annually (depending on your vet and their recommendations).
• vaccines take 12 days for the antibodies to become fully effective.

Super Parvo Spreaders

Unvaccinated dogs are the super spreaders. Wait, no, their owners are. After all, animals cannot call and make an appointment at the vet. Dah! 

The Parvovirus virus (that’s a double entendre) is evil – but only if we humans allow it to play its deadly game.

BY: Common sense

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Parvo Analysis – NBKC style

Right, with Miss Snowy in capable hands and actually recovering quite quickly, what do we do with this information? How do we manage our business going forward?

• First and foremost, we know our guests are safe as they are all vaccinated. (Well, at least 999 out of 1000 are safe).
• We immediately close and isolate the three yards where Snowy had played. 
• A list of play buddies is compiled.
• Miss Snowy’s home buddy, Bo, is placed in isolation.
• An extra deep clean of sleeping quarters is conducted. 
• Departing guests are sent a text to provide them with a heads-up.
  • We ask owners NOT to mix their pets with puppies or unvaccinated dogs at home. Just in case they are carrying some virus spores on their coat or paws.
• An email is sent to guests arriving the following day.
  • We strongly encourage young puppies, even fully vaccinated, to NOT board with us until we have a better handle on the situation.
• We order a specific chemical spray for dirt yards. 
• We make foot baths for disinfecting our work boots as we move in & out of yards. 
• The van in which Miss Snowy travelled to the vet is completely disinfected.
• Purple people with puppies at home are banned from entering the isolated yards – they also leave their work boots in the car when they get home, strip & throw their clothes in the washing machine and shower before greeting their puppies. 
• Purple people leave their dogs to board, just as a precaution for those at home.
• And, other little changes begin to materialise too numerous to mention here, but you get the drift.

By mid-afternoon on the 20th, our team is beginning to feel that we have hauled back some form of control, easing our frazzled confidence.

More bad news…

Then, boom, we receive a call from Miss Snowy’s attending vet. He say’s, “I have some good and bad news”.

Phwark!!, squawked the inner chicken. We can’t deal with MORE bad news? Are you serious? Is Miss Snowy OK? Let me sit down. Stop. Breathe. Ok, bring it on. 

The two strip tests for Miss Snowy gave a false positive. The results from the more reliable laboratory were NEGATIVE. Miss Snowy does NOT have parvo!

Wait! What? 

The metaphorical chicken gives a startled, phwark!?

The relief is palpable, and if I could have reached down the phone to hug the vet, I would have! 

The ‘bad’ was the ‘good’, all wrapped in one. We had simply suffered unnecessarily. Apologies followed but were not required – after all it was not their fault that the tests were dodgy. We assured our hard-working vet team that the learning curve from the experience, while utterly grey-hair-growing stressful, was an extremely valuable curve to travel for our purple peeps.

The vets hypothesise that Miss Snowy had a gastro-type virus that cross-reacted with the snap test – triggering the positive results.

When the news reaches the purple people, the reaction is fun to watch – disbelief, sunshine and bliss roiled together. Bless their hard-working souls! They truly are a remarkable crew and the Scadden’s are blessed to call them family.

What about Miss Snowy? Well, she is tail-jiggling joyous to see us when she is released from prison (sorry, isolation ward). 100% better. And, because she has been housed near positive parvo pooches we place her in the isolation yard back at NBKC with her home buddy Bo, where their reunion is super cute to watch. Zoomies, with zest!

Our Future

Now what happens? What is the outcome of this torrid adventure?

We know we can confront the devil, and not lose hope. Our team is stronger, wiser and better equipped for future hiccups.

We can now see and appreciate our business in a whole new (blaze of glorious) light. And, truly understand, to the depths of our purple souls, the value of a rock-hard stance on vaccination rules.  

Hence the Parvovirus Paradigm Plot is sealed tight.

No guilt, whatsoever, will be felt in the future when turning away unvaccinated dogs or cats. No longer will we push the boundaries, even by the tiniest of margins. Sorry, not sorry!

And Miss Snowy will never be forgotten at NBKC – the little non-infected parvovirus pirate queen – holding our business to ransom like that! 

Good girl Queen Snowy! We are all the wiser because of you.

See the vaccination page for our strict rules.