Parvo treatment has always been a relatively expensive affair if you take your dog to the vet's, but these days, it's got way out of hand for many people - bills of anywhere from $500 USD to over $12,000 USD are typical, and that's just to treat a single animal.
Why is this, especially given that many vets use treatment protocols that are outdated at best?
Let's face it, Parvo today is nothing like the virus from the 1990s - it's mutated (we're now on the fifth major variant with the 2c strain) into something much more aggressive, it's more easily transmitted, symptoms can appear at a greatly accelerated rate (dogs can die just hours after their first bout of diarrhea), and it's harder to treat.
However, many vets still cling to the traditional treatment of IV fluids and antibiotics, which are proving to be far less effective against the newer strain.
We know of people who have been charged $150 just for the IV fluids, which are basically nothing more than a bag of salty water.
Office visits alone will cost you $50 or so, and you rarely get away with just a single one.
Then, before the vet even starts on the Parvo treatment itself, he will do a test to see whether it is indeed Parvo.
While having the test done in the clinic is a lot faster than waiting for a full blood work-up to be sent off to the lab, it is not as accurate as many vets make out - false positives and false negatives can occur.
So, if your dog does test negative, the vet will assume (because they claim the tests are infallible) that your dog doesn't have Parvo, but then here's the kicker: they will suggest a Parvo shot, to "protect" your pet.
Now, if your dog actually does have Parvo, in spite of what their test shows, then vaccinating him at this stage is about the worst thing you can do - we know of dogs that have not shown any symptoms of Parvo who died within five hours of being given completely unnecessary shots.
(In fact, even the vaccine manufacturers state that their vaccines should only be given to healthy dogs - and a dog that has been infected with Parvo is definitely not healthy!)
And if your dog didn't have Parvo before being vaccinated, the shots can actually give him the virus - with full symptoms and the same life-threatening consequences.
So, what other costs might you incur?
Well, all traditional vets will prescribe antibiotics (e.g. Amoxicillin, Metronidazole, Baytril), and that will add to your bill, of course. Not to mention that these antibiotics won't help treat the Parvo at all - Parvo is a virus, and these drugs are designed to attack bacteria; they also can have side-effects that are either the same as Parvo (e.g. vomiting, diarrhea) or even worse (Metronidazole is reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen and it's not allowed to be given to feed animals).
They may also prescribe anti-emetics to prevent vomiting, but because these too are chemical-based drugs, they too may result in additional vomiting, not less.
Vets also claim that they need to do additional clean-up with Parvo cases (because of all the vomiting and diarrhea), and hire additional staff (especially those where they provide care during the night too, which seems to be somewhat rare).
And then some vets will insist on blood transfusions (note the plural, here), each of which can cost $200 USD or more.
But should all of this really add up to a Parvo treatment bill of several thousand dollars?
We think not, especially when you consider that most vets will only give your dog a 50% chance of surviving this virus.
That's an awful lot of money for odds that are no better than tossing a coin.
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