Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional information from the D.C. Department of Health’s surveillance for canine parvovirus.
WASHINGTON — There have been 24 confirmed cases of canine parvovirus cases between June and October, enough to prompt a warning from D.C. health officials who are now urging dog owners to take precautions.
Parvo, as it’s also known, usually hits puppies and older dogs. It’s a gastrointestinal disease, spread by contact with the vomit or feces of an infected dog. The first symptom is usually fatigue, followed by a lack of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea (often containing blood).
People can’t get parvo and neither can other animals. It’s treatable, but it can be fatal if left untreated.
There’s no way to officially compare the number of parvo cases in D.C. against figures from prior years. Up until August, the health department had only tracked rabies. Only tracking rabies is considered a national standard for small animal surveillance, D.C. Department of Health spokesman Marcus Williams says.
But the agency decided to start “proactively” tracking parvovirus after Rhode Island issued alert in August amid a spike in cases. The health department has also started tracking canine influenza and canine leptospirosis, Williams said.
Williams says feedback from local veterinarians suggested that there were more cases of parvo this summer and fall than usual, an increase substantial enough to warrant an alert to the public.
“They thought those numbers were kind of high,” Williams tells WTOP.
So on Wednesday, the health department issued a news release warning of “an increased” number of canine parvovirus cases between June and October.
Katy Nelson, a veterinarian also known as Dr. Pawz, calls parvo “one of the worst viruses that we face in veterinary medicine.”
It leaves dogs unable to digest nutrients, and so “they do tend to sort of wither away.”
The good news is there’s a vaccine, and Nelson says it’s highly effective. The bad news is dogs have to reach a certain age before they can get it.
“So some of the pets that we’re seeing recently that are acquiring parvovirus are too young to have received the vaccine. And others are ones that have perhaps had one vaccine but not yet had their boosters …”
“So whether it’s in a dog park situation, [or] it’s in a breeder or a shelter situation, it’s these young pets that have not been fully vaccinated against it yet that are the ones that are the most susceptible.”
If your dog has any of these immunity problems, Nelson says, “my best advise is to stay away from dog parks and other areas where they could encounter other pets’ feces … it’s probably best to just kind of keep them at home until this problem has resolved itself.”
Nelson adds that the D.C. health department “has said that they are going to start a cleaning process of these dog parks, but they’re going to have to be very highly aggressive about it.”
If you think your dog might have parvovirus, Nelson says you need to act.
“This is not one to sit on and worry about. This is one that you want to get to your veterinarian immediately.”
And if the results are positive, in addition to treatment you’ll need to do some serious cleaning, Nelson says. The virus can live for more than six months, and “most of our cleaning products do not kill this virus.” A veterinarian can help you figure out the best way to clean, she says.
WTOP’s Liz Anderson contributed to this report.
