This is one costly, deadly disease for dogs

A SOUTH Grafton vet surgery is warning pet owners to be wary of an outbreak of the deadly canine parvovirus.

The signs of parvovirus can include a sudden onset of:

• Bloody diarrhoea

• Lethargy

• Unwillingness to eat and

• Repeated vomiting.

Treatment is intensive and can be costly, often the horrible and very contagious disease is fatal.

Riverbank Animal Hospital practice manager Sharon Martin said the disease can be prevented in most cases with a vaccination.

"A C4 vaccination protects against parvo, distemper, hepatitis and a type of kennel cough," Ms Martin said.

"Treatment for parvo begins at $600 and can be as high as $5000 with no guarantee of the outcome."

The warning comes after a survey revealed 27 per cent of owners failed to vaccinate their pet - this translates to 735,000 unvaccinated pets in NSW.

Ms Martin said it would take witnessing one case of parvo to change people's minds about vaccination.

"In all my time in vet surgeries I've never seen anyone whose pet survived parvo not have their pets vaccinated as soon as possible," she said.

She said cats were also in danger from a disease called feline AIDS, but could be vaccinated.

"It's a disease that's passed from cat to cat, generally when they're out at night and get into fights," she said.

She said even in the rare case an animal reacted to a vaccine it was preferable to catching the disease.

VACCINATIONS

Riverbank Animal Hospital offers the following vaccinations for dogs:

C3: covers parvo, distemper, hepatitis

C4: covers parvo, distemper, hepatitis and parainfluenza virus

C5: covers parvo, distemper, hepatitis, bordetella and parainfluenza virus

Phone 66423083 to make an appointment.