I was such a cheerleader from the sidelines. Usually in a conversation, I am the one who is defending animal rights or educating people about them, but recently I observed my kindred spirit. I live part of the year in Colorado, and going to the dog park when the temperatures are below freezing is not an activity I typically partake in, but recently we had a nice surprise. The temperatures were in the high 50s, so I went with my daughter and her dog to the local dog park. Now Coloradans don’t care what the temperature is. They will go to the dog park if it is 5 degrees below zero.
So on this day, the dog park was busy. I believe that everyone in Colorado has more than one dog. I could overhear a man and a woman talking passionately about something related to the man’s sick dog. It obviously had nothing to do with the malamute that he was throwing the ball to. That dog was running at full speed, not caring what was between him and the ball, as he was completely focused on getting that ball and preventing other dogs from touching it. What I could hear was that his puppy Monty was in the local animal hospital fighting for his life with parvovirus.
Parvovirus is a killer. If a puppy gets it, there is a 50/50 chance of its survival, even if it gets the best care at the best hospital. Parvovirus targets rapidly dividing cells in the body such as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the bone marrow, so the puppy will have explosive diarrhea and vomiting. The integrity of its GI tract will be compromised, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream, and because the bone marrow is also affected, the puppy won’t have the ability to fight off the infection. Most people will never know a puppy is affected by parvo, because veterinarians vaccinate all puppies four times starting when they are 2 months old, and they are typically revaccinated again at a year old, then every three years.
I did hear the woman in the conversation ask the man if he had had his puppy vaccinated, and he said he doesn’t “do vaccines anymore.” He didn’t get COVID vaccinated, he doesn’t get flu shots, and he won’t get the shingles vaccine no matter how much his doctor and girlfriend ask him to. The woman asked if the malamute, named Aspen, was vaccinated and he said that he was, but he is not going to do it anymore. The woman then told the man that parvovirus is incredibly contagious and typically transmitted through the stool to other dogs. She told him that Aspen is probably doing so well because he was vaccinated, and if his puppy was positive for parvovirus last week, most likely he was passing parvovirus in his stool. Therefore, if he defecated at the park, he could infect young dogs not fully vaccinated.
The man was getting uncomfortable as others were joining the conversation. People in Colorado are uber-protective of their pets. That dog park had regulars, and they were not happy that someone had potentially brought an infectious disease to their dog park. The man stopped throwing the ball and started to walk toward his car. I must have looked empathetic to him because he muttered to me to “watch out for the Fauci liberals over there.” I was about to educate him about infectious disease when my daughter grabbed my arm and gave me the look, “Not today.”
Ironically, Colorado was not a mask-happy-wearing state, but if COVID affected dogs, believe me, you would see dogs in designer masks. Please don’t bring unvaccinated puppies to dog parks.