A remorseful dog owner shared the following cautionary story in the hopes it will raise awareness about how important it is to vaccinate your dog and not to be lazy or cheap about it. He posted it anonymously to Reddit under the appropriate title “Today I F*cked Up By Not Vaccinating My Dog”.
“My dog Barkley is five months old. He is a mini schnauzer and he is adorable. My wife and I got him a few months ago, and he makes our third dog. Our other two dogs have both been vaccinated, and like them we were going to wait until we had him neutered to do all of his vaccinations. We were just being lazy, and assumed that nothing would happen. To rationalize our decision to hold off on his vaccinations we kept him indoors, and did not let him interact with any dogs other than our own.
“Well, even though we took precautions, Barkley got parvovirus. For those of you who don’t know, parvovirus is a very dangerous virus that can often lead to death without proper care. On Thursday we noticed that Barkley had diarrhea. We just assumed that he got into something, and figured he would get over it. On Friday we noticed that he still had diarrhea. We decided to take him into the vet on Saturday morning. On Saturday Barkley was throwing up. He threw up a dozen times. He threw up in the car on our way there, in the waiting room, and in the treatment room.
“When the vet told us that it was parvovirus we were sure he was wrong. We had them do the test, and it came back positive. In disbelief, we asked how he could have got it when he never goes outside, and only has interaction with our other two dogs who have been vaccinated. Apparently, the virus can be transferred from just walking in grass that has it and your dogs licking your shoes.”
“The vet wanted to hospitalize him, but wouldn’t take less than $1500 down, and we didn’t have it in our checking account, and the bank was already closed for the weekend, so we couldn’t withdraw it from our savings. He said that we could care for him at home, but there was only a 50:50 chance of survival. We got all of the medication and fluids that he recommended, and stayed up with him all night.
“On Sunday he was worse. He didn’t even have the energy to pick his head up to vomit or move to go to the bathroom. We literally took turns sitting with him and giving him subcutaneous fluids, and cleaning him the entire day. I took yesterday and today off work to take care of him.
“After a day of what seemed like eminent death we started to see some improvement. He wasn’t vomiting as much, and the anti diarrhea medicine seemed to be helping. We were still nursing him around the clock. Today he is eating by himself, and he looks like he is going to make it.
“My wife and I feel terrible that our laziness caused him so much pain. I can’t take back what I did, but hopefully this post will reach someone that is waiting, and maybe save another dog from this terrible illness. Please, get your dogs vaccinated this week.
“Tldr: I was lazy and waited to get my dog vaccinated and he almost died. Don’t make the same mistake!”
This is an important lesson on what being a responsible pet parent is all about, for sure!
Please share this story with your fellow dog lovers as a reminder to make sure their dogs are up-to-date on all their shots!
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