There were reports recently of an epidemic of Parvovirus in the South of England with a cluster epidemic noted in the area of Hull where 30 cases have been treated in less than one by the PDSA ( a UK animal charity) PetAid Veterinary group.

Our experience of this disease in Kildare/Laois and Offaly is that it comes in clusters of a dozen or so  cases each Spring and Autumn but never actually goes away as we get a case most weeks all year round. The movement of puppies before vaccination at a time of immune naivety is very risky. Stocking density within breeding kennels is a key risk factor while the immune status of the breeding bitch is key to proection of very young and at risk puppies.

Parvovirus is commonly known as Parvo and is a high morbidity and high mortality infection in Dogs. The main signs are fever, dullness, vomitting and diarrhoea. The diarrhoea tends to be haemorrhagic or blood-tinged. Pups in particular become very sick, very quickly and survival rates are typically in the region of 50% only.

Canine Parvovirus or CPV2 was first recognized in 1978. It spread worldwide within one to two years. It is thought that a cat virus known as panleukopenia may have mutated into the CPV2 form. Scientists however cant be sure as to its origin as CPV2 is confined to dogs, wolves, foxes. A

There is a cardiac form and an intestinal form. For practical purposes we recognize these cases in the early stages by their lethargy, fever and sometimes distinctive smell. Those that survive the debilitating five to seven day process of intestinal necrosis causing intense bloody diarrhoea can survive or die anyway due to prolonged shock or go on to develop the cardiac form where the heart muscle is permanently damaged.

Prevention is obviously better than cure in this instance. Especially as the virus is also resistant to the extent that only bleach-base disinfectants kill Parvo and it can survive in soil, concrete and bedding for up to one year. Prevention is simple by a regime of vaccination injection at eight, ten and twelve weeks of age with annual booster. Booster Vaccination of pregnant bitches is also recommended as maternal antibodies in the milk of vaccinated bitches are strongly protective.

I treated about 15 cases in a two week period in Portarlington recently. I see about 50 cases a year normally. I even have seen a case where one family lost a rottweilar pup to Parvo and then one month later lost the next new pup to parvo as they hadnt adequately disinfected the old pups kennel and run. I have also seen cases where vaccinated pups will be exposed to a severe challenge of Parvovirus, will show some signs of illness but will survive as their antibodies mount successful defence. A peculiar sidebar is the susceptibility of some breeds to Parvo over others due to Pups immune systems maturing at different ages. Rottweilars are proven to be immunonaive up to often five months and have lower survival rates in Parvo epidemics.

The most effective treatment I have available to me as a Vet is intensive intravenous fluid therapy.  Treatment is protracted and expensive. Antibiotics, multivitamins, immunostimulants and gastroprotectant drugs are also used but all with mixed results.

The movement of animals is such that this UK epidemic may soon reach Ireland. Lucrative puppy trade is largely unregulated. No one should buy a pup unless shown documentary evidence that the pup has had at least one Parvo vaccination.

Puppy Parvo shots are now only 30 euro at our clinics and booster vaccinations for older dogs only 25 euro on weekday mornings! Yes, I know this is shameless commercial advertising but hey its our website! And on a serious note I would rather prevent Parvo than face the odds-against challenge of treating it.

I have recently watched series 0ne and two of a new HBO slice of Americana called Sons of Anarchy. Another gritty gangster drama for those who liked The Sopranos or The Wire, it was described in its promos as ” the Sopranos on bikes”. It is set in a small city in California named Charming. “The Sons” of the title are indeed a biker gang and like the other HBO dramas it explores American culture, poverty and crime from inside the world of  this  group- a white, tattoed, gunrunning, leatherclad motorcycle gang. The bikers are mean, racist and redneck. Their world is the Wild West without the Indians and long after the cavalry have left town. Part of the appeal of the show though, is its dialogue and humour. Like the mafia in The Sopranos and the homies in The Wire, the MCs of the Charming chapter of “Sons” slag each other mercilessly.

One young outlaw at the bottom of the biker pecking order is the prospect (a prospective biker gang member) who has yet to earn his tattoo. The prospect goes by the name “Halfsack” for one very good reason- he has only one testicle. He is a warhero as his girlfriend tells him and was honourably discharged from the US army. Halfsack was near fatally wounded in a machine gun battle with The Taliban, saved one of his platoon but lost one testicle. In one episode of the show Halfsack had a prosthetic silicon testicle implanted to fill the void and “kinda balance things up a bit”. There were complications howeverand infection set in. After Halfsack told his Doctor that he had a fever and the new one had swelled to the size of a tennis ball, the operation was undone and the implant removed. In a later episode the prospect, still Halfsack, was killed in a safehouse shootout protecting Gemma, the biker matriarch from a female FBI agent played by a surgically enhanced and  badly botoxed actress formerly known as Jamie Summers, the bionic woman.

As if all that recreational fictitious viewing wasnt strange enough, reality imitated skyplus at Kildare Vet Surgery the other day when a client inquired about having replacement testicles inserted into his Staffie Boris’ scrotum. Boris was neutered about six weeks ago. Neutering in male dogs I should add involves removal of both testicles-castration. Such niceties as vasectomy or “tying the tubes” are not an option in  Veterinary surgery. Boris’ owner found it disconcerting that there now existed a gap where Boris’ fine testicles had been as Boris strutted on his harness around the neighbourhood and more to the point he imagined Boris also to be disconcerted. I made a mental note to write a blog someday about anthropomorphism; transplantation of our human feelings onto our pets.  But of more immediate and practical relevance I was reminded that Halfsack’s silicone implant had caused a severe reaction necessitating removal of the implant. Wouldnt we just be asking for trouble attempting implantation in a dog?

Truth can also be stranger than fiction. Curious research revealed that 325000 silicon testicles have been inserted in dogs worldwide since 1993 when one American Vet patented and launched these artificial testicles via a website called www.neuticles.com . Its not a huge number over a 17 year period so one can surmise that this extravagant and morally questionable procedure hasnt really grabbed the global PetVet or pet owning population. You can purchase a plain neuticle, an ultraplus neuticle or a neuticle ultraplus WITH Epididymis( a consolation artificial spermatic chord attached). It is cautioned that in fitting an “oversize” testicle into your dog there may be some discomfort as the scrotum stretches for the first week or so after implantation. The mind boggles. Prices vary from 94 euro to 329 euro but  you will also have to pay a Vet to sterilise and insert the neuticles.

 Why then do I believe it is “morally questionable” to use prosthetics in dogs/animals?An important distinction must be made betweeen cosmetic surgeries/prosthetics and prosthetics that will improve an animal’s quality of life in some tangible and functional way. There is absolutely no way a neutered male dog is any happier with testicular implants than without. The dog’s owner on the other hand may be happier. Vets however are not trained in psychotherapy and I can only wonder is there some better way to assuage a  male dog owner’s “testicle pride syndrome”?

Consider though those cases of prosthetic surgery which will improve an animal’s quality of life. A cat in the UK recently which had both hindlegs mangled in a road traffic accident had two prosthetic limbs screwed into the stumps of each hind femur close to the hip joint. The surgery has been a success. This cat now has two  mobile and functional hind legs each with little rubber soles on  titanium limb implants. Youtube has several clips of this bionic cat or Blade Runner Cat scaling stairs and so on.  The Vet who performed this operation is the subject of a TV show- Bionic Vet. An Irishman Noel Fitzpatrick, who appears simultaneously brilliant and driven by demons of self-doubt has a symbiotic relationship with the human orthopaedic fraternity. Doctors are now feeding off his  successes, experiments and ideas. Fitzpatrick has had several firsts in animal surgery and in acheiving bionic limb implantation has succeeded where human surgeons have sofar failed.

Veterinary ethics is no more straightforward than human ethics. If Euthanasia of animals is so commonplace why then is it so controversial in humans? Human life is more valuable than an animal’s  is perhaps the reason. Cosmetic surgery is unethical in animals in my view when it serves no purpose other than to manipulate animal appearance according to human tastes or fashions. It follows therefore that tail docking, ear cropping and testicle implants are all  unethical. The neuticles.com people are also selling permastay ear implants to give a flat eared dog erect “attentive” ears. These Permastay implants are particularly cruel as dogs use ear posture to communicate with each other. 

 We have got to finish by asking ourselves how much we should justify in animals unless our work and expenditure will enhance firstly the animal’s welfare or absence of suffering and then I believe also justify a human cost benefit. When I send an animal home to its owners healthier or happier I can usually be happy that one human companion bond has been enhanced. When Noel Fitzpatrick, the Bionic Vet, sends his latest success story home, who knows, his work may be pioneering for the betterment of humanity.