# Do you think parvo stunts pups?



## Pepper311 (Sep 11, 2011)

I have a rescue parvo survivor dog. She is on the small side she is 11 month and everyone thinks she is younger when they meet her. She looks like a puppy that should grow to be a big dog. 

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas as too if a 3-4 month old pup gets parvo will it effect its growth. I seems to think it might because parvo pretty much robs the growing pup from nutrients. When a dog had parvo pretty much nothing they eat gets adsorbed due to the walls of the intestine rotting basically. 

Anyone have any experience with this. What do you think?


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

When my Dobe puppy was about that age she got parvo (despite vaccinations). When fully grown, she was 25" - and 60 lbs - what the standard says for a female Dobe. 

So, in my experience, it made no difference.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

Didn't seem to make a difference in my girl, either. (Suri, Shiba Inu.) She had parvo at 10 weeks and recovered wonderfully. She's on the low side of her breed standard for weight, but the healthiest dog in the house now!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

We've had a lot of parvo puppies come through and we've never noticed it stunt them, no.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

I think it can have an effect, though I've not known it to stunt a dog's growth. I once groomed a coated GSD who'd had parvo as a pup. She was normal size, but rather bony in the head (if that makes sense? No jaw muscle tone), and drooled uncontrollably. Her owner said she'd suffered some neurological damage due to the illness. I've known other dogs that had no apparent after effects at all.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

I've never seen neuro damage, the closest thing to anything systemic, secondary to parvo, was necrotizing vasculitis. 
Neuro damage can occur in survivors of distemper though.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

My boy had it at 8 weeks, and although he was underweight for a few months he's now a healthy 85 lbs and 26". He's still got a little more thickening out to do, his dad was 100 and we think he'll get there in a year or two, but I'd be just fine with him at 85. He doesn't look any different than his litter mates.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I had an Aussie who had parvo at 8 months of age (even though he was fully vaccinated). He had surgery at the vet and there was a litter of parvo puppies there. He grew to be a healthy, happy, beauty. 

He died when he was in his early teens of kidney failure. With that exception, he never had a sick day in his life. But I was told from the vet (new vet, once I found out the other clinic had parvo first, I never stepped back in there) That parvo and the resulting recovery period could cause organ damage.


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## Pepper311 (Sep 11, 2011)

Ok thanks guys for the info. That all makes sense. My dog is all in proportion looks good just seems go be smaller then we thought she would be. It's ok she is a perfect mid size dog.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Since she's a rescue, you don't know what her parents were like, they may have been smaller too. 
I mean, it could be genetics as much as the illness. It's hard to say at this point.


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