About two months ago I lost two beautiful Pomeranian boys to parvovirus. They were both around 12 weeks old when the first one started to show signs (about 12 days after I got them) and a long heartbreaking battle continued for about 7 days as we tried to save them. They both sadly past away while being treated at Tufts University in Mass. They both had their 1st shots (Vanguard 5 - not the high titer one) at 8 weeks old and were only days away from their 12th week one. The boys never left the house after we got them and suspect that they caught it from the vet's office (check-up on 1st and 3rd day that we got them) or from us when we visited pet stores for supplies and carried it home on our shoes or clothes. They will both be missed greatly. The one thing that does not fit completely is that they both died of cardiac arrest while being handled for blood samples? If someone could shed some light on that, we would be grateful.

But, the real question we have at this point is how do we prevent this from happening again. We plan to get to new puppies, but couldn't live with ourselves if we put their lives in jeopardy. We have done countless hours of research and have talk to many vets, but everyone seems to contradict each other or has a slightly different view. The main suggestions seem to be: 1) get an older dog 2) wait one month (some say 3 months, others say 1 year) 3) clean everything with bleach (impossible). No one told us that the bleach is useless if it is not in contact with the virus for 10 minutes and no organic matter is around. And, as far as the yard where they went to the bathroom, forget it. It can live for a year outside!! Why can it live outside so long, but not in the house? Because you clean the house often? This can't be true because you can't clean everything. Let's face it, we are talking about a virus.

Well this is what we have decided to do unless someone can suggest a better way:

First, we are waiting until the puppies are 14 weeks old (we want to be part of the time between 8 and 16 weeks for their development and socialization).

Second, we will request that the breeder give a "High Titer" vaccine at 12 weeks (Our breeder by the way gives 1/2 vaccines and doesn't trust the new High Titers yet - we are after all talking about a dog that weighs only 1 and 3/4 pounds). Any thoughts on that??

Third, before we take them home we will have Titers run for parvo antibodies. Is this absolute if their titers are high enough? In other words, if a dog has antibodies for parvo (shown by the titer test) are they immune from the virus 100% or there about?

Forth, we plan to clean as much as possible with 1:30 bleach (for 10 minutes). This we feel is a losing battle because we can not bleach everything. We will also use "Virkon S" (for 10 minutes) where we can't bleach and as a back up in the areas that we can Bleach.

If anyone could possible help us and give us some solid answers to this whole mess, we would be grateful.

Thank you in advance!!