Parvo Blows.

Some of you may remember our puppy, Hunter. If not, let's just call him a six month old golden retriever.

Quick history:
Last night, he didn't eat any of his dinner (NOT normal for a puppy his size). Ditto for this morning. We decided it was time for the vet when he yarked on the kitchen floor. That was a riot to clean up.

We take him to the vet, who does a quick fecal test (read: shoves a 6" q-tip up his pooper), and confirms what I was afraid of: Hunter has parvo.

If you don't know what parvo is, it's probably one of the worst viruses your dog can get. Typically, the symptoms are lethargy, loss of appetite, vomiting, grayish diarrhea (sometimes with blood or tissue in it), extreme dehydration, and, in many cases, death.

When I was Josh's age (give or take), I lost my dalmation to parvo. I think it took a total of three days to kill her. So you can imagine why I'm antsy now. I don't want the kids to go through the same thing with Hunter.

Anyway, back to the story. $300 and 3 prescriptions later, we're back at home. He's been on a steady diet of clear pedialyte and Cephalexin (antibiotic). Hopefully he'll be back to normal in a few days.