Pet owners are being urged to vaccinate their dogs, following an outbreak of the deadly parvovirus in Canberra.
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Multiple vet clinics in the ACT have confirmed cases of the contagious disease in recent weeks. It affects mostly puppies between six weeks and six months old.
Parvovirus can spread to dogs through contact with an infected dog's poo or vomit, or indirectly through contact with infected items such as water bowls and collars
Symptoms include extreme vomiting and bloody diarrhoea, which can lead to dehydration, septicemia or death in extreme cases.
Lesa Potten, a vet from the Vets At Amaroo clinic, said she had seen one case recently, after several cases had been confirmed at southside clinics.
She said the virus could remain active in infected areas for several months.
"It's such an awful disease, and it can stay in the ground, even for more than six months afterwards," Dr Potten said.
"A dog owner could be out with a puppy and not know if the ground or the soil had come into contact with infected poo or vomit."
The Animal Referral Hospital Canberra said it had also had come across confirmed cases in the past three weeks, along with Greencross Vets Tuggeranong and the Molonglo Vet Clinic.
Dr Potten said with multiple cases being confirmed in Canberra, it was possible the number of dogs being infected with parvovirus would rise.
"It has the potential to increase, because it's such a robust virus and the virus isn't killed by the cold," she said.
While there is no cure for parvovirus, vaccinations are available for the infection, and are part of the course of vaccines puppies receive in their first few months.
Dr Adam Sternberg, regional director for Greencross Vets in NSW and ACT, said parvovirus outbreaks take place from time to time.
"There does not tend to be a specific time of the year," Dr Sternberg said.
"Puppies can come from different areas, generally there is no consistency in [the virus's] location."
Kersti Summerell, a vet nurse at the Parkway Veterinary Clinic, said while parvovirus was more common in puppies, it could also be seen in older, unvaccinated dogs.
"The virus affects the stomach, which causes the dog to become severely dehyrdrated," she said.
"They need to be seen pretty quickly, and there's antibiotics and drugs that they can be treated with, otherwise they can die pretty quickly."
Dr Summerell said owners of puppies should watch out for symptoms such as a lack of appetite, lethargy and vomiting and diarrhoea, and should take their pet straight to the vet if they suspect they had been infected.
She said new pet owners should keep their puppies quarantined and away from areas with other dogs until they had been fully vaccinated.
"It doesn't matter whether they get their dog from a backyard breeder, or Gumtree or an established breeder, getting all the puppy vaccinations and only socialising with other vaccinated dogs are the best preventative measure," she said.
"You want to make sure that if you're getting a new puppy, you don't want to be taking them straight away to the dog park."