Saying Goodbye to Another Street Puppy Lost to Parvo

Yesterday we sat with one of the street puppies as they left their body from parvo disease. She had been the healthiest of the four mange puppies, but parvo hits so fast that they go from healthy to boney in just 2 days.

The prior day we took her to the government vet clinic to try to give her IV saline but they were not able to locate a vein. At that point we knew it was over and we would not be able to save her, so I brought her to my room and spent the last day with her.

She heard Srila Prabhupada’s chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra the whole day, and had charanamrita from Lord Jagannatha before leaving her body. A few hours before leaving rice prasadam arrived from Puri Jagannatha temple and we put some in her mouth which she chewed.

Every time I put her on the pillow she would try to climb back on my lap, so I had to give in and keep her on my lap most of the day. I tried feeding her water with a syringe, which she drank for a few hours, but then at some point became too weak to swallow indicating it was nearing time for her to leave.

We chanted mahamantra to her and kept flowers and tulasi from Lord Jagannatha on her head. The whole time Srila Prabhupada’s recording was playing. Finally she left her body and we buried her in the garden.

All puppies had received their first vaccination dose, but it takes 2 months for the vaccine to become effective and the disease spreads too fast. Now we wait and see which puppy will be the next to be affected. The government vet tells us that outside 90 percent of all street puppies die from this each year.

May Lord Krishna bless her soul.

This was the other street puppy who passed away last week from parvo. He was actually the fattest and healthiest of his set of puppies but within 3 days he became listless, lost a lot of weight and left his body. The photo was a few hours before he left, when he had already lost a lot of weight.

On the last day I kept him in my room and played Srila Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna kirtan for him all day. I would put him in his bed but he would come out to sit below my chair near my feet. I actually thought we had a few more days time, since he didn’t look too skinny and was still able to walk slowly. I was planning to take him for a saline IV that morning, but he left before the vet clinic opened.

At some point I heard two small coughs from him as he sat below my chair. I thought to put him again in his bed to be more comfortable for him, so I reached down and picked him up. As I turned to put him on his bed, he left his body in my arms. It all happened within 10 seconds.

I am thankful he didn’t go through any pain and was able to leave quickly hearing Hare Krishna mahamantra after having drunk charanamrita from Lord Jagannatha.

The night before I was checking why he may be sick, and found that he was infested with ticks. I spent the night removing each one, and took off more than 400 ticks from his body. Officially they say parvo does not transmit through ticks, but I have to think the ticks played some role in reducing his immune system so that his body could not fight the parvo infection. The other puppies with him were not as healthy but did not have ticks, so somehow they did not have a problem with the disease yet.

I didn’t get to play as much with him or the 5 other healthy puppies as I didn’t want to risk infecting them with mange. I spent most of my time with the mange puppies as they were in a more serious condition. Since I was always touching them and holding them I didn’t want to transfer the mange to the healthy puppies in the goshala. As a result I didn’t pet them much or play with them often. Maybe I would have noticed the ticks sooner if I had been able to touch them more.

Here he was nine days before. Everyone liked him the most because he was the only black puppy out of the 10 puppies. This mother is the best and spends almost the whole day with her puppies. They are always happy because their mother is always with them showing them love. She only goes out for maybe 1 hour a day.