This week on the Good Dog Pod, Laura announces that April is officially Healthy Puppy Month! Good Dog has partnered with Revival Animal Health to support the Morris Animal Foundation with their Parvovirus Research Efforts.

Starting April 1st, 2021 you can visit HealthyPuppyMonth.com to learn more about Parvovirus, hear stories about Parvo survivors and join us in our mission to promote puppy health by signing the Healthy Puppy Pledge. For every signature, Good Dog and Revival will each donate $1 to the Morris Animal Foundation. 

Laura introduces us to our two guests, Dr. Kelly Diehl, the Senior Director of Science and Communications at the Morris Animal Foundation and Dr. Judi Stella, the Head of Health, Standards and Research at Good Dog.

The Morris Animal Foundation has been around since 1948 when it was founded by Dr. Morris. Kelly introduces us to some of the unique research the Foundation is currently pursuing, including a project on horse behavior as well as donkey pain. Additionally, Kelly discusses the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which was conceived of as a cancer risk study. 3,044 Golden Retrievers were enrolled between the age of 2-6 years old. Every year, the veterinarian and owner of the enrolled dog’s fill out a questionnaire (which is over 100 pages!), as well as creating a hair, blood, feces, nails and urine bank every year. The cost of the study, you may ask? $32 million.

Shifting gears to Parvovirus. Parvovirus is a horrible disease, which grows in rapidly dividing cells. The disease affects the GI tract, as well as bone marrow. Common symptoms include smelly, bloody diarrhea (Laura emphasized just how smelly it is) and a low white cell count, which is usually used as a diagnosis. Additional tests are then used to confirm. Luckily, vaccines were developed to tackle Parvo, but it has not been entirely eliminated. 

This virus has mutated over time, which led to further research on Parvo. The Baker Institute at Cornell is looking deeper into the Parvo mutation, and whether the current vaccines can protect dogs against these new variants. At a higher level, this research will also help us understand more about canine immunity. And lastly, they are looking at what configuration of antibodies is the best to ultimately be a treatment, and whether these antibodies could be made in the lab.

We encourage you to join our efforts to tackle the Parvovirus by signing our Healthy Puppy Pledge at www.healthypuppymonth.com !