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Make sure a puppy doesn't catch Parvo!



It’s hard to imagine just how difficult it is for pet owners and families to lose their ‘best friend’ to Parvovirus.

Dr Mark Kelman, co-founder of national pet charity Paws for A Purpose, says your help is needed to help to protect more puppies from catching Parvo and their owners seeing a pup they love, catch this terrible disease.

Every year, 20,000 puppies catch the deadly disease - Parvo - and unfortunately around half of them die from it. That’s three puppies dying every day from this disease. It is often so heart-breaking for their owners, who are often vulnerable themselves,” says Dr Kelman.

“For many people, such as the homeless, the elderly, and concession card holders, vaccination costs are a barrier for them to prevent their beloved companions from catching, suffering or die from this disease – even though this disease is totally preventable and vaccines are readily available.

As a volunteer-based organisation, we rely on people just like you to achieve our ambitious goal – to fund vaccination programs that reduce and eventually eradicate this deadly disease – protecting our ‘best friends’ in living disadvantaged areas and groups.

We need your help to run vaccination clinics in Parvo hotspots

Photo Credit: Paws for A Purpose - one of the vaccination clinics held in Rockhampton



Your contribution can help and make sure a puppy doesn’t catch Parvo. Please join our community of supporters fighting against Parvo to save puppies lives and stop the heartache of families.”

Donations can be made at www.pawsforapurpose.org/bindi.html

Case Study: Bindi defeats Parvo… just!

Parvo is a horrible disease. It can cause terrible vomiting and diarrhoea, followed by dehydration and immune suppression, and sadly in many cases death – particularly in puppies. Caley knows this all too well and has let us share her story.


Over two years ago, Caley brought Bindi (a beautiful brindle Staffy) home to join her lovely family of two dogs, two cats, and a bird - plus Caley and her husband, James. 

Bindi soon captured the family’s heart with her cheeky and sassy personality. 

She loved doing training tricks with Caley and learnt to pack away her toys, wipe her paws when she came inside, wave at people and more.

Everything was going so well, until 16 May 2020. 

The date Caley still remembers so clearly. Early in the morning, Caley woke up to hear Bindi vomiting. After that had eased, she offered Bindi breakfast, but Bindi refused that. 

Caley then offered Bindi chicken, because she was told that it was good for an upset tummy. Bindi took the chicken in her mouth, looking repulsed, then started to spit it out, which was very weird. 

From that moment, she refused all food that day and became more and more lethargic. Her water intake became less and less.

At 9pm that evening, Caley felt that there was something seriously wrong with Bindi. She told her husband at work. He came home. They took Bindi to a vet in the nearest town – Wagga. They arrived at 10:30pm. 


The vet took Bindi’s temperature. When they pulled out the thermometer, there was blood. Caley’s heart sank and said, “I hope it is not Parvo”. Unfortunately test results showed that it was Parvo.


Although Caley had never had any experience with Parvo, she had heard about that and knew that it was a very deadly disease. She was so worried.

Despite that the vet told her all the positive things that could go in Bindi’s favour, Caley was so convinced that she was going to lose Bindi. That night when she left the vet, she thought she would never see Bindi again. You can imagine how devastated Caley felt.

Bindi was in the hospital for just under a week. She was in isolation. No visitors were allowed. This just added more stress and anxiety to Caley. Caley rang the vet twice a day to check Bindi’s condition and restrained herself from doing more for the whole week.

Luckily the good news came. They could go and pick up Bindi. The one and half hours’ drive to the vet was the longest drive ever for Caley. She couldn’t wait to see her little girl. When Bindi saw Caley, she dragged the nurse (still holding the lead), jumped all over Caley and licked her face. They were all so excited.

Bindi was fortunate. Because of her young age – one year old, generally healthy condition and having taken two vaccine shots (due to poor advice she'd only had two vaccinations, a third might have prevented her getting Parvo altogether) – Bindi recovered and was reunited with the family.

Yet many puppies, actually 10,000 of them every year, are not that fortunate. Their owners and families lose them forever.

If you can, please make a tax deductible donation today to stop this heartache of people who need your help, to keep their best friends safe.

Donations can be made at www.pawsforapurpose.org/bindi.html


About Paws for A Purpose


Paws for A Purpose
 are a young, national charity organisation with the mission of helping people and pets in need.

You can follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PawsForAPurpose and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pawsforapurpose

Find out if there is an outbreak of parvovirus in your area by visiting ParvoALERT.com




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