New Hope for Parvovirus Patients: Treatment Breakthroughs and Prevention Tips
In this update episode of Vetsplanation, join Dr. Sugerman as he delves back into the world of canine parvovirus, discussing a breakthrough treatment and vital prevention strategies. Learn about the latest advancements in parvovirus medication, including the game-changing Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody, offering hope and healing to pets and pet parents alike.
What You’ll Learn:
Understand the nature of canine parvovirus and its impact on dogs' health
Explore the story of Panama, an eight-week-old puppy battling parvovirus
Discover the latest advancements in parvovirus treatment, including the Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody
Learn about the diagnostic process for parvovirus and the importance of early detection
Gain insights into the various treatment options available for parvovirus-infected dogs, including hospitalization and home care
Explore effective prevention strategies to safeguard pets from contracting parvovirus
Understand the significance of proper vaccination protocols for puppies and dogs
Gain practical tips for cleaning and disinfecting environments to prevent the spread of parvovirus
Learn about potential complications and outcomes associated with parvovirus infection
Discover valuable information on how to support a parvovirus-infected pet through recovery and beyond
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"This new drug is called a Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody. Some people just call it CPMA." - Dr. Tyler Sugerman-McGiffin
"So this monoclonal antibody is a one time injection that acts like the dog's own immune system." - Dr. Tyler Sugerman-McGiffin
"We inject it into the dog's body and then immediately goes to work capturing a bunch of parvoviruses and making them inactive." - Dr. Tyler Sugerman-McGiffin
Resources From This Episode:
Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody
Animal Facts - Names for Groups of Animals
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Read The Transcript:
Dr. Sugerman: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. We talked about FIP like a couple weeks ago and how there's this amazing drug that's out there that can really help these cats.
Dr. Sugerman: So I thought we should do an update on Parvovirus because there's also an amazing new drug that has come out for Parvovirus as well. So let's talk about Panama. She was an eight week old female intact, meaning not spayed, a pitbul puppy who had come to our clinic with vomiting and diarrhea, and not really wanting to eat for about two days.
Dr. Sugerman: Any puppy who checks into our clinic, we do ask the pet parents to stay in their car because we will send out a technician. So we can ask them a couple questions about their vaccine history. And then after that, we perform a Parvo test on them. This is just for everybody's safety. We want to make sure that our puppies that are coming in after that puppy are going to be safe if that puppy do has Parvovirus.
Dr. Sugerman: So it's a pretty standard thing that we do to try to make sure that that puppy [00:01:00] is in an isolated area if we need them to be so we can keep other puppies safe as well. So you might have guessed it after all of this talk about parvo, but Panama did have parvo. So listen in to hear more about parvo and this new medication that has really changed this disease from being a low chance of survival to a much higher chance of survival. Also about how Panama got her name, cause I thought that's a pretty funny story.
Dr. Sugerman: Hi, and welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Dr. Sugerman, and I'm going to teach you about veterinary medicine. In this podcast, we can dive deeper into the understanding of what our pets are going through and break down medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information. Just a quick disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only.
Dr. Sugerman: This is not meant to be a diagnosis for your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things. Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine and medicine is not an [00:02:00] exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options and different opinions.
Dr. Sugerman: The information I provide here is to help pet parents have a better understanding about their pets. If you like our podcast, please consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or just somebody else who has pets as well. Now, let's jump into this week's episode.
Dr. Sugerman: Welcome back to Vetsplanation. I am your veterinary host, Dr. Sugerman. Just a quick reminder, to make sure you tell a fellow animal lover about our podcast so we can get the word out and try to help more animals that way. Alright, let's get back to Panama. So when my technicians had informed mom that Panama unfortunately did have parvo, she really didn't know what that meant.
Dr. Sugerman: Her daughter had brought this puppy home about three days ago for her mom, who's trip to Panama had been cancelled. So to cheer her mom up, she decided to get her this puppy because she had always wanted one, but her husband, who had recently passed away did not like dogs.
Dr. Sugerman: Now that she had this puppy, she really [00:03:00] didn't want to leave her for a couple week trip to Panama, so she decided to bring Panama to her by naming the puppy Panama. So her daughter had bought this puppy from Craigslist, and she was told that she had already had her first two sets of vaccines and that she wouldn't need another one for three to four weeks.
Dr. Sugerman: Panama's mom asked her daughter if she could call them to get the records, and when she did that unfortunately that number had been disconnected. This is, unfortunately, a very common problem to have happen. People tend to meet in a parking lot for what they say is safety reasons. You get a burner phone number. They sell you a sick puppy, and then they ditch the phone number once you've paid for the puppy, so now there's no way for you to reach them.
Dr. Sugerman: Now I have to step in and talk to these pet parents about parvovirus and all the things that go with it. And it's not like they can get a hold of the breeder from before to say you sold me a sick puppy. And [00:04:00] also there's, there are things called lemon laws, like in California, there is a lemon law.
Dr. Sugerman: So you can go after people when they have sold you like a sick puppy, but that's not a thing in Washington. So it's not like they can, you can't go after them for selling you a sick puppy, unfortunately. So now I have to step in and talk to Panama's mom about parvovirus. So parvovirus is a virus that attacks dogs and their GI system, meaning their stomach and their intestines, but it can also attack other places like their heart.
Dr. Sugerman: There are several strains of parvo, just like any human virus, but they all do act very similarly. So this virus can attack dogs at any age, but the most typical ages are going to be from like six to 20 weeks old, because they tend to be at the highest risk. They're exposed to the parvovirus through feces from another animal who is sick with parvo. I say another animal because it is not just dogs who are infected with parvo. This can also be from like [00:05:00] coyotes, or wolves, or foxes, as well as other dogs too.
Dr. Sugerman: They shed the virus into the feces, and then the next dog, like Panama, comes along, comes into contact with that stool, or like a contaminated surface, like a rock, or soil, or bedding. And it can actually live in soil for a really long time. It can live up to, in soil for up to six years. So Panama then picks it up by either ingesting the stool itself, because I mean like, for most dogs, what dog doesn't like eating wildlife poop, right? They love it as a treat.
Dr. Sugerman: Or it might be that she picked it up on her paws that she later licked. But now that this tiny virus is in her system, it starts to replicate. It goes to their tonsils first to replicate, and then into their lymph nodes. From there, the virus catches a ride inside of a white blood cell to just disguise itself.
Dr. Sugerman: So it can go other places where cells are rapidly growing. It loves rapidly growing cells. Now [00:06:00] puppies, like they're constantly rapidly growing. So are all of these cells inside their body. So the virus just basically hit a jackpot, right? Like it's so excited it's gonna start to be able to go after all of these cells.
Dr. Sugerman: So the virus goes for the bone marrow, which is where it stops like white blood cells from being formed. It also goes into the small intestines and affects what is known as something called the crypts of the small intestines. So if you mention like these little finger like projections that are sticking out of the small intestines, those are called the villi, like all of the fingers are called villi, and they're great for picking up nutrients like food.
Dr. Sugerman: They're really fantastic for being able to absorb a lot of stuff. Between each one of those little finger like projections are these crypts. These little tiny indentations towards the bottom there. And that's where the parvovirus actually attacks.
Dr. Sugerman: Those little villi are constantly being reformed all the time. So they are very rapidly forming cells, which parvo likes. And it [00:07:00] goes to the bottom of those villi, cuts them down essentially, and then doesn't allow for more stuff to be able to develop in its place.
Dr. Sugerman: Besides doing that, it also digs a hole into the intestines essentially to get back into the bloodstream to create more havoc as well. Lastly, it also affects the fast growing muscle cells of the heart. Leading to death of parts of the heart or large hearts or causing arrhythmias, which is basically where the heart is not able to beat correctly.
Dr. Sugerman: And all of these things happen in about 3 to 7 days after being exposed to this virus. Unfortunately, the people who sold Panama probably knew one of the other puppies was sick, and they knew they needed to get rid of the other puppies very quickly before they started to show symptoms. That's a very common thing that happens.
Dr. Sugerman: Speaking of symptoms, they will usually have things like vomiting, diarrhea, not wanting to eat, just like Panama did. This is from that [00:08:00] virus attacking the small intestines, which also leads to things like bloody diarrhea, because those little finger-like villi are being removed by that virus. It's basically just sloughing off into the intestines.
Dr. Sugerman: Parvo also causes a fever because it's attacking the white blood cells of the body and the bone marrow so the puppies cannot fight off other infections from other bacteria that would normally be in the body. But now it's overgrowing because now all of the body's systems are just completely out of whack.
Dr. Sugerman: All the vomiting and diarrhea leads to really bad dehydration. Because they're losing so much water, and even though they may be drinking the water, they can't hold it down and are just vomiting it right back up. Within a couple of days, if they have not gotten treatment, they unfortunately have about a 90 percent chance that they will die.
Dr. Sugerman: So it's not very good odds. Now, vomiting, diarrhea, not wanting to eat, lethargy, fever, those are all symptoms of other differentials too, right? They're not very [00:09:00] specific for parvo and therefore we have to take into account the patient's history as to whether this is something that we should be testing for.
Dr. Sugerman: So how do we test for it then? We have tests that can be done in the clinic where we obtain a fecal sample, or basically a sample of stool, or some people will do a swab of the tonsils and then also a rectal swab if we don't have enough stool. That's a little bit debatable as to whether some people do the tonsil swab or not.
Dr. Sugerman: The lab says usually not to do a tonsil swab. They say just to do a rectal swab, but I've definitely had more positives with a tonsil swab than a rectal swab. We run that test, which takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and then it will tell us if that dog has parvo. So it just tells us a positive or a negative. Most of the time. So there are limitations to any test, right?
Dr. Sugerman: This test is fairly good at not having false positives. The times when that test is going to come up, though, as a positive, even though it's not really positive, is when puppies have [00:10:00] had their vaccines within about eight days of when that test was run. So let's say 8 days ago, that puppy had a vaccine for parvo.
Dr. Sugerman: It could potentially come up positive on that test, just because the dog is starting to make antibodies in its system. And so it makes, and we'll talk about that later, but it tricks the test into thinking that this is positive. It can also have false negatives. So this is usually when the dog is showing signs of parvo, but there hasn't been enough of that virus to replicate yet, or to come out in the stool for that test to recognize it and be positive.
Dr. Sugerman: So there are false positives and false negatives that can occur. Just as an example, these aren't real numbers, but maybe you need 50 viruses to make that test positive. But there's only 10 that shed in that stool sample. Maybe in two days, if we got another stool sample, it sheds over 300.
Dr. Sugerman: But that doesn't mean that that dog doesn't have parvo just because it was negative. It just means that there wasn't enough of that virus to be [00:11:00] able to test positive. Like I said, those dogs will likely test positive later. Sometimes we do need to send out the test for what we call a fecal PCR. It basically looks for the DNA of parvo and many other viruses as well to try to tell us what is causing that dog's diarrhea.
Dr. Sugerman: And this is a much more sensitive test, so if we have to use it, that's great. The big limitation to it is that it takes a long time to come back. It can take a week or more to be able to come back. And by that time, we've already needed to start addressing this problem and try to help this dog.
Dr. Sugerman: So if that test that we run in the clinic comes back positive, then we need to start doing treatments on that dog for parvo. Now this is a discussion that I had to have with Panama's mom. Now just last year I would have told you that we either had to hospitalize for a week which was about a 75 percent chance of survival or send home medications with about a 50 percent chance of survival or we had to consider humane [00:12:00] euthanasia. But now steps in this amazing new drug that we've gotten.
Dr. Sugerman: First Let me just do a brief overview of what the body's immune system does. Okay. So an invader such as a virus comes into the body and the white blood cells of the body are like an army, right? They see an invader and they just want to destroy it.
Dr. Sugerman: Then that army brings pieces of that virus back and shows the rest of the troops like what to watch for in case this invader tries to attack again. The army or the white blood cells help create these things called antibodies. So antibodies are proteins that recognize that particular invader or that particular virus and make it so that it's inactive.
Dr. Sugerman: So meaning it can not work the way it normally would do before it could get into the white blood cells to destroy all those white blood cells. So in antibodies, they are basically like these special forces, right? They're built to take out a very specific invader like parvovirus. So that's like a brief overview of [00:13:00] what the body's normal immune system does. So let's get back to this drug.
Dr. Sugerman: So this new drug is called a Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody. Some people just call it CPMA. But basically this medication replicates what the dog's own body would do, but do it faster. So when that dog contracts parvo, the white blood cells attack one of them, brings it back to the others for them to see, makes this antibody specifically for parvo to bind it, and then makes it inactive so it cannot wreak havoc.
Dr. Sugerman: But it takes time for that body to do that. So like days to weeks at a time and at the same time the virus is now stopping more white blood cells from being made and killing them off. Plus the dog's body is trying to fight off other infections at the same time. So it's just, it's too much for their body to handle. It is overwhelming.
Dr. Sugerman: So now this monoclonal antibody is a one time injection that acts like the dog's own immune system. It [00:14:00] specifically makes these antibodies, specifically for parvo to fight it off. We inject it into the dog's body and then immediately goes to work capturing a bunch of parvoviruses and making them inactive. They're like a superhero, like swooping in to help save the day by providing this really high level of defense against parvovirus specifically.
Dr. Sugerman: And you might be wondering like, how effective is this drug? All superheroes have their kryptonite, right? In testing so far, when given it as the only medication at the first sign of parvovirus in a laboratory setting it has been 100 percent effective.
Dr. Sugerman: I will say though this is in a lab. You know, often we do not see these pets until it's been a couple of days and not by us testing the pet every day and looking for signs of parvo like they do in the lab. In the lab they're literally testing them every day to see when they become positive and then when they're positive then they give this drug.
Dr. Sugerman: That's not what we can do in our real [00:15:00] life, right? Like we can't test that puppy every single day for parvovirus and then as soon as we see it then give the drug. But instead we have to wait till we see these clinical signs which might be a couple of days after it would have tested parvo positive and then now we're giving this drug.
Dr. Sugerman: So far though we've only had one puppy that received that injection and still died after all of the ones we've given so far. I believe that the only reason why this happened though is because the parents of that puppy had tried at home treatment for about four days prior to hospitalizing the puppy and that puppy was very sick by that time. I think it had more to fight off than just the parvovirus by then.
Dr. Sugerman: In puppies in a lab setting and in our clinic setting, it significantly increased the recovery time too. It might have been that they were hospitalized for a week before. Most of them have left the hospital now in one to three days after getting this injection.
Alright, sounds too good to be true, right? My next question would [00:16:00] be, how safe is this medication? In their field studies so far, they have had about 4 percent of patients that have had a mild inflammation where that medication was injected because we inject it into the vein. But no anaphylaxis or really bad allergic reactions have happened yet. Or any major problems. That's really good news for us, right? So far we have a drug that's very effective and does not have a lot of complications to it.
Dr. Sugerman: Now knowing we have this medication out there really helps us to battle parvo. So now we can discuss those treatment options So the first option I talk to Panama's. Mom about was hospitalization. We talked about giving Panama the injection and then hospitalizing her to give her IV fluids, which help rehydrate her. We're giving fluids directly into her veins. Giving an anti nausea medication, which means we helped stop all the vomiting and her nausea. Medication to help stop the diarrhea.
Dr. Sugerman: And then antibiotics to help fight off other [00:17:00] infections that the parvo has now caused. And then lastly we start with a feeding tube. It's something we call an NG tube. And this is a tube that goes from the nose into the stomach. NG stands for nasogastric, so naso meaning nose, gastric meaning stomach.
Dr. Sugerman: So it helps to give her little amounts of food at a time and give her nutrition. That does a couple of things. It helps her get more vitamins back, more nutrients back, more blood sugar back. But it also helps protect the GI system, so that way we can have decreased amount of those villi, those little finger like projections, sloughing off and less bloody diarrhea and stuff as well.
Dr. Sugerman: Our goal is basically that she's gonna be able to return home when she no longer has any vomiting and is at least eating so that way she can take medications at home. She'll still likely have the diarrhea but just not nearly as bad as it was before. That's gonna take days to go away.
Dr. Sugerman: Our second option, if we can't [00:18:00] hospitalize, is to give her the monoclonal antibiotic injection. Send her home with medications to try to give it and try to give it home.
Dr. Sugerman: In both of these situations, we're giving that monoclonal antibody injection and seeing how long this is going to be to recover. The big downsides to doing that at home is that, I can teach her how to give fluids under the skin at home, but you can only give so much under the skin, unfortunately. I can give a lot more in a vein. So if you're only doing it under the skin, it's going to take a lot longer to be able to get her rehydrated.
Dr. Sugerman: The other downside is that the medications would have to be given by mouth at home, which means it can make her more nauseous. But it's still a good option, right? If mom can take care of her at home and she starts feeling better, it's going to be less expensive. And this is a good option for people who can't afford to hospitalize them. Our third option was to consider humane euthanasia. I just, I didn't think that she was at this point with Panama, but with pets who are very sick, that is definitely something that I talk [00:19:00] about.
Dr. Sugerman: Not everybody is going to have the means to hospitalize or even to be able to treat at home, and I don't want the puppy to suffer if that's the case. We want to make sure we try to keep them as comfortable as possible.
Dr. Sugerman: Panama's mom had decided to forfeit her money that she had paid to go to Panama. And instead put her towards her puppy, Panama's care instead.
Dr. Sugerman: We didn't know like how long she was going to need to stay at that point. So we talked about how this could be a couple of days or it might be a week or even longer. And we would just have to see how she does and take it one day at a time.
Dr. Sugerman: She did great. Which is fantastic.
Dr. Sugerman: Within two days, she was eating, not vomiting. She was screaming to be played with. So she was definitely ready to go home by that point.
Dr. Sugerman: So now let's talk about prevention. First of all, before Panama can go home, any bedding, food, water bowls, and all the surfaces of the house should be cleaned with really dilute bleach. It should be about one part bleach to 30 parts water. Just to [00:20:00] give you a rough idea, that means one cup of bleach to 30 cups of water, essentially.
Dr. Sugerman: Parvovirus is really hardy and it can live indoors on surfaces for a month or even more. It can live outdoors for even longer, even through the winter time.
Dr. Sugerman: It doesn't matter if it's freezing outside. Parvovirus can unfortunately withstand that. And you shouldn't bleach your lawn, just FYI. So lawn or soil or anything outside. The best thing to do for outside stuff is gonna be just watering it or just letting the rain just kinda wash everything away. It basically helps dilute it. That way there's not as much virus that can get into the puppy. The other thing that helps too is over time sunlight can help just kill off some of that virus as well.
Dr. Sugerman: Dogs can still shed this virus for about a week after they're feeling better too. So therefore, they should be isolated from any other dogs for about two weeks after being sick. This will also help stop the spread of the virus to other dogs as [00:21:00] well.
Dr. Sugerman: Lastly, in about three to four weeks, Panama is going to need to get her vaccines. So it's really going to depend on how old that puppy is when they receive the vaccines and also when they're sick. But she'll likely need to receive about two or more vaccines.
Dr. Sugerman: They usually spread out about every three to four weeks apart until she is at least sixteen weeks old. This is because the puppy has a mom's immunity still at first and it starts to go away sometime between eight to twelve weeks old. We don't know exactly when that happens. We don't know exactly when moms immunity starts to go away and puppy's immunity starts, every mom and puppy are different.
Dr. Sugerman: So normally we start those vaccines at eight weeks old when mom's immunity is starting to build up. They get the vaccines, like I said, every three to four weeks until they're about sixteen weeks old. Because we know that mom's immunity is gone by that point. And then the puppy can start making its own immunity towards parvovirus.
Dr. Sugerman: So we need to give those vaccines to help the puppy's [00:22:00] body make more antibodies. Which fight off that parvovirus in the future if it ever comes across it again.
Dr. Sugerman: All right, let's talk about some commonly asked questions. A commonly asked question that I get is, I have this other dog at home, is my other dog going to be okay?
Dr. Sugerman: It really depends on what their vaccination status is. Were they vaccinated properly? Did they get puppy vaccines and then vaccines every one to three years, depending on the manufacturer after that?
Dr. Sugerman: If so, then most likely they're going to be okay. I've had only a small handful of dogs that did get parvo despite being very fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, that is the dog's own body just not being able to respond well enough to those viruses to mount a good defense against parvovirus after they had gotten those vaccines.
Dr. Sugerman: We don't want to over vaccinate pets. So they are vaccinated at intervals in which the majority of the pets will have full coverage. This is a really small percentage of them that unfortunately don't have a good response [00:23:00] to it. Like literally I've seen four cases who are fully vaccinated and still got parvo in my whole 29 years of being in the veterinary field. And I've seen probably hundreds of thousands of dogs who have been vaccinated for parvo that don't get parvo.
Dr. Sugerman: So again, that's pretty good odds. I also want to point out as well that they do need to be vaccinated by a veterinarian. There are two reasons for that.
Dr. Sugerman: So first of all, because if the vaccines are not handled correctly or stored correctly, then they become inactive and they're not going to work correctly. People sometimes get them from feed stores, but you have no idea how they were handled from these feed stores. And if somebody didn't handle them correctly, like maybe they didn't know that you had the refrigerate immediately, it's going to make that vaccine not work.
Dr. Sugerman: The second reason is for money. And not the way that you're probably thinking, this has become some vaccine companies will reimburse you if your dog does have to be hospitalized and you can prove that they were [00:24:00] fully vaccinated, but it has to be by a veterinarian. You couldn't have bought it from like a feed store and done it yourself. It has to be by a veterinarian.
Dr. Sugerman: So if you have records of the vaccines from a veterinarian. Then you might be able to put in a claim and then they'll reimburse you sometimes for that stay for parvo. So far, everybody that I've had had to do this has been reimbursed for it.
Dr. Sugerman: Another question that I often get is that people decide they want to get a second puppy for their first puppy so that they can play together and grow up together. Or unfortunately, I've had some puppies that we've had to euthanize and they want to know could I get a puppy after that and will that be a problem?
Dr. Sugerman: So the answer is it very well could be a problem. So we discussed that the virus lives inside and outside for a really long time. Ideally, you'd want to avoid having an unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated dog in the yard for about 6 to 12 months after that parvo incident.
Dr. Sugerman: Even with attempts to clean it and dilute it and all [00:25:00] the bleaching that we're doing. It still could make it so that puppy could have parvovirus. We don't know exactly how long it lives in the environment inside either. So therefore we should really stick to that 6 to 12 months before getting a puppy. Therefore, I usually suggest, just getting a fully vaccinated dog or waiting about a year to get a new puppy if that's the case.
Dr. Sugerman: Another question I get is, are humans or cats susceptible to this parvovirus? Humans are not, they cannot get a canine parvovirus. Cats, on the other hand, cats are questionable. So there is another virus in cats that I have covered before, it's called Panleukopenia, and it is a parvovirus.
Dr. Sugerman: There are some strains of a canine parvovirus that are contagious to cats. Therefore, I would isolate them from the dog if possible if they're not fully vaccinated.
Dr. Sugerman: Alright, so hopefully that puts into perspective a little bit about parvovirus. And so now we're going to do our animal fact. So today I'm doing a little bit [00:26:00] different. I thought that it would be fun to go over like weird animal terms, like group names, animal group names. Some of them are You're just like, what? So strange, right? How did they come up with these things?
Dr. Sugerman: Alright, so let's start it out. These are all in alphabetical order, so I'm going to try to do some of the really interesting ones. So apes, a group of apes, is called a shrewdness. Shrewdness. A group of baboons is a troop. A group of badgers is a cete.
Dr. Sugerman: I don't even know what that is. A group of bass, a shoal. A group of bears is a sloth or a sleuth. That's not cubs, by the way. Cubs is a litter. But bears specifically. A group of bears is a sloth or a sleuth. A group of beavers is a colony. A group of boar is a sounder. A group of buffalo is a gang or an obstinacy?
Dr. Sugerman: Wow. [00:27:00] A group of camel is a caravan. A group of caterpillars, my favorite, is an army. A group of cats is a clowder and has other names too, like a clowder a glaring, a pounce, a nuisance or a clutter. And that's just cats, not kittens. You, kittens are, again, are a litter. A group of wild cats is a destruction.
Dr. Sugerman: I, I think that's a pretty good name for them. A group of cheetahs is a coalition. A group of clams is a bed. A group of cobras is a quiver. A group of colts is a rag. A group of cows, we normally use the word herd, right? But it could also be a kine, a drove, or a fold. Twelve cows or more is a flink. How do they, how do they come up with these things?
Dr. Sugerman: A group of coyotes is a band. A group of cranes is a sedge. A group of [00:28:00] crocodiles is a float or a bask. Probably most people know a group of crows is a murder. A group of dogs, normally we call them a pack, but it's also known as a cowardice. A group of donkeys is a drove. A group of doves is a dule. A group of ducks is a brace, a paddling, or a team.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of eagles is a convocation. A group of elephants we know usually is a herd, but it's also a parade. A group of elk, a gang or a herd. A group of emus, a mob. A group of falcons is a cast. A group of ferrets is a business or a fesnyng. I feel like that's gotta be like a German thing or something. A group of finches is a charm.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of flamingos is a stand or a flamboyance. A group of foxes is a skulk or a leash. A group of [00:29:00] frogs is an army or a colony. A group of giraffes, a tower. Totally could see that one, right? A group of gnats is a cloud. A group of goats we would, again, normally think of a herd, but it's also a tribe or a trip.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of goldfinches is a charm. A group of goldfish is a troubling. A group of gorillas is a band. A group of grasshoppers is a cloud. I could, again, totally see that. A group of greyhounds, so a specific dog, greyhounds, is a leach. A group of hawks is a cast or a kettle. A group of hippopotami is a bloat or a thunder.
Dr. Sugerman: Also, a really good one. A group of hogs is a drift or a parcel. A group of hyenas is a cackle. Again, super good name. [00:30:00] A group of jaguars is a shadow. A group of jellyfish is a smack or a brood. A group of kangaroos is a troop or a mob. A group of lemurs is a conspiracy. A group of leopards is a leap. A group of lice But you didn't even know there was a thing. A group of lice, right? A group of lice is a flock. A group of locusts is a plague, or a cloud, again. Totally makes sense, right? A group of magpies is a tiding or a tittering.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of mallards is a sord. A group of mares is a stud. Now that's interesting, right? Because you'd think that studs are the male, but nope, a group of mares is a stud. A group of minnows is a steam. A group of moles is a labor. A group of monkeys, a barrel. A barrel of monkeys, love it.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of nightingales is a watch. A group of otters [00:31:00] is a family. Could also be a romp or a raft. A group of owls is a parliament. A group of parrots is a pandemonium. Totally can see that. A group of peacocks is a muster. A group of penguins, a colony. A group of pheasants is a nest, a nide, or a bouquet.
Dr. Sugerman: You would think that would be for like a peacock, right? But it's for pheasants. A group of pigs is a drift or a drove for younger pigs. And then a sounder, a litter, or a team for older pigs. A group of porcupines. This is one of my favorites. A prickle. A group of raccoons is a gaze. So you can just be like, oh, I see that gaze of raccoons over there.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of rattlesnakes is a rhumba. It's R H U M B, but still, a rhumba. Love it. A group of ravens is an [00:32:00] unkindness. A group of rhinos, a crash. Fantastic. A group of sharks, a shiver. Yeah, I would probably shiver too with a group of sharks. A group of skunks is a stench. Again, makes sense. A group of snakes is a nest or a knot.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of squirrels is a dray or a scurry. A group of starlings is a murmuration. A group of stingrays is a fever. A group of storks is a mustering. A group of swans is a bevy. A group of tigers is an ambush or a streak. A group of toads is a knot. A group of trout is a hover. A group of turkeys, this is also one of my favorite ones, is a gang or a posse.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of turtles is a bale. [00:33:00] A group of vultures is a venue. A group of wasps is a pledge. That should be something different. Like wasps in a group, they're just terrible. A group of weasels is a colony or a gang. A group of whales we think of as a pod, but it's also called a school or a gam. A group of wombats is a wisdom.
Dr. Sugerman: A group of woodpeckers is a descent. And a group of zebras is a zeal.
Dr. Sugerman: So many crazy terms for these, right? You're like, who came up with these things? Who decided that that was what we were going to call these things? That's what, that's what it is. So that is our update on parvovirus, the really cool new drug for parvovirus, and then all the weird animal names that come with our groups of animals.
Dr. Sugerman: I hope you learned a lot about both of them, and I really hope that you never have to hang out with a flock. And by a flock, I mean a group of lice. If you like what we do, please don't forget to hit the like button and [00:34:00] subscribe. It really does help us out. The more you help us out, the more pets we can help.
Dr. Sugerman: So as always, please make sure to keep your pets happy, healthy, and loved. Thank you guys. We'll see you next week.
Dr. Sugerman: Thank you guys for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, you can email me at Suggs, S U G G S @ VetsplanationPodcast.com or visit the website at VetsplanationPodcast.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Vetsplanation. Thank you all for listening and I'll see you back here next week.