My dog may get ill and her insurance is invalid because of my stupidity (please get your dogs boosters)

[ParvoNightmare]

I know I will get my arse dragged for being so stupid, I've told myself that I'm an idiot 100 times today already.

My dog was exposed to parvovirus last Thursday and I am waiting to see if she becomes symptomatic.

I am terrified. I'm sleeping with her on the couch and haven't left her side since yesterday.

She had her vaccines as a pup but has never had boosters.
I won't make excuses, I am just an idiot. I misunderstood what they were for and assumed we didn't need them.
I never refused them or avoided them specifically. I just didn't know to book them and unfortunately never recieved any reminders or promts from vets (I am saying that not because I think its the vets responsibility but because I absolutely would have said yes to them if it was brought up at a routine appointment that she needed them, I am just pointing out this isn't an anti vaxx thing or a 'waste of money' thing'. I would have gotten them.
Just a genuine fuck up by not doing my due diligence with knowing what she needed.

And now because she has not had her boosters, her very expensive, top tier insurance will be completely invalid for parvo as it is in their T&Cs that any illness that is preventable via vaccines will not be covered if vaccines and boosters are not upto date.
So not only am I worrying that she will get ill but also that she could end up in dog ICU which can run into ££thousands and we are not covered for a penny.

I just wanted to put my situation out there incase someone else wasn't aware of this, so they don't potentially end up in this preventable situation both emotionally and financially.

I'm here through ignorance rather than willfull avoidance and sharing my fuck up might help someone else avoid the same thing.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks do you have labradors? I think it is labs that are refered to as landsharks?

My grandad had one that had an obsession with trying to eat socks 🤣 Only dirty ones though.

Hey OP, I just wanted to let you know that I empathise with you. We have two cats and I didn't realise that they needed annual boosters until the cattery flagged it up to us when we tried to book them in for a last minute holiday. Despite going to the vets for annual check-ups and to get flea and worm treatments prescribed they never mentioned that for some reason. I'm not a irresponsible cat owner and read up on what they needed before we took them on, but this never came up in my research.

I also think you should complain about your vet practice's approach to infection control, regardless of the outcome for your pup. What happened sounds absolutely grim - that area should have been sealed off and properly disinfected immediately.

Thankyou, yes I am going to ask at her appointment tomorrow when I can get her upto date. I would assume I would have to wait until we are 100% out of the danger zone.

Good news is another friend just txt to say her dog is booked in this week for boosters 👍 So at least a few doggies might have some better protection after all this.

Why would Labs be considered to be Landsharks? They are generally soft dogs.

It's more usually GSDs.

Thankyou for sharing that, did you find someone to watch them eventually?

I find people are always more open to catsitting than dog sitting.

I think I will send them a letter. I'm going to request some information via email just so I have it in writing and hopefully it will just be a simple complaint rather than a fight over vet fees.

My dog is sat in garden enjoying the shade, shes taken me to the dog food cupboard and asked for a 2nd breakfast (no chance) so she must be feeling pretty OK atm and completely oblivious to any of this. Bliss for her 🤣

I don't think its to do with their temprament negatively. If I recall its to do with normal developmental mouthing as a puppy with little sharp teeths and them having a habit of eating everything in sight? More of a playful inside joke with owners than a mean thing?

Her username might be completely unrelated to dogs 😅 That's just what came to mind.

I'm amazed you have so many friends who don't know about routine vaccinations. When you get your puppy vaccinated, you are given a vaccination card or booklet and the date the next one is due is recorded in it.

I hope your dog will be alright. And your other dogs too, since it doesn't sound like you are keeping her in isolation.

The clean they did might hold up for a bit of piss, but if there was blood all over the place I would have expected a much, much better clean up job. Area cordoned off, and fastidious cleaning involving bleach.

I would raise that as a concern no matter what.

That’s really basic dog husbandry, it’s concerning what else you might have done to put your dog at risk.

I hope your dog is ok OP.

If it helps, we had a dog with a serious autoimmune disorder, and on our vet's advice we titre tested her regularly rather than giving boosters. She had her initial puppy jabs and her cover against parvo didn't start to drop off at all for about nine or ten years. I really hope your dog is OK - what a worry for you.

I hope your doggy is ok OP. Eating and drinking are really good signs.

I never vaccinated my cats after the initial round when they were kittens and never insured them although my old girl cost me a fortune in the last couple of years of her life due to having high blood pressure and thyroid issues. She had to have regular checks, blood tests and medication.

After when we got dogs, we vaccinated and insured them. Only around 50% of people bother though. Treating dogs can be so expensive. I am kind of stuck with my current insurer as my girl had a reaction to meloxicom during her spay and later had a lump removed from her leg. If I have to declare these as pre existing conditions to a new provider, they will either exclude them or bump up the premiums. Pet insurance is a minefield. They refused to cover for the meloxicom reaction as it happened during an elective procedure! I will always vaccinate (including kennel cough) just in case she needs kennels.

Let us know how you get on. Fingers crossed all will be well and you can get her booked in and up to date.

How is that helping? 🥴

I’ve chosen to make an informed decision about how frequently my dogs need to be vaccinated, rather than automatically having every vaccine given every year. I’m not comfortable with is vaccinating unnecessarily simply because a year has passed.

Some studies have indicated parvo immunity lasts at least 7 years, and that’s actually a good example of why I don’t believe ‘vaccinate yearly’ is a sufficient blanket rule.

Well, her firebreathing classes seem high risk on paper but we do always have a extinguisher near by.

Thankyou so much x

Well its 'facebook friends' so probably a wider scope to reach than 'real' friends.

I have been reading about those tests and quite a few people have had similar results with full immunity years down the line, so maybe we will be lucky. After this scare I will personally be regularly vaccinating because I just don't want to go through this again.

Thankyou. It is a minefield indeed.

Not allowing the claim for the meloxicom seems really unfair!

I'm flabbergasted as well. Even the most novice dog owner would surely know about annual vaccs. My vet sends out a reminder. If people think they're unnecessary then try getting dogs into kennels or home care without a vacc record.

They write the next year's date on my dog's vaccination record cars.

The whole point of Mumsnet is women supporting women .
Anything else is not playing nice
We are all rooting for your dog being ok ,op xx

Oh, absolutely. We've kept up with boosters with all our dogs since, but this particular dog had been so incredibly ill (several flare-ups of autoimmune meningitis after an initial episode that nearly killed her) that our vet didn't want to give her anything that she didn't absolutely have to. If her titres had dropped, we would have had to give her the boosters, but luckily everything stayed well within the range our vet was happy with and she lived to 13 and died of something else entirely.

I understand completely, I have an autoimmune disease myself and its crazy the simple things that can trigger a flare up.

I'm glad she had a long and happy life despite that :)

Update for anyone interested!

I emailed the vets and asked if they would cover the cost of the parvo test due to the circumstances and they told me that the corgi doesn't even have parvo after all!!
😵😵😵

That first test they took and contacted people based on was a very faint line and the repeat test done a few days later was negative.

I am just so happy that she is safe.

They kindly said they will still cover her to have the diagnostic test herself just to put my mind at ease.

And I have asked to book for her to have her booster vaccines whilst we are there.

I feel so relieved and lucky that this is the outcome when it could have been much worse and that I now have the opportunity to get the test and vaccinations done tomorrow.

It's the best outcome I could have hoped for.

And I hope that the corgi is OK and whatever the issue is, it recovers quickly.

What an absolute rollercoaster :(

That's fantastic! Breathe easier tonight.