As soon as you notice your dog isn't well, the typical vet's costs associated with treating Parvo just keep adding up (and up).

To start with, you'll probably face bills of $25 to $50 for each office visit, and there will usually be more than one.

Next, your vet will more than likely want to do take a stool sample for an instant, in-clinic test, or a blood sample to send away for a full work-up, or even both. These will cost you anywhere between $25 and $100, depending on the type of test. (And note that these tests may not even be accurate - with the latest 2c strain, a dog that has Parvo may still test negative.)

If it turns out your dog actually has Parvo, then you can expect to pay anywhere from $500 to over $10,000, per dog. These costs include items such as overnight stays ($50 a night), blood transfusions ($200 a time), medications ($100 - $200), etc. (And your vet will only give your dog a 50% - 80% chance of surviving Parvo.)

Finally, if the vet is unable to treat your dog successfully, you will often be presented with the option every pet owner dreads - the decision to have your dog put to sleep, which may cost you as much as $300.

So, all together, your vet's bill for Parvo treatment will be between $850 and $10,450 - and that's just for a single dog. (When one of your dogs is infected with Parvo, the chances of any others on the same property contracting the virus are very high, and as many people actually own two or more dogs, you can probably double these figures, at least.)

To put this in perspective, the average cost of owning a dog over its 11-year expected life is approximately $13,550, so you could spend up to 77% (i.e. just over three quarters) of this amount treating him for a single illness over a period of a week or so.

But, it doesn't have to be that way - you can both prevent Parvo and treat Parvo using safe, chemical-free products such as Parvaid, Life Cell Support and Vibactra Plus for a fraction of the cost of taking your dog to the vet's, and with a much higher chance of your dog surviving the Parvo virus (typically, 90% or better).

Parvo prevention normally begins when your dog is just a puppy, in the form of vaccinations.

The whole topic of Parvo vaccinations, and vaccinations in general, is a hot topic at the moment, and there are, of course, many advantages and disadvantages.

But perhaps the most serious downside, where Parvo is concerned, is that most vaccines available today (excluding Continuum and PROGARD from Intervet) are not effective against the latest 2c strain of this dreadful virus.

You therefore need other measures, because you cannot take it for granted that your dog is safe just because you've had him vaccinated. Since early 2007, there have been many stories in the media of fully-vaccinated dogs, including puppies and adults, being infected by and dying from Parvo.

If you want to find out what these other measures are, you'll need to look out for Part 2 of this article!