Rio Vista Retrievers

03/20/2024

Post your dogs most recent photo!

We want to see some puppers!

01/27/2024

Atlas has been at his forever home for less than a week.

His mama said “He’s completely potty trained, and sleeps in his crate all through the night. Perfect boy.”

Atlas has a few more siblings who are still looking for a family. Rehoming has been reduced to $100.

Adoption applications can be found at www.riovistaretrievers.com

01/22/2024

Hey friends!

Rehoming has been reduced to $100.

These puppies have to be gone by Thursday!
YOU MUST PICK UP BY THURSDAY!!!!
There can be no puppies left in the puppy room after Thursday!!

2 💙
2 💕

Application for adoption at www.riovistaretrievers.com

01/16/2024

We still have a few puppies from Andy & Rosie who need families.

Rehoming drastically reduced!

These guys have to go- we have a contractor coming in 2 weeks to replace the subfloor and everyone has to be in homes by then!

www.riovistaretrievers.com

01/05/2024

Our puppies are cleared and are ready for their new homes!

We’ve reduce rehomimg for these guys— please share and tag friends. Hoping to have them in families by Monday!

01/04/2024

The first of our parvo survivor puppies have gone to their forever home!

Simba’s mom states he is “perfect and is the best back warmer.” ♥️

12/29/2023

Hey friends—

All is well with our puppies. Thank you everyonee who has reached out and checked on the babies the past few days.

We apologize for the lack of updates, we’ve had an unexpected death in our family and we’re juggling a lot at the moment.

All of our puppies are doing great, no symptoms, full recoveries, and will be ready for adoption next week! ❤️

12/25/2023

Update for Rosie’s litter.

We have very happy news to report— symptoms have lessened for all seven puppies!!

Everyone has spent their Christmas morning wrestling, playing, and tugging each others ears.

We have no lethargy, no declining, no vomiting, and minimal diarrhea, and most importantly, we have made it 24 hours without a puppy passing which believe it or not—is a huge feat!

We are extremely impressed with the monoclonal antibody therapy and the results!

On Wednesday the 14 day countdown will begin and at the end- these babies will be ready to go to forever homes.

We did it y’all. We saved these babies. ❤️

12/25/2023

Merry Christmas from Rio Vista Retrievers! 🎄

12/24/2023

🎄 Praying this is our Christmas Miracle! 🎄

We have raised enough money to cover almost 5 of the Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody vaccines.
All 7 puppies received the vaccine yesterday around 3pm.

Before the vaccine all 7 puppies were having symptoms including vomiting and bloody diarrhea.

Within hours we noticed a change in their bowel movements and today we are not seeing any declining!

We still have 3 puppies who are receiving symptomatic treatment mainly subcutaneous fluids, and anti-nausea medication, but today they are still eating and drinking.

We’re not out of the woods yet — but we’re extremely hopeful!!

Supplies and sustaining medications are still needed & donations are still being accepted via Venmo or Gofundme!

Venmo: Dropawff-Transport
https://gofund.me/866c9e5c

12/24/2023

In one day we raised enough to get 3 of the puppies the Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody vaccine.

We’re almost halfway there!

This new antibody treatment binds to the parvovirus and blocks it from entering and destroying the enterocytes! The destruction and of the enterocytes is how this virus kills. It causes profuse vomiting and diarrhea leading to severe dehydration, organ damage, and death.

The vaccine with supportive care is our puppies best chance at survival.

Donations are still being accepted via Venmo or Gofundme!

Venmo: Dropawff-Transport
https://gofund.me/866c9e5c

12/23/2023

Our sweet girl was euthanized this evening.

While cleaning her after an accident we noticed severe bruising and swelling along her abdomen that hadn’t been there when we checked her 2 hours before.

The bruising was significant and though she didn’t act like she was in pain we knew something was very wrong.

After examination it was determined her bowels ruptured and the abdominal cavity was filling with fluid.

We caught this early enough that she didn’t suffer.

This was a huge blow to us as we were so confident she was in the clear after seeing her improvements this morning.

This virus is attacking our puppies organs and symptomatic treatment isn’t effective. Our vet offered us a new IV administered treatment that was recently approved. It was $400/ puppy and to honest it’s not something we can afford on top of the care we have already paid for.

Please share our gofundme— guys I really can’t handling burying another one of these puppies.

https://gofund.me/866c9e5c

12/23/2023

A few people have asked how they can help — we have multiple puppies are needing intensive care and are accepting donations toward their vet care now.

My name is Sarah West and I own Rio Vista Retrievers. Rio Vista Retrievers is a La… Sarah West needs your support for Parvo Outbreak — Urgent Donations Needed

12/23/2023

Look who is standing up this morning!

This baby was knocking on deaths door last night. My husband and I stayed up all night monitoring and nursing her back to health, this morning she stood up and pottied all by herself.

We’re hoping that she has turned the corner but she is not out of the woods until she begins eating and drinking on her own.

The other 7 puppies have now began to experience symptoms and we have had it easily the last week only treating 2 puppies, but now it looks like everyone else is coming down with it at the same time.

A few people have asked how they can help — we have set up a gofundme to help with vet expenses. If you can donate, we’d love you forever, if not, please share!

We know with Parvo the worst day is day 3 and unfortunately it’s lining up to land right on Christmas Day.

https://gofund.me/866c9e5c

12/23/2023

Update on our puppies—

We have 3 additional puppies who are showing signs of parvovirus.

These puppies with symptoms that started today are still playing, eating, and drinking like normal. We’ve changed our protocol at the advice of our vet. We’ve started treating all puppies with subcutaneous fluids, transdermal nausea, antibiotics, and vitamins.

We’re hoping to get ahead of the dehydration this time.

Lots of new lessons were learned today. We learned that subq (under the skin) fluids can stop absorbing if puppies get too dehydrated. The capillaries in their skin dry out and stop absorbing the water, so the puppy can half huge pockets of water under their skin, and still dehydrate.

It’s been a rough day for this girl, but she’s holding on. This morning she was up walking around, drinking water on her own, by 11am she was headed downhill.

Today we’re thankful for our veterinarian who trusted us enough to teach us how to administer IV fluids at home. He taught us how to count the seconds in between the drips, and how to adjust the flow, how to properly insert the syringe into the catheter, and how to keep everything flowing properly and prevent clogging.

This girl now has an IV cath that will continuously administer fluids to her. It will stay in until she gets better, or until the end. On the way home from the vet she began to have a seizure but it was over quickly and she’s been fine for the last few hour. Convulsions are a side effect to the anti-nausea injection she received.

She’s been napping on and off the last few hours since we came home from the vet but seems to be doing a little better since getting intravenous fluids. ❤️

12/22/2023

After last night, I don’t want to be a breeder anymore.

Our sweet girl fought her hardest fight, but in the end the virus attacked her heart and there was nothing we could do.

We noticed a decline in circulation around 10am treated the symptoms, massaging to increase circulation, alternating between warming and cooling to help maintain body temperature and heart rate, giving fluids, pain management, and treating nausea— in the end it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t dehydration, or any of the other well known ways that parvo kills, it was a heart attack. We held her and comforted, and pet her until her very last breath.

We have one more girl who is still fighting, as long as she is fighting we’ll fight with her. But this is traumatizing, and it is something we never want to do again. I really feel like this is the end for us.

12/21/2023

This is one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with.

Watching these puppies suffer knowing there is nothing that I can do but offer palliative support is killing me.

Parvo doesn’t have a magic wand that will cure it. We just have to treat the symptoms as they arise.

We’re giving subq fluids to combat dehydration, preventing secondary infection with broad spectrum antibiotics, treating nausea and vomiting by giving both transdermal anti nausea in their ears, and oral nausea medication, protecting the lining of their stomach with pepto, giving pain and antinflammatory medication to help with stomach cramps but despite our best efforts this virus is relentless.

Please send some good vibes to our puppies. Especially this girl. She’s fighting so hard for her life. 💔

12/20/2023

On Monday Tyrone and my worst nightmare as breeders came true. Around 9am we noticed a puppy from Rosie’s litter had began vomiting and was lethargic. This can be lots of things but in our experience usually it’s a parasite with the usual suspects being coccidia, garadia or hookworms. We treated the puppy per our protocol but there was no improvement. At 3pm we visited our animal hospital for a f***l exam to we could see what we were fighting and the puppy tested positive for Parvovirus.

Parvovirus is a virus that attacks the white blood cells in the intestinal tract of many candidis including dogs, foxes, wolves, wildcats, cayotes and skunks. It has a high rate fatality rate in and a high very high transmission rate.

Parvovirus is transmitted through the f***s of an infected animal and can live in the ground for up to 7 years once.

Puppies receive a series of vaccines that help prevent infection of parvovirus but they are at risk until they finish the series of vaccines at 16 weeks old. This is why it is recommended that they stay home during that time, that they don’t visit dog parks, stores that allow dogs, dog shows, visit groomers, attend training classes, or have puppy play dates until they are fully vaccinated.

If you have visited Rio Vista Retrievers you are aware of our biosecuity protocols. Some people have thought us crazy at the lengths we have gone to keep our puppies safe.

We don’t allow handling or visiting of the puppies until the day they go home. All visits are done via FaceTime.

A pile of “outside” shoes next to the gate because our family is not allowed to wear the shoes they wear out in the world, inside our front gate, so nothing is tracked in.

At puppy pick up puppies are not allowed to be placed on the ground. They’re held the entire time and there is no “put them down so they can run around, or a quick potty break before we leave.” They are held off of the ground until they leave.

Puppies and dogs who are returned, or new to RVR are quarantined a minimum of 10 days away from all other dogs. If there is suspicion any infection during the 10 days it starts over.

Everything is bleached. Floors are mopped daily with bleach, puppy blankets are washed in bleach, toys, medical instruments, and even the walls of their whelping boxes and litter trays are sanitized using bleach. We also use a high concentrated bleach sanitization system that is used to spray our kennels, front yard, drive way, back yard, and deck monthly.

Toys and food does not come from stores that allow pets inside. Places like rural king, pets mart, and tractor supply, and petco are avoided. Food and toys for our litters is ordered online and delivered from Chewy.

We control every aspect of raising our puppies possible. But, Parvo is invisible, and can live on surfaces for months, it can live on clothes, shoes, the dogs fur, and all it takes is one sniff of the virus to infect the puppy.

The incubation period for parvo is 7-10 days. Rosie’s puppies visited a vet clinic on Monday Dec, 11th for their vaccines and exams. Our protocol is to keep the puppies off of the ground at the clinic so they are carried in using plastic totes. Most vet clinics have a puppy scale but this vet chose to use the adult dog scale in their lobby to weigh the litter. This is thought to be the most likely source of infection. All dogs who enter the clinic are placed on this scale and it is also in the lobby where kids and adults can step on or play in the scale too. Rather than using the stainless steel scale as it is intended to be used a porous rubber mat is placed on the scale to help give it traction.

We have voiced concerns over this before but have been assured it is sanitized in between clients. While at the animal hospital we called the clinic and they informed us they’d recently had a positive parvo test, the veterinary assumed partial responsibility and agreed to pay for a portion of the care for our puppies. Our estimate for hospitalization for 10 puppies was $12,000. The clinic agreed to pay $300 and stated there is an “assumed risk of exposure when bringing puppies to a vet clinic.” He also changed his explanation of the scale in question stating it is wiped down daily, but not in between clients.

We chose to treat the puppies at home rather than choose hospitalization. Also while at the vet clinic we reached out to the family who had picked up a puppy the day before from the litter in question. Their puppy had vomited twice. But otherwise wasn’t showing any other symptoms. We requested they return the puppy to us that night to begin treatment and explained they would receive a full refund. The family requested a refund and agreed to have the puppy examined and treated on their own. We sent the refund within minutes and checked in on the puppy throughout the night.

The family also left a negative review on our page. Insinuating that we intentionally and knowingly sold them a puppy that was sick that review has been addressed and there has been no other response or communication from the family. They also stated skepticism with not being allowed to visit or view our kennel prior to picking up their puppy. There is a deadly canine pneumonia outbreak currently. Respectfully, we’re not allowing anyone to come in contact with our adult dogs. Regardless of how healthy their dogs at home are presenting. We have tried to not be offensive when educating why we’re not allowing pick up here on our property but frankly the safety of my dogs is my top priority and if there is less of a risk of exposure picking up 5 minutes down the road — that’s what we’re going to do. Additionally, there is a description of our physical kennel and an inspection approval from the American Kennel Club on our website for anyone who is curious about our set up.

At this time our focus is nursing Rosie’s litter back to health. We’re giving supportive care and at this time there is one puppy actively showing symptoms. We’re treating with fluids, anti nausea, and antibiotics to prevent secondary infections.

We’re not certain on the future of Rio Vista Retrievers and are heavily considering ending our program for good. We have spoke with many kennels over the past 2 days who have offered support, have given advice, and have recommended products that have helped their kennels overcome parvovirus. However this isn’t a position we ever want to be in again so at this point have cancelled all planned breedings for 2024.

We have issued refunds to all prospective puppy parents who had placed waitlist fees for the 2024 litters.