Friends of Kempsey Pound's mange and parvovirus prevention day a success

The charity group's mange and parvovirus prevention day held last week at Steele Park offered Parvac vaccines and Nexgard to help protect dogs from parvovirus, mange mites, fleas and worms.

Friends of Kempsey Pound president Marion Crowley said there was an excellent turn out on the day.

"We've had a few requests lately of dogs with mange and also parvovirus is pretty bad in Kempsey at the moment," she said.

"So it was just an opportunity to try and hit it on the head and help some of those animals."

Ms Crowley estimates the charity attended to a dog every three minutes at the event with RSPCA Port Macquarie sponsoring the event.

The day was also an opportunity for the charity to educate pet owners about vaccinations.

"Some people just didn't understand that a normal C3 or C5 [vaccination] at the vet contains protection against parvovirus," Ms Crowley said.

"We also had some people who showed up with puppies who had the first two puppy vaccinations and we did recommend that they get their third [vaccination] at the vet."

Mitchell Edwards from Macleay Valley Veterinary Services said that days like these were important.

"I think generally in the last few years we've seen the position that the family pet holds in the family be elevated," he said.

"It's not just a dog for a lot of people anymore... [it] is very much part of the family so they're taking their healthcare much more seriously and I think that that's showing.

"Generally the percentage of the population who is taking their pet healthcare more seriously has grown significantly in the last few years and I think that's protecting a lot at risk dogs sort of by proxy."

Parvovirus isn't uncommon in the Macleay and surrounding areas but herd immunity through vaccinations have proven to be useful at keeping outbreaks to a minimum.

But this holiday season, Mr Edwards is most concerned with the tick serum shortage.

Tick season has been made harder this year with a shortage of the antitoxin serum.

Mr Edwards has already had to turn dogs away from the clinic for treatment.

"If a dog comes in with tick paralysis at the moment, there is a good chance it will die because we don't have enough [antitoxin] serum to treat all these dogs," he said.

"We've managed to line up some [serum] from another clinic... which will treat another four dogs but that's got to last us until the end of last week."

Friends of Kempsey Pound have said that another prevention day will likely go ahead next year.

The charity has already ordered another 200 doses of Parvac and will be receiving donations for flea and tick treatments.

"Another [prevention day will be held] probably early January depending on volunteer and... on funding," Ms Crowley said.

"If we get no other funding, we've only got enough for one more day."

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