I work at an emergency clinic for pets. Parvo seems to be especially bad this year as almost every night at least one case comes into our clinic. Some we can save, some we can't. The smell of a dog with an advanced case of parvo is that of a dead dog--literally. The dog poops and throws up bloody body tissue, doesn't eat or drink, and will eventually die an uncomfortable death. This is a totally preventable disease. Cats get diseases that are just as preventable and just as deadly--do you know what it's like to watch a cat drown in it's own fluid? People don't want to vaccinate their animal because they've never done it before and had no problems, so why should they now? Or they use the vaccines bought at the local feed store, which, in a lot of cases, is like giving the animal an injection of water due to negligence somewhere along the way, or they will to buy the cheapest vaccine to save a few bucks. A good deal of the time those animals will come down with the disease that the owner is trying to prevent. Have you ever seen an animal die of distemper? That is the most pathetic thing I think I've seen as far as preventable diseases go. These things are totally preventable, but people choose not to spend the $20 for the vaccine at the vet's office because it is "too expensive", but they *are* willing to spend the $100's it costs to treat the animal--and they don't always live. Instead of paying the hundreds of dollars over a period of 10 years for yearly vaccinations, people will spend it in one night trying to save the animal's life. Just don't understand... [Posted in FML issue 2427]