A Guide to Vaccination

For Your Dog

Dogs are wonderful companions....
Their outgoing nature may bring them into contact with other animals -- increasing their exposure to disease.

Fortunately for your pet, vaccinations are available to prevent many dog diseases.  Vaccinating your dog is the best and least costly way to prevent disease.  Prevention assures the best quality of life for your pet, and it costs less than treatment.

Vaccines protect pets against common viruses and bacteria.  At some time in their lives, almost all dogs will be exposed to a serious or even fatal infectious disease.  Without proper vaccination, they could be unprotected.

The following outlines the primary diseases that can endanger your dog's health and vaccination strategies to help prevent them.

PREVENTION

Rabies

All warm-blooded animals (dogs, cats., livestock, wildlife) can become infected with rabies virus.  Because rabies is also a threat to humans, all pets should be vaccinated.

Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks nerve tissue.  the disease develops slowly over 10 days to several months.  Death always occurs once a rabies-infected animal shows signs of disease.

Rabies generally takes one of two forms in animals:

a)   "Dumb" rabies, where the lower jaw drops, excessive drooling occurs, and the animal avoids contact.

b)   "Furious" rabies, where the animal becomes unnaturally aggressive.

Distemper & Hepatitis

Each of these dog diseases is easily prevented by making sure your dog's vaccinations are current.   Veterinarians will often give a single shot that contains vaccines for both diseases.

Parvovirus (Viral Diarrhea)

Two viruses commonly cause diarrhea in dogs -- canine parvovirus and canine coronavirus.  Sometimes dogs can be infected with both viruses at once, leading to very serious diarrhea.

Viral diarrhea is easily spread, because millions of viral particles remain in the loose, water stood of an infected dog.  Adult dogs generally survive viral diarrhea, but in puppies with diarrhea the loss of fluids can easily be fatal.  Dogs can be protected from viral diarrhea with vaccines against parvovirus and coronavirus. 

Respiratory Disease

When your dog is exposed to sick dogs at a kennel or dog show, it can catch kennel cough.  also referred to as " canine cough" or by its scientific name, tracheobronchitis, this stubborn respiratory infection can keep dogs coughing for weeks or months. 

Canine respiratory disease isn't usually fatal unless pneumonia develops.  It can cause appetite loss, lack of energy, and poor appearance, in addition to the coughing.  When infected dogs cough, disease-causing organisms get into the air and can easily infect other dogs.   animals kept at boarding kennels, shelters, pet shops, and veterinary clinics are considered at higher risk. 

A wide variety of viruses and bacteria can be involved in canine respiratory disease.  The three most commonly involved are:

Vaccines against all three of these viruses or bacteria are available, sometimes in combination with other vaccines against other diseases of dogs.

Lymes Disease

Lymes disease is a tick born disease which affects humans and animals.  The disease is most commonly carried by the deer tick, black legged tick and the western black legged tick.  Lyme disease can be found in any area the infected ticks can survive in, especially forests and grassy fields.  The main symptom of Lyme disease is lameness.  Other signs include fever, tiredness and swollen lymph nodes.  A vaccine to protect your dog from Lymes disease is available.Please contact your veterinarian to better discuss which vaccines should be administered to your dog in order to give him or her the greatest optimal protection.

Vaccination helps prevent, not cure, disease.

In many cases, vaccines against several diseases are combined, reducing the number of shots your pet must have.   Despite progress to make vaccination as comfortable as possible, some vaccines can occasionally sting when injected.

The protection provided by a vaccine gradually declines after a pet is vaccinated.  That is why annual re-vaccination along with a health check up is always recommended.

Why do Puppies Require a Number of Shots?

A nursing puppy receives antibodies from its mother's milk (called maternal antibodies) that protect it from disease during the first months of its life.  Unfortunately, these antibodies can also keep a vaccine from being effective.

These maternal antibodies gradually decrease during the first few months of the puppy's life.  That is why puppies are given a series of vaccinations.  That way, if maternal antibodies interfere with early vaccinations, later doses will still stimulate the puppy to produce its own antibodies to the disease.

Which Vaccinations are Required?

Your veterinarian will have a list of recommended vaccines, which may be changed to meet your pet's needs.   some factors the veterinarian will consider before beginning a vaccination program are: