Vaccinations

Vaccinations are a very important for disease prevention. The vaccine trains the immune system to respond properly to a disease. This keeps your pet healthier.

We have different protocols for puppies, adults and senior pets. This helps insure your pet is protected and not over vaccinated at the same time. These protocols cover the core vaccines. These are based on what risks the dogs in our practice have for exposure and infection from these diseases. We work with you to assess what type of risk your dog has and then incorporate non-core vaccines into the package if necessary. An extreme example of this would be: We have a pointer that goes out West-River hunting with her owner. She is at risk for rattlesnake bites in the rough country they hunt. Her owner has us administer a vaccine to protect her from the venom. We don’t have rattlesnakes in our immediate practice area and we don’t recommend the vaccine to pets that don’t come into contact with snakes.

Puppies receive protection from many diseases in the milk when they are nursing. This immunity begins to fade as soon as they are weaned. Puppies need to begin vaccinations two weeks after they have been weaned. They need to receive a first dose and two boosters of Distemper/Parvovirus (DAPP) Vaccine.

• 7-9 Weeks: 1st puppy vaccine of DAPP
• 9-11 Weeks: 2nd puppy DAPP
• 12 Weeks: Rabies Vaccine
• 11-13 Weeks: 3rd puppy DAPP

Cats and kittens need to be protected from a variety of diseases. Most of the diseases can cause mild to very severe disease problems for your cat. These include the sticky eyes that kittens often suffer from, diarrhea diseases and the more severe diseases like Feline Leukemia.

Momma cats usually provide a very good start for their kittens. Vaccinations before weaning often aren’t effective for the kittens. Waiting for 10-14 days after weaning before starting vaccinations will help build the best immunity for your kitten.

FRCP is the basic core vaccine for cats and kittens. It is often call the “Distemper vaccine”.

The FR stands for Feline Rhinotracheitis Virus. This is a viral respiratory disease of cats and kittens with the very young and old unvaccinated cats being most at risk. It can result in lifelong problems with the respiratory system. It also can cause eye disease. It is spread by nasal secretions

The C is Calicivirus. This is also a common respiratory disease that can also cause sores in the mouth. This virus can live in the environment for some time and is hard to kill with many cleaning products.

Panleukopenia is the P. This virus is really a bad actor. It causes GI disease like vomiting and diarrhea. Infected cats can get sick very quickly and die soon after. This virus also affects the immune and nervous systems of infected cats.

These three viruses are all highly infectious. Unvaccinated and under vaccinated cats and kittens are at risk for contracting the viruses from other cats or contaminated environments.

Rabies is a deadly disease that affects mammal. It is spread when an infected animal bites another animal and the virus is injected into the other animal. The virus makes it way up to the brain and begins to reproduce itself. This newly affected animal becomes able to spread the disease when the newly made virus gets into the salivary glands and the cycle starts all over.

The BEST way to insure your pet is protected is to keep the Rabies vaccination up to date.

Rabies Vaccine Schedule

• 12 weeks is the first vaccination
• 1 year is the first booster
• 2-3 years is the booster schedule after the first booster.
• Any pet that goes longer than 3 years, will need to begin the cycle over again.

Our pets are at risk for parasites that live on their bodies (ticks and ear mites) and that live inside them (GI worms and heartworms). We have a variety of products that can rid your pet of these nasty bugs.

YUCK!!!!

Dogs:

Internal parasites that affect dogs include:

• Heartworm
• Round worms
• Hook worms
• Tape worms

Puppies will need to be dewormed more often than adults. We recommend that puppies are dewormed every 2 weeks until they are 6-8 weeks old. Then they can be started on the monthly products

We recommend a monthly deworming for roundworms, tapeworms and heartworms for dogs. People with young children should keep their dog on these products year around. Pets that go south for the winter should also be on heartworm prevention year around.

If you don’t go south and don’t have any children, you can decide to stop during the winter months. Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes.

External parasites that affect dogs include

• Ticks
• Fleas
• Mites that cause mange
• Flies
• Ear mites–very rare in dogs

There are topical and oral products that work very well. They work for 4-12 weeks depending on the type you choose.

Cats:

Internal parasites that affect cats include:

• Round worms
• Hook worms
• Tape worms
• Heartworms–not as common as in dogs.

We recommend that kittens be dewormed often (every 2 weeks until they are 6-8 weeks old). We have a great topical product that will rid your cat of many different kinds of worms.

External parasites for cats include:

• Ear mites
• Fleas
• Ticks
• Mites that cause mange

There are topical and oral products that treat these problems.