guide for your dog vaccination
From the very first moment, you bring home your little bundle of joy. Your little soft furry friends are dependent on you to give all the care and attention needed. While it’s important to ensure a good diet is provided and a cozy place for the dog to sleep. Don’t forget that vaccinations are vital in their first year. We’d like to help you taking care of your dog. Animal Doctors International provides you with an essential guide to help keep vaccinations up to date.
ARTICLE OVERVIEW
BENEFITS OF DOG VACCINATIONS
Before we go any further, we want to stress to our readers the importance of dog vaccinations and the overwhelming benefits. These 3 main benefits are also explanations of why you need to vaccinate your dogs.
- The primary benefit of dog vaccination is protecting your dog from several deadly diseases such as canine distemper, parvovirus infection, and respiratory tract infections
- Secondly, dog vaccinations help you, the owner avoid costly treatments because the percentage of infected dogs after vaccination is low.
- Further, vaccinating your dogs also means protecting our community against transmissible diseases such as rabies. Remember this: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced there are over 55,000 cases of people killed by rabies each year.
WHICH SHOTS DO DOGS NEED?
Most animals need only what is known as Core Vaccines. Besides, depends on your dog lifestyle and geographic distribution, you should also consider giving them Non-core vaccines. In dogs, the core vaccines are distemper, parvovirus, hepatitis, and rabies.
- Canine Distemper is a virus that affects your dog’s respiratory, and central nervous systems.
- Parvovirus affects the dog’s ability to absorb nutrients. A dog with parvo will quickly become dehydrated and weak from lack of nutrient and fluid absorption
- Hepatitis damages your dog’s liver
- Rabies causes inflammation in your dog’s brain. This is one of the few zoonotic diseases (diseases humans can catch from their dogs).
Kennel cough, Lyme disease, and Canine influenza are considered Non-core vaccines. Non-core vaccines are optional, but they should be given to your dogs to strengthen their immune systems.
VACCINE SCHEDULE FOR YOUR DOGS
The first 3 vaccines: Distemper, Hepatitis, and Parvo are generally called C3 vaccines that should be given to your puppies when they are 8 weeks old. Their second and third round of shots should be administered at 10 and 12 weeks respectively.
Rabies vaccines should be given to your dogs when they reach 12 weeks old. The second shot should be given to them when they reach 6 months old.
After the first 12 months, annually giving dogs the boosters of both core and non-core vaccines to keep dogs protected against deadly diseases.
PREPARE FOR YOUR DOGS BEFORE VACCINATION
Doctors might give your dog a thorough check-up before giving vaccinations. However, as an owner, there are several things that you can do for your pets to help them prepare before the vaccinations.
Feed your puppies a big meal in the day ahead of receiving the vaccines. it helps increases your dog’s immunity systems.
Don’t forget to bath your dog a day before the vaccination. Swelling and soreness around the site of the vaccine are fairly common. A clean and well-brushed coat prevents the irritation at the injection spot.
Above are some facts for your dog vaccinations. It also depends on the dog living conditions and geographic distribution, you should consult our doctors for your dog vaccination HERE.
Consult Our Doctors
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