160 Bear Christiana Rd
Bear, De 19701
302-322-6488
Dr. Jim Berg
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Vaccinating Your Dog
Many diseases may infect your dog, even when you
are as careful as you can be to limit their exposure. With many of these
diseases, prevention is the key to your pet's lifelong health. We want to help
to educate you about these illnesses and your joint responsibility with us as
your veterinary care facility to provide a health-care program for your pet that
will establish a healthy and happy life for your pet. We feel prevention is of
extreme importance and it is often far less costly for you to prevent disease
rather than treat them. Many common diseases can be prevented through routine
and complete vaccination programs, combined with yearly physical examinations
and periodic testing.
Puppies receive some immunity from their mother during
her pregnancy and nursing. Sometime during approximately 6 to 20 weeks of age,
this immunity fades and vaccination becomes essential. The exact time when the
immunity fades is dependent upon a number of factors, including but not limited
to the immune-level for each disease in the puppy's mother, individualities of
each puppy, and the specific disease we are trying to vaccinate against. Our
vaccine will not be effective at providing prolonged immunity to the pup unless
the immunity provided through the mother is gone. Not knowing when this immunity
will fade and not knowing how much immunity the mother passed on to the pup
means we need to start vaccinations early in case immunity fades early, but
continue to vaccinate past the point when the mother's immunity can remain so
that our vaccine can work most effectively.
It is important to remember that
vaccines will typically provide protection in 95-98% of animals, but no vaccine
is 100% effective. However, with the creation of vaccines, pets are living
healthier, happier, longer lives. In order to provide the best chance for
success, it's important to follow the vaccine recommendations given. Delayed
time frames between vaccinations could allow immunity to fade thereby increasing
your pet's chance of contracting the disease we are trying to prevent.
Our
vaccine recommendations are as follows:
DHLP-P (Protects against Distemper,
Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Parainfluenza, and Parvovirus). The puppy will need a
series of these vaccines starting between 6-8 weeks of age and continuing every
3 to 4 weeks until the puppy is over 20 weeks old. We will give you a tentative
vaccine schedule specific for your puppy when we see him/her on the first visit.
We typically will vaccinate every 4 weeks, but keep in mind when you are
scheduling your puppy's vaccine that it is better to come in closer to 3 weeks
from your puppy's last booster than to wait longer than 4 weeks. After the
initial series of puppy boosters is complete, your dog needs a yearly booster to
protect against these 5 diseases.
Rabies This vaccine is mandated by law and
can be given as early as 12 weeks of age and all dogs over 4 moths are required
to be vaccinated. Currently, the laws then require a yearly booster followed by
boosters every 3 years as long as the 3-year booster is on time.
Bordatella
bronchiseptica (also called Kennel Cough). We recommend this vaccine for all
dogs since it is easily spread through the air and animals free of clinical
signs can shed infective organisms. Recent research also shows that the
causative agent for this disease can survive in certain environments for up to
24 weeks and thus direct contact with an infected dog or airborne transmission
may not be required for transmission thereby indicating a need for vaccinating
all dogs against this disease. The first vaccination can be administered as
early as 6 weeks of age. The immunity then lasts a minimum of 6 months and a
maximum of 12 months. We therefore advise boosters be administered every 6
months to provide maximum protections to your pet.
Lyme disease This vaccine
is the newest of all the canine vaccines. The latest vaccine is relatively safe
with few side effects and provides good immunity. With the number of Lyme
Disease cases increasing, we believe careful consideration about including this
vaccine in your dog's vaccination protocol is warranted. We recommend reading
the pamphlet provided in your pet's health folder to become familiar with the
clinical symptoms of the disease, as well as to help you decide whether you want
your dog vaccinated against this disease. Puppies can be vaccinated as early as
10 weeks of age and must have a booster in 3-4 weeks. Yearly boosters are
required to keep your pet protected. We advise boosters be administered every 6
months to provide maximum immunity in your pet. If your dog is older, the
vaccine can still provide protection and will again require 2 vaccines 3 to 4
weeks apart, followed by boosters every12 months. Dogs that have been exposed to
Lyme disease prior to vaccination can still benefit from vaccination but the
vaccine is much more effective when given prior to exposure. It is for this
reason that in pets older than approximately 6 months of age we recommend
testing for exposure prior to vaccination. This can be done through a simple
blood test requiring only a small amount of your pet's blood. It is also
important to note that the Lyme vaccine can make your pet test positive on many
of the in-house tests commonly used to diagnose Lyme disease. However, there is
a special test which can be performed, called a Western Blot, that can
differentiate between a positive caused by vaccination versus a positive caused
by natural infection from an infected tick bite.
Please keep in mind that a
new puppy's immunity is not at its peak until the recommended vaccine series is
complete. Therefore, until the vaccine series is completed, you should use
extreme caution when exposing your pet to other animals and unfamiliar areas
(such as parks) where you are unsure of what your animal may be exposed to.
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2002
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