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Vaccinations

 

Why should I vaccinate my pet?

There are multiple life threatening diseases that your animal may be exposed to in the course of everyday life. Vaccinations can protect your pet against these diseases.

 

At what age should my pet start vaccinations?

Maternal antibodies from the mother’s milk will protect very young animals but as they become weaned they have to establish immunity for themselves. This is achieved with a course of vaccines starting from 6 weeks of age in puppies and 9 weeks of age in kittens. They will then have a second vaccination 3-4 weeks later.  Rabbits can be protected from 6 weeks old. It is important to keep your pet confined to your own home and garden until this course has been completed.

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What should I vaccinate my animals against?

Dog vaccines

  • Distemper: passes from dog to dog by close contact and causes many forms of disease affecting the respiratory and nervous systems and the skin. Often proves fatal.

  • Parvovirus: spread in dog faeces and causes a severe, often fatal, bloody diarrhoea.

  • Infectious hepatitis: causes severe, often fatal, liver disease.

  • Leptospirosis: some forms are passed on via rat urine and causes serious, often fatal, liver and kidney damage.

  • Kennel cough – a highly infectious respiratory syndrome that ranges from a mild cough to secondary pneumonia. Bordetella bronchoseptica (bacteria) and Parainfluenza virus can both be vaccinated against.

 

Cat vaccines

  • Panleucopaenia (Infectious Enteritis) – passes from cat to cat and causes severe diarrhoea and a painful abdomen.

  • Calicivirus- a component of cat flu that causes nasty and recurrent respiratory signs.

  • Chlamydophila felis - This disease can cause recurrent bouts of sneezing, conjunctivitis

  • Feline leukaemia virus - Infection is transmitted in the blood and saliva. The disease can take months to develop after infection and once infected the cat never becomes free of it.  Feline leukaemia damages the immune system and predisposes to other diseases causing secondary infections and tumours

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