Vaccinating Your Puppy
It's the way we do it.
The team at Ripponlea Veterinary Hospital work to fear free principles. That means our aim is to have your puppy happy and excited to visit us. We avoid anything that could cause fear, anxiety or stress. In practice that means we are gentle, and we use distraction and treats. With vaccines we use the thinnest needle possible, because it hurts less while some vaccines are trickled into the nose or mouth to avoid giving needles altogether.
Your puppy's vaccine schedule
It is very likely that your puppy will have received their first vaccination before you bring them home. This vaccine, typically given around six weeks of age, is the first in a series of boosters needed to protect against Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus.
A typical vaccination schedule is described below, but depending on your puppy's breed, health status, lifestyle, environment and other risk factors the veterinarian may modify it in consultation with you.
To avoid the vaccine schedule delaying the social development of our puppy patients we generally recommend that the second booster is given at ten weeks (70 days). Ten days after this booster most puppyies can go out into the world and socialise with other dogs, and people, and become accustomed to the sights and sounds of their environment.
Puppies then revisit at six months of age and are given another vaccine booster and a comprehensive growth and health check.
The final ‘puppy’ booster is given when they are a year old. This vaccine is critically important to enable them to develop long term immunity Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus.
An annual vaccine is then continued for kennel cough, as the immunity developed from these vaccines is short lived.
For distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus vaccination or titre testing is recommended every three years.
The diseases we vaccinate for are:
DistemperDistemper causes severe fever, respiratory symptoms (coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, pneumonia), eye discharge, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, listlessness and dehydration. Nervous signs such as muscle tremors, convulsions, loss of balance and progressive paralysis can occur later in the course of the disease. The recovery rate is low.
HepatitisInfection with this virus can result in sudden death. Other patients suffer high fever, loss of appetite, pain, blue eye (cloudiness of the cornea) and jaundice.
ParvovirusParvovirus causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, loss of appetite, and extreme depression. It is often accompanied by rapid dehydration, bleeding from the bowel and collapse.
Canine Cough
This disease is characterised by a harsh, non productive cough that may persist for up to three weeks. In young, elderly or immunocompromised dogs it can predispose to a potentially fatal secondary pneumonia. Severe forms of canine cough are either caused by a virus (Parainfluenza) or a bacteria (Bordetella).
(Leptospirosis)You may have heard about outbreaks of leptospirosis over the last few years. The most common sources of infection with this bacteria are contact with infected animal urine and/or contaminated soil or water. Rats are a common source of infection. Outbreaks may occur following periods of heavy rain or flooding, particularly in rural areas. It is recommended that dogs in some rural areas, particularly dairy farms be vaccinated but vaccination is not routine for dogs living in the suburbs surrounding Ripponlea, such as Caulfield, Balaclava, East Brighton, Elwood, St Kilda or Elsternwick.
The team at Ripponlea Veterinary Hospital work to fear free principles. That means our aim is to have your puppy happy and excited to visit us. We avoid anything that could cause fear, anxiety or stress. In practice that means we are gentle, and we use distraction and treats. With vaccines we use the thinnest needle possible, because it hurts less while some vaccines are trickled into the nose or mouth to avoid giving needles altogether.
Your puppy's vaccine schedule
It is very likely that your puppy will have received their first vaccination before you bring them home. This vaccine, typically given around six weeks of age, is the first in a series of boosters needed to protect against Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus.
A typical vaccination schedule is described below, but depending on your puppy's breed, health status, lifestyle, environment and other risk factors the veterinarian may modify it in consultation with you.
To avoid the vaccine schedule delaying the social development of our puppy patients we generally recommend that the second booster is given at ten weeks (70 days). Ten days after this booster most puppyies can go out into the world and socialise with other dogs, and people, and become accustomed to the sights and sounds of their environment.
Puppies then revisit at six months of age and are given another vaccine booster and a comprehensive growth and health check.
The final ‘puppy’ booster is given when they are a year old. This vaccine is critically important to enable them to develop long term immunity Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus.
An annual vaccine is then continued for kennel cough, as the immunity developed from these vaccines is short lived.
For distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus vaccination or titre testing is recommended every three years.
The diseases we vaccinate for are:
DistemperDistemper causes severe fever, respiratory symptoms (coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, pneumonia), eye discharge, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, listlessness and dehydration. Nervous signs such as muscle tremors, convulsions, loss of balance and progressive paralysis can occur later in the course of the disease. The recovery rate is low.
HepatitisInfection with this virus can result in sudden death. Other patients suffer high fever, loss of appetite, pain, blue eye (cloudiness of the cornea) and jaundice.
ParvovirusParvovirus causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, loss of appetite, and extreme depression. It is often accompanied by rapid dehydration, bleeding from the bowel and collapse.
Canine Cough
This disease is characterised by a harsh, non productive cough that may persist for up to three weeks. In young, elderly or immunocompromised dogs it can predispose to a potentially fatal secondary pneumonia. Severe forms of canine cough are either caused by a virus (Parainfluenza) or a bacteria (Bordetella).
(Leptospirosis)You may have heard about outbreaks of leptospirosis over the last few years. The most common sources of infection with this bacteria are contact with infected animal urine and/or contaminated soil or water. Rats are a common source of infection. Outbreaks may occur following periods of heavy rain or flooding, particularly in rural areas. It is recommended that dogs in some rural areas, particularly dairy farms be vaccinated but vaccination is not routine for dogs living in the suburbs surrounding Ripponlea, such as Caulfield, Balaclava, East Brighton, Elwood, St Kilda or Elsternwick.
Play is the highest
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(A. Einstein) |