Vaccination: A Crucial Part of Pet Healthcare
Vaccination is a vital aspect of preventive healthcare for your pet. It's one of the most cost-effective ways to ensure your animal's health, longevity, and quality of life. Vaccination also serves a crucial public health function by forming a barrier against several diseases that can be passed from animals to humans.
In short, the answer is: Yes, definitely! Pets should receive core vaccines - those medically necessary for all pets - and may need others depending on their lifestyle.
No medication is without risk, but the benefits of vaccinating pets outweigh the risks. Vaccinations in pets protect them against devastating and life-threatening diseases, such as rabies and distemper. Vaccinations not only protect pets but also play a role in protecting humans.
Risks of Vaccinating Pets
The most likely vaccination complications include tissue swelling around the injection site; mild signs of illness such as fever, lethargy, and soreness; and allergic reactions to the vaccine that can range from mild to life-threatening. The likelihood of a dangerous reaction is low, whereas the likelihood of your pet developing a life-threatening disease if he is not vaccinated is much higher.
Determining the Necessary Vaccines for Your Pet
To determine whether a pet should be vaccinated against a particular disease, your veterinarian will assess his exposure risk, including:
- Age: A specific vaccination protocol is necessary to help puppies and kittens build resistance to disease while the immunity passed from their mothers wears off. After the initial vaccine series, booster vaccines are required for adult pets to maintain immunity.
- Geography: Exposure risk to some diseases is higher in some geographic areas; for example, Lyme disease is most prevalent in heavily wooded areas, such as the Northeast.
- Lifestyle: Cats who live solely indoors with no contact with other cats have little risk of exposure to feline leukemia and may not need this vaccination. But if your cat goes outside, spends time at a boarding facility, or has contact with outside cats brought into your home, he has a higher exposure risk and should be vaccinated.
Core Vaccines for Dogs
- Canine distemper: Affects the respiratory and nervous systems, and often is fatal.
- Infectious hepatitis: Caused by adenovirus type-1, hepatitis can lead to acute or chronic liver inflammation.
- Parvovirus: Causes severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration as well as life-threatening sepsis in unprotected puppies.
- Parainfluenza virus: Causes respiratory infection in dogs; a single vaccine combining parainfluenza and Bordetella can protect against kennel cough.
- Rabies: Causes progressive neurological problems and death, is transmitted when an infected animal bites, and can be transmitted to humans.
Additional vaccines for your dog based on where you live, its age, and your lifestyle:
- Lyme disease: Transmitted by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and prevalent in wooded areas. Recommended for dogs who live in or travel to areas where Lyme disease occurs.
- Leptospirosis: Caused by bacteria shed in the urine of infected wild animals; pets and humans become infected by exposure to contaminated outdoor water sources and can develop kidney and liver failure. Recommended for most dogs, both urban and rural, due to increasing prevalence.
- Bordetella bronchiseptica: Causes kennel cough, a respiratory infection common in shelter dogs.
- Canine influenza virus: Recently shown to cause respiratory infection; vaccination is recommended for dogs exposed to other dogs outside the home.
- Western diamondback rattlesnakes: May be recommended for dogs who live in or visit areas inhabited by rattlesnakes.
For more information, talk to one of our Pet Experts and get customized advice by submitting a request through our Mavyn website.