Vaccination and Preventive Care

Preventive care involves more than just ensuring that your pet has the right shots at the right time. Responsible preventive care involves an adequate vaccination program, comprehensive parasite control, controlled exercise, suffucient to satisfy your dog's needs and grooming.

Vaccination.
Vaccination or inoculation simulates the dog to produce active immunity against one or more diseases without developing any symptoms of that disease. In order to achieve this, the causative microorganisms (bacteria or viruses) have to be altered. They are either killed (inactivated) or weakened (attenuated) sufficiently so as not to cause the disease but to stimulate a workable immunity.

Animal Calendars

The altered microorganisms can be introduced into the body by various routes. For example, vaccination against kennel cough (infectious bronchotracheitis) is by administration of nasal drops. Inoculation, on the other hand, usually involves an injection.

Irrespective of the method, the body produces an active immunity that lasts a variable time without boosting. This depends on the type of vaccine and the disease.

Puppy Immunity
Puppies are usually born with some immunity that they acquire from their mother while still in the womb. The necessary antibodies are carried in the blood and cross the placenta into the puppy. This acquired(passive) immunity soon wanes, which is why vaccinations are necessary.

One of the main aims of vaccine manufacturers is to develop vaccines that will confer solid protection in the shortest possible time, even when circulating maternal antibodies are present. Canine vaccines are available today that can be completed by ten to twelve weeks of age, affording the puppy early immunity. This allows much earlier socialization and training.

Boosters
Vaccination does not give lifelong immunity. Reinforcement (boosting) will be required. Recent work shows that the amount of immunity confered varies with the disease, and is also determined by whether the vaccine is attenuated or inactivated. Generally, killed vaccines last a much shorter time; therefore boosters will be required. The problem is when to administer them.

Modern canine vaccines cover several diseases with one course of injections. This is for reasons of cost and convenience. Some components, however, particularly inactivated (killed)vaccines, such as the one against leptospirosis(kidney disease), are known to confer only a short immunity, often measured in months.

With any combined(multivalent) vaccine, the efficacy of the product as a whole is considered in relation to the component that gives the shortest period of effective protection.

Therefore, although protection against disease such as distemper and hepatitis will last for much linger than a year, because these are combined with leptospirosis, the manufacturer's recommendation will be that an annual booster of the multivalent vaccine is advised.

Reactions to Boosters. Recent concern regarding the possibility of some dogs developing reactions to booster vaccination has led to a rethink, and manufacturer's recommendations are beginning to change.

Primary vaccination and boosters are now tailored for the individual and the area. Discuss this with your local veterinary surgeon at the time of the primary vaccination. There is concern that problems, particularly those of an autoimmune nature, can be caused by overvaccination, particularly "overboosting."

Measuring Immunity
Blood test are available, both for puppies and adult dogs, that will accurately indicate whether immunity has fallen to a level where the dog is at risk and boosting is advised. However, the cost of testing for one disease will probably be equal to, if not more than, the cost of a combined revaccination for all the diseases. There is also the question of stress for the dog.

Animal Calendars

Because of the concerns expressed regarding vaccinations, the number of components combined in each injection, and the recommendation of annual repeats, vaccines have recently been divided into two groups: core vaccines and noncore vaccines.