Post by angelad on Jan 14, 2013 11:04:59 GMT
The recent outbreak of Parvo at the Home has emphasised the importance of vaccinating your pup/dog and keeping the annual boosters up to date. Vaccinations are very effective in protecting against:
Canine Parvovirus An aggressive disease that attacks the immune system and cells lining the intestines, causing serious, often fatal, vomiting and diarrhoea. Young unvaccinated pups are especially susceptible.
Canine Distemper (Hardpad) This virus attacks the gut, lungs and nervous system and is usually fatal.
Infectious Canine Hepatitis This virus rapidly attacks the liver, lungs, kidneys and eyes. Many cases are fatal but some dogs can recover.
Leptospirosis This disease is caused by bacteria from the family Leptospira. Two types of disease are seen but both can be protected against. The first is passed on in watercourses from the urine of infected rats and this strain can also affect humans. The second is caught from the urine of infected dogs. Whilst antibiotics can help to treat Leptospirosis, cases can often be fatal or cause lifelong damage to the kidneys.
Canine Coronavirus Can cause serious diarrhoea in infected animals.
All vaccines work by administering a small amount of the virus’s they are to protect against, thus allowing the body’s immune system to successfully fight them and then build up a future immunity.
With pups, if the Mum has full immunity either from vaccines or a natural build up then the colostrum produced by the mum for the first few days after birth passes this immunity on to the pups for a period of aprox. 6 - 8weeks. This is why it’s so important to make sure all the pups get a good chance to suckle in this critical period. The colostrums drops off after 3-4 days and ordinary milk is produced.
If a pup is vaxed while their immunity levels are still high from mum, this will fight the vaccine and render it ineffective. That’s why the first vaccine is given at 6 - 8 weeks and a second vac is given 2-4 weeks later with the pup being at least 10 weeks old. The second vac is given as a safety precaution in case the first one wasn’t fully effective cos of the immunity from mum.
The vaccines are considered fully effective after 2 weeks. It is rare for fully vaccinated dogs/pups to get parvo. It can happen if the dog encounters a new strain of parvo it has no immunity to (very rare otherwise there would be outbreaks everywhere), the dog ingests a massive amount of infectious virus or it has a weakened immune system and cannot respond normally to defeat the virus.
Some people consider that there should be a 2 week wait before a ‘new’ dog is vaxxed so their health can be assessed in case they are carrying anything/have a lowered immune system in which case the vax could cause the disease as the body may not be strong enough to fight the small amount of virus in the vax and the full blown disease can occur. Obviously this is not possible at the Home and all the dogs receive an initial vac at first vet check shortly after arrival at the Home.
Another difficulty for the Home is that the incubation period for Parvo is generally considered to be 3-10 daysish and the vac takes 14 days to be fully effective. This means that an originally unvaxed dog with no immunity could still succumb to the parvo virus if it is picked up within this timeframe despite having had the first vac.
There is research/arguments that a fully grown dog only needs 1 vac to give full immunity after the 2 week period as the 2nd vac is only nec. as a safety measure for pups and that repeated vacs. throughout the dogs life are unnecessary. Dogs can be titer tested to check their immunity levels and some dog owners go down this route as they believe that the unnecessary annual vac can actually be harmful - but this is a whole different argument. Most dog training classes, boarding kennels and if you wish to take your dog abroad, require a fully up to date vacination card.
Canine Parvovirus An aggressive disease that attacks the immune system and cells lining the intestines, causing serious, often fatal, vomiting and diarrhoea. Young unvaccinated pups are especially susceptible.
Canine Distemper (Hardpad) This virus attacks the gut, lungs and nervous system and is usually fatal.
Infectious Canine Hepatitis This virus rapidly attacks the liver, lungs, kidneys and eyes. Many cases are fatal but some dogs can recover.
Leptospirosis This disease is caused by bacteria from the family Leptospira. Two types of disease are seen but both can be protected against. The first is passed on in watercourses from the urine of infected rats and this strain can also affect humans. The second is caught from the urine of infected dogs. Whilst antibiotics can help to treat Leptospirosis, cases can often be fatal or cause lifelong damage to the kidneys.
Canine Coronavirus Can cause serious diarrhoea in infected animals.
All vaccines work by administering a small amount of the virus’s they are to protect against, thus allowing the body’s immune system to successfully fight them and then build up a future immunity.
With pups, if the Mum has full immunity either from vaccines or a natural build up then the colostrum produced by the mum for the first few days after birth passes this immunity on to the pups for a period of aprox. 6 - 8weeks. This is why it’s so important to make sure all the pups get a good chance to suckle in this critical period. The colostrums drops off after 3-4 days and ordinary milk is produced.
If a pup is vaxed while their immunity levels are still high from mum, this will fight the vaccine and render it ineffective. That’s why the first vaccine is given at 6 - 8 weeks and a second vac is given 2-4 weeks later with the pup being at least 10 weeks old. The second vac is given as a safety precaution in case the first one wasn’t fully effective cos of the immunity from mum.
The vaccines are considered fully effective after 2 weeks. It is rare for fully vaccinated dogs/pups to get parvo. It can happen if the dog encounters a new strain of parvo it has no immunity to (very rare otherwise there would be outbreaks everywhere), the dog ingests a massive amount of infectious virus or it has a weakened immune system and cannot respond normally to defeat the virus.
Some people consider that there should be a 2 week wait before a ‘new’ dog is vaxxed so their health can be assessed in case they are carrying anything/have a lowered immune system in which case the vax could cause the disease as the body may not be strong enough to fight the small amount of virus in the vax and the full blown disease can occur. Obviously this is not possible at the Home and all the dogs receive an initial vac at first vet check shortly after arrival at the Home.
Another difficulty for the Home is that the incubation period for Parvo is generally considered to be 3-10 daysish and the vac takes 14 days to be fully effective. This means that an originally unvaxed dog with no immunity could still succumb to the parvo virus if it is picked up within this timeframe despite having had the first vac.
There is research/arguments that a fully grown dog only needs 1 vac to give full immunity after the 2 week period as the 2nd vac is only nec. as a safety measure for pups and that repeated vacs. throughout the dogs life are unnecessary. Dogs can be titer tested to check their immunity levels and some dog owners go down this route as they believe that the unnecessary annual vac can actually be harmful - but this is a whole different argument. Most dog training classes, boarding kennels and if you wish to take your dog abroad, require a fully up to date vacination card.
