Animal Vaccines
Vaccinations are highly important in not only people’s lives but also to your pets lives. There are several diseases which can be prevented by a simple relatively inexpensive vaccine. This is far cheaper than the veterinary costs that will be incurred through treating a sick pet and will save yourself and your family from the hurt of seeing a family pet suffer.
Dog Vaccines
The recommended first vaccinations for puppies are to be given between six and eight weeks old and should continue at intervals of three to four weeks until they are fourteen to sixteen weeks. In some cases such as certain breeds or puppies with greater risk factors additional vaccines may be recommended.
There are several types of vaccinations recommended for dogs, including:
- The rabies vaccine:
- required by law in some countries because rabies is fatal, impossible to cure once symptoms manifest and is possible to transmit to humans. Given to puppies between 12 and 16 weeks of age followed by a booster after a year, additional boosters are then given every three years.
- The distemper combination vaccine
- includes the Distemper virus, Parvovirus, Adenovirus, and the Parinfluenza virus. Vaccination should begin at six to eight weeks old and follow up every three to four weeks until the dog is at least 16 weeks old.
Cat Vaccines
Instances of several feline diseases have been significantly reduced by the routine vaccination of domestic cats. For this reason it is extremely important that your pet cat has all the required vaccinations and boosters. These vaccinations include:
- Feline infectious enteritis
- or FIE is a very severe and potentially fatal gut infection caused by a virus. This virus is quite common and an unvaccinated cat will be at great risk.
- Cat flu
- is commonly caused by are two types of virus which are targeted by these vaccinations. They can protect your cat against prolonged illness, but will not totally prevent any threat because there exist many different strains of the viruses.
- Feline Leukemia Virus
- or FeLV is an incurable virus and will be with the cat for the rest of its life, sadly most of the cats who contract the virus will die within a three year period. The virus is contracted via direct contact between cats and as such the vaccine is strongly recommended for outdoor cats.