All pet owners know about the need to vaccinate animals on time, but not everyone can deal with many related issues. What vaccinations, when and why are they needed? How to prepare a pet, what vaccine to choose, and what do veterinarians recommend doing in case of complications? It is worth considering in detail the process of vaccinating animals.
Vaccinations for pets: why do we need
Each animal has innate immunity, which prevents the development of serious diseases. In addition, from the first days of life, a kitten or puppy is protected by feeding on mother's milk. But with age, protection weakens, and infections do not sleep - poor ecology, mutating viruses do not allow the animal’s immunity to remain resistant to especially complex and dangerous infectious diseases, such as carnivorous plague or paravirus enteritis. Of course, you can count on the fact that, having overcome such an infection, the pet will gain lifelong immunity, but only the consequences for the body from such diseases are fatal, and often modern dogs or cats simply do not survive.
There is a myth that if a cat is kept in an apartment and a dog is in private territory and they don’t contact anyone, then they simply have nowhere to catch the virus, therefore vaccinations are not required. In fact, the virus spreads easily through the air or can even be brought on the soles of the owner's shoes. According to veterinarians, the most frequent clients of clinics are domestic cats, whose careless owners do not vaccinate them.
In addition, one of the main reasons for compulsory vaccination of animals is that diseases such as rabies, for example, can jeopardize the lives and health of those around them.
What diseases should a dog be vaccinated against?
The standard vaccination kit for any dog is as follows: against the plague of carnivores, viral hepatitis, enteritis and leptospirosis. Also for all animals, rabies vaccination is required. Often in the autumn-spring dank season, veterinarians recommend vaccinating the dog also from parainfluenza.
What vaccinations do cats have?
It is not customary to vaccinate cats in Russia, it is customary to think that if an animal does not represent any pedigree value, then sores do not stick to simple Murka and Vaska. In fact, infections do not sleep, and it will not be out of place to vaccinate a cat against panleukopenia, rhinotracheitis, chlamydia and calcivirus infection.
Types of vaccines
First of all, vaccines are divided by the number of viruses contained in them:
- Monovalent.
- Bivalent.
- Integrated.
From the name it becomes clear that monovalent or bivalent vaccines contain only weakened bacteria of certain diseases, for example rabies, leptospirosis or parainfluenza, and complex ones provide protection from several types of diseases at once, and there is no need to torment the animal with injections several times. More recently, small puppies and kittens were vaccinated only with monovalent drugs, since living bacteria can all at once overcome the baby’s fragile immunity, but according to the observations of veterinarians, high-quality modern polyvalent drugs are absolutely harmless, and such vaccinations by animals are well tolerated at a young age.
What bacteria are included in the vaccine?
Also, when vaccinating cats and dogs, it is worthwhile to understand the difference between modified drugs (in their composition viruses are living, only weakened as much as possible, harmless to the immunity of a healthy animal) and inactivated (with dead viruses or their particles, which are absolutely harmless to any organism). It is believed that if immunity did not enter the fight against a live virus, then protection will not be complete. Therefore, inactivated vaccines are given either to small puppies and kittens, or to weakened, elderly, often sick animals.
Dog vaccination schedule
Sometimes it is difficult for people who have just purchased a puppy to understand when they need to put all the necessary vaccinations for animals and why go to the veterinarian again if the passport states that the puppy has already been vaccinated in the kennel. Actually the scheme is not so complicated:
- The first vaccination is given to puppies most often by a breeder at the age of 2 months. It is during this period that the puppy’s body is not as vulnerable as in infancy, and at the same time it is dangerous to delay, because, firstly, when the teeth change, the immunity will become vulnerable again, and secondly, at the age of 7-9 weeks, the so-called immune breach forms in the animal’s body - the puppy actively eats ordinary food and is not as protected by mother’s milk as before.
- Sometimes it is allowed to vaccinate even 4-week-old babies, but only in case of emergency, when there is a real risk of contracting dangerous diseases (for example, an outbreak of a terrible virus was recorded among other animals in the house).
- Exactly 4 weeks after the first vaccine, the puppy should be revaccinated with a completely identical vaccine (revaccination).
- After another week, dogs are allowed to vaccinate against rabies. Some veterinarians advise you to wait with this vaccine until the teeth change completely. This is also valid.
- With the next vaccination, you need to wait up to a year, and then vaccinate after each dog’s birthday.
Veterinarians do not recommend vaccinating dogs older than 7 years old (especially large or often ill) every year, if the elderly dog has no chronic diseases and good blood tests, then he can be vaccinated every 3 years, and if the dog cannot boast of strong immunity, then the complex vaccination should be neglected, limiting to rabies vaccination with the same frequency - once every 3 years. The choice is worth the proven veterinarian recommended drugs that are ready to provide protection against a dangerous disease for several years.
Cats vaccination schedule
Cats, like dogs, begin to be vaccinated at the age of 8 weeks. A standard set of vaccines protects against the following diseases: panleukopenia (popularly known as “cat distemper”), calcivirosis and rhinotracheitis. In recent years, veterinarians have also advised to protect kittens from such a dangerous disease as chlamydia, and vaccination against leukemia is mandatory for thoroughbred animals participating in exhibitions. Exactly a month later - at 12 weeks - the kitten needs to be revaccinated with similar drugs. Additionally, in three months, kittens who will have access to the street are vaccinated against ringworm. And all cats, without exception, at the age of 12 weeks should be vaccinated against rabies.
In the future, vaccination must be repeated once a year.
Free rabies vaccination in Moscow
Rabies is a terrible disease that is deadly for both humans and animals. When diagnosing this disease, the animal is almost impossible to save, and in 90% of cases it dies in terrible agony. Since in urban conditions the main carriers of the infection are precisely pets, the state allocates funds for their vaccination against rabies. In Moscow, rabies animals can be vaccinated free of charge at the nearest vaccination center. Addresses and working hours can be clarified on the website of the Mayor of Moscow in the section "Vaccination" on the page "Committee of the City Veterinary Medicine".
What you need to know before vaccinating an animal
The main rule that provides a safe and effective vaccination: the animal must be completely healthy so that the immune system does not interfere with working at full strength. So, it is forbidden to vaccinate pets that only recover from any disease or in the body of which parasites live. Therefore, two weeks before the expected date of vaccination of dogs and cats, it is necessary to deworm (give an anthelmintic agent) and, in the case of a strong worming of the body, repeat the procedure and postpone the vaccination. If the animal has fleas, they must also be disposed of at least 2 weeks before vaccination.
After vaccination, puppies and kittens can be lethargic and sleepy for some time, refuse to eat. In the next two weeks, babies can not be bathed and supercool, and also, while immunity is developed, they must be protected from communication with other animals. It is more difficult to protect puppies from the effects of the outside world, but you need to try: do not let dogs communicate, take them out to the street in your arms and only for the delivery of natural needs.
What to remember when vaccinating animals
No vaccine will give a 100% guarantee that the animal will not get sick, but you can be sure that the vaccinated animal will tolerate the disease much easier and without serious consequences for the body, and the risk of contracting the vaccine is the least likely.