VACCINATING YOUR DOG

We recommend you let your new dog settle in to its new home for around a week before starting its vaccination programme. Start thinking about behaviour and socialisation at this early age, it is vital to you having a healthy well-behaved dog.

Vaccination can be started as early as 6 weeks of age and consists of a course of 2 injections, the second injection being given at 10 weeks of age.

This ‘early finish’ allows more time for your puppy’s vital socialisation period, this and other aspects of puppy health will be fully discussed at your pup’s vaccination consultation with the vet and at the free puppy check with one of our qualified veterinary nurses.

Other benefits of our Nurse’s puppy check are a free flea treatment, a free worming treatment, a free Hill’s food sample and 4 weeks free insurance.

Protection is not complete until one week after the second vaccination and your dog should be kept in isolation until then. It is important you carry your pup in all potentially infected areas It should also be kept out of watercourses until two weeks after its second vaccine to allow full immunity to leptospirosis to develop.

The vaccination course gives protection against the following diseases:

Distemper- a severe diarrhoea and respiratory infection that leads to encephalitis (brain infection ) and is deadly.

Parvovirus- a severe bloody diarrhoea often with vomiting, many cases die.

Hepatitis-a viral infection of the liver.

Leptospirosis- an infection which leads to kidney failure in the dog and can affect people causing severe disease in some cases.

Parainfluenza- one of the causes of' cough'.

There are other vaccines available for your dog against kennel cough. This is a name given to a respiratory syndrome in dogs which is caused by several different viruses and bacteria. It causes a variety of signs from sneezing and coughing to pneumonia in the worst case. We recommend that if your dog is going into kennels or regularly meeting other dogs, for example at training classes, that you consider using the vaccine. Kennel Cough vaccines are given by intra-nasal drops and repeated once a year. Please ask for advice if you wish your dog to be vaccinated against kennel cough.

If after vaccination your dog develops any worrying symptoms please ring for advice -it is not unusual however for your dog to be slightly off colour for a day after vaccination or to develop a lump at the injection site, these will resolve quickly with no long term problems.

We do send out vaccine reminders when an annual booster is due, but we all know that no computer system is infallible so it is wise for you to make a note of when your dog is due for the booster.