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Vaccinations - Dogs
Distemper
Distemper vaccination is important for all puppies. This disease is still present in most areas and it is still hard to treat successfully. Even when a puppy is nursed through the acute phase of the disease there can be long term health problems. The most common of these is a tendency to develop seizures.
Adenovirus Type 2
This virus causes a form of kennel cough and also protects against hepatitis in dogs. This is fortunate because there were more vaccine reactions using the hepatitis virus itself , even in a weakened state. While viral hepatitis is not as common as it once was in dogs, it has not been eliminated as a threat.
Leptospirosis
This is actually a bacterial disease, so the protective "vaccination" is actually a "bacterin". In many areas of the country, this disease is not common and the leptospirosis portion of the vaccine combinations is thought to be the most common cause of reactions. For this reason, many veterinarians no longer include it in their vaccination recommendations, IF they practice in an area in which it is not common. Your vet can tell you whether or not it is necessary in your area.
Parainfluenza
Parainfluenza must be an inexpensive virus to include in vaccines. It is in almost all the combination vaccines even though it is probably only a minor contributor to the problem of tracheobronchitis (kennel cough) in dogs. Vaccine reactions to this virus seem rare.
Parvovirus
Parvovirus is probably the most common viral illness of dogs at the present time. It is much more common in puppies than it is in adult dogs. It can be very hard to successfully vaccinate a puppy for this disease because the antibody protection the puppy acquires from its mother can interfere with vaccination. It is important to vaccinate puppies every three to four weeks for this virus starting at 6 weeks of age and continuing until they are at least 16 weeks of age and preferably 20 weeks of age. It is possible that this vaccine confers lifelong immunity once it does work but most veterinarians continue to recommend yearly vaccination for it. It seems prudent to at least get the vaccination at one year of age. Since it is combined with the other vaccines it is often easier just to give it yearly with them.
Coronavirus
Coronavirus may cause viral diarrhea and may make fatality from parvovirus more likely if the infections occur concurrently. On the other hand, this virus causes minimal damage to the intestines and may not cause clinical illness on its own. It just depends on whose studies you believe. Personally, I do not recommend the use of coronavirus vaccine.
Bordetella
Bordetella is the most common cause of tracheobronchitis (kennel cough) in dogs. It is a bacterial illness that is most common among dogs that congregate at things like shows, kennels or other places frequented by large numbers of dogs at once. It does not appear that this bacterin gives a full year of immunity in many instances. For dogs that are often exposed to situations in which the infection is likely probably should be vaccinated twice a year. There are intranasal as well as subcutaneous bacterins available for this disease. The intra-nasal bacterin confers immunity more quickly but the injectable version may last longer.
Lyme disease (Borrelia)
Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial organism, Borrelia burgdorferi . It is carried by Ixodes species of ticks and may have other tick or insect carriers. It is more common in some areas of the United States than in others. Your vet can tell you whether it is necessary to protect against this disease in your area.
There is a new Lyme bacterin on the market that Rhone-Merieux has produced using recombinant gene techniques. This bacterin only uses a portion of the bacteria which the body defenses recognize and form antibodies against. Because the whole Lyme bacteria is not present, it appears that there will not be the problem of the vaccine causing symptoms of Lyme disease. In addition, this bacterin does have a validated one year duration of immunity. It is a new product and like all new products there is a period when everyone looks hard for previously unknown reactions but if "vaccination" against Lyme disease seems necessary in your area, I'd definitely use this one.
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