Vaccination of dogs is a necessary procedure that can ensure your pet's health, as well as without which it is impossible to travel on a train or plane. All vaccinations carried out by the doctor must be recorded in a special vaccination passport, which proves that a dog cannot be a distributor of a number of diseases - rabies of carnivores, distemper, parovirus enteritis and others.
Vaccination rules
Veterinarians recommend that pet owners follow three very important organizational rules.
The first includes the health of your pet. Only such an animal should receive the necessary injection, which, in fact, is the introduction into the body of a weaker strain of infection. The veterinarian, to whom the animal was brought for vaccination, must definitely ask the owner if the dog is eating well, what is the state of the stool, and also measure the temperature of the animal.
Do not think that if your dog does not go out, then its body cannot be susceptible to infections. After all, the disease can be easily brought into the house on street shoes or on clothes.
The second rule is to carry out preparatory procedures designed to rid the animal of internal and external parasites. These are ticks, fleas, lice, as well as various helminths and others. The animal must be completely free of parasites 1-2 weeks before the intended vaccination, which can be confirmed by laboratory analysis of feces.
The third concerns bitches potentially ready to mate in the next few months (1 to 2). Vaccination during mating can affect the health of future offspring.
Dog vaccination schedule
Veterinarians recommend that your pet be vaccinated for the first time at 8-9 weeks of age. Then, already at 12-14 weeks, you need to re-vaccinate the dog.
Re-vaccination should not be done earlier than 12 weeks, since, otherwise, the development of immunity and protection against infections may be stopped due to the high content of antibodies in the puppy's blood obtained from mother's milk.
We must not forget that within 10-14 days after vaccination, you need to very seriously monitor the health of the puppy. The thing is that the body is weakened and susceptible to potential infection. That is, you should not think that, an hour after the vaccination, you can safely run into the street, where the dog will not "pick up" something bad. Doctors also do not recommend bathing a newly vaccinated puppy.
Further vaccinations should be repeated one year later and then every 12 months of the dog's life.
Dogs are vaccinated against rabies separately. The first vaccination should be done at the age of 12-14 weeks, together with the main one, and then repeated after 12 months and so every year.
Rabies vaccination is also very stressful for the animal's body. Therefore, one should not forget that in the period from one and a half to two weeks that have passed from it, the animal should be limited in terms of physical activity, the duration of walks and in no way be hypothermic (bathing or walking at low temperatures is unacceptable).
