Pet Care
Your dog and.....Vaccinations
Dogs, just as people, can get illnesses. Some dog illnesses are carried around in the air, by other animals or by the environment around them such as in kennels, or places such as the park, that many dogs go to a lot. These illnesses are sometimes prevented by an injection from the vet called a vaccine. There are many illnesses, with strange sounding names, that your dog can be prevented of getting through having a vaccine from the vet: Canine Distemper Infectious Canine Hepatitis Leptospirosis Canine Parvovirus Infection Kennel Cough Dog’s bodies, as humans, are very clever in preventing illness. They have cells that can destroy illness when it threatens to enter the body, rather like Pac men! (Antibodies) Antibodies are passed from the dog’s mother when the puppies are born and stay with the puppies for the first day or so, in the rich milk found when the puppies start to suckle (feed from their mother). The antibodies can only be passed on to the puppies, if the mother has been vaccinated and been around other dogs and different environments, in order to build up the antibodies in her body. After the first antibodies have been gone, puppies need to be vaccinated by their vet in order to continue being protected from the big illnesses listed. After this, dogs generally need to be vaccinated again once a year, in order to continue to be protected from the illnesses.