Vaccines 101

Vaccines are simply small doses of infectious agents that are injected into your pet to help their body fight off certain diseases. By doing this, their immune system has already experienced that disease and remembers to produce antibodies that will be able to bind and destroy it, when exposed to the real thing. Some pets may develop a reaction to a particular vaccine and small breed dogs are usually more affected. Some reactions can be hives, hair loss around the injection site, swelling of the face and vomiting but rarely does a reaction take pets to the ER. Most pets will be sleepy or less active after their shots for about a day or two, they may also not have much of an appetite. Most countries requires that all cats and dogs receive annual rabies vaccines however other shots are highly recommended as well. There is a saying that i love...One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and this is so true! Below is a list of available vaccines some of which are given together as a single vaccination combo.

~Dogs
Distemper
Parvovirus
Adenovirus
Hepatitis
Parainfluenza
Rabies
Leptospirosis
Bordetella
Lyme
Coronavirus

Typical Dog Vaccine Schedule
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=85

~Cats
Rabies
Panleukopenia
Rhinotracheitis
Calicivirus
Feline leukemia
Feline AIDS
Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP)
Chlamydophilia

Typical Cat Vaccine Schedule
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=86

*Ferrets also receive the Canine distemper and Rabies vaccines