Vaccination Guidelines

Good Morning Folks. Today we need to discuss the new trends in vaccination guidelines for your pets. Over the last decade, much research has gone into looking at the duration of immunity and protection that vaccines actually produce in a pet’s body. This data suggests that the old recommendation of annual or yearly vaccinations may not be necessary.

Let’s do a quick course in immunology. Vaccines are made up of viruses and bacteria and other infectious agents that have been modified somehow so they do not cause disease, but will stimulate antibodies to be produced in the animal’s body. These antibodies then circulate around or go hang out in parts of the body. They get activated if the body gets exposed to the infectious virus or bacteria or whatever and they go help clear it out of the body. For many years then, we always thought that the antibodies for our pets didn’t last very long. We didn’t think animals had the “memory cells” that could protect a pet for long periods of time like humans. The new research suggests that may not be the case and pets do develop longterm immunity to some diseases.

Before I say another word and if you get anything out of this column today, get this. The diseases that we commonly vaccinate for are still out in the environment and still a major threat to your pets. Distemper and Parvo viruses for dogs, while much less prevalent than they were twenty years ago, are still affecting young dogs. Feline distemper and Feline Leukemia have also not gone away and can be devastating to young cats. Vaccinate all young puppies and kittens and make sure they get a complete series of vaccinations. Keep your young pet from coming into contact with a lot of other animals until this series of vaccinations has be completed. This holds true for pets that you may think may never come into contact with other animals.

The American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents compiled research that was done across the country and came up with some new guidelines for vaccinations. Their recommendation is to vaccinate adult pets against life threatening diseases every three years. The guidelines for puppies and kittens have not changed. This is not carved in stone and individual circumstances will dictate exactly what vaccinations and how frequently they will need to be given. Your veterinarian is the person to help you decide what is best for your pet in this regard.

Here’s what I think: vaccinate everything, just not as often. Then remember the most important preventative measure you can do for your pet is to have a complete physical examination done by your Veterinarian every year, maybe every six months for older pets. Other diseases besides infectious ones are the major threat for older pets.

Dr. James Speas is the owner and Executive Director of Crescenta Cañada Pet Hospital located in La Crescenta, California. He has developed a personal philosophy in the area of veterinary medicine – to always work in the direction of preventing problems before occur. Dr. Speas and his staff are proud to serve the pet communities of La Crescenta, La Canada, Glendale, Pasadena, Sunland, and Tujunga California. Call us at 818-248-3963.