Keep your Dog Healthy with Vaccinations

By: Ricardo d Argence

When owning a dog, you need to be sure to keep up to date with the vaccinations for your furry friend.

Vaccinations are important to help keep your pet in the best of heath. The vaccinations for puppies and full grown dogs are a bit different but very important none the less.

Puppies that are at least 6 to 8 weeks of age need to get to DHLPPC vaccinations. These vaccinations are done over a period of time, usually over a three to four week period until they're 16 weeks of age.

Once the puppy is 16 weeks of age, rabies vaccinations and immunizations are then recommended annually. When the shots are done in a series this is also called booster shots.

Puppies need a booster shots to help build their immunity. When puppies are firstborn they get their immunity from their mothers when they nurse. Once they stop nursing the immunity declines and that is where the booster shots come in handy.

The senior dogs are not as susceptible to getting distemper or parvo so your vet may recommend that they get this vaccination every other year. It is still good to take your dog in yearly for a checkup.

You need to be sure to get your dog checked regularly to make sure they're showing no signs of kidney disease or cancer. The earlier you catch things such as these, the better off your dog's chance of survival is.

The combo vaccination called the DHLPPC, covers a number of diseases in one shot.

The D stands for distemper, the H stands for hepatitis or adenovirus-2, L. stands were leptospirosis, the P stands for parainfluenza, the other P stands for parvovirus and the C stands for corona virus. This is a great vaccination to get for your dog is it covers the many illnesses in one injection.

Another type of vaccination that you may get for your dog is Bordetella. It is also known as kennel cough, which is a respiratory infection in dogs.

While it's not a fatal infection it can be hard to get rid of. It can spread fast through boarding and grooming places such as animal shelters or even a vet's office. They can do this vaccination in one of two ways. The first being nasal spray and a second and injection.

If you do the injection then you need to get a booster at one month after the date of the first one.

Unfortunately dogs have to deal with tick problems. Ticks can cause Lyme disease it if you live in an area where there is a lot of woods around then you need to be cautious of the tick problems.

The Lyme vaccine would be a vaccine that you want to get for your dog to protect him or her from Lyme disease.

There is a parasite that lives in the intestines and can be passed from the fecal matter from infected animals. That parasite is called Giardia. Dogs can become infected with this parasite by drinking contaminated water.

Many people don't realize that they can also be infected. The vaccination for Giardia is a good one for dogs that are outdoors a lot.