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Choosing your Boxer Dog
Choosing your Boxer Dog An easier and more pleasant journey with your chosen Boxer starts with checking out the parent dogs for unbecoming traits like aggression, hyperactive and extreme shyness. This is easier to do when you get your Boxer from...
Diagnosing pancreatic disease in Pets
The laboratory diagnosis of pancreatic disease in dogs and cats has taken has made some significant progress in the last few years. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) is now recognised in both dogs and cats and while most affected animals are...
Frosty, The Wandering Vagabond Cat
FROSTY, THE WANDERING VAGABOND CAT Copyright 2004, Michael LaRocca For a long time, we had a four-pet home. Daisy the border collie mix and Bebe the dachshund/doberman mix. Witchie and Taz, the Siamese couple. Pumpkin wandered into this mess for a...
The Cure To Stop A Horse From Kicking
I get a lot of horse training questions about stopping a horse from kicking. The kicking habits of these horses range from the horse kicking at virtually anyone to kicking at only the husbands. It's a daunting problem that lots of people have no...
Why "Doggie Breath" is nothing to joke about.
Your dogs health is important to you. You show him how important by keeping him well fed and groomed, making sure he gets plenty of exercise and providing a collection of fun, safe toys for his entertainment. You don't skimp on the quality of his...
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Vaccinating Your Dog – How Much And How Often?
Pet lovers know that it is very important to vaccinate their dogs, but how early and how often are two questions that are currently much on their minds as well as on the minds of the veterinary community at large. While vets agree that it is still vital to vaccinate puppies at 6 weeks for distemper and measles if they did not nurse during the first few hours after they were born and again at 8, 12, and 16 weeks for Distemper, Canine Infectious Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Parainfluenza, Parvovirus, and Coronavirus (DHLPPC), there have been questions as to whether the traditionally recommended (and in some states required) annual vaccinations are necessary. Puppies are also vaccinated for rabies at six months and this, too, is repeated annually.
The concerns that some dog owners have is whether the repeated dog vaccinations are really necessary and whether they are, in fact, doing more harm than good. Vaccinations work by stimulating the dog’s immune system, encouraging it to readily produce antibodies to fight against specific types of bacteria and viruses. Stimulating the immune system this way comes at a price – the actual introduction of the offending agent in some form to the dog’s system, leading to the concerns of dog lovers and vets alike.
The questions on the minds of those concerned are “is it
dangerous to repeatedly vaccinate my dog each year” and “how much vaccine should a dog receive and how often?” Fortunately the experts do agree that the answer to the first question is a resounding “no.” While there are rare cases of dogs that have become very ill or even died as a result of vaccination, there is no evidence to suggest that this practice poses any real danger to the dog. The animals adversely affected may have already been sick unbeknownst to their owners of had some form of allergy to a specific part of the vaccine. The answer to the second question is less encouraging because, the truth is; no one knows for sure how much vaccine is really necessary and how often it really should be given. This is currently a topic of much discussion and debate in veterinary circles.
The best advice that dog owners can take is to continue vaccinating their dogs according to local laws and the recommendations of their vets. Since the annual vaccines are not harming the dogs in any evident way, there is no cause for alarm and no harm in continuing the same routine until the veterinary community makes up its collective mind that a change is in order with regard to dog vaccinations.
About the Author
This article provided courtesty of http://www.puppy-training-guide.com
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