Why Vaccines

Vaccines are very important to help protect your pet, as well as the community from severe, potentially deadly diseases. Consider the use of Rabies vaccinations to protect the general public as well as their pets from this fatal disease. Despite Rabies vaccine laws, people are still bitten every year in the United States by unvaccinated cats, dogs or wild animals with 1-3cases annually causing fatalities and many more people having to receive a series of painful prophylactic injections. “Despite the control of rabies in domestic dogs in the United States, each year interactions with suspect animals result in the need to observe or test hundreds of thousands of animals and to administer rabies postexposure prophylaxis to 30,000 to 60,000 persons.”(cdc.gov)

Veterinarians typically recommend a core series for puppies and kittens due to their lack of a fully functional immune system as they are growing. They have some protection given to them by their mother in the colostrum, or the first milk that they drink within 24hrs of birth, after this time the mother’s milk is simply nutritional for growth of her young. How much protection each baby from the litter receives may vary, depending on how well vaccinated mom was prior to becoming pregnant, as well as how well the babies latch on and take in the colostrum after birth. The vaccine series is to make sure that as the animal grows, and the maternal antibodies cycle naturally out of their system, we are stimulating the immune system to create new antibodies of its’ own for protection. This helps to protect your furry family member from fatal disease like Distemper, Parvo, and Rabies.

Many people are concerned with over-vaccination of their pets; after all our pets are part of our family. However, there is no scientific data that shows vaccinations can cause autistic like syndromes in animals, nor that vaccinations lead to any specific disease syndromes. That being said, every pet is an individual and responds to it’s environment and environmental stimuli including vaccines differently. Some pets experience acute allergic reactions to vaccines or the preservatives in them. Most however, receive vaccines on an annual basis with no ill effects. If you are concerned about the effects of the vaccines on your pets long term health, consider that most bodily insults (vaccines, food by-products etc) are detoxified by the liver and sent out of the body (or excreted) through urination. Therefore foods and supplements that help the liver detoxify the body can help to maintain health and longevity. Consider a consult with one of our knowledgeable veterinarians to discuss what vaccines, food, or supplements may be recommended for your pets’ lifestyle and best health.