What are vaccines?

Vaccines are biological products that activate protective immune responses that aid your pets immune system to fight and protect them against future infections from harmful diseases. Vaccines are injected into your pet by needle and syringe usually under the skin at the back of your pet’s neck.

Animals can get diseases from other animals and/or the environment.

Harmful diseases can even be transmitted to our pets by us.

We will mostly be unaware that we can do this.

Virsuses can live for up to 20 years. They find a place to hide, such as soil in the ground, and wait for something or someone to come into contact with it, causing the virus to become active.

Good simple hygiene rules help cut down the risk of us transmitting, by accident, these diseases. For example – wash hands well or use a hand sanitizer after touching other pets you may meet in the park, etc. If an animal looks sick or acts sick, just be careful if you touch it and then go and interact with your pet: the risk is you may infect your pet unknowingly.

You may laugh at me, but when I was vet nursing and went home I would take off my shoes at the front door, put my shoes in a special place along with my uniform, go take a long shower, get dressed in my normal clothes, THEN greet my pets with the usual kisses, hugs, and rolling around on the carpet with them in play.

I would also use lots of bleach when washing my uniforms and a simple bleach and water spray for my shoes.

I am not telling you this to make you afraid to touch animals that are not yours because that would take the fun out of being an animal lover.

I say this in the hope that it may help you think about the small things you can do to protect your pet.

There is debate going on at the moment that we vaccinate our pets too much. I am not saying this is wrong to question, but rather, we as owners need to get the best information we can in order to protect our pets form harm. The best thing to do is speak to your vet and ask lots of questions until you can put into place the best health care plan for your pet.

We love them and want them to live a long healthy life.

If we take the time to think about whether our pet is strictly an indoor pet: not interacting with other animals thus reducing the risk of infection but not eliminating it; or an outside pet that has daily walks and usual animal adventures thus greatly increasing the risk; then you can make better informed choices through consultation with your vet.

When I was younger animals in large numbers were infected with harmful diseases which mostly led to death. That was 30 + years ago and because of the death of so many pets around the world humans began to research and develop vaccine programmes so as to protect pets.

Thankfully we do not see the devastating effects of those diseases in 2010 in the high numbers we saw earlier but these diseases are still around, in far less numbers and various degrees of harm. But remember these viruses can live for long periods in the ground.

It’s always the young and the elderly that are at greater risk.

It’s not just cats and dogs either but other animals like rabbits and horses etc. that are at risk.

With the young, if their mother has had a vaccination healthcare plan that is in place at the time of birth, when the young drinks mothers’ milk it will contain anti-bodies and be passed on to them through the feeding process.

These anti-bodies decrease in the young around 6 weeks after birth.

By then they are starting to eat food we give them. That is why puppy and kitten vaccine programmes start at 6-8 weeks of age.

With old animals, like us humans, the body does not respond to illness and disease as it would have in the prime years of their life.

I know I have given you lots to read and think about here so later I will be going into information about the diseases we vaccinate against.

HAPPY PET OWNERSHIP TO YOU ALL.