Vaccinations are an extremely important element of your pet’s health and wellbeing. These should form part of their overall preventative health and wellness program to provide them the best possible care. As well as keeping your pet healthy, up to date vaccinations are required if your pet visits a boarding facility. This article will give you the reasons why vaccinations are so important in giving your pet a happy and healthy life!
Is your pet ready for the next holiday break? If you’re planning on boarding your pet next time you go on holidays, now is the time to get things in order. Both cat and dog boarding facilities require your pet to be up to date with their vaccinations before allowing them to stay. Vaccinating your pet is one of the most important things you can do to ensure they lead a healthy life.
These are three main reasons you should vaccinate your pet:
- Vaccinations protect against .preventable diseases
- Vaccinations protect your pet from transmissible diseases in both boarding facilities and the local community when they are out and about
- Vaccinations are substantially less expensive than the cost of treatment for the diseases they protect against.
Diseases in Dogs
There are a number of doggy diseases that your pup should be vaccinated against. Some of these are:
Distemper
Distemper can unfortunately affect any dog, especially puppies and unvaccinated dogs. Distemper can lead to many horrible symptoms such as vomiting, spasms, diarrhoea and progressive paralysis. Permanent brain damage and death may result from distemper if unvaccinated against.
Infectious Hepatitis
This is a highly contagious disease and can be particularly severe in young pups. If contracted and unvaccinated, dogs may have; fever, depression, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, tonsillitis and abdominal pain.
Parvovirus
Another highly contagious and hardy virus that can cause a lot of pain to your pup. This attacks the gastrointestinal tract of the dog and can be spread through contact with contaminated faeces and soil – all the smelly stuff that dogs love! As well as pain, parvovirus can cause death in dogs. This is very important to vaccinate against.
Canine Cough
This easily contracted disease usually infects dogs in areas where they socialise, such as parks, obedience classes, dog shows and kennels (all good kennels and obedience schools require up to date vaccinations before boarding your dog). The main symptom of this cough is a harsh cough that often finishes with gagging – as you can imagine this is highly painful to your pup.
Diseases in Cats
Even your cute kitties can contract these nasties too. These are some of the diseases that vaccinating your cat will fight against:
Cat Flu (or Feline Upper Respiratory Tract Infection)
Much like the human flu, this disease is easily contracted and can include sneezing, nasal discharge, conjunctivitis, fever and loss of appetite; it can be fatal in particularly vulnerable cats such as kittens or senior cats. We vaccinate against two different types of cat flu virus feline herpes virus and calicivirus. The first of the two, feline herpes virus can cause life-threatening illness. Even after recovery, cats are often left with permanent effects of the disease. The second virus is feline calicivirus; this causes painful mouth, nose or palate ulcers. This makes it very difficult for your cat to eat their favourite foods. These painful and potentially fatal events can be easily prevented by getting your cat vaccinated.
Feline Enteritis (Panleukopaenia)
This disease is similar to parvovirus for dogs. If contracted, your pet will experience severe vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. It has an extremely high death rate in cats, particularly in unvaccinated kittens.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) or Feline AIDS
Feline AIDS can be contracted through a cat’s saliva and is commonly transmitted through cat wounds and bites after a fight. Male roaming cats are the most at risk of feline AIDS. If unvaccinated against much like the human version there is no cure. This means that unfortunately supportive care will be needed for the remainder of the cat’s life.
Vaccinations are also a great way to ensure an annual health check for your pet. Your pet’s health and lifestyle may affect which vaccinations are necessary so one of our experienced vets can determine the most appropriate vaccination program for your pet.
