Pet Vaccinations
For adult pets, we recommend vaccine appointments every six months. Depending on your pet's age and vaccination history, your veterinarian might recommend a custom vaccination plan.
Vaccinations are a safe and effective way to protect your pet against disease and are an important and fundamental piece of your pet’s preventative health care plan. Advances in veterinary immunology have made diseases that once were relatively common and fatal to pets easily preventable. There are also some vaccines that help protect your family from very dangerous and difficult to treat diseases, such as rabies and leptospirosis which can be passed from infected wild animals. Young animals need to be vaccinated early on since the natural immunity that they get from their mothers’ milk gradually wears off and they become vulnerable to infectious diseases. We recommend giving puppies and kittens a series of vaccinations starting when they are approximately six weeks old, with the final vaccination series being administered when they are 15 to 17 weeks old.
Routine booster vaccines will also be necessary to keep your pet’s immunity high enough to protect them over time. It’s important to remember that as with other medication, not all vaccines are 100% effective in every pet; a vaccinated pet may not develop adequate immunity and could possibly become ill. However, the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks. When vaccinated, pets are protected against life-threatening diseases.
At Comal Pet Hospital & Resort, we offer multiple cat and dog vaccinations; we will advise you about which vaccines are right for your pet depending on their lifestyle, rather than use a one-size-fits-all approach. We administer all pet vaccinations with the most state-of-the-art vaccine technology and methods available today. Below is a list of the various pet vaccinations we offer, separated by species.
DOG VACCINATIONS
The DAPP dog vaccine provides protection against canine distemper, adenovirus, para-influenza and parvo. This immunization should be given to puppies at six to eight weeks old. To eliminate the possibility of maternal antibody competition, we recommend continuing the DAPP vaccination every three to four weeks until your pup has reached 16 weeks of age. We administer this dog vaccine one year after the last puppy shot is given and once every three years afterward.
Bordetella, also known as kennel cough, is a very common and contagious illness that affects the canine respiratory system. The Bordetella dog vaccine is administered during one of the puppy visits. We recommend this vaccination every 6 months.
Leptospirosis, also known as lepto, is a bacterial disease that can affect both humans and pets. It occurs all over the world and leads to liver and kidney damage as well as death if left untreated. Humans and pets can get this bacterial infection by coming into contact with infected wild animals (e.g., opossums, skunks, raccoons and rodents), lepto-infested water or infected urine. We give this vaccine with an initial dose, then once yearly.
It is by law that all domesticated dogs must be vaccinated against rabies when they receive their initial shots as puppies at or after 12 weeks of age. Rabies is a deadly virus that affects the brain and spinal cord of all mammals, including dogs and humans. Therefore, it is very important to protect your pet from this virus. This vaccine must be administered yearly.
The rattlesnake vaccine is given every 6 months and is a non-core vaccine. It lessens pain from a rattlesnake bite and helps quicken recovery. We give this vaccine as early as 4 months, then again in 3 weeks, then every 6 months.
Influenza (CIV or H3N8) – Canine Influenza, or the “dog flu,” is caused by the H3N8 Virus, which is a disease of dogs (not humans). The virus is spread from sick dogs that may be sneezing or coughing, contaminated objects or people moving between infected to uninfected dogs – this means the dogs don’t ever have to come in direct contact with other sick dogs in order to catch the virus. Symptoms may be mild such as coughing, runny nose and fever or severe such as pneumonia.
CAT VACCINATIONS
Rabies is a deadly virus that affects the brain and spinal cord of all mammals, including cats and humans. This being the case, it is very important to protect your pet from this virus. At Comal, kittens receive this cat vaccine one time after they reach 12 weeks of age. This vaccine must be administered yearly.
FVRCP cat vaccine is our “feline distemper” vaccination that protects against feline viral rhinotracheitis, calici virus and panleukopenia. These diseases are highly contagious among cats and can have devastating effects on their respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. Our feline patients should receive this cat shot when they are kittens, starting at six weeks of age. This cat vaccination should be given every three weeks until the kitten is 16 weeks old, as it will confidently ensure there is not any maternal antibody competition. Once the initial immunizations have been administered, we administer this cat vaccine one year after the last kitten shot is given and once every three years afterward.
FeLV (i.e., feline leukemia virus) is a deadly viral disease that wreaks havoc on affected cats’ immune systems and can lead to an array of cancerous conditions including leukemia. Because symptoms can remain hidden for months or even years in affected cats, many owners don’t realize there is a problem until it is too late and other cats in the household have already been exposed to the disease. We administer this vaccine yearly for at risk patients.