The Importance of Vaccinating Your Pet

Vaccinations for pets are just like vaccinations for humans. They prevent many illnesses and can help to avoid costly treatments for diseases that can be prevented. Pet vaccinations can help to prevent diseases that can be passed between animals and humans and humans to animals. They play an essential role in keeping your pet healthy, and there are a few core vaccines that you should consider giving your pet including:

• Canine Distemper: Affects the respiratory and nervous system, and is often fatal.
• Infectious Hepatitis: This can lead to acute or chronic liver inflammation.
• Parvovirus: Causes severe diarrhea and dehydration as well as life-threatening sepsis in unprotected puppies
• Rabies: Causes progressive neurological problems and death, and is transmitted when an infected animal bites, and can be transmitted to humans.

Vaccination is the most reliable method of prevention and gives few risks. When your dog or cat is vaccinated, its immune system produces special substances called antibodies that work against viruses or bacteria that cause disease. It is very important for all pet owners to remember that vaccines are preventative and not curative. Since the protection provided by vaccines gradually declines after an animal is vaccinated, booster vaccines are necessary for the immune system to produce enough protective antibodies to protect against disease-causing viruses or bacteria.

The majority of pets experience no adverse effects following vaccination. A small number of animals will become feverish and may become sensitive to touch where the vaccine was administered. The mild reactions to the vaccines are worth the life-threatening risks that some diseases may bring.