Why do we vaccinate our pets? What better time to talk about this topic!
Vaccinations for ourselves are obviously being talked about a lot recently. And we routinely vaccinate our children against all manner of nasties and the benefit of us doing this is reflected in the reduction of cases and outbreaks, and of course the benefit to the individual.
So, for the same reasons, we should be vaccinating our pets too.
There are a few ‘core’ vaccinations that we recommend your pets have.
For dogs this includes distemper, hepatitis, parvo virus and leptospirosis vaccination.
For cats, this includes feline calicivirus, feline herpes virus, feline panleucopenia virus and feline leukaemia virus vaccination. All a bit of a mouthful but can be pretty nasty if they catch them, and sadly sometimes infection with these illnesses can prove to be fatal.
At Paragon we are switching our recommended core dog vaccinations to include L4, which protects against four types of leptospirosis, instead of L2, which protects against only two types.
Currently there are three types of leptospirosis detected in the UK (and four types on the continent) and cases are on the up so we want to offer our clients and their pets the best level of protection by offering them the L4 vaccine.
But don’t worry if your dog has only had an L2 at their last vaccination, it can easily be converted to an L4 and at no extra charge. It will involve you bringing them to us for their first L4 injection then again four weeks later.
Once your pet has had their initial course of vaccinations they will then be fully covered after two weeks and can go out and mingle with other pets safely. But until then we do recommend that they are carried when out or kept to an enclosed safe garden.
To keep them up to date they will need a yearly booster, which is also a great opportunity for a yearly check up with their vet.
If your pet’s vaccinations have lapsed, ie more than 15 months since the last one, we can easily restart them and give them a course of two injections to get them fully covered again.
Paragon is offering a vaccination open day at our branch at Oak Tree Animals’ Charity at Wetheral. All clients who attend will receive 15 per cent off their pet’s vaccinations on 10th August, appointments available all day.