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The vaccinations your puppy should get in their first year

The United States has more than 75 million pet dogs, making it the top country for dogs in the world. Many dog enthusiasts opt for the special rewards and challenges of taking a puppy into their home. An important part of your new puppy’s vet care includes getting the right vaccinations. These vaccinations, provided by veterinary services, will help protect your pet from contracting dangerous illnesses. The following is a list of some of the health conditions in puppies that can be prevented by vaccines.

Bordetella Bronchiseptica

This bacterium is easily spread. Symptoms include severe cough, vomiting, and whooping, and sometimes seizures and even death. It is the main culprit behind kennel cough. Vaccines come in injectable and nasal spray forms.

Canine Distemper

This is a serious and infectious disease, brought about by a virus that affects the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and nervous systems in dogs and other animals. Distemper is an airborne illness that is spread through coughing or sneezing; it also spreads through shared water and food bowls. Symptoms include eye and nose discharge, coughing, fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and seizures, and the disease frequently results in death. No cure for the illness exists, so it’s especially important to get the vaccine through your local veterinary services.

Canine Hepatitis

This is a viral infection that spreads easily. It attacks the eyes, liver, kidneys, lungs, and spleen. Symptoms include low fever, congestion, vomiting, and pain in the area of the liver. Dogs often survive the condition in its less severe form, but they can die of the severe version. Vaccination is important since no cure exists for this disease.

Corona Virus

This virus typically attacks the gastrointestinal tract, but may also result in respiratory infections. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and low or no appetite. Your local veterinarian can treat symptoms and relieve some of the discomfort, but there is no drug to combat the virus.

Heartworm

Puppies aged 12 to 16 weeks should be brought to your veterinary services for a heartworm preventive. While no vaccine for this disease exists, it can be prevented with drugs. When this illness strikes, worms work their way into the heart and the arteries leading to the lungs; they can also travel to the kidneys and liver. Symptoms, such as coughing, lethargy, trouble breathing, and loss of appetite, may not appear until the late stages of the illness.

Kennel Cough

This disease comes from upper airway inflammation and is caused by viral, bacterial, or other types of infection. Symptoms include dry coughing in the disease’s milder form. In its more severe forms, vomiting, gagging, and loss of appetite may occur; and death is a rare outcome. It spreads rapidly in places where dogs live in close proximity to each other, most notably kennels.

Leptospirosis

This disease is brought about by a bacterial infection, and it may not lead to visible symptoms. People can be infected by coming into contact with infected animals. Some symptoms that may arise are vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea, poor appetite, weakness, and muscle pain. It is best treated as soon as possible with antibiotics.

Lyme Disease

There is no definitive rash in dogs with Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks carrying a kind of bacteria known as a spirochete. Symptoms include limping, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and loss of appetite. The condition may attack the kidneys, heart, joints, or neurological system. A prompt diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics can be very effective, but relapse can happen months or years after the initial infection.

Parvovirus

This is a very contagious virus that can infect any dog. Dogs and puppies under four months old that have not been vaccinated are most vulnerable to the virus. Symptoms include poor appetite, fever, bloody diarrhea, and severe dehydration. Vaccination at your local vet clinic is crucial, as there is no cure for this potentially deadly disease.

Rabies

Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms include headache, hallucinations, heavy drooling, and paralysis, and the disease may result in death. Rabies vaccination is required by law in most states in the U.S.

Veterinary services for your new puppy’s first year should include vaccines to help prevent these diseases. We provide full veterinary services, from vaccines to wellness checks, in our clinic and hospitals. Call us today for an appointment.

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