What is Puppy Vaccine Schedule? Puppies bring much joy to the family; a healthy puppy will provide even more fun to the home. It’s good to ensure the puppies get all the vaccines they need at the scheduled time. The vaccines will help protect or reduce the puppies’ risk of contracting potentially deadly dog diseases. Vaccines provide the puppies an additional immunity to guard them against the diseases; this makes them healthy and active.
Therefore, before purchasing a puppy, it’s good to understand the complete scheduled puppy vaccination program. This article discusses everything you need to know about the puppy vaccine schedule, the stage of life, the vaccine, and the reason for administering the vaccine. However, the schedule may vary from state to state due to differences in factors such as the incidence of a particular disease and the areas your puppy visits.
A Complete Guide on the Puppy Vaccine Schedule
Stage of Life of Administering the Vaccines to Puppies
When you get your puppy, you must follow a specific schedule to protect it from deadly dog diseases. Some of the vaccines will be mandatory, the vet recommends for all puppies in the United States, while others might be optional. The following are the stages of life and type of vaccine you’ll have to administer:
1. At 6 to 8 weeks
After getting your puppy after six weeks to eight weeks, you’ll give the puppy distemper and parvovirus vaccines. These vaccines are mandatory in the United States. Additionally, you can also provide the pet Bordetella vaccine, which is optional.
2. At 10 to 12 weeks
Provide the puppy with the first dose of the DHPP vaccine. This vaccine will be essential in protecting the pet from diseases like Hepatitis (adenovirus), distemper, parvovirus, and parainfluenza diseases. It’ll also be good to seek the vet’s advice if you can provide the pet with Lyme disease, Bordetella, leptospirosis, and influenza vaccines. These vaccines will depend on the puppy’s lifestyle.
3. At 16 to 18 weeks
At this stage, you should schedule for the second dose of the Distemper, Hepatitis, parvovirus, and parainfluenza (DHPP) vaccine for the puppy. The vet should administer the vaccine alongside the rabies vaccine. It’ll be great if you also provide for Bordetella, leptospirosis, and Lyme diseases during this time optionally.
4. At 12 to 16 months
Administer the third dose of the DHPP and rabies vaccines to the puppy. These vaccines are mandatory for your puppy. You can also add some Leptospirosis, Bordetella, coronavirus, and Lyme disease to the vaccinations schedule.
5. Annual vaccination booster
Your dog needs to have an annual booster one year after receiving the third and final vaccinations when still a puppy. For the rest of its life, you should be providing your pet with the annual vaccines to boost its immunity to diseases.
Diseases the Vaccines Protect Your Puppies Against
The experts advise the dog owners to follow strictly the puppy vaccine schedule (USA) to prevent their puppies from some deadly dog diseases. The vaccines will help to protect the puppies from the following severe and fatal dog diseases:
Canine distemper
It’s a potentially fatal and highly contagious viral disease that causes many causes of higher morbidity and mortality among unvaccinated dogs, especially puppies. The disease affects the central nervous, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems. Its symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, discharge from the nose or eyes, and lethargy. Adequate vaccination of most puppies has helped to eliminate the deadly canine disease in the United States.
Infectious hepatitis (Adenovirus)
The adenoviruses cause two forms of severe dog diseases: canine hepatitis and the infectious kennel cough. These diseases are highly contagious and can affect most body organs. This viral infection affects the spleen, kidney, eyes, lungs, and liver. Coughing, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain, frequent urination, and pale nose, gums, or tongues are the symptoms of the disease.
Parvovirus
It’s one of the newest deadly dog infections with a high mortality rate in puppies. The disease causes rapid division of digestive system cells and the bone marrow tissue. This scenario results in the deterioration of the dog’s immune system and damaging the white blood cells.
Therefore, damaging the immune system makes the puppy vulnerable to secondary infections. Its symptoms include vomiting, bloody diarrhea, foul smell, and dehydration are some of the common symptoms. The parvovirus vaccines will help to control it.
Infectious tracheobronchitis or parainfluenza (Bordetella)
Most dog experts commonly refer to it as the �kennel cough.’ If your puppy contracts the infection, it compromises its developing immune system. Thus, making the puppy vulnerable to most conditions. It makes it hard for the puppy to fight off the disease and other secondary infections.
The infections cause nasal discharge, dry hacking cough, and loss of appetite. Severe symptoms might lead to more deadly pneumonia, which causes more deaths among the puppies. Effective vaccination is key to preventing the puppies from contracting the disease.
Leptospirosis
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that affects the puppies by penetrating the skin, and later through the bloodstream, it circulates to most body parts. The bacteria later reproduce in the liver, kidney, reproductive, and central nervous systems. The symptoms of this infection include; lack of appetite, stiff gait, stiffness in the muscles, diarrhea, and difficulty in movement. Unvaccinated puppies can easily get the disease from an infected dog or puppy.
Canine coronavirus
It’s a canine gastrointestinal system infection that’s highly contagious. The disease affects the gastrointestinal system with varying symptoms from dog to dog. The symptoms might not be severe in an adult dog, as they may only experience diarrhea, vomiting, and a loss of appetite.
However, the puppies suffer the most when they contract the infection. High body temperature, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration are some of the symptoms the puppies will exhibit. The disease can lead to severe enteritis, which is fatal in puppies. Thus, it’ll be good to control the contagious gastrointestinal disease by having effective vaccination.
Conclusion
Puppies are vulnerable to most deadly and severe dog infections due to their developing immune system. It’ll be good to help the puppy have a healthy life by preventing them from contracting these diseases. Vaccination is the essential preventative healthcare measure for your puppy.
Therefore, before getting the puppy into your home, it’ll be necessary to understand the puppy vaccine schedule. Following the vaccination schedule will ensure you’ve got a healthy puppy around. The above information provides puppy vaccination schedules and the severe diseases that the vaccines prevent the puppy.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a VET, I am only a dog lover and enthusiastic writing articles from my personal experience, passion and my own reasearch. If you have any question or not sure what todo, i.e. when you should vaccinate your puppy, you should consult your vet.
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