Vaccines in Dogs and Cats

It’s always sad when we see pets come in with diseases that are easily prevented by proper wellness programs.   Veterinary medical advances in recent years have made it possible for your beloved dogs and cats to live much longer and healthier lives. Vaccines in dogs and cats have contributed in large part for the increases we’ve seen in life expectancy in our pets in recent years.

We always recommend regular checkups for every dog and cat patient that comes to our hospital. In addition to their physical exams and various blood tests (depending on their age, etc.), there are various vaccinations that are given, depending on which species we’re seeing.

To better help you understand your pet’s vaccination needs, let us explain briefly each disease for which we vaccinate:

– a combination vaccination for dogs which includes protection against:
Distemper– a severe, usually fatal disease of dogs caused by an air-borne virus. It affects the digestive, respiratory and nervous systems, causing vomiting, cough, fever, and nervous signs.
Adenovirus– actually two air-borne viruses. One causes liver disease (hepatitis) that is usually fatal; the other causes sever respiratory infection.
Parainfluenza– a respiratory virus. This is one of several causes of tracheobronchitis (kennel cough) in dogs.

Parvo– a highly fatal viral disease in dogs that causes severe digestive damage, vomiting, diarrhea, shock, and death. Mortality rate varies from year to year, but often reaches 75%.   The virus presists in soil for many months.

Bordetella-another vaccine to protect against a common, highly contagious respiratory disease that causes severe coughing (i.e. another germ that causes kennel cough).

Rabies– a viral-caused central nervous disease. Rabies is transmittable to domestic animals and also to humans. Yearly vaccination is required in cats and dogs in East Texas.


FDRCP– a combination vaccination for cats which includes protection against:
Feline Distemper– actually called panleukopenia. This air-borne virus causes severe gastrointestinal lesions and suppression of immune centers in the bone marrow, with a high mortality rate.
Rhinotracheitis, Calcivirus, and Chlamydia– These are air-borne viruses that produce severe, sometimes fatal, upper respiratory diseases that are highly contagious to other cats.

Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV)- one of the major viral killers of cats in the United States, causing various cancers, leukemias, and bone marrow diseases.

We use the highest quality vaccines available to ensure proper immunity in your pet. Remember that pets need to have their yearly checkup to maintain this immunity.  If you have questions or need an appointment, call us at the Rannals Small Animal Hospital in Whitehouse, Tx at 903-839-7235.

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