Vaccinations

Our pets are exposed to many potentially fatal diseases on a regular basis. Some of these diseases can be fatal and others can leave your pet with permanent disabilities or chronic illness. Vaccinations are vital in order to provide protection against these life threatening diseases.

Vaccines provide immunity against these diseases but the immunity is not necessarily life-long and so regular boosters are required to ensure continued protection. At vaccination time we also check over the general health and well being of our patients to ensure there are no early indicators of any underlying disease.

This is all important to our patients since they cannot verbally complain! We like to monitor our patients’ weight, general health, dental health, worming and flea regimes and address any concerns that you may have.

Vaccinations in dogs

We highly recommend a vaccination for all dogs to help prevent several diseases, which have the potential to kill or severely debilitate your dog. They are listed below:

  • Canine Distemper Virus
  • Canine Adenovirus (Hepatitis)
  • Parvovirus
  • Para-influenza Virus
  • Leptospirosis (L. canicola and L.icterohaemorrhagiae)

If your pup or dog has not been vaccinated before they require an initial vaccination course. All puppies need to be vaccinated from 8 weeks of age with the second vaccination given at 12 weeks.

After the initial vaccination course your dog will require an annual booster vaccination which is required to maintain your dog’s immunity to the diseases.

When you bring your dog in for a vaccination we give them a health check to make sure it is safe to administer the vaccine, as they may not be effective if your dog is suffering from another disease, or currently on medication.

A new vaccination scheme allows us to inoculate in alternate years, a single dose of Leptospirosis for year 3.

Vaccinations in Cats

We advise all owners to vaccinate their cat against Cat Flu and Feline Enteritis. For Cats which have access to the outside world we would also strongly encourage owners to protect against Feline Leukaemia Virus. Feline Leukaemia can be fatal and kittens may carry this disease.

All kittens need to be vaccinated from 9 weeks of age with the second vaccination given at 12 weeks. This gives protection against Feline Flu, Enteritis and Feline Leukaemia.

After the initial vaccination course your cat will require an annual booster vaccination – required to maintain your cat’s immunity to the diseases. All cat vaccinations are administered using water as the carrier.

After their initial course and a yearly booster the main concern is over vaccination. So, we recommend alternative years inoculations from the second booster.

When you bring your cat in for a vaccination we will give them a health check to make sure it is safe to administer the vaccine, as the vaccine may not be effective if your cat is suffering from another disease, or currently on medication.

Vaccinations in rabbits

We can vaccinate your rabbit against 2 diseases which are very severe and kill a large number of rabbits if they become infected:

Myxomatosis – can spread from wild rabbits to your pet rabbits by fleabites. We would advise this vaccination if you have an outdoor rabbit. You can vaccinate at 6 weeks or over with annual boosters. The vaccine is not 100% effective, but infection is much milder after the vaccination.

Viral Haemorrhagic Disease – this is a devastating disease which occurs in outbreaks in patches of the country. There was an outbreak in Ayr of Viral Haemorrhagic Disease following the introduction of a wild rabbit to a collection on a farm park – in which most of the rabbits died. Please speak to us first to see if you require this vaccination. You can vaccinate from 10-12 weeks of age, followed by annual booster vaccinations. We also offer the latest strain of RVHD vaccine which is a yearly injection that is given 2 weeks after vaccinating your rabbit against Myxi/VHD. A yearly injection is given too of RVHD just as with the Myxi/VHD vaccine.

Myxomatosis – we highly recommend vaccination twice a year due to the high incidence of Myxomatosis in the South East of England in outdoor rabbits.

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