News and Press

2009-03-30
CANINE VACCINE GUIDELINES

IS YOUR PET BEING OVER VACCINATED?!

Two of the many reasons our clients use Royal Palm Veterinary Hospital is that our doctors stay on the cutting edge of veterinary medicine and that they donot believe in over vaccinating our pets.

Over the years many pet owners and veterinarians have become concerned about the potentially harmful practice of annual re-vaccination due to the increase of immune disease, cancer and chronic diseases.

The canine vaccine guidelines released in 2003 were reviewed and re-evaluated in 2005 due to well documented findings in duration of immunity, extended revaccination intervals and developments in shelter medicine.

In the published Guidelines, the vaccines are defined as core vaccines, noncore vaccines and vaccines “not recommended”.

CORE vaccines are those that every dog and cat should receive. These vaccines are justified on the basis the vaccines protect against prevalent, life threatening or zoonotic (transmissible to humans) diseases. For dogs, core vaccines include Rabies, Canine Distemper Virus, Parvovirus, and Adenovirus-2. The core vaccines for cats are Rabies, Feline Panleukopenia Virus, Herpesvirus-1, and Calicivirus.

NONCOREvaccines are recommended if a particular pet is determined to have a significant risk of exposure to the disease or virus. Noncore vaccines for dogs include Lyme, Leptospirosis and Bordetella.  For cats, Feline Leukemia.

NOT RECOMMENDED implies that there is little or no indication for using the vaccine. The reasons for this category can be due to either the disease prevented by the vaccine has minor significance, the vaccine is not regarded as efficacious, or the occurrence of adverse events associated with the administration of the vaccine outweighs the risk of infection. Canine Coronavirus is considered to be a “not recommended” vaccine.

Royal Palm Veterinary Hospital is proud to announce that our doctors are in concurrence with AAHA and are following the

2006 AAHA CANINE GUIDELINES

If you wish to view the Guidelines in its entirety

CLICK HERE