Vaccinations: Protecting Your Pet’s Health

Getting your pet vaccinated is critical to any preventive wellness plan. When recommending the right vaccines for your cat or dog, we consider many factors including lifestyle, environment, and risk for certain diseases.

In general, we believe the following are essential to protecting most pets:  

  • Rabies (both cats and dogs)
  • Canine distemper
  • Canine hepatitis
  • Canine leptospirosis
  • Canine parvovirus infection
  • Feline calicivirus infection
  • Feline distemper
  • Feline leukemia
  • Feline viral rhinotracheitis

The staff at Guthrie Pet Hospital will also make recommendations regarding the best vaccination schedule for your pet. While some vaccines are needed annually, others may be required every 2 or 3 years, and the effectiveness of some may last less than 1 year. Whatever the case, it’s important to recognize that more than one vaccination program may be valuable, and our team will suggest a schedule that’s customized to the needs of your pet.

Vaccines: What Are the Risks?

Vaccines are vital to defending the health of every pet. However, as with all medical treatments, there is some risk involved. At Guthrie Pet Hospital, we minimize the occurrence of adverse affects by carefully selecting the appropriate vaccines and choosing the safest injection sites on your pet.

If your cat or dog does experience a negative reaction, they may exhibit some or all of the following symptoms:
 

  • Diarrhea
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Fever
  • Loss of appetite
  • Pain, swelling, or redness around the injection site
  • Seizures
  • Sluggishness
  • Vomiting

We recommend scheduling your pet’s appointment so you can monitor him or her for side effects following the administration of any vaccines.