Pet Vaccines:

Another important component of wellness care is vaccinations. These simple medications protect our companion animals from a wide variety of dangerous illnesses and diseases, some of which can be life-threatening. Yet just because there is a vaccine available, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s something every pet needs. The goal is to keep your pet protected while also minimizing risk. We’ll develop a customized vaccination plan based on your pet’s specific needs.

Why Do Puppies and Kittens Need A Series Of Shots And How Many Do They Need?

When a baby kitten or puppy is born, its immune system is not yet mature; the baby is wide open for infection. Fortunately, nature has a system of protection. The mother produces a certain kind of milk in the first few days after giving birth. This milk is called colostrum and is rich in all the antibodies that the mother has to offer. As the babies drink this milk, they will be taking in their mother’s immunity. After the first couple of days, regular milk is produced and the baby’s intestines undergo what is called closure, which means they are no longer able to take externally produced antibodies into their systems. These first two days are critical to determining what kind of immunity the baby will receive until its own system can take over.

How long this maternal antibody lasts in a given puppy or kitten is totally individual. It can depend on the birth order of the babies, how well they nursed, and a number of other factors. Maternal antibodies against different diseases wear off after different times. We know that by 14-20 weeks of age, maternal antibodies are gone and the baby must be able to continue on its own immune system.

While maternal immunity is in the puppy’s system, any vaccines given will be inactivated. Vaccines will not be able to “take” until maternal antibodies has sufficiently dropped. Puppies and kittens receive a series of vaccines ending at a time when we know the baby’s own immune system should be able to respond. We could simply wait until the baby is old enough to definitely respond, as we do with the rabies vaccination, but this could leave a large window of vulnerability if the maternal antibody wanes early.

We recommend to begin the puppy and kitten vaccine series at six weeks of age.

To give babies the best chance of responding to vaccination, we vaccinate intermittently every three weeks during this period, in the hope of gaining some early protection.
When a vaccine against a specific disease is started for the first time, even in an adult animal, it is best to give at least two vaccinations. This is because the second vaccination will produce a much greater (logarithmically greater) response if it is following a vaccine given 2-4 weeks prior.