Pet Vaccinations

Written by: Alison Laurie, Senior Consultant, Crown Vets Inverness

Make sure you are a responsible pet owner and do help protect your pets and keep them safe from disease by keeping them up to date with their annual "Booster" vaccinations.

If the number of pets in the UK protected by advised annual " Booster" vaccinations drops due to owners not keeping their pets' vaccinations up-to-date, then in time all of our pet animal companions could be at real risk from an UK outbreak of infectious diseases, some of which can be transmitted to humans.

When to vaccinate

When puppies and kittens are born they are usually protected from infections from disease by the natural protecting antibodies from their own mother’s milk, providing that she herself has also been regularly vaccinated. However, this protection only lasts for a very few weeks, and so our pets do need protecting primary vaccinations from a very early age and then they also need annual "Booster" vaccinations to keep their immunity to infectious diseases up to date.

Puppies are vaccinated against: Distemper, Hepatits (Adenovirus 1 & 2), Parvovirus, Leptospirosis and Kennel Cough infection.

Kittens are vaccinated against the Feline Respiratory Diseases: “Cat Flu": Calici virus and Herpes virus infections; Panleukopaenia: Feline Enteritis and Feline Leukemia virus.

Puppies typically start their vaccinations at eight weeks of age and Kittens at nine weeks of age with an initial course of primary vaccine injections. Then, for adequate on-going protection your young pet should then be given an annual booster vaccine 12 months after their first primary vaccinations, and then regularly annually thereafter to ensure adequate, reliable, lifelong protection.

Please note that Rabbits also need regular annual vaccinations too against Myxomatosis and Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease "RHD".

Also please take note that our older pets also still need protecting against disease, as their own immunity can actually decline with old age and a compromised immune system.

If your pets vaccines have lapsed, you can still bring their vaccine protection against the common diseases up-to -date with a repeat primary course of protecting vaccinations.

Please do contact us for good professional advice on the required vaccinations for your individual pet and on bringing your pet’s vaccinations up-to date if they have lapsed.