[hollysmommy]

my baby holly is now four months old she had her first 5 way vaccine we did it at home, now my only question is what vaccines are next? i dont know which ones to buy. thanks

 

[Jax08]

You'll need Rabies, which has to be administered by a vet.

It looks like you missed the first two of the puppy series if she's only had 1 shot. Has she been seen by a vet at all?

Read this guideline
http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/VaccineGuidelines06Revised.pdf

 

[hollysmommy]

yes shes been seen by a vet. she is 30 pounds and is very healthy. she has had the 5 way canine spectra.

 

[Jax's Mom]

yes shes been seen by a vet. she is 30 pounds and is very healthy. she has had the 5 way canine spectra.

She may be a healthy weight but the point of vaccines isn't to make her a healthy weight, it's to establish immunity from certain diseases. You really should know what you're doing if you're administering your own because to work, they need to follow a certain schedule and be "boosted" after a set period.
Otherwise, you're just wasting your money on worthless injections and complicating things if you take her to a vet that knows what they're doing.

 

[hollysmommy]

thats what the vet told us to do, and i didnt say she was a healthy weight i said she weighs 30 pounds and she is healthy. i know what vaccines are for, but honestly ive never given any of my dogs vaccines and their are 10 years old and have never been sick so i might not even give her vaccines anymore.

 

[Rerun]

She may be a healthy weight but the point of vaccines isn't to make her a healthy weight, it's to establish immunity from certain diseases. You really should know what you're doing if you're administering your own because to work, they need to follow a certain schedule and be "boosted" after a set period.
Otherwise, you're just wasting your money on worthless injections and complicating things if you take her to a vet that knows what they're doing.

The schedule isn't that complicated or difficult. Most common recommendations from the average vet are to booster puppy shots at a 3 - 4 week interval and give a series of 3 sets. Rabies by 6 months old in most states, which has to be done by a licensed vet.

There are of course alternate minimum vaccination recommendations by some, and still others who give all the usual shots but space them apart.

Many people do at home shots, not a thing wrong with it if you're comforable giving vaccinations. as long as the dog sees the vet should injury or illness arise, it's not really an issue.

Sometimes at home shots can be an issue for training, boarding, etc as some facilities won't accept the dog without veterinary paperwork. You can keep the shot records yourself and packaging or lot numbers as many recommend but some still won't accept that as proof.

 

[Jax's Mom]

A lot of people choose to forego annual vaccinations because they believe they do more harm than good and do titer test to check immunity levels instead. But those people have researched the subject.
It does sound like you've missed some vaccines (they're region specific usually so depends where you're from) so you might want to ask your vet where the vaccines should be at this point if you choose to continue administering your own. I wish we could buy our own here in Canada because it would have saved so much money

 

[Rerun]

Generally speaking with a 5 mo old, if the dog didn't receive them early on or if the dog is (for example) adopted at 5 mo old with unknown vaccine history, you simply do the same thing you do with an 8 wk old - 3 series.

 

[Jax08]

thats what the vet told us to do, and i didnt say she was a healthy weight i said she weighs 30 pounds and she is healthy. i know what vaccines are for, but honestly ive never given any of my dogs vaccines and their are 10 years old and have never been sick so i might not even give her vaccines anymore.

So the vet told you to give one 5-way?

Ok...my understanding behind the reasoning of the series of 3 shots is that they don't know when the mother's immunity wears off so they give at 8, 12 and 16 weeks.

My advice is to call your vet and ask if she needs the other 2 shots in the series. Puppies die from these diseases. Over vaccinating isn't good, but neither is under vaccinating.

The AAHA guidelines link I gave you will explain the shots but you since you are missing the first 2 shots you really should call your vet.

She will need a rabies shot soon anyways so you need to call regardless.

 

[LisaT]

Current research by Schultz states that most dogs, if successfully vaccinated at the age of 16 weeks or later, will be protected by that one vaccine for life. This was posted on this site sometime - believe last year.