VACCINATION AND NEUTERING

Every right-thinking owner wants to do the very best for their dog.  This means protecting it against all the diseases where vaccination is available.  In addition to taking the precaution of giving the dog immunity against infectious disease, measures can be taken to prevent unwanted breeding.  It is best that all dogs not required for breeding are neutered, in other words have their organs of regeneration removed.

These two topics, vaccination and neutering, are the top priorities for discussion and action at the first visit to the local vet.  There is no reason why the subject should not be aired even before taking a dog into the home.

The staff of veterinary practices are used to giving advice on the preferred time for the vaccination program to begin, the likely cost of the course of injections and the period that will have to be strictly observed before the dog can be taken out.

At the same time, the exact timing of neutering operations can be explained, and the probable cost of the surgery involved made clear.  The new owner can then see what effect these measures will have on the family budget.  They are not items to be put off until some spare money is available – they are essential considerations.

VACCINATION

It has been known for a long time that certain diseases due to microorganisms cause a reaction in the individual that helps to protect it against further attacks from that particular infectious agent.  The technique of vaccination was developed to provoke this response without the disease.

Vaccines do not give the animal the disease, they do not even give the protection directly.  What they do is allow the animal to generate its own protection, that is, to produce an immunity.  To do this, the puppy must already be sufficiently healthy and mature in the first place.

This is one reason why the task of vaccination has to be entrusted to a vet, who is qualified to judge the condition of each individual animal before going ahead with the treatment.

Another important reason why the puppy has to be beyond a certain age is that it is usually born with a certain degree of immunity, inherited from its mother.  This is known as maternal immunity and during the early weeks it can interfere with the development of a lasting response to vaccination.  Maternal immunity is only temporary, and declines rapidly at about the time of weaning.

An extra complication is that for a certain range of diseases, including canine parvovirus disease, the effectiveness of maternal immunity can vary enormously between individual dogs.  The Rottweiler is said to be especially prone to interference in vaccination programs, caused by immunity inherited from the puppy’s mother.

ORGANIZING THE PROGRAM 

The actual timing of the vaccination program for any puppy will depend on the disease pattern in the neighborhood.  The only person in a position to judge this is the local vet, so it is particularly important for a new owner to make contact with the local practice to see what the situation is.  In any case it is crucial that a new puppy does not go out of the confines of the house and garden until clearance is given by the vet attending it.

Many owners take possession of a new puppy when it is between eight and ten weeks old.  It may be as young as six weeks but this may cause problems later in life.  Waiting until 12 weeks is very much better, but this obviously imposes a strain and extra costs on the breeder, as the puppies grow rapidly, become boisterous and eat a lot.

Whatever the age on acquisition, all new owners must discover what each puppy has had by way of vaccination and, even more important, what is still needed to complete the protection required.

If the vaccination has been completed, there will be a certificate signed by a veterinary surgeon.  If this is not available, it will have to be assumed that there is no protection at all and a course of injections will need to be started from the beginning.

Some vets maintain separate vaccination clinics, isolated from the rest of their premises, to make sure the unprotected puppies and kittens are kept away from infection as much as possible.  A telephone call or a visit to the practice, without the puppy, will enable you to establish the details of what to do and when.

On no account must an unprotected puppy be allowed to mix with other dogs until the course of treatment has been completed.

RABIES

The rabies disease is the worst fear of dog owners in many countries and can kill dogs, with extremely unpleasant symptoms, while presenting a fearful hazard to public health.

In Britain and other rabies-free countries, it is usually not permissible to use rabies vaccines except in quarantine kennels.  However, many countries have to live with rabies and so the vaccine is more readily available in these places.  In many countries that re not free from the disease, protection against rabies is compulsory.

VACCINATION PROGRAM

No vaccine is 100 percent sure if protecting all dogs in all cases, but thankfully failures are rare, and at least no dog suffers ill effects from the vaccine itself.  The possible exception to this is the very occasional individual that is actually allergic to a component of the vaccine.  Even this is now rare, since modern vaccines are produced to extremely high standards of purity.

Fear of an allergic reaction should never prevent an owner from protecting his puppy or dog.

Table 4 shows a generalized vaccination program.  This can, however, vary from area to area.

OTHER MAIN DISEASES 

Canine distemper and hepatitis are both virus diseases caused by microorganisms too small to be seen with a light microscope.  Both are highly infectious and cause a wide range of severe clinical signs.

Treatment is often unrewarding and usually lengthy.  It is very frustrating as well, as the dog may appear to get better, only to relapse just as hopes were rising.

Two forms of leptospirosis commonly affect dogs of all ages.  These are caused by bacteria that may also affect humans.  In man, the diseases are usually a result of rat contamination and not of contact with dogs.

What is known as kennel cough is a complex of diseases, one of which is related to infection with a species of bacteria known as Bordetella.  It is possible to give some protection against this illness by vaccination, and any dog likely to be kenneled is best given a course of vaccination for this disease.

While it is perfectly true that other organisms are also connected with kennel cough, this should not be taken as a reason to neglect vaccination against Bordetella.

BOOSTER INJECTIONS

As dogs, like all other animals, are biological systems and not pieces of machinery, they do not all react or behave in the same way.  Cases do occur (though extremely rarely) when a dog is completely unable to develop an immunity; on the other hand, there are many dogs that respond to vaccination by setting up an immunity that lasts for several years.

It can be a very devastating experience for a family to find that the dog’s immunity has waned to the point that the dog develops one of the diseases against which it was previously protected.

It is quite wrong to assume that older dogs do not get the killer diseases like canine distemper.  This belief arose in the days before widespread vaccination:  dogs that were at all susceptible to distemper would normally catch it while still young, as they would inevitably become exposed to the disease early in life.

The belief that immunity is permanent is equally wrong.  The actual rate of decline of the immunity is impossible to determine without a blood test.  There is not much point in going to the trouble of blood testing a dog is immunity can be easily boosted by a simple injection every year.  So single booster injections are given as a matter of routine, to ensure that the degree of protection does not fall dangerously low.

Again, the local vet is the person to advise on the timing for boosters.  Most practices send out reminders when the injections are due.  This is also a convenient way to give each dog an annual check-up so that its complete health can be carefully monitored regularly,

Almost all boarding kennels insist on seeing an up-to-date vaccination certificate for their guests, so it is necessary to make sure that the dog’s documents are always taken to the surgery and updated at the time of the annual appointment for a booster and check-up.

NEUTERING

Dogs are quite a prolific species but the continual production of puppies at every opportunity would not be good for the bitch, for dogs in general or for those of us who have to live in the same environment.  It is quite wrong to believe that having a litter is of some benefit, in itself, to the bitch.  Any thought of breeding simply because it is ‘good for’ a bitch should be extinguished from the minds of all dog owners.

Those dogs required for breeding are a different matter entirely and are dealt with in another section.  Here the advise is to neuter all those dogs that are not intended as breeding stock, and at the very least the bitches.  The operation of neutering a bitch is called spaying and consists of removing the uterus or womb, and the ovaries.

The result is that the bitch is no longer fertile, cannot produce eggs and is thus unable to conceive and have any puppies afterwards.  In addition, as the ovaries are taken out the means of bringing the bitch into season or oestrus is also removed.

The owner has a multiple benefit, as the bitch no longer attracts all the males in the community, nor runs off to find a mate; neither will she make messy discharges around the house.  In addition, she does not need to be confined during oestrus periods or cause the anxiety of unwanted litters at regular intervals.

The neutering of males is less of a benefit to the dog owner, except that it will tend to cut down wandering and some aggression.  It is obviously an advantage, if an owner has an un-neutered bitch in the household, to have any males neutered if they are not part of the breeding program.

The operation carried out to neuter males is called castration and consists of the surgical removal of the sex organs known as the testes.  It is not a particularly effective means of birth control in a population of dogs, as the number of males that would need to be castrated would have to be very large indeed to be effective.  On the other hand, every single bitch that is spayed helps much more in keeping the population within reasonable bounds.

It is possible to make a male dog infertile by vasectomy, but the dog will still maintain all the other aspects of sexual behavior, and these can be eliminated by castration.

BOOKING THE OPERATION

Both neutering operations have to be carried out under effective anesthesia  and so can be performed only by a vet.  Each veterinarian has his own ideas about the best time to carry out these procedures, so the subject is best brought up when the first vaccinations are carried out.

The operations should never be considered before protection by vaccination is complete.  Nothing else is required except that the animals to be neutered are healthy, and that bitches are neither pregnant or in oestrus.  You should book the appointment in reasonable time, however, as the procedure has to be fitted into the working schedule of the practice.

As with all operative surgery, the vet’s instructions about withholding food for a strict period before the operation, or any other requirements, must be observed diligently.  Most operations of this type allow the animal to go home the next or even the same day.

Just as instructions before operative surgery must be observed, so the importance of guidance afterwards must be recognized and acted upon.

from The Practical Guide to Dog & Puppy Care - Andrew Edney and Roger Mugford