3 Year Rabies Vaccination

To be elligible for a 3 Year Rabies Vaccination, your dog or cat must have proof of a rabies vaccination given at 3 to 4 months of age and again 12 months later.  The year after this (ie, pet must be two years old or older), your pet may begin to receive an FDA-approved 3 Year Rabies Vaccination every 3 years.

We use Continuum 3 Year DAP vaccine, the only vaccine approved by the FDA for 3 year vaccination intervals in dogs.  To be elligible, your dog must be a healthy adult dog that was vaccinated appropriately for Distemper-Adenovirus-Parvovirus as a puppy and again one year later.  The year after this (when the dog is 2 years old or greater), your dog may begin to receive 3 year DAP vaccines.  Please note that this vaccine does not protect against the following infectious diseases in dogs:  Bordatella (Kennel Cough), Lyme Disease and Leptospirosis.  All vaccinations for these diseases are once yearly vaccines.

1 Year Leptospirosis Vaccination

Leptospirosis vaccination is recommended for all dogs that run free in woods or fields or that swim and wade in swamps, ponds or creeks.  Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that is transmitted through the urine of infected wild animals and it can cause kidney failure and death in dogs.  Animals such as whitetailed deer, raccoons and opossums as well as rats and mice are carriers of Leptospirosis.  Therefore, even if your dog does not run loose in the woods or swim or wade in low-lying areas, it could become infected if wildlife are plentiful where your dog exercises.

Some dogs are allergic to the Lepto vaccine and cannot receive it.  This is more common in certain breeds of dog. 

We use Fort Dodge's Leptospirosis vaccine which includes protection against four strains of this deadly bacteria.  Most vaccines only protect against two strains of the bacteria.  We recommend this vaccine be given once yearly to all dogs that have an at-risk profile

Bordatella, also known as Kennel Cough, is a contagious form of tracheo-bronchitis.  It causes a dry, hacking cough.  People often describe it as though their dog were trying to cough something up.  The germs that cause Bordatella are airborne and can be concentrated in environments where large numbers of dogs are housed or held together.  It is highly contagious.

Therefore, we advise Bordatella vaccination for dogs that go places where lots of other dogs are housed or held:  grooming facilities, boarding kennels, dog trainers, obedience classes, field trials and dog shows. 

We also advise that your dog receive a yearly Bordatella vaccination if it plays with dogs that go to such places or if your neighbors' dogs go to such places. 

1 Year Lyme Disease Vaccination

Lyme Disease is seen only sporadically in this part of the Southeast.  We only recommend Lyme Disease Vaccine for dogs that have very persistent tick problems or dogs that travel to the Northeast where Lyme Disease is endemic. 

We test dogs for Lyme disease and Erhlichia (another tick-transmitted disease) along with their regularly scheduled heartworm test.  Since we began doing these screening tests in the Spring of 2005, we have only had one dog test positive for Lyme disease.

For best results in controlling all tick transmitted illnesses (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Erhlichia, Lyme, Tick Paralysis and Tick Anemia), we recommend the use of a tick control product such as Frontline Spray or Frontline Topspot.  These products area easy to apply and very safe and effective.

FVRCP stands for Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus and Panleukopenia.  All of these disesases may cause upper respiratory infections, conjunctivitis, and ulcers in the mouth or on the tongue.  Panleukopenia, which is a parvovirus in cats, can also cause gastro-intestinal disease, low white blood cell counts and death. 

For all cats that go outside, as well as for indoor cats if you have other cats that come in from outside, we recommend this vaccine yearly.  Feline Leukemia is the number one contagious disease killer of cats.  It can cause a variety of symptoms, from cancer to anemia to infections that won't go away even with proper treatment. Once infected cats become symptomatic, this deadly virus responds poorly to treatment.

This vaccine is available alone or in combination with the FVRCP vaccine.  Because your healthy-looking cat could already be carrying this deadly virus, we recommend blood testing for Feline Leukemia prior to vaccination against it. 

Until this vaccine has been tested and FDA-approved as safe and effective for 3 years, we recommend that all at-risk cats be vaccinated once yearly against Feline Leukemia