At PetCare Vets we offer three different vaccination programs for puppies, but a puppy should not be vaccinated unless it is absolutely healthy. If you have any doubts at all about your new puppy you should let us see him at once. If you are happy, your puppy is active, playing, eating and does not have any diarrhoea or vomiting, then let him settle in at home for 24-48 hours and observe him.

We are happy to perform initial health check of new puppies completely free of charge. This also gives us an excellent opportunity to take some time to discuss and explain the complexities of puppy vaccination programs of which ours are described below, and may sound a little daunting. It is also an ideal time for worm treatments, flea prevention, insurance etc to be thought about & discussed.

If you would like to take advantage of our free health check scheme and for one of our qualified vets to check your new puppy, then please call us on the following numbers for an appointment. If you simply have a matter you are not sure about, please do not hesitate to contact us. We hope to provide a friendly personal service at an affordable price whilst maintaining a high standard of surgical and medical veterinary care.

Some Information About Puppy Vaccinations We Think You Should Know About!

In this practice we do not believe that there is a vaccination course that can be completed before the puppy reaches 12 weeks of age. We do not believe that a vaccine course exists that is better that 80% effective when the final injection is given before the puppy is 12 weeks. We think the chances of any vaccine failing to give protection when given to the puppy before 12 weeks of age is too high being 20% or more – this means one puppy in 5 will not be protected. Further details and explanations for this can be found at our website at www.petcarepractice.com/puppykittenvaccinations.html.

It is our belief that early finish vaccination courses (that is, those that end before 12 weeks of age - usually at 10 weeks), reflect competition between vaccine manufacturers rather than protection of puppies’ health. All three of our courses involve two injections of vaccine with a minimum gap between them of 3 weeks, the final injection being given no earlier than 12 weeks of age, and the first injection no younger than 6 weeks old. There is not a vaccine that exists that can be guaranteed to be 100% effective in every animal. Whilst all our programs offer full protection, each offers improved and better protection, should the puppy be challenged by active disease particularly at an early age. We have named our three vaccine programs as All our programs provide protection against the main life-threatening diseases. The seven diseases protected against are:

• Distemper
• Parvovirus
• Canine Infectious hepatitis
• Two lesser components of kennel cough
• Leptospirosis (causing kidney disease)
• Leptospirosis (causing liver disease - hepatitis)