Why should I vaccinate my pet?

We highly recommend annual health checks and vaccinations for all pets.

Vaccinations are an important part of your pets’ preventative health care. They prepare the immune system to fight off disease-causing organisms. Not every animal needs to be vaccinated against every disease, we will discuss with you a programme that is individually tailored to your pet’s needs. Recent veterinary research advances have enabled us to reduce the number of vaccinations given to an animal over its lifetime, so we try not to give your pet anything they don’t need. Remember that a year in the lives of our pets is the equivalent of several more years in ours. This mean that changes can happen apparently quickly, so an annual check up is really important as many issues can be diagnosed early, giving your pet a real advantage.

DOGS are usually vaccinated against:

  • Canine Distemper, Canine Hepatitis and Canine Parvovirus. Parvo causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea, which can result in severe illness and often death. Due to successful widespread vaccination of our dogs in New Zealand, we rarely see Distemper or Hepatitis, but they do still exist in the environment.

  • Canine Cough (previously called Kennel Cough). This infection is treatable but is highly infectious; as recently demonstrated in the Canterbury region. Not only can it spread very quickly, dogs can feel really miserable while infected.

WATCH: What happens when your dog comes in for a health check? Follow Sarge as he visits our clinic, see what happens when a dog comes in for a health check.

CATS are normally vaccinated against:

  • “Cat flu” and panleukopaenia. “Cat flu” is caused by a few different infectious organisms which are represented in the vaccine. It is highly contagious and commonly seen in the general cat population. Panleukopaenia fortunately is usually quite rare (again due to successful vaccination), but this potentially fatal viral disease has re-emerged in the local cat population.

  • Feline Immuno-deficiency Virus (also known as FIV). Any cat spending time outdoors should receive a FIV vaccine. FIV positive cats carrying the virus can infect healthy cats with its body fluids, most commonly this occurs when biting during a cat fight. FIV causes Feline Aids, a potentially fatal consequence that interferes with the cat’s immune system.

WATCH: What happens when your cat comes in for a health check? Follow Tina the kitten as she visits our clinic, see what happens when a cat comes in for a health check.

Cats require respectful and appropriate gentleness when being handled. Our Rangiora Branch is a ISFM Gold Cat Friendly clinic, which means cat friendly principles are always adhered to during the care and restraint of cats.

RABBITS are vaccinated against:

  • Calicivirus. This virus was first introduced into New Zealand to control the wild rabbit population. Unfortunately, the virus can infect all rabbits including our pets. It is also highly contagious and deadly. A Korean version (K5) is also now found in NZ; we have a vaccination available that provides protection against this strain.

We understand there are differing views on vaccination within the community. If you have any concerns or questions with respect to your pet, please do not hesitate to contact us with these.