Recommendations for dog vaccinations, cat vaccinations, flea control, worming and heartworm prevention
The diseases we commonly vaccinate against include distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus together with parainfluenza and bordetella, which form part of the “kennel cough” complex. Of these disease the ones we still commonly encounter in Cranbourne are parvovirus and “kennel cough”. Parvovirus causes a severe and often fatal haemorrhagic (bloody) diarrhea and vomiting particularly in young dogs. “Kennel cough” causes a severe, distressing and persistent cough, similar to whooping cough in children. Although traditionally this is thought of as a disease caught in boarding kennels , we often see it in dogs that have not been in kennels and have presumably caught it from other in contact dogs.
Our current vaccination program for puppies is:
6-8 weeks old: first C3 (distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus) vaccine
10-12weeks old: first C5 vaccination (as above plus bordetella and parainfluenza)
14-16 weeks old: second C5 vaccination.
For adult dogs we recommend annual revaccination with a C5 vaccine – the vaccine we use (Protech C3) is not licensed for administration every 3 years.
Cats are routinely vaccinated against feline panleukopenia virus, which is similar to canine parvovirus, but fortunately quite rare these days. We also vaccinate against some of the strains of cat flu – calicivirus and herpes virus. We do not vaccinate against feline chylamidia because we have frequently seen reactions to the vaccine. We offer vaccination against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and particularly recommend it for cats at risk of being attacked by other cats (since it is spread by bite wounds). Therefore cats that are entirely indoor will be at minimal risk, whereas cats that are entirely outdoor (particularly if undesexed males) will be at very high risk.
Our current vaccination program for kittens is:
6-8 weeks old: first F3 vaccine (panleukopenia, calicivirus and herpes virus)
10-12 weeks old: second F3 vaccine
14-16 weeks old: third F3 vaccine
Thereafter we recommend annual revaccination with F3 vaccine.
If vaccination against FIV is required this is given as a course of 3 injections separated by 2 weeks apart. If the cat is less than 6 months old, no blood test is required, but if greater than 6 months old, a simple blood test is required to ensure the cat does not already have FIV.
Heartworm is a parasite that is spread from dog to dog (and occasionally from dog to cat) by mosquito bites. A mosquito bites an infected dog and takes up blood with heartworm larvae. These larvae develop further inside the mosquito and are injected back into another dog if the mosquito bites several days later. The time it takes for the heartworm to develop inside the mosquito is dependent on the type of mosquito involved and the outside temperature. Once the larvae is injected into the new host it migrates around the body and ultimately ends up in the right chambers of the heart and the arteries going to the lungs, which can lead to heart failure and damage to the lungs. Once the adult heartworm have developed they require highly toxic arsenic type drugs to destroy them and can create ongoing heart and lung problems.
Despite the abundance of mosquitoes in the Cranbourne area, we only rarely encounter heartworm in practice and most of the cases we do see have come from northern parts of Australia, where it is much more of a widespread problem. Our current recommendations are to use heartworm prevention if your dog will be travelling outside of the Cranbourne area (especially if holidaying interstate). If remaining within the Cranbourne area your dog is unlikely to get heartworm at the current time (but note that this situation could change) but if you want to be 100% sure, then heartworm prevention can be given. Fortunately this is fairly easy these days as many of the monthly topical flea control preparations also cover against heartworm e.g. Advocate, Revolution. The alternative heartworm preventatives include monthly chewable tablets such as Interceptor and Heartgard and the annual Prohart injection.
There are a number of flea control products currently available, most of which are given on a monthly basis. Some of these products control other parasites such as worms and heartworm. The most popular products for flea control alone are Advantage and Frontline. Frontline can also be used for tick control when used on a fortnightly basis, although it is still necessary to manually search for ticks on a daily basis.
Revolution and Advocate are effective against fleas, heartworm, sarcoptic (fox) mange and ear mites. Revolution also covers against roundworms in cat while Advocate covers against them in dogs too. Neither cover against tapeworm and it is necessary to use a separate, inexpensive tapeworm tablet with them to achieve complete worm coverage.
These flea control products kill adult fleas and various stages in the flea life cycle. Adult fleas live on dogs and cats and lay their eggs on the coat. These eggs fall off into the environment and hatch out into larvae. The larvae undergo a number of stages before developing into pupae, which ultimately generate new adult fleas. The speed of this process is temperature dependent, which is why we tend to see more flea problems in the summer. In the past flea control was generally only used when fleas started to be noticed on our pets. The problem with this approach is that generally by the time we realize there is a problem there are already large numbers of fleas in the environment, which are much more difficult to control. We therefore tend to recommend year round flea control to prevent these flea plagues from developing.
Dogs and cats are affected by several different types of worm. These may be described as roundworms or tapeworms. Puppies and kittens acquire roundworms from their mother during pregnancy or in the milk and need to be wormed multiple times as further “crops” of worms develop inside them particularly in the first few months of life. We usually recommend worming every 2 weeks to 12 weeks of age and then again at 16 weeks and then onto the adult schedule of every 3 months. Worms tend to be less of a problem in adult dogs although we occasionally see very sick adult dogs with whipworm infestations. Puppies and kittens may be wormed with syrup or tablets such as Milbemax. Adult animals are usually wormed with Milbemax, although if they are currently on monthly Advocate drops, we usually recommend a six monthly tapeworm tablet.