Vaccinations/Parvo/other shots

Here is some more great information about the parvovirus

This information was adapted from: Dr. Segurson, DVM

Parvovirus

Parvovirus is a highly contagious virus which causes vomiting and diarrhea, and often leads to death in susceptible dogs. Parvovirus is a very durable virus, and can remain in the environment for many months (ref). Parvovirus is primarily spread to other dogs by the fecal-oral route, however it can be spread on hands, feet, clothing, tools, rodents and flies or people traveling from kennel to kennel. Dogs may carry the virus on their fur and feet even if they themselves do not get ill. The virus enters the dog through the nose or mouth and has an incubation period of 3 days to 2 weeks (usually 5-7 days). Because of the incubation period (up to two weeks), it is ideal to quarantine high risk dogs.

 Vaccination will greatly reduce the risk of dogs becoming ill with parvovirus, however no vaccine will protect 100% of animals. In puppies, maternal antibodies interfere with the ability of the vaccine to provide a long-term effect. If the bitch was vaccinated for parvovirus in the past, she will give antibodies to her puppies, via her milk (colostrum). Maternal antibodies gradually wear off, and become ineffective in most puppies between four and sixteen weeks.

 In young puppies, maternal antibodies protect them against disease; however vaccinations will NOT WORK while maternal antibodies are present. The picture below was adapted from Greene’s Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat.

The picture demonstrates how maternal antibodies (‘mean antibody titer’) decrease over time, and how vaccinating while maternal antibodies are higher than the ‘minimum titer to block vaccine’ will not protect  puppies. Because of this risk, we recommend vaccinating shelter puppies every two weeks until they are 18 weeks old, in an effort to make the ‘window of susceptibility’ as small as possible and to increase the likelihood that our vaccine protocol will protect our shelter puppies from parvovirus. Vaccinating more often that every two weeks is not effective. Once maternal antibodies are no longer a factor, the vaccine protects the puppy against parvoviral infection within 2 to 7 days; one vaccine will protect the puppy against disease in this situation. (No “booster” per se is needed with this vaccine.) This may occur at any time from the first vaccine to the last, depending on the amount of maternal antibody the puppy received.  Puppies with parvovirus die within a few weeks of contacting the virus;