All About Puppy and Kitten Vaccinations

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Puppy and Kitten Vaccinations
Why so many different recommendations?

What's a booster shot? Why are some puppy or kitten vaccinations given one or two times and other pets get a shot four times? How long does a vaccine last in a puppy. Aren't we over-vaccinating?

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of vaccinations in dogs and cats.

Kitten and cat health care questions and answers, articles, videos and images

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Question:
     I've owned and bred dogs for years and I still don't know what goes on with these "puppy shots". Why do some of my pups get two or three sets of "puppy shots" every 3 to 4 weeks and other pups only get a series of one or two shots? Answer: puppy shots... vaccines... immunity
     This can be confusing and many puppy or kitten owners simply do as their veterinarian recommends. Essentially, in any animal or human one cannot simply look at the individual and determine their immune competence to any particular disease. There are "titer tests" to measure quantity of circulating antibodies to disease but the results of these tests are not a significant assessor of overall immune strength. There is much more to having a healthy immune function than circulating antibodies.
     For example, cellular immunity, the inherent self-protective status of each cell, plays a huge roll in immune function and disease prevention, and is very difficult to measure before or after a vaccine is administered or an actual disease is encountered. Humoral immunity present in body fluids such as the lymphatic and intracellular fluid plays a role in overall immune health but, again, there is no accurate way to measure it.

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    If you scroll down to the graphics it will help to visualize why pets receive one or more in a series of "shots" when they are young. Many veterinarians suggest starting a vaccination series in puppies and kittens when they are about 6 weeks of age. The vaccinations often include several different disease antigens in one dose. Because we can't be sure that a single vaccination episode will truly initiate a protective level of immunity, follow-up vaccinations are recommended until the pet is about 16 weeks of age. Almost every individual will have a good response to a vaccine given at 16 weeks of age... this means they will have active immunity.
     The antibodies they obtained with the mother's first milk (colostrum) is referred to as passive immunity because it doesn't last long and passes away by 16 weeks of age. Now the pup or kitty is without protection until some sort of exposure occurs. Let's hope that exposure is from a vaccine and not the real, virulent disease organism!
     If maternal antibodies are present in the puppy or kitten at the time the vaccine is administered the vaccine antigens will be neutralized by those maternal antibodies! The vaccine will not stimulate immunity. We want to vaccinate as soon as the maternally derived passive immunity has disappeared, which could occur any time between birth and 16 weeks of age. Because it is unknown what level of passive immunity (maternal antibodies) is present in puppies and kittens at any given time before 16 weeks of age, we try to vaccinate at reasonable intervals to trigger an active immunity as soon as the individual has no more maternal antibodies. Once maternal antibodies are gone dogs and cats are vulnerable to all sorts of pathogenic organisms such as parvovirus, rhinotracheitis, borrelia and leukemia.

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Colostrum, the first milk obtained from the mother, is rich in immune substances	Hand reared pups often miss out on the passive immunity in colostrum	Maternal immunity is transferred to pups via the first milk produced... called colostrum.	Older dogs and cats may need yearly boosters to protect against specific diseases.

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Vaccinations "prime" the immune systems to be ready with defense mechanisms
View a chart depicting immune status in a puppy that received abundant passive immunity from the mother's colostrum

We do not have vaccines for every known pathogen
View a chart depicting immune status in a puppy that received a modest amount of passive immunity from the mother's colostrum

Passive immunity will not be present in pups older than 16 weeks of age.
View a chart depicting immune status in a puppy that received very little passive immunity from the mother's colostrum

Learn the difference between:

Passive Immunity is obtained from maternal antibodies present in colostrum and provides short term immunity.

Active Immunity is generated when an antigen generates a response in the immune systems. Active immunity is long term (sometimes life-long) and can be acquired by surviving an exposure to a pathogenic organism. The exposure can be from a vaccine or from exposure to the free antigen in the environment.

Immunological memory occurs after exposure to a specific pathogen and describes an enhanced response to future encounters with that same pathogen.

Learn more about immune functions, active vs passive immunity, vaccines, and pathogens here.

Animals, just like humans, can have an adverse reaction to any vaccine. These responses are always a surprise because we have no practical way to predict them... the first time. However, once an individual displays an adverse response to an antigen, and who's to say it was either x, y or z antigen in a multivalent inoculation, there is a high probability for another adverse event if the same antigen is inoculated again. You and your veterinarian should have a thorough discussion about the pros and cons of revaccinating an animal that has had a reaction to a vaccine.

Within seconds of eating a single peanut this pup developed a urticarial reaction	Within a few minutes after being vaccinated this dog developed a urticarial reaction

Doctor's Notes The goal of vaccinating an animal is to stimulate immunity in the animal with a non-disease producing antigen and do this before an actual exposure to the real disease producing antigen is encountered. This way the individual's immune systems, including cellular immunity and circulating antibodies, are already on guard to eliminate invaders before they get a chance to multiply and harm the individual.

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Ask A Veterinarian A Question online now! Ask an online veterinarian a question via email and get a prompt reply. Check out the JustAnswer function.	Click on the topic of interest below to learn What, Why, Where and How...	Related topics: vaccines in general newborn pups Lyme Disease

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