VACCINES ARE NECESSARY

When we started working 20 years ago, hunters usually refused rabies injection because they thought it annulled their dog’s sense of smell. It was a relatively common opinion, but it was completely false.

Spain has been an officially recognized free of rabies country for nearly 60 years thanks to vaccination. Vaccines do work.

Unfortunately there are people that still believe vaccines are a “swindle” supported by labs, doctors and Vets, just for making money. At least in case of Vets, we can assure this is not true, since, for example, the average cost of treating a puppy against parvovirus (with no guarantee of survival!) is about 10 times more expensive than parvo vaccine.

Treating is more expensive than preventing. Always.

So, what about the side effects of vaccines? Of course, they exist. One of the most common ones is the appearing of a lump at the inoculation point, which normally disappears by itself in a few days.

The number of serious adverse reactions is minimum, practically insignificant.

The most important requirement for having a successful inoculation is the animal must be healthy and free of parasites. For this reason it’s very important to explore the animal (which includes auscultation, temperature, lymph glands check, etc), previous to the inoculation. And this exploration must be performed by a Vet. Nobody else can do it. Of course, in some cases exploration is not possible because the animal doesn’t co-operate.

What happens with those vaccines that are supposed to have been injected by a “breeder”? You can see them at the puppy’s vaccination book but no Vet signed and stamped them. What Vets normally do is ignore them, because you can never be sure if they are real or not (officially speaking, they don’t exist, and, besides, they are illegal). Let’s suppose they are not real: in this case, the puppy is totally vulnerable if the Vet doesn’t inject it. In the opposite case, if the vaccines have been injected, some extra injections provided by the Vet won’t harm the puppy, but will reinforce its immunity. So, as everyone can see, the logical conclusion if we see a puppy whose vaccines have been “done by a breeder”, is to ignore them and start from zero the vaccination plan.

Vets are obliged by EU regulations to identify ourselves in every vaccine we inject with our name and Vet College member number, and, in case of rabies injection, our address and phone number, in case there is any problem at the border when travelling abroad with the pet.

Please, have your pet’s vaccination book or Passport checked just to make sure its vaccinations are updated and correctly signed.

Liliana Aldeguer Cerdán col 793

English translation by Sergio Reina Esteban col 747

Clinica Veterinaria

Gran Alacant Exotics

Tel: 966 698 569