The one non-core vaccine is feline leukemia. I think it is crucially important to vaccinate for it, even though it's not considered non-core. The reason I would not consider it non-core is that not every cat needs it. It depends on their lifestyle and the environment they're in. If you've got a cat that goes outside, they definitely should be getting the feline leukemia vaccine. If they never go outside and never come into contact with another cat that goes outside, they don't need the leukemia vaccine. But for those cats that go out, even if they're in and out only going out for short periods of time, they should definitely get the feline leukemia vaccine because it is a life-threatening disease that's primarily spread through saliva and blood exchanged in cat fights or cats that groom one another. In one way, you can consider it non-core because not every cat needs it, but for those cats that do go outside, they 100% should be getting it.

Rabies is required by law for dogs and cats alike, but rabies is a core vaccine along with distemper in cats. Let me clarify distemper in cats because it is quite a misunderstanding. Distemper in cats and distemper in dogs are not the same disease. They are two separate diseases, so it's a little bit confusing. I didn't name them, so don't blame me. They are two different diseases. When we give a distemper vaccine to a cat or kitten, we're not only vaccinating against distemper. We're actually vaccinating against several different diseases in that one vaccine. Another way of putting it is called FVRCP. Sometimes you'll see that on your kitten's or cat's medical record. It stands for feline viral rhinotracheitis, chlamydia, and Calicivirus, so it's a myriad of different diseases that we're vaccine for, which include primarily upper respiratory infections that we see in cats and kittens.

It's very simple. Just keep coming back. Come back at the first opportunity, come to see us, and we'll make sure that we get the vaccines on track. I don't want you to lose sleep if you happen to miss getting the vaccine, but by all means, the best thing that you can do for your puppy is to make sure they're vaccinated because there's nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a puppy that dies from like parvovirus that could have been prevented. The puppy could have been saved. It could have been immunized long before, and you have a heartbroken client who's got this puppy that dies in their arms because they didn't take the time to get them vaccinated. It just rips our hearts out. So again, take care of your puppies, and come to see us at Carolina Value Pet Care. Check our schedule, and we hope to see you soon.

Absolutely. Rabies is required by law. It doesn't matter if they're inside or outside. That's a given. They have to get the rabies vaccine. There's also distemper parvo. Even though your dog never goes outside, you can potentially bring in these viruses. How do you do that? Primarily through like the soles of your shoes. You can pick up the organisms in the environment in the backyard. You go to a neighbor's house, to a park, you go anywhere. Especially if you go to like a dog park, you can easily pick up some of these viruses and bring them back to your dog, even though your dog never goes outside.

Unfortunately, there's always a potential for an adverse reaction with any vaccine. This is certainly true for people. It can be true of a shingles vaccine, a flu vaccine, and a COVID vaccine for people. There is a potential risk of having an adverse reaction. Generally speaking, we see three types of adverse reactions to vaccines, not just in puppies. This is with the dogs and cats. We very rarely see adverse reactions in cats. The most common one, even though it's not very common at all, but it is the most common of the three, is injection site discomfort, much like what a lot of people experience when they get a vaccine. Generally, we'll suggest that they take some children's aspirin, depending on the weight of the dog, to help relieve some of the discomfort going on. Much less commonly, we will see dogs that might get vomiting or diarrhea from the vaccines.

Although, sometimes, with puppies, that might be from car sickness or the stress of this strange new environment that they're in and they've never been exposed to before. Third, and certainly the least common, we give lots of vaccines every year, and we may only see two or three per year of this type of reaction where dogs actually may get a true, what we call anaphylactic reaction, where they get some swelling in the face or little bumps all over their trunk or their sides. That's an extreme case, and we do have the medications on hand to be able to treat those dogs.

This is where it gets a little bit tricky for some pet owners and puppy owners in particular. Sometimes people come in and say, gosh, I've already got three vaccines. How many more do you get? What matters is the age at which we see your puppy. Hopefully, this will help explain why we give vaccines the way we do. When a puppy is born, the first milk they get from its mama dog is called colostrum. The colostrum is filled with all these antibodies to protect them against different diseases to some degree. We know that antibody protection will start to fade at about six weeks of age, but every puppy's different. So for some puppies, that protection or that immunity might be gone in the next two or three weeks. For another puppy, it might be another six weeks, and we don't know when that immunity is out of their system from that initial milk called the colostrum. But this much we do know. By the time they are 16 weeks of age, virtually all of the antibodies from the mother's milk are gone. So how many vaccines they're going to get depends on at what age we start. That's the reason we give a series of vaccines up until at least the age of 16 weeks and perhaps a little bit beyond. Typically, we'll give the vaccines about once a month, once every four weeks, or every three to five weeks. That is the window for getting the vaccines. Hopefully, that'll give a little bit more clarity as to why we give the vaccines, like distemper parvo, in a sequence as we do.

The core vaccines are the ones we had just mentioned: distemper parvo, leptospirosis, rabies, and Bordetella. Those are the core vaccines. The other ones that I started to mention are Lyme disease and flu vaccine. They're not considered core, but they are recommended for a lot of dogs depending on their lifestyle and the environment they're going to be in. But the core vaccines are distemper parvo, rabies, and Bordetella.

It depends on the age. When we start, the first ones we typically give are what we call distemper parvo. Most dog owners have heard of distemper parvo, but when we use that term, we're protecting against several different diseases in that one vaccine. Those two diseases are highly contagious and life-threatening viruses. We're also protecting against a disease called adenovirus, which is an upper respiratory disease and a liver disease. And another one is called parainfluenza, which is a form of kennel cough in dogs. Those are the primary ones. And then there's another one called leptospirosis, which we highly recommend in this part of the country because it is a bacterial infection that they get from contaminated water sources, like backyard puddles and such. The then is also the rabies vaccine, but we don't start that until they are three months of age, excuse me. That one is required by law because of the potential for human health because it is a deadly virus and a deadly disease. Another one is called Bordetella. Bordetella is a form of kennel cough as well. Those are the three that we always recommend. Other ones are going to be based upon their lifestyle, like Lyme disease vaccines and canine flu vaccines.

The more time they spend outside, the greater the risk. It's really important to recognize that a lot of people go through their entire lives with their dogs and say, gosh, I've never seen any fleas. They've used a terrible flea product, and they're convinced that this product is working. But understand that fleas are not everywhere. They migrate. They move from neighborhood to neighborhood. They'll expand their territory one year to the next year because of weather conditions. They'll contract their territory, but they do continually migrate. So keep that in mind. You might go years without seeing any fleas, and all of a sudden, you have an infestation. Don't blame your neighbor. That's just the nature of the fleas' lifestyle and biology.

Of course, the more time pets spend outside the greater risk of getting exposed and the greater risk of getting fleas and ticks. With tick, there are a couple of considerations. They like more wooded areas. If you have hunting dogs or dogs that have some pasture, or you've got woods behind your house, and your dog is able to go back there, that's going to be prime ground for ticks. Obviously, that's going to increase the likelihood. It's not a bad idea to do a tick check on them. Check between the toes and the ears. Check pretty much everywhere. With hair, it's not always going to be easy to see the ticks, but it's certainly worth doing the check. It's easier to see ticks than fleas because they're a little bit bigger, and once they latch on, they don't move because they're sucking. Fleas will move around, but once ticks are attached, they're going to be stuck there for some days while they're continuing to feed.

Absolutely. As we mentioned, ticks are a year-round problem and this part of the country. Here in North Carolina, we do see ticks year-round, and there are seven different species of ticks in North Carolina. I think there's an introduction of a new one that we're more concerned about. With fleas, typically, once we have a killing frost outside, meaning if it gets down 25, 26 degrees for two nights back to back, that will be the end of our flea season outside. But still, fleas can thrive inside the house in the wintertime. Let's face that. You've got the thermostat set at 65 or 68 degrees, and fleas are pretty happy. They've got a meal with the dogs or with a cat inside the household. They're not going to be as active because the humidity is lower.

Three different conditions help fleas thrive, which is why we see more problems in the autumn. The three conditions include that they need a certain amount of rain. So if we have an extraordinary dry type of a year, we're not going to see as many fleas. For reproduction purposes, they prefer temperatures of more than 80 degrees. If we have consistently high temperatures in the nineties, scratching around a hundred degrees, we're not usually going to see as many fleas. The other criterion is humidity. Humidity is a given here all summer and into the autumn. That condition is never going to change. Drought conditions and overly wet conditions can change from year to year, but, in general, that's why we see more problems in the autumn because the temperatures are starting to let up a little bit. It's going to be more consistent in the 80-degree range. We might get a hurricane that can drop some rain here, but the more rain, the cooler the temperatures, relatively speaking. That's why we see more fleas in the autumn than at any other time of year.