Pug Vaccinations

Good day and welcome everyone!

This is Sharda with another Pugs newsletter.

Today we will discuss about Pug vaccinations!

Give him his shots:

Between the ages of six and 16 weeks of age, your Pug puppy is very likely to lose the immunity to disease he receives from his mother and develop his own protective sheath to disease.

There is often a period between losing their mother’s given immunity to disease and forming their own, and owners can never pinpoint this period.

Fortunately, there are now new vaccines for distemper and parvovirus that are said to be much more effective than earlier brands and that also serve to eliminate many earlier problems.

This also takes away the need to give the pup as many shots, thereby saving you money.

As a precautionary measure you should restrict his interactions with stray or sick dogs. Also, keep him more at home and certainly do not take him to public places such as highway rest stops where the chance of meeting up with many other dogs is high.

Vaccines to Give Your Pup

Distemper: This is a combination vaccine (DHLAPPC) that protects your pug puppy against a group of diseases such as:

• Infectious canine distemper (ICD): This is a highly infectious viral disease attacking and affecting your pup’s lungs, brain and spinal cord just as polio affects human beings.
• Infectious canine hepatitis (ICH): When dogs come in contact with infected urine, this infection develops and then spreads rapidly among dogs. This does its damage in the liver of the dog and can also cause blindness among pets.
• Leptospirosis: This damages the pup’s kidney and liver, and is almost always spread through infected urine. If you make a mistake of administering this vaccine repeatedly to your Pug pup, it can have an adverse reaction on him. So, it is best to immunize your pup against this disease twice during the vaccination series.
• Canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) is that respiratory virus which causes an extreme form of “kennel cough” in Pug pups.
• Para influenza is yet another infectious respiratory virus that causes your pup to have a terrible cough.
• Canine parvovirus (CPV): When your pup is diagnosed with this, the lining of his intestinal tract is attacked, and if very young, this can damage his heart too. This can be fatal too and is the commonest of fatal infectious diseases, besides also being the most difficult to protect against.
• Canine corona virus (CCV): This either causes or sometimes even contributes to an intestinal disease much like parvovirus and severe diarrhea. This vaccine is expensive and the disease treatable, so vets usually do not add any protection to this disease in their package of shots to pups, though they may sometimes charge you for this separately.
• Rabies: A disease that is spread by animal bites or through the saliva of an infected animal, rabies is fatal. Rabies can cause people to be highly infected or die, so immunizing your pet against this is imperative.

Usually, your vet will give your pet rabies shots when he is 16 weeks old, followed by a booster dose a year later and then one every year or three years after that, in accordance with the local laws and your vet’s recommendation.

If your dog is not vaccinated but comes in contact with a skunk, your pet will have to be quarantined or put to sleep. If vaccinated, he will have to be given a rabies booster shot without delay, never mind when you last immunized him.

Lyme disease: This disease is spread by ticks and is cured with antibiotics. This is common among those dogs that roam around in bushy areas and come home with loads of ticks. They need to be vaccinated.

But if your dog is restricted to your area, he won’t need to be immunized against this disease, as he will perhaps never contract ticks. To immunize your pet against this disease, he will be given an initial series of two injections three weeks apart, and every year a booster dose.

Bordetella: A common cause of “kennel cough,” Bordetella is a severe disease, though rarely ever is it a fatal respiratory disease.

This is spread through the air in confined closed in areas, so it is a common problem in boarding kennels. He may also contract it if you leave him for long periods at the groomer’s salon or at a kennel.

If you do because of lack of choice, then you need to protect him against the disease. To protect him against this disease, administer the vaccine about two to four weeks before you send him into a kennel.

Worms: For protection against roundworms and hookworms, give your Pug pup Heart guard Plus and Interceptor that together kill intestinal worm.

If you use either of these preventives, you will also eliminate the need for routine fecal examinations and separate worming medications. But if your pup has persistent diarrhea, go in to meet your vet with a sample of your Pug pup’s feces to check for other lesser-known parasites.

Tapeworms: If you’ve noticed little short white worms, about ½ inch or less in length, these are probably tapeworm segments. When dry, these segments resemble grains of brown rice and may stick to your dog’s coat.

However, prescription tapeworm drugs are effective and safe for your pet. But this is not the case with non-prescription tapeworm medications, which are ineffective and cause your pet intestinal cramps and diarrhea.

Before medicating your Pug against tapeworms, check his weight. If he is neither too small nor not too large that he can’t be lifted, you can make sure by first weighing yourself with the dog and then without him.
Once his weight is ascertained, your vet will prescribe medicines appropriately.

Heartworms: This is caused by a certain species of mosquito that is in the air and will infect your pup if he doesn’t receive prevention medicine, especially if he sleeps outdoors.

If checked in time, heartworms can be eliminated, though treatment can be difficult, dangerous and expensive. Even if treated, heartworms cause permanent damage.

Preventing heartworms: Give your Pug Interceptor Chewable Tablets once a month since they kill hookworms, whipworms and roundworms, and do the job of giving worming medications and routine fecal examinations. Be sure you give these tablets to him every month without any break.

Testing for heartworms: If your Pug dog has been tested to have heartworm disease, this means that these worms reside in their hearts, with microscopic baby heartworms roaming freely in their bloodstream. Baby heartworms grow into adults after having lived inside a mosquito and then moving into another dog when the mosquito bites it.

Usually, heartworms cannot be detected until six months after infection, so this makes it difficult for your vet to say whether your pup is free of this disease or not.

This may certainly be worrisome, but in puppy hood this is a controllable infection and an initial heartworm test can sometimes be postponed until your Pug pup is 15 months of age when you will give him his rabies and distemper booster vaccinations.

Once this is done, you should set up a regimen by which you have him tested for these diseases every couple of years as a preventive measure and as an antidote in case the vaccine given earlier isn’t working.

I hope that you learned a lot from today’s Pugs newsletter

All the best and take care

Warmly,
Sharda Baker