Here is our sweet little Jackson (who is now a whopping 95 pounds!).

I am getting on my soapbox for this post.  I had a bad weekend at work and am officially  tired of euthanizing cute little puppies when their ailments are completely preventable.  I had to euthanize SIX puppies over three days due to Parvovirus infections alone.  That is on top of the one that died and the two that were hospitalized!  And although this is , sadly, a very common disease, it is also very avoidable with normal vaccine protocol.  Kitties have their own diseases to be vaccinated against (like Leukemia and Feline Infectious Virus) and I urge you to have those vaccines administered.  However, in this post I am focusing on puppies due to the alarming number I have seen recently.  The owners, more often than not, reluctantly admit that they simply overlooked or were downright lazy about getting vaccines.  Then they have to make the decision to treat (at a cost of $500 for less agressive home therapy to between $800 -$1200 for hospitalization with only a 50% chance of survival) or to euthanize.  At those costs, you can see why a majority will need to opt for euthanasia.  However, the total cost of adequate preventative vaccinations is around $200 over 3 to 4 months.  It is very disheartening to someone working in the field.

What do vaccines do?

When puppies are born, their immune systems (the system within their bodies that fight infection) are not yet fully developed.  However, they have immunity (maternal antibodies) passed on from their mother while in the womb.  They receive antibodies in the first few days of nursing as well from a special milk called colostrum.  How long these antibodies last within the puppies is not exactly known and dependent upon many factors.  We do know they are gone completey by 16 weeks.  The decrease follows the latter half of a bell curve.  They are increasingly susceptible to infections during this time and if no vaccines are given, end up wide open for disease at a very young age.

When are vaccines given?

Check with your veterinarian for their recommended vaccine protocol, since each one will be slightly different.  For the purposes of this post, I will relay the protocol I am familiar with using.  Vaccines are given as the maternal antibodies are fading from the puppies’ systems and work to boost their immunities for short periods until their own immune systems have matured.  The first booster is given between 6 to 8 weeks of age.  Subsequent boosters follow the initial at 3 to 4 week intervals until the puppy has had a series of 4 vaccines.  For example, if starting at 8 weeks of age, vaccines would be given at 8, 11, 14, and 17 weeks (with the first Rabies vaccine also given at this time).  From that time on, vaccines are given yearly to booster immunity.  But, frankly, the puppy boosters are by far the most critical time especially for Parvovirus.

What are you vaccinating against?

The initial puppy boosters given are commonly referred to as the 7-in-1 or specifically DHLPP-Cv.  These are vaccinating against:  Distemper, Hepatitis/Adenovirus, Leptospirosis, Parvovirus, Parainfluenza, and Coronavirus.  You can read up on each of these by following the links.  The vaccines can be either a killed virus or a modified live virus.  The live virus is by far the better choice to stimulate the puppies’ immune system against the particular disease.  The live virus is “modified” by either mutating the DNA within a virus, or injecting harmless virus with the stimulatory proteins (those proteins that would  cause the immune system to respond to that particular virus) of the desired harmful virus.

All in all, my message is simply:  PLEASE vaccinate your puppies!  If  cost is a concern, some veterinarians will give the vaccines without an exam fee if requested, or most will hold vaccine clinics where they vaccinate at greatly discounted prices.  Since vaccines are extremely susceptible to temperature, I would not reccommend getting them yourself at a CO-OP unless you are absolutely certain that adequate refrigeration is provided when delivered and stored.  If cost is still a concern, even using these options, may I gently but strongly suggest that it is not a good time for you to have a new puppy?

Here is a great easy to understand graphic chart on the immune system.

For the older kids, here is Microbiology Coloring Book including the immune response cascade.  I love this series and already have the kids starting on Anatomy Coloring Book, The (3rd Edition).

If you have any questions or comments regarding vaccines, pets, and veterinary care, please use our commenting system and I will respond!

I grew up on a farm.  We raised Angus beef cattle, chickens, and Mallard ducks, along with the corn, oats, soy beans and alfalfa crops.  We also had our pets.  Many times I’ve been asked how you can have a farm animal for a pet when you raise them for food.  There was always a distinction between the farm animals and your pets – you did not eat your pets!

I think every child should have the responsibility of having a pet.  Not only can it be a great companion for the child, but being responsible for another living thing can teach the child so much about life.  Of course, almost all pets do not live as long as we do, so it also teaches the child about the end of life.

I had 2 favorite pets as a child, not counting the cats and dogs.  I was the one in charge of raising the Mallard ducks, which really consisted of, not only feeding them, but checking their nests when they were hatching in the springtime.  Sometimes the hen would leave the nest before all the eggs were hatched, and we would then incubate the eggs until they hatched and give the ducklings to their mother.  One nest had a duckling that had pipped the egg, which means that it had broken the shell with the sharp point on its beak, but needed help to finish the job.  I brought the egg into the house and helped the duckling hatch.  It is true about ducks imprinting on their mother – I had become the mother!

I begged my mom to let us keep the duckling in the house after I tried to give it to the mother hen and she would just chase it and peck at it.  Of course, the duckling would always follow me as I tried to leave it anyway.  Having a soft heart (or something!) my mother said OK.  From that day on, Beeper lived in a box in our kitchen for the next 3 ½ years.  Ducks are quite messy birds, so any time anyone came to visit, I had to quickly change the newspaper in the bottom of her box.

She loved to hear my sister and I play the accordion.  In fact, her favorite song was Missouri Waltz.  As soon as she heard that song, she would tuck her bill into her wing, close her eyes, stand on 1 foot and coo.  If we were playing any other song, and then broke into Missouri Waltz, she would always respond the same way!

Beeper would follow me around where ever I went.  We would go fishing in the Iowa lakes and let her go swimming, but when it was time to go home, we just called for her and she would come back to us.

She was not accepted by the other ducks on the farm.  They would chase her away and come running back to me.  After a couple of years, when springtime came, she made a nest and started laying eggs.  Of course, they were not fertile eggs and would only rot, so I decided to swipe an egg from another nest to put in Beeper’s nest.  She was very diligent about staying on her eggs, until the fertile egg finally hatched.  I think she thought she was human though, because she ran away from the duckling as fast as she could.  I’ll never forget seeing the poor duckling try to catch up with her!

It was a heart breaking loss to me when my dad found her dead on the gravel road.  Apparently, she had wandered on to the road and was hit by a car.  It was a good lesson in dealing with grief for me, but perhaps not for my mom who put up with Beeper in the kitchen for 3 ½ years!

Barn Owl

Our second unusual pet was a barn owl.  My mother had found the baby owl abandoned in its nest and brought it home.  We studied up on owls and decided to help it grow to maturity, after naming it Oscar.  We put it in one of our parakeet cages and found that Oscar loved chicken livers.  Living in a small town, it soon got around that we needed chicken livers, so all the farms and the butcher shop in town saved us the chicken livers.  Oscar grew into a beautiful bird.  I’ll never forget his wondrous eyes and how it seemed that he could  turn his head in a complete circle.

One day we were shelling corn and it was my little brother’s job to kill the mice as they ran out of the corn crib.  Of course, the first couple of mice he gave to Oscar who relished the change of diet.  The next day, my mother went to the freezer to take out meat for dinner to thaw, and I heard this scream.  When I came running, I saw what the problem was.  My brother had laid out 6 nice mice in the freezer for the next few Oscar meals!

We have many Beeper, Oscar and other pet stories, but I think having this in my background helped me raise my kids with a great respect for pets and the responsibility that goes with them.  In fact, my daughter took it to heart and is a practicing vet technician at an Emergency Clinic.  She has her own menagerie of a Golden Retriever, 2 rats, 3 slider turtles and, at one time – 5 cats!

For more information on the Common Barn Owl, go here.