Canine Distemper

[bianca_bendo]

well the story about daisy. i got er from a friend at 8 weeks(born nov. 28th 2006) and was told she had her shots. this year we took a trip to a friends house she has many dogs(about5) when we came back i noticed she had a cough. as the weeks went on she was coughing more and wasnt as active exspecially with my monther in laws dog which is her sister. then all of a sudden she was having the chewing gum seizures i guess, it looked like she had a wad of gum in her back jaws trying to chew it. 2 days later she passed. i tried to get her to a vet, but couldnt find one that would let me make payments. i was very upset, blamming mysefl for my friends death...about a week later i got mrs. v( the doxie) and 2 days after that sandy(the puppy).
i did the chest thumping test and niether one coughed. their stool in normal not soupy or anything. and my lab is 2 years old. he's an outside dog and shows no symptoms of anything. so i should just give my puppy and my mother in laws dog the antibiotics and keep an eye on them? when should they recieve their shots?

[Daveyo]

Answer one question

What about the lab dog. What is the shot situation and history.

As to your question you give the vaccines when those dogs not coughing all the time and for all practical purposes is declared healthy by a VET from a physical exam. Then you can give the shots and needless to say again I warn you to make sure distemper and parvo are kept apart and not given at the same time. When you vaccinate these dogs give only 1/2 shot per dog and then wait minimum of 14 days. Then you can give the last half of the shot per dog. Wait another 21 days. Then you can give the parvo shot, 1/2 dose wait 10 days and then last 1/2 shot and your finished. Understand.

It may be a slight inconvenience to be going back and forth to the vet for these shots, so it best you learn how to do it yourself. Giving vaccine shots is the easiest and requires very little instruction. Just like a person who is diabetic but they have to find a vein, whereas the vaccine shots is just under the skin and above the muscles.

You can do it anywhere by the shoulder blades or at the rear end on the dog. No problem. Make sure no air in needle or syringe area, wipe the area with some alcohol, then Lift the skin up and pop the needle in, and inject. Wipe the area again with alcohol and your> Done.

You can order and get these vaccines via the web and they have a main distribution place. Only thing you need is a Dx from the VET and make sure this Dx from that VET has no end date meaning a perpetual prescription. Make a copy of that Dx from the VET and keep it for a backup, and then send in the original to the dog pharmacy. There you can buy anything.

What is nice about this YOUR IN CONTROL, and you maintain it yourself in giving the shots to the dogs once every 3 years. You can buy syringes and needles and its relatively cheap. Buying the vaccines is twice as cheap than getting it from the VET. Like I said before, VETS rely on vaccines as one of their main incomes selling it to pet owners and telling them to get vaccinated every year. Nice steady income to say the least.

But to customers and dog owners, this is a huge crimp in the budgets. So you have to decide and grit your teeth and start learning to be self sufficient.

Giving Baytril and Penicilin G should pretty much take care of the cough problem, if you give those tabs twice a day for 7 days. After that wait a bit to see if they still cough. If they do, then something else is wrong, maybe something in their throat area. Dogs eat things and sometimes something gets stuck inside there. Don't know. A blood test would be in order to find out what they might be sick from. It can be respiratory herpes, or kennel cough, or Adeno. Any one of these three. The problem with these diseases is that they are so close together with symptoms it is very difficult to really determine which is which causing the problem. Testing is the best way to go to find it out.

As to the above named diseases one can find it out via a blood test. Doing a blood test for Distemper should never be done. The bladder test is the accurate answer.

Ok let me know on the Lab dog on its vaccination history.

Daveyo