Vaccinations

The Selwood vet clinic recommends that puppies receive at least two vaccinations, four weeks apart, for parvovirus, distemper, infectious hepatitis and kennel cough. Puppies should not be taken to public parks or walkways or exposed to dogs with unknown vaccine histories until two weeks after the last puppy vaccine. Adult dogs should receive their first booster vaccine one year after their puppy vaccine course, followed by boosters every three years for parvo, distemper and hepatitis and annually for kennel cough. It is also considered that dogs in the lower to mid mountains are potentially exposed to heartworm, transmitted by mosquitos. Prevention can be undertaken with annual vaccinations (though puppies are given a booster 6 months after the first vaccine) or with monthly tablets or monthly spot-ons.

The Selwood vet clinic recommends all kittens be vaccinated against panleucopenia, feline calicivirus, and feline rhinotracheitis virus (feline herpesvirus) from eight weeks of age. At least two vaccines 4 weeks apart are recommended. You should also consider whether your kitten will become an outdoor cat and thus potentially exposed to feline immunodeficiency virus which is transmitted through cat bites from infected cats (the prevalence of FIV in domestic Australian cats is approximately 15%). If so, you may wish to also vaccinate your kitten against FIV (three vaccines required 2 weeks apart from 8 weeks of age). As the level of antibodies from kitten vaccinations drops over time, we recommend annual health checks and booster vaccines for your adult cats.

At Selwood House Veterinary Clinic, we recommend that domestic rabbits be vaccinated against Rabbit Calicivirus which causes an incurable, fatal disease known Viral Haemorrhagic Disease. Rabbits younger than 12 weeks of age should receive two vaccines four weeks apart. Rabbits older than 12 weeks should receive one vaccine. Annual boosters are recommended to maintain adequate protection against this disease.

Distemper virus is the most commonly vaccinated against disease in ferrets. We recommend that ferrets younger than 12 weeks of age receive two vaccines four weeks apart and ferrets older than 12 weeks should receive one vaccine. Annual boosters are recommended to maintain adequate protection against this disease.