What about vaccinations and wormers???

[Cleo & Cassie]

I usually buy my dogs, and puppies vaccinations from the vet, and administer them myself. I purchase them all from their vet and give them within thirty minutes after picking the shots up. My dogs are healthy, and all is well. But, a friend of mine says that it is dangerous to do so. What do ya'll think????

[Samsintentions]

I'm a breeder. I bred heelers for bout 7 years and now I've got mastiffs. Ipurchase all my vaccinations and stuff and administer myself. As long as they do not get hot, expire or are damaged and are given propperly and at the right times, there shouldn't be a problem. My puppies all get their first round of shots and wormer during their health checks. then I do the rest. I keep records of everything too to help.

[Sara]

I know lots of breeders who give their own and I've been giving my own for awhile now... NO problems as long as everything is current and all that jazz... I think Rabies though has to be administered by a vet.

Sara

[hermann muenster]

Yes, in many states (actually - I think in all!) a vet needs to administer the rabies.

I have heard some horror stories about folks administering their own vaccinations. One story I heard was a breeder was injecting the saline only - thinking that the powder in the other bottle was just dried up vaccine ---- the breeder didn't know that the powder was the vaccine that needed to be MIXED with the saline!! So, the dogs were actually never vaccinated!!

I think if you are a "regular breeder" vaccinating your litters is expensive if you have to use a vet -- so it is more economical to vaccinate yourself -- but you need to be shown, or taught precisely how to administer the vaccine.

If you are just a multiple dog owner I think it is easier, and more convenient to just pop by the vet and get the dogs vaccinated! No need to order vaccines, syringes, no worries about mistakes!

[DeLaUK]

After seeing a few dogs and cats go into anaphylactic shock and either die or come close to dying after being vaccinated for various things I would never recommend that anyone do the shots themselves, its not that common but it happens.
Ive also seen far too many 6 month old pups come down with parvo and distemper and the owners have said that they gave all the puppy shots themselves with vaccines bought from one store or another!!
AND Ive seen some dogs siezure and then die from being given the wrong or too much of a dewormer bought over the counter (this usually involves dewormers with ivermec in them), there are some really safe dewormers though. I think panacur gets most parasites and is about the safest on the market.
And just a note on that, if a dog...especially a pup has diarrhea and you 'decide' the pup must have worms get it checked out and have a stool sample tested because not all dewormers get all worms there could also be coccidia or giardia present and they need to be treated with something else.
Never use OTC flea and tick treatments that go onto your pets skin, only use reputable and vet recommended products.


Rabies vaccine has to be given 'legally' by a vet or in a vets prescence. (in US).

[Samsintentions]

Herman, You've got to be kidding me!!! They actually thought it was dried vaccine??? OMG. I've heard it all. What morons. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!


I agree with DelaUk. I would never attempt to do anything that your not skilled and knowledged about doing. ESPECIALLY something as important as vaccinations.

I grew up on a farm was born on one, live and own and run one andwill die on one... My biggest goal in life was to be a vet. Unfortunaltely politics and finances didn't allow for it. However I do take classes, and am on the way to graduating as a nurse. I know what i'm doing and thats the ONLY reason I'd ever attempt to do something is if I've been trained to do so.

I allow my vet to havea full examination of all the dogs and puppies before vaccinating and I let them do it first. Not only does that give the vet a chance to show me something wrong, but it builds a relationship with them and I also know it was propperly done and done at the correct time.

You have to be very careful wtih them as well. temperature, proper mixing (as herman pointed out) sterilization as Dela pointed out, and proper administration ALL have to be taken into account. Also if your vet does not reccomend you do so. Don't.

its my knowledge that in most states, Rabies must be given by a vet and recorded in a data base. And their tag id number is given for proof.

[Sara]

Definately something one must learn about before doing. Like Sam I was born and raised with livestock and into a family deeply involved with livestock I'm also in a rural area where most every native around here had the same type of upbringing so it seems pretty natural to do it yourself in my parts. Sometimes vets are not possible to get to so we learn to do whatever we can do on our own.

I learned from family about livestock and close friends regarding dog vaccinations and wormer, lifestyles are all so different when you get down to things like this though...

Sara

[Samsintentions]

Very true.

[DeLaUK]

I know of quite a few farmers or ranchers who have always vaccinated their dogs and more, what Ive found with people that do this I think when you are brought up in that kind of enviroment the importance of keeping your animals (whether its livestock or pets) well taken care of and doing things right is second nature, in many cases its their livelihood so things are done right from the beginning. It would cost an absolute fortune to have a vet do all the vaccines but giving the vaccines is not rocket science but you do need to know all the ins and outs of it like what can go wrong, what to watch for etc etc.

Just wanted to mention that as I didnt want to offend anyone, the problems I was referring to is predominantly people trying to cut costs or in some cases....and I hate to say it but it happens, people whos egos outweigh their knowledge....they think they know whats best and can do all the pet stuff themselves....met too many of those type of people.
Ive also seen too many people who have "a lot" of dogs, usually taken in as rescues and they just shoot down to the local feed store to get dewormers, end up getting horse dewormers (can get more of it for less money) and then overdosing or sometimes killing their dogs with it.

[Sara]

Yeah that's definately true and a lot of people out there recommend horse de-wormers to cut costs but they're not formulated for anything but livestock, I saw one the other day, it was one that had a supply for four cows, I was going to get it for my two horses, that'd do two rounds of de-worming for each at a fraction of the cost but then noticed it said for cows so scoured the directions and found that it said horses too... But even cow stuff will kill horses or sheep stuff will kill cows... Most people with livestock are aware of this stuff so they don't tend to "cut costs" that way, in most cases I've known of people using animal stuff for their human purposes like Bag Balm and the like.

It's nearly impossible to make sure you get the math right on a horse de-womer with Ivomec in it to treat a dog smaller than, say, a great dane or a dog the size of a mini horse. NOT recommended at all. The only advice about pest treatments would be to use what is formulated for dogs on dogs and NEVER use something else... I went to school with a girl who was up 24hours with a cat seizing because they'd put dog flea stuff on her...she died in the end...This issue cannot be stressed enough.

DeLaUK, no offence taken but your comments did require that those of us who give our vaccinations on our own make it clear that we do so with generations of experience in it behind our choices and knowledge. We do often think of it as second nature and forget that not everyone has that knowledge behind them. Thanks for helping us to clarify etc...

Sara