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Old 02-06-2011, 11:55 PM
 
Location: NW Georgia
621 posts, read 3,196,795 times
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I had a question about home vaccinations. How many of you do them? I was thinking of doing them since we have a new puppy and will be needing his 9, 12, and 15 week combo vaccines, and saw online you can get the vaccines pretty cheap. If you all do, where do you order yours from? I was looking at Drs Foster and Smiths. Thanks for the advice!
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Old 02-07-2011, 12:01 AM
 
Location: Mountains of middle TN
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Have been doing ours for years, both for our pets and the rescue. We can't legally do rabies in TN so that has to be done by our vet. But I order the Galaxy DA2PPv from Jeffer's Pet and have been very happy with them. They've had the best prices I've found, their customer service can't be beat and their shipping is wonderful. You can add as many extra ice packets as you need pretty cheap. I usually get a couple of them and the cooler as well. This time of year, depending on where you live, that could be over kill.

If you know how to give vaccines and are comfortable with it, I highly encourage it. The mark up at vet's offices is insane on them. Including shipping and the extra ice and the syringes, I spend less than $6 per vaccine. At the vet they charge $45, no exam or anything. Just vaccines. So with a dozen dogs, it's a massive savings for us.

Call your vet and ask what a rabies and brief exam is annually. That's all we do for our dogs. And don't get de-wormer from them either. It's a huge mark up as well. Safe Guard has the same active ingredient as Panacur and it's much cheaper. It's a powder you mix in their food. One packet a day for three days. We did it quarterly because we always had dogs coming in from shelters, but with the rescue closed we'll just do it annually with their vaccines.

And you can break down the Frontline as well. Do you have that breakdown? If you've got small dogs you can break it down - a single large dog size will treat two or three small dogs. That saves a bundle too.
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Old 02-07-2011, 11:37 AM
 
Location: North Western NJ
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i dont belive theres a single state that you can legally give rabies yourself, thats a vet only job...
but the rest of the shots...some counties frown on it and i wouldnt do it unless your comfortable doing it...

i do puppy/kitten shots at home, i order form jefferes, BUT i NEVER do combo vaccines...i have small breeds and feel better not pumping them full of too much at once, i only vaccinate for nessicaries, i dont do lepto due to a tendency towards bad reaction in the breeds i raise, and i dont do boratella as its not reliable and again prone to reaction...
everything else i do 1 at a time...

i used to work in a vets clinic though and one of the first thigns i was taught was how to give vacines...

rabies as i said we go to the vets for, i dont give rabies untill 6 months, then again at 1 1/2 yrs then every 3 yrs after that.

after initial puppy shots though we do titer testing every year and dont give vaccines unless absolutly nessicary and need to go to the vet for titering. (its a blood test that shows immunity)

of our 6 dogs, other than rabies, titers have show us we havent had to re-vacinate any of our dogs yet and our oldest is over 8 yrs old...little more expensive than shots at the vet, alot more expensive than shots at home, but ive delt with vaccinosis before and will do everything to avoid that.

you just have to make sure your getting the right product, jefferes seems to be the best source so far...

we also divide flea protection, we add all our dogs wieghts together and get the liquid for that range...then i suck the liquid into an insulin syrnge, take the needle off and do a little math so each one gets exactly as much as they need. (i was also taught this while working at the vets)
the only thing that cant be split up are the pre-measured heartworm preventative because the active ingredients are not evenly spread through the treat...
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Old 02-07-2011, 05:19 PM
 
Location: Stuck in NE GA right now
4,585 posts, read 12,325,280 times
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I've been doing it for years, I also at one time had horses so I'd just order en mass. Around here we also have rabies clinics so I used to hit those for the dogs but now I'm down to just Mr. Ancient one and when he had his follow up suture removal from eating the rock, I just had my country vet do the 3 year rabies and he charges only $15 if your a current client.

Youtube even has a how to video on giving critter shots if your unsure.
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Old 02-07-2011, 07:35 PM
 
Location: Mountains of middle TN
5,245 posts, read 16,351,655 times
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You can use a cattle wormer in place of Heartguard. I don't have the breakdown. I don't do it. But friends of ours have 8 giant breed dogs at home and they use it and have never had a problem. You could talk to your vet about it. I'm *thinking* of trying it. Will see.
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Old 02-07-2011, 08:59 PM
 
Location: North Western NJ
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the ivomec is what heartguard is made of...but the dosage is tiny...

also some dogs, herding breeds particularly, also tend to have serious and even deadly problems with ivomec and shouldnt be given any ivomec based heartworm protection.

i do use ivomec for our dogs...but you do have to be carefull about dosage...

for example in the heartguard the dosage of ivomec in the up to 25lbs is 68micrograms...68 micrograms is the equivalent to .068 of a cc yes you read that right, thats less than 1/10th of a CC...
an insulin syrnge is 1cc, for anyone familiar with diabetes you know how tiny that amount is...
for a 10lb dog it literally ends up being 2 drops...

i did talk to my vet about it, and am lucky she is wonderfull, most vets wont even consider advising you to use pure ivomec for dogs...
her suggestion, for dogs up to 25lbs .068 ml (thats less than 1/10th of a cc) dogs 25-50lbs 25-50lbs would be .138ml (a little over 1/10th cc) and 50+lbs .2ml (or 1/5th a cc)
for anyone familiar with insulin syrnges youll knwo just how tiny those doses realy are...also while you use the injectable ivomec if buying form a feed store, it is given to dogs orally, and NEVER EVER EVER treat a dog with ivomectin inless its had a ReACENT heartworm test, treating a heartworm positive dog with ivomec can be deadly.

honestly, ivomectin isnt something i personally would suggest most "normal" people try to deal with, the dosages are so tiny, you need an insulin syrnge just to even attempt it and ivomectin reactions are scary.

Last edited by foxywench; 02-07-2011 at 09:26 PM..
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Old 02-07-2011, 10:20 PM
 
Location: NW Georgia
621 posts, read 3,196,795 times
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Thank you all for the great info! I'm glad to hear so many do this. I am very comfortable giving shots, so that's not an issue. If you don't do the combo vaccine, which separate ones do you use? I'm just really worried about parvo and that's the main one I want to give. I was going to get the combo 5 without the lepto. Also, I'm not sure if they sell the 5 separate vaccinations in single doses? I'll check into that. Great info again. Also, what age do you start heartworm preventative? Here I do my older dogs seasonally, since we get very cold winters. I'll be starting them in a few months and wondering if the puppy should be started then as well? Thanks again.
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Old 02-07-2011, 10:34 PM
 
Location: Stuck in NE GA right now
4,585 posts, read 12,325,280 times
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I gave Ivermectrin to my horses several times a year. All herding breeds and mixes should be tested for the MRD1 gene, it will determine if they can take Ivermectrin or any of it's derivatives, the test also can confirm other common drugs they might be sensitive to, several are commonly used anesthesia drugs so it is well worth it. I did have a friend with a Sheltie that was positive but didn't find out until after she'd used Ivermectrin ordered by the vet to treat Demodex Mange and almost lost her dog due to the reaction.

Here's where you can find out more and order the test:
Test your Dog for the mutant MDR1 gene. Information from the VCPL at Washington State University.

BTW, many vets still are not aware of this test and even some breeders are still not testing.
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Old 02-07-2011, 11:41 PM
 
Location: Mountains of middle TN
5,245 posts, read 16,351,655 times
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The DA2PPv is Distemper, Adenovirus 1 and 2, Parvovirus and Parainfluenza. I won't do the lepto either. The only dogs that need it are hunting dogs that are exposes to standing water in areas that have had lepto outbreaks. We've not had any so I won't risk the dog's health by vaccinating them for something they don't need.

As Foxy said, I don't do the bordatella either. I don't board my dogs and since the injectible bord is only about 70% effective, what's the point? Bordatella is kennel cough, which is basically the flu. It's not different than kids getting sick at school. Seldom does it require more than time to run it's course. So I just don't bother.
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Old 02-08-2011, 09:06 AM
 
Location: North Western NJ
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i give distemper, adeno, and parvo, if your dog is going to be around lots of other dogs of unknown background id suggest the parainfluenza too (ie daycare, dog parks, fostering for sleters ect) but our guys rarely meet other dogs, even on our walks we go during "quiet time" as a couple of our dogs are not good with strange dogs so i never bother with parainfluenza.

when i occasionally have puppies i do parvo at 6, 10, and 14 weeks.
then i do distemper and adeno at 8, 12 and 16 weeks (usually a few days between each)

i start mine on heartworm and flea protection between 12 and 16 weeks depending on the season and suggest my puppy buyers do the same...(ie if i have a litter thats ready to go home at the beginning of winter, they can wait a little longer due to a lower likelyhood of skeeters and fleas being around)
and i adjust dose to better suit their size...a 2lb puppy doesnt need the same dose as a 25lb dog...

if ive got a dog that will be spending alot of time outdoors i will do the lymes vaccine but thats only because lymes is very common here in ct. however i dont give that untill at the earliest 16 weeks.
and again i suggest this to puppy buyers, if your going to be hiking with your dogs or your property has longer grass/lots of trees ect...pretty much anywhere the dog would have exposure to deer ticks.

rabies i wait untill 6 months whenever possible...

in terms of seperating the shots...please keep in mind i have toy breed dogs...i dont feel quite as bad in larger breed puppies giving the bASIC combo vacine. toy (and odly enough GIANT) breeds have a higher tendency towards reaction.
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