Canine Vaccines - A Discussion on Viruses and Vaccination Protocol For Dogs and Puppies
VACCINE THEORY: The pet and veterinary community has hotly debated the correct vaccination protocol for our pet dogs. In the past it was thought that any disease that a vaccine available to fight it should be given to our pets. As a backlash to this rational many articles in the pet community portrayed vaccines as the enemy and a likely cause of disease. The opinion of the veterinary community and certainly my opinion is a mixture of these two thoughts. And this article is intended to provide a rational for safe and reasonable vaccination of our pet dogs.
Okay, so what a vaccine is: So first we must discuss what a vaccine is. There are many types of vaccines available in human and animal medicine but currently many of our dog vaccines are modified live vaccines. This means that the scientist has slightly altered the virus so that it will still stimulate immunity but will not be able to cause disease in the patient, thus creating a safer vaccine. Immunity is just the body's natural defense against infection. What a vaccine isn't: Vaccines do not prevent disease in those animals already exposed to the virus. The vaccine must be present prior to exposure to provide time to grown adequate memory cells to aid in defense of the body. So, if you have a puppy that was exposed to parvo virus but not yet ill a vaccine will NOT prevent disease. How vaccines work: So many of us haven't always understood why we need to vaccinate our pets (or children) we are just doing what is recommended by the doctor in an attempt to keep our loved one safe. As a veterinarian, I believe that it is important that owners understand why we vaccinate so that they have informed consent and know what they are protecting their pet with and against.
By giving a vaccine we are attempting to stimulate the dog's immune system to create memory cells that will be saved in the body to fight the virus if they encounter it in the future. On the initial exposure to a virus (antigen) the immune system will create a few short lived memory cells but will not create lasting immunity. Therefore, we always provide one booster in 2-3 marijuana facts to give a second boost to the immune system and create millions of long lived memory cells in the body. These cells are constantly circulating in the body looking for foreign invaders to attack and destroy thereby defending the body and providing the pet immunity to the virus.
Why are puppies given several vaccines? Neonate puppies or those recently born, receive all of their immunity from their mother through the uterus and the milk. The amount and level of immunity they receive is entirely dependent upon the mother's vaccination and immunity status. Therefore a mother who has been poorly vaccinated, or even never vaccinated, will give poor immunity to her pups and those pups are at a very high risk of contracting and dying from very early infections such as parvo virus.
So, the mother's immunity is very important in providing her pups early immunity from disease. The mother's immunity will also block and prevent our vaccine from providing vaccinated immunity to the puppy. Also, based on her level of memory cells the mother's immunity may last from a few weeks in the pups to as long as 4 months. This means that your newly purchased 8 week old puppy may or may not have immunity to infection. Without several costly blood tests, the best way of ensuring the puppy is protected is sequential vaccines over time.
But as we've said the mothers immunity blocks our vaccines so how do we know when her immunity is low enough for our vaccine to work but not so low that the pup is entirely unprotected? As we've learned puppies early in life are likely to be protected even from an infrequently vaccinated mother, therefore we do not typically need to vaccinate prior to 6 weeks of age. So we know that the best time to begin vaccines is from 6-8 weeks of age catching those pups that have limited or short term immunity. However some of these pups may have long immunity preventing our vaccine from working and preventing the puppy from receiving long lasting immunity to disease. The best way around this is to do sequential vaccines every 3 weeks for a series of 4 vaccines up to age 4 months. By doing this we are ensuring that the pups who have lost early immunity are protected at the proper time and we are also ensuring that the pups with longer lasting immunity are vaccinated long enough for our vaccine to work and a boosters to be given.
Summery to why sequential vaccines in pups: Start vaccines at 6-8 weeks Vaccinate every 3 wk up to 4 months old This will ensure early protection This will ensure the best lasting immunity Provide an additional vaccine booster at 18 months of age.
It is important to understand that even though there is a debate in our community about vaccinating adult animals that debate should not involve immature animals. The ONLY way of ensuring protection from deadly disease in puppies is to vaccinate them properly up to 1 year of age. At that point we have given them long lasting memory cells and may consider extending the subsequent intervals to every 2-3 years depending on the level of exposure and the vaccine used. Please vaccinate your puppies.
The most common core vaccine: Da2p-cpv:- Distemper virus- Adenovirus type 2- Parainfluenza- Parvo Virus
1. Canine Distemper Virus: is a disease of dogs only (although dogs can infect ferrets). The disease causes a variety of clinical signs from purulent (pus) nasal discharge and eye discharge with coughing to vomiting, diarrhea and seizures. Infected pets are often febrile (fever >103F) and very depressed/lethargic. The prognosis is very poor.
2. Canine adenovirus type 2: is also called canine infectious hepatitis and is a very serious disease that often isn't seen in our area due to vaccination, but once was very common. There is also a type I vaccine that we don't use because type 2 will protect against both types and type I vaccine causes eye inflammation commonly called blue eye.
3. Parainfluenza: is a dog disease that is part of the kennel cough complex. The virus works with the bordetella bacteria to cause a harsh unproductive cough. These pets typically have a history of exposure to other dogs (often in a kennel situation) and are typically normal except for a cough. They often respond well to treatment and supportive care.
4. Canine Parvo Virus: Is a life threatening disease of puppies and potentially of unvaccinated adults. The virus infects the rapidly growing cells of the intestine and causes severe liquid bloody diarrhea, frequent vomiting and very depressed/lethargic puppies. Puppies that are not treated will usually die. This disease can be prevented by vaccination.
Corona Virus: This is given twice to puppies 3 weeks apart. The virus causes a disease of vomiting and diarrhea in very young puppies. This vaccine is typically not given to adult dogs
Bordetella Bacterin: car insurance rates comparison from kennel cough complex. Is given as nose drops in our hospital and only to those dogs at high risk such as boarding dogs, those that attend puppy school and those that frequent doggie parks should also be vaccinated.
Rabies Frequency will vary by state. In AZ it is given to puppies and a booster is given in 1 year of age and then again every 3 years. The above vaccines are the most common ones in our area but certainly are not the only dog vaccines. In my next article I'll discuss so of the other vaccines including those made to fight bacteria.
- an often deadly upper respiratory and neurologic virus of dogs.
- a hepatitis virus of dogs
- a respiratory infection often involved in kennel cough complex
- an often fatal gastrointestinal infection of all poorly vaccinated dogs.
This is the core combo vaccine that is given to puppies every 3 weeks until 4 months of age. It protects against the worst diseases that often are life threatening to puppies.
Jill M. Patt, DVM
For readers of my content: Unless stated otherwise, I do not endorse content of web sites other than the two listed below.
littlecrittersvetlittlecrittersvet - Pet Care Information & Photo Gallery
Visit littlecrittersvet for extensive information on small & exotic pet care with > 1000 photos of animals from informative to just darn cute.
sensationsporthorsessensationsporthorses - All Things Horse & Hound
Horse people - please visit ATHH for unique, beautiful, & functional horse tack, equestrian supplies, grooming supplies, equine photos, silver sterling jewelry, LED dog collars and books on all things horse.
If you would like to use this article you may, but the entire article with the above information must be included. Also, I do not authorize embedding any links within my articles or any claims that I endorse a product or service.
Gone in a Flash - The End of the Hard Drive?
In just a few decades, the delivery media for audio, video and data have evolved dramatically. From such analog media as vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes and floppy disks, the purveyors of pop culture and their computer-industry cohorts gradually entered the "digital era" with its CDs, DVDs and, now, various forms of "flash memory."
The Magnetic Media Information Service (MMIS), formed in 1965, is a global consortium that provides service, analyses and forecasts for and about the media industry. It reports that worldwide production of audio cassette tape fell below one billion C-60 equivalents in 2007, the latest year with complete figures; a mere ten years ago, production was nearly five times as much. Blank cassette demand will fall to about 110-115 million by 2011, with more than half of the remaining demand coming free insurance quotes online third-world markets. For the technology leaders and early adopters of the industrialized (should we now say "digitized"?) nations, tape is dying, if not dead.
Demand for full-size, blank VHS video cassettes will suffer even greater percentage declines over the next several years. Global demand for units of all playing times, around 340-350 million pieces this year, will fall to just 150-160 million units in 2009. The MiniDV cassette, an analog-digital hybrid of sorts and the only tape format still important in camcorder applications, is forecast to decline somewhat more slowly than other tape media; still, output will fall from about 200 million units in 2006 to around 140 million in 2010.
Although most of today's PCs still come with a 3.5-inch floppy drive, users seldom reach for a floppy disk except perhaps as an emergency coaster for a can of soda; Apple's Macintosh computers haven't had floppy drives since 1998. Although the demand for diskettes in 2006 still surpassed 760 million units, by 2010 demand will have declined by over half, to 320-330 million units worldwide.
In with the new
Compact Disc (CD) technology was first introduced in the 1980s in a form factor known as the "optical disc," essentially a rewritable platter enclosed in a carrier shell; its considerable price tag of about $100 was dwarfed by the $3000-4000 cost of the recording/playback units. The CD soon broke out of its shell, figuratively and literally, and in its present form rose to dominate the distribution of recorded entertainment in short order. In 2009, the standard blank CD-R Generic Drugs about a dime when 100-packs go on sale, and holds 700MB of material-data, music, video, whatever-while CD burners for computers start at about $15.
Next came the DVD. From an original format with 4.7 GB of storage it has matured into a dual-layer medium that can hold 8.5 GB. The technology still making the news in this area, after debuting in the middle of the decade, is HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, with capacities of 15-30GB and 25-50GB, respectively, for single and dual layer media. The "burners" are still pricey at $300 and up, but these prices will fall dramatically upon the spread of the technology. Discs cost from $10 to $30 at this time, depending on capacity, with prices already showing a decline as business picks up.
Today, though, the standard CD and DVD still carry most of the media load. Some 65 percent of all recordable discs manufactured in 2007 came from Taiwan, and just two Taiwanese optical media producers, CMC and Ritek, produced roughly half of that. CMC reported sales of over U.S.$1 billion for 2007, and Ritek was not far behind, but if this sounds like good news, it masks a number of problems.
The optical disc replication industry, which manufactures CDs and DVDs for the entertainment industry, will not remember 2006 or 2007 with much fondness. Demands were down in all global markets. Published figures for the second half of 2007 indicate that retail sales in the U.S. market were down by slightly more than 10 percent (2007 vs 2006), in Japan by between 3-5 percent and worldwide between 4-6 percent.
Worldwide retail DVD movie sales will definitely be down again in the years to come. And yet, with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth at record companies and movie studios, the voice of reason is issuing a clear call: "Check with the end user, and get on the flash-memory bandwagon!"
Consumer is king
Two developments point the way toward the future of content distribution and, by knowing how these tracks intersect and interact, content producers will find plenty of demand to fulfill. The days of pouring movies, music and software into the wholesale and retail channels-then goosing sales with marketing and PR-are gone. Commerce is now "interactive" and many end-users shop without leaving home. Internet shopping has been here for some time, and for products that can be transmitted in binary (0s and 1s), the medium (the web) is not the message anymore, pace Marshall McLuhan; it is the package.
At the dawn of the millennium, Video-on-Demand ("VOD") delivery was done largely via cable networks. However, research group iSuppli reports that mobile and Internet downloading have grown rapidly over the last few years; by 2010 the Internet could be the major delivery system for digital entertainment. In 2006, iSuppli estimated that total VOD revenues reached almost $2 billion worldwide, impressive growth from about $700 million in 2004. By 2010, total VOD revenues are forecast to reach $12.6 billion, with cable accounting for $5.7 billion (45%), mobile and related revenues $2.4 billion (19%) and broadband Internet $4.5 billion (36%). At the present rate of change, and with the coming "convergence" of home-delivery channels, it could be "all-Internet," all the time, by 2015.
The other track to follow is storage. Since distribution will be via broadband, the "packaging" is no longer the concern of the content producer or retailer; there are no packages any longer. But there is a huge need for storage, and an ancillary need for portability and in-home transmission. Along with growth in home networking (mostly wireless), there will be the continuing development of ever cheaper, ever more capacious storage systems. The main contenders are the active and passive magnetic media-hard drives and flash memory.
Even flash memory, a recent development in relative terms, has gone through its evolutionary changes. Some early types, like SmartMedia, are nearing extinction, while other original entries like CompactFlash are still being used widely. The most popular types of flash memory today are CompactFlash; SecureDigital, mini-SecureDigital and SecureDigital-IO (SD, mini-SD and SDIO); xD PictureCard (mainly for cameras); and Sony's MemoryStick.
Flash memory enjoyed another stellar year in 2007, with each month seemingly bringing yet another announcement of still-higher storage capacity and still-lower cost. SecureDigital cards with 32GB of storage capacity were introduced in 2008, and the street price has already fallen to $75 from the initial $199 cost; the most popular 2GB form factor, which cost upwards of $50 in 2006, is just $10-12 today. By the end of 2007, some 200 million USB flash-memory drives had been sold since their introduction in 2001, and the end is nowhere in sight.
The tracks converge
Flash memory is becoming ubiquitous in the consumer field and it realistically threatens to eliminate not only most current applications for magnetic tape, but many of those for optical media (CDs, DVDs) as well. By 2010, say analysts, 50GB flash memory cards will be as readily available as 2-4GB units are now, and at about the same street price. DVD-quality movies can be offloaded from a consumer's web-connected computer to flash memory via a $9 "card reader"-with three movies fitting comfortably on today's 16GB cards.
Hard drive development also continues apace, and already we have seen the first so-called "hybrid" hard-disk drives introduced, drives that include a flash-memory storage chip that helps to speed up overall PC operations such as initial boot-up. In 2007, flash memory leader SanDisk debuted a 32GB SSD (Solid State Drive, a flash memory unit in a 2.5-in laptop-drive form factor) and laptop manufacturers from Apple to Dell offer models with this silent, low-power, crash-resistant technology.
Even traditional "spinning platter" hard drives are no longer the expensive marvels they once were, and hard drives with capacities of up to 1TB (terabyte, a thousand gigabytes) cost, on average, less than 30 per GB. (The writer's first hard drive, a 20MB external SCSI drive, cost $800 in 1985; today, $800 buys an astonishing 80,000 times as much hard drive storage capacity.)
The challenge for content producers is multifaceted, as they need to confront changes in marketing, production, delivery, technology and customer mindset. With all the attention given to the "connected" consumers, who is servicing (and selling to) the unconnected ones? How much of the sales effort will become educational as technological change continues to hurtle into the future, threatening to leave entire segments of society (and some entire nations) behind?
The only thing certain, the sages say, is change.
By Scott McQuarrie, representing the EZWatch Pro brand, a leading provider of computer based ezwatch-security-camerassecurity-cameras for business, commercial and government applications.
