Why Does My Dog Need Booster Shots?

This question is commonly asked when new pet owners are asked to bring their puppy back to the veterinarian 2, 3, or sometimes even 4 times for “booster” vaccinations. What is a “booster”? How is it decided how many must be given to my pet? The answers to these questions lie in understanding a little about how the immune system of an immature animal works.

When a puppy is born and nurses for the first time, it ingests not milk but a substance called colostrum. In this colostrum are antibodies that protect the puppy from all the diseases against which the mother had developed immunity. If the mother was properly vaccinated, this “maternal protection” will last in the young animal anywhere from 8-16 weeks. This is why we usually begin the vaccination series at about 6-8 weeks of age. As long as this maternal protection is present in the puppy, it interferes with the action of the vaccine, causing it to be ineffective after about 3 weeks time. Therefore, we start vaccines at 6-8 weeks of age and continue them every three weeks until we know that all maternal protection has vanished – that is at about 16 weeks of age. At this time, the vaccine will last one year. We call this last vaccination the “adult” vaccination; not because it is different from any of the earlier ones but because we know that it will truly last a whole year. In addition, each vaccine multiplies the amount of immunity supplied by the previously administered vaccine, thus “boosting” the body’s protection. This is called the “anamnestic response” where the immune system remembers the previous vaccine and mounts a greater response with each subsequent vaccination, resulting eventually in adequate levels of protection.

Vaccines Protect Against these Common Diseases

Dog Diseases

Distemper

Parvovirus

Hepatitis

Leptospirosis

Parainfluenza

Coronavirus

If your puppy does not receive the complete vaccine series, then he or she runs the risk of being protected for only three weeks rather than one year or inadequately protected for that one year. If, after adoption and administration of the first set of vaccines, your pet does not receive the rest of his or her vaccinations as scheduled by your veterinarian, it is likely that he/she will be exposed to and possibly contract a serious disease that was otherwise easily preventable. Remember that puppies have virtually no ability to fight disease on their own; Mother Nature needs our help with a proper vaccination program. Contact our office if you have further questions.