Are Vaccinations for a Dog Good or Bad?

While any medical procedure has risks and benefits, the benefits of vaccines for dogs far outweigh any so-called risks. The core vaccines recommended for dogs rarely cause serious side effects. And vaccines prevent your dog from getting life-threatening illnesses like rabies. On top of that, the law in many areas requires vaccination for dogs, both to protect the public and protect your dog.

  1. Vaccine

    • A vaccine is a treatment that prepares the body to defend itself against a specific disease organisms. It does this by introducing the immune system to an agent that in some way simulates a real infection. This agent can include weakened or dead viruses or bacteria, proteins from a pathogen or other substances that trigger an immune response. With the immune system already primed for infection, a dog's body will fight off disease-causing organisms before they can gain a foothold if the dog ever encounters them for real.

    Types

    • You can divide vaccines into core and non-core vaccines. Core vaccines are the vaccines recommended by the ASPCA for disease that all dogs. These include diseases that are either very dangerous to dogs, dangerous to humans or extremely widespread and contagious. The core vaccines include vaccinations against rabies, parvo and distemper virus. A vet will recommend non-core vaccines based on a dog's risk factors, like exposure to other dogs and local endemic diseases. Your vet will work out a shot schedule with you, since the risk of these diseases changes as a dog ages.

    Benefits

    • The main benefit of vaccines is that they make a dog less likely to get a disease. No vaccine works 100 percent of the time. However, if enough dogs get a vaccine in a community, a disease cannot gain a foothold and spread, even if a handful of dogs lack immunity. Additionally, vaccines have important public health benefits. In the United States, since most dogs and cats are vaccinated against rabies, the disease is rare in dog and therefore in humans. However, in developing countries without widespread dog vaccinations, human cases of rabies is more prevalent. Vaccines protect both dogs and humans.

    Risks

    • All medical treatments have risks, and you should discuss them with your vet. However, the risks of vaccines are low. The most common reaction to vaccines is soreness at the injection site, which can happen from any injection. Vaccines sometimes produce a mild fever in some dogs. Serious reactions are rare with common vaccines but have happened. Some dogs have allergic reactions to ingredients from vaccines. Your vet will advise you about possible complications of the specific vaccines he administers.