Resources > Vaccination Protocols

Vaccinations are important. They protect pets against serious, even life-threatening diseases. Equally we do not wish to over-vaccinate and the availability since 2005 of vaccines that provide three years immunity against some diseases of dogs, and the fact that puppy vaccinations can now be completed at a younger age means the vaccination protocol for your pet may well have changed. Manufacturers have made changes to the feline vaccines they offer too.The latest recommendations are detailed below.

Here are our current recommendations :

Puppies

We recommend a two dose puppy vaccination schedule. The first vaccination for distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus should be given at 6-8 weeks of age. Often pups will have had this first vaccination before they come to Millpoint.

Whether or not this first vaccine has been given, we can protect your pup against the three fatal viral diseases (distemper,hepatitis and parvo) and give him/her some protection against canine cough on a single visit at or after 10 weeks of age. This relies upon the administration of an intranasal canine cough vaccine. If your pup has small nostrils or a very small nose, we will opt for an injectable canine cough vaccine which requires a second dose one month after the first.

Since we recommend you wait ten days for immunity to develop, this means you can take your pup out of the house and backyard at eleven and a half weeks old. No further vaccinations are required for a year.

Dogs

Vaccination against canine cough and heartworm prevention injections require annual boosters. At Millpoint we start, from 15 months of age, vaccinating your dog with a tri-ennial vaccine for distemper, hepatitis and parvo. This vaccine is given ONLY EVERY THREE YEARS. The vaccine is safe and proven effective.

Kittens

Our current basic primary vaccination course for kittens requires two vaccinations again feline enteritis and feline respiratory disease administered 3-4 weeks apart from 8 weeks of age.

Millpoint Veterinary Centre recommends that all cats are kept indoors in Australia.
If this is not possible then further vaccinations against the viruses that cause Feline Leukaemia (FeLV) and Feline AIDS (FIV) should be incorporated into the kitten vaccination schedule. This is important because current prevalence of FIV in cats in Perth is 1 in 5, and for FeLV it’s still 1 in 25.

Cats

We recommend regular boosters for infectious enteritis and feline respiratory disease.Catteries may require annual vaccination regardless of age as a condition of boarding.

Feline Leukaemia and Feline AIDS vaccines must be given annually to maintain immunity. We recommend strongly that all adult cats over 12 months are tested for these diseases prior to vaccination. Testing is unreliable in kittens and cats less than one year of age. Recently the last stand alone Feline Leukaemia (FeLV) vaccine was withdrawn from the market. To maintain protection a vaccine must be administered annually that also contains components providing immunity to infectious enteritis and respiratory disease. Feline AIDS (FIV)vaccine can be administered alone still, if desired.