Importance of Vaccinating Your Pet

I've written many times on this blog about the importance of vaccinating yourself and your children.  But what about your pets?  Should you vaccinate your pets, and if so, why?  The answer is a definite yes.  It is just as important to vaccinate your pet as it is you and your children.  Vaccinations for pets are readily available and can often be found at low cost, especially if you adopt a pet from an animal shelter.  When we adopted our cat, Newton, from the animal shelter, all vaccinations were covered as part of the very low adoption fee.  A win-win situation.  So why vaccinate?

For starters, vaccinating your pet drastically increases the chance your pet will lead a long, healthy life.  For cats, the main vaccines given are for feline distemper, feline herpes, and rabies.  These are major diseases that could lead to the early death of your cat.  Are there side effects of vaccinations?  Sure, just as there are for human vaccinations, but these side effects are almost always minor in nature and short term.  The most common side effect is soreness at the injection site.  That's a small price to pay to provide protection against serious complications or death.

The rabies vaccine is quite possibly the most important vaccine and some states require this vaccination by law.  Rabies is a deadly disease that can be passed to humans through the saliva of an infected animal.  Rabies is almost always deadly.  Fortunately, due to high vaccination rates in pets, humans rarely contract rabies, but it does happen.  There are typically 1 to 3 cases of rabies in humans per year.  This is very low, but it is very, very rare that anyone who contracts rabies survives.  There is no cure once symptoms prevent themselves.  If you have any suspicion you've been bitten by a rabid animal, head to the doctor ASAP!  There is a vaccine you can receive that can prevent the disease.  In some cases, individuals have woken up to a bat in their room or a bat in their child's room.  Even if you are not sure you've been bitten and can't find bite marks, go get the rabies vaccine immediately.  It's not worth the risk of certain death.

To conclude, if you have a pet and have not yet vaccinated your pet, please do so.  Give you and your pet the protection needed to prevent very preventable diseases.  This will improve the quality of life for both you and your pet.  Besides, who could NOT want to make sure this cute little guy below lives a long healthy life???