This post may look familiar, as it’s a repost of a piece from earlier this year, but it fits really well in this series (and it lets me be a bit lazy for the weekend).
Does Splitting Vaccines in Small Dogs Help Avoid Adverse Events?
The short answer: I don’t know, but probably not
Earlier this week (in part 2 of this series) I covered minimal intervals for giving pets different vaccines (when they’re not given on the same day). This post will cover intervals for giving boosters of the same vaccine, particularly in pets being vaccinated for the first time (I covered boosters for overdue pets in part
TL;DR: There’s no proven premedication strategy that reliably prevents adverse reactions to vaccines; instead focus on patient risk assessment, appropriate vaccine selection, close monitoring, and prompt treatment if an adverse event occurs.
Vaccine adverse events (AEs) in pets are uncommon, but that doesn’t mean their inconsequential. Clients (and veterinarians) worry about them a
Picture this: An owner takes their dog to a veterinarian for routine vaccines. The veterinarian recommends a DAPP vaccine (distemper, adenovirus, parvovirus, parainfluenza), as well as vaccination for rabies and leptospirosis. After some discussion, the owner declines the lepto vaccine, but proceeds with the others. The next day, they call back after doing some reading
Let’s face it, approaches to vaccination in companion animals are based partly on direct evidence, partly on extrapolation from other species, partly on expert opinion, and partly on “this is what we do because it’s what we’ve always done.” The evidence base for much of what we do is incomplete, and for a
I doubt I’ve posted anything here about hairballs in cats before, despite having cats that sometimes leave them around the house, as it’s not really an infectious disease issue. However, Dr. Samantha Taylor, a feline and internal medicine specialist who’s been at the forefront of navigating the new realities of antiviral use for feline infectious
Two separate stories regarding Salmonella contamination of unrelated pet products have been in the news lately.
The most recent one was a recall of Salmonella-contaminated pet supplements from Fi, a New York based company (see the link for specific products and lots affected). Details are pretty sparse, but the recall was apparently triggered because
Cyclospora has been in the news a lot lately because of a large, ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis in people in the US. Total case counts aren’t clear (and official numbers are always lower than the true number of cases because of under reporting) but it’s estimated that well over 10 000 people have been
Here’s a screenshot of a quick but useful New World Screwworm (NWS) resource for animal shelters that was developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison Shelter Medicine Program in collaboration with a number of shelter organizations and shelter medicine experts. With the continued re-emergence and spread of NWS from Central America back into the southern US
UPDATE: June 11, 2026. Nitenpyram has also been given emergency use approval (EUA) for dogs and cats over 2 pounds and 4 weeks of age.
While completely expected given the steady march of New World screwworm (NWS) through Central America and Mexico over the last several years, this horrific parasite finally crossed the US
