Buying vaccinations on-line…???
We have always taken our pets into the vet for vaccinations. We recently read a study that stated it is better for our pets and alot less stressful to do them at home. Does anybody know of a good web site where we can purchase our vaccinations? Somewhere we can trust and are reasonably priced? We have dogs and cats and soon to be a horse.
Be careful with buying vaccinations and administers them on our own. Here’s a few words of advice:
~Always order express delivery. If the vaccinations aren’t kept at the proper temperature they could be ineffective or at worst, make your pet ill.
~Research the difference between active, modified live, and dead virus vaccine variations and know which vaccination you need alive and those you need as dead.
~Know which diseases are prevelant in your area and vaccinate accordingly (I.e. if you live in the city, chances are your dog would not need the leptospirosis vaccination or if you live in a rural area that has white tail deer it would be a good idea to have your dog vaccinated for Lyme disease since it can be carried by the deer tick).
~Research the proper areas to vaccinate your pet. The sciatic nerve runs down roughly the outer, center of your dog/cats leg and if you hit this nerve you can cause pain (best case) or permanent nerve damage (worst case). With horses this is a similar situation; although you can cause nerve damage if you hit a particular nerve in a horse the more common wrongdoing is if you inject a vaccination that requires penetration into muscle and you vaccinate in an area that it goes as far as to a fat layer (which renders the vaccine ineffective).
~Know what to do if your pet has an allergic reacion (anaphylactic reaction). Have the medication epinephrine on hand and know how to probably administer in case a such reaction happens.
~Use the proper size needle so as to limit needless pain. If a dog or cat, 22 guage used most frequently; 25 guage used if animal is very sensitive. For horse 20 guage on average or 22 guage if the animal is very sensitive. (The higher the guage number, the smaller the needle which in turn is a small hole in the needle.)
~ALWAYS pull back the plunger on a syringe after you place the needle in the animal BEFORE you inject the vaccine; if you get a flash of blood in the needle, IMMEDIATELY withdraw the needle, place another needle on the syringe and choose another location. The flash of blood means that you have entered some sort of blood vessle (most likely a capillary). If you continue to inject, your are directly putting the vaccine into your pets blood this can cause your pet to have a life threatening anaphylactic reaction (this is true for ALL pets, dog, cat, horse, etc…).
~Although most vaccinations can be purchased “over the counter) there are those that MUST be legally administered by a Veterinarian and/or veterinary professionals to be legally recognized as having been administered (few examples are the rabies vaccine and in some states the west nile vaccine for horses).
Here are some good vaccine carriers (reliable, inexpenseive, and generally know how to ship vaccinations):
-Jeffers (www.jefferspet.com)
-Omaha Vaccine Comp. (www.omahavaccine.com)
-Dr.’s Foster and Smith (www.drsfostersmith.com)
