Vaccinations are critical in minimizing the chance of your American Bulldog catching a deadly virus.
Intestinal parasites/worms are extremely common in canines, especially puppies. Maintaining a strict deworming schedule in tandem with the vaccinations is imperative.
A dog with loose stool / diarrhea is experiencing some sort of disabalance as an organism. Regardless of whether the loose stool is caused by an infection, toxins, worms/parasites, or any other conceivable reason, the bottomline is that the dog’s immune system is compromised.
Cautions:
- Never administer a vaccine to a dog that doesn’t have solid stool.
- Unless tests have been run to eliminate all other plausible causes for the loose stool and worms/parasites have been diagnosed as the reason, never administer a dewormer to a dog that doesn’t have solid stool.
- Follow dosage requirements when administering a dewormer based on the dog’s age and weight. An overdose of the dewormer will be toxic to the dog and may cause serious complications, especially in a puppy.
- Never administer a flea/tick medication to a dog that doesn’t have solid stool.
- Fleas are known to be parasite carriers. If a dog has fleas, there is an elevated likelihood of parasites as well.
- Never overlap multiple medications discussed on this page. Usually a gap of 10-14 days is necessary after dewormer administration until a vaccine can be administered. Give at least a week between administering a vaccine/dewormer and flea/tick medication.
- Some common symptoms of gastrointestinal parasites are: 1) Dog sliding around on its butt 2) Loose stool with some clear mucus and/or light-color dots (parasite eggs) 3) Bloating 4) Vomiting 5) Difficulty gaining weight despite ample food 6) Hiccups
- A dewormer is usually only effective at killing the parasites, not the parasite egg/larvae. If a dog is confirmed to have parasites then chances are the dog also has unhatched parasite larvae. Typical parasite life cycle is 10-14 days. This means that a parasite will lay its own larvae 10-14 days after the parasite itself has hatched out of an egg. Therefore a dewormer must be administered at least twice, 10 days apart, to kill off any newly hatched parasites BEFORE they have a chance to lay their own eggs.
- It is important to understand that stool tests for parasites that are done by the labs that veterinarians use can ONLY detect the parasite eggs/larvae inside the stool sample. False negatives are not rare. If the dog happened to excrete the parasite eggs/larvae in previous bowl movement and the eggs are not present in the stool sample, the test results can come back indicating no presence of parasites. We have even seen dogs throw up worms whose stool samples came back clean. Therefore, we encourage less stool testing but strict compliance to regular deworming schedule. As a rule, every vaccination must be preceded by a deworming 10-14 days prior.
- Some geographic areas may have some prevalence of Giardia. Despite official classification as a parasite, it is immune to regular dewormers. Giardia is a single-celled organism that is highly infectious. Typical treatment for Giardia is a course of an antibiotic called Metronidazole. Typical symptoms include loose stool and spots of fresh blood in the stool. Panacur’s efficacy against Giardia is typically limited.
- If you have multiple dogs in your household, ALL dogs must always be dewormed at the same time and on the same schedule. If one dog has parasites, then in all likelihood all dogs have parasites, even if asymptomatic.
- We also recommend that all family members in a household with dog(s) take prophylactic human deworming medication such as levamisole (Decaris, Ergamisol) or Pyrantel Pamoate on an annual basis.
Vaccine we use: Merck Nobivac® Canine 1-DAPPvL2+Cv (Galaxy DA2PPvL+Cv). - Canine Distemper, Adenovirus Type 1, Adenovirus Type 2, Parainfluenza, and Parvovirus – Modified live virus
- Coronavirus Killed virus
- Leptospira Bacterin (L. canicola & L. icterohaemorrhagiae) – Inactivated bacteria
- Protects against all known strains of canine Parvo
Dewormer we use: Novartis Milbemax. - Milbemax is FDA approved and clinically tested on 75 breeds of dogs including ivermectin sensitive collies
- Broad-spectrum anthelmintic drug for treating and controlling all kinds of gastrointestinal worms AND heartworms
- This oral treatment is safe for breeding dogs as well as lactating and pregnant bitchesHere is the vaccination/deworming schedule that we practice at our kennel and advise all of our owners to follow:
- Birth until 8 weeks old – multiple dewormings (Milbemax) administered by us.
- 7-8 weeks old – First vaccination (DAPPvL2+Cv). We administer this vaccination ourselves to avoid the risk of any kind of infection arising from taking un-vaccinated pups to a veterinarian.
- 9 weeks old – deworming (Milbemax).
- 10 weeks old – revaccination (DAPPvL2+Cv).
- 12 weeks – 3 months old – Rabies vaccination and final revaccination (DAPPvL2+Cv). Rabies must be done at the vet as you will need an official certificate. We believe that vaccinating a pup against Rabies at 16 weeks (4 months) as is typically done by vets in the United States in incorrect. At 4 months old, the puppy’s immune system is compromised due to the change from baby teeth to adult teeth. We never vaccinate on weakened immune systems. There are two possible negative outcomes: 1) Because the immune system is weakened, the puppy does not develop enough antibodies against the virus. This means that your dog may not be protected from Rabies despite having been vaccinated. 2) Because the immune system is weakened, it is further compromised from the vaccine itself, and the puppy may be more susceptible to various infections including viral, fungal, and bacterial. The repercussions of administering a Rabies vaccine at 4 months old, during peak change teeth, may result in permanent damage to the dog’s immune system function. If unable to vaccinate against Rabies at 3 months old, then we recommend waiting until after the puppy is 6 months old.
- Deworming every month until the dog is 6 months old. Then deworming once every 3 months.
- Annual revaccination (DAPPvL2+Cv), always preceded by a dewormer 10-14 days prior.
- 2nd Rabies vaccination is done at 15 months old, one year after the first Rabies vaccination. Thereafter, Rabies vaccination is usually administered once every 3 years. Again, these vaccinations should always be preceded by a dewormer 10-14 days prior.
Flea/Tick medication we use: NexGard and Bravecto. - NexGard can be administered to a pup as young as 8 weeks old. Administered monthly until 6 months old.
- Bravecto can only be administered to a pup older than 6 months. Administered every 3 months.
- Advantages of both NexGard and Bravecto include their effectiveness against demodicosis also known as demodectic mange or demodex.