Your pet is At Risk until the initial Vaccination Series is completed!
If even one of the initial series of vaccinations for your new young pet is missed or delayed, the window of opportunity for fatal disease is open wide! That’s why it’s so important to complete the initial vaccination series on time.
Help close this window of opportunity for fatal disease infection! Bring newborn pets in for all initial series visits on time! Your veterinarian will schedule this series of vaccinations to help ensure adequate protection for your pet.
The window of fatal disease opportunity in young unvaccinated pets is constantly changing. If the mother has sufficient immunity in her own system, some of this protection is passed to the unborn pet. In the first 24 hours after birth more shortterm protection is passed to the newborn when it nurses. If the mother has no immunity herself, the infant receives none.
This temporary immunity weakens over a short period of time, (0 to 20 weeks in most cases), at different rates for different diseases. The infant’s immune system begins to manufacture its own protection (immunity) when vaccines are administered if protection obtained from the mother does not “block” its own immune response.
When vaccinations are given at appropriate intervals. they help close the window of opportunity for infection because an effective level of vaccine is present at the time the infant’s immune system is able to respond.
It is not feasible to test for antibody levels for each potentially fatal disease and it is nearly impossible, even under laboratory conditions, to predict exactly when the maternal antibody levels will be low enough, and the infant’s immune system mature enough to begin producing the level of antibodies needed for protection from any one disease.