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I recommend that you ask your vet to do a thorough examination of your dogs mouth. Poor oral health can lead to many serious health problems, like heart disease.

As far as vaccines… I truly believe we over-vaccinate our pets. I only vaccinate my dogs for Rabies (by law), Distemper, and Parvo (mostly because of my line of work). I run biannual heartworm checks via a 4DX Snap Test.

It has been proven that these so-called “annual” vaccines last a lot longer then one year. For example, I titer and have several friends who titer. We have found that the Distemper vaccine lasts anywhere from 3-7 years! If you are not comfortable with titering you can safely request that your dog is only vaccinated for Distemper every three years.

I MUCH rather treat my dog for kennel cough and lyme disease then vaccinate them against it. There are SO MANY different strands of kennel cough (like the common cold) and the vaccine only protects against one strand. Most times when dogs have kennel cough they are not even prescribed any meds. Kennel cough is a VIRUS… and like humans… you need to let them run it’s course. However, if a young pup or an older dog is diagnosed with kennel cough we most likely will send home antibiotics to kill the bacteria that attaches to the tranchea which speeds up the healing process.

As far as the lyme vaccine…. it has been my experience that the vaccine is worthless. Most of the dogs who are diagnosed with lyme are UTD with the lyme vax. That should tell you something!

I also do not vaccinate for lepto (because it has the highest incidence of vaccine reactions) or coronavirus.