Dr. Lera explains why vaccinating a sick dog is usually a bad idea. Vaccines trigger inflammation, and if a dog is already fighting an infection or condition, postponing vaccination lets the immune system focus on healing. Max, a 1.5-year-old vizsla with chronic skin issues, illustrates why spacing out vaccines matters.
Hey guys. My name is Dr. Lara here at Herring Lake Samuel Hospital. Today I'm here with Max. Max is a 1 1/2 year old male, intact vizsla. And so Max came in today because he's had some on and off skin issues. And so we've postponed some of his. I'm gonna let him go back to mom just because he is. He's going to go ahead and you notice some of that panting behavior. That panting behavior is a sign of nerves. And so usually I want to go ahead and present them to you, but at the end of the day, the video today, what we're talking about is whether or not to give a vaccination when your pet has some sort of health issue going on. And so we had postponed this particular vaccination because we wanted to make sure that his health was tip top. When we are administering vaccines, typically what ends up happening is the vaccine's job is to go ahead cause inflammation, which the body will then respond by coming in and investigating what's causing the inflammation. And in turn it will go ahead and train the immune system on how to defend itself against whatever is in the vaccine. When the body has something else going on, like a skin infection or an ear infection or something more serious, the immune system has to split its attention and therefore cannot give whatever it is that is going on a 100% of its focus. So my thought process is if your pet has something going on, it's better to go ahead and postpone a vaccine instead of giving the vaccine at that same time. Now the other thing is going ahead and separating out the vaccines. I usually recommend giving two separate vaccines on different visits. And again, the reason is because we want the immune system to be focused on one particular thing and give 100% of its focus on that, you know, cause of inflammation or infection or whatever it is that's going on. Now the other thing that I wanted you guys to be aware of is that with Max, he's had this kind of chronic skin thing that's been going on for a little bit and if he is comfortable, if he's acting fine and the lesion or whatever it is that's going on seems to be pretty stable and they are doing overall well, then at that point we will go ahead and administer the vaccine. So if you guys have any questions about this particular topic, leave it in the comment box. If you found this video helpful, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe and share. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
