Vaccine Reactions in Dogs

Hey guys, my name is Dr. Larry here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital. Today I'm here with Mikko. Mikko is a French bulldog puppy and so he's coming in for some vaccine reactions. I know. And so today mom asked if there were any sort of reactions to expect with when he's getting his vaccines or his shots. And so one of the things that we do here normally is we recommend that we give only one vaccine at a time. The reason being is because vaccines are meant to stimulate the immune system. So, so that way the immune system will come and investigate what's going on from the vaccine and then go ahead and try and train the rest of the immune system on what it's found. Now, some places and most veterinarians probably will give multiple vaccines in one day. And it's not potentially going to kill your dog or you know, but for me, if they do have an allergic reaction and I've given multiple vaccines, then it's more difficult for me to identify which vaccine caused that allergic reaction. On top of which, if you're giving multiple vaccines which are supposed to cause inflammation, then you're probably more likely to have an allergic reaction. So now going on to the potential allergic reactions, one thing could be vomiting, so once is okay, but if it's happening nonstop and he wants to go down, so I'm just going to put him on the ground, guys, once is okay, but if he go, if they're going nonstop, that's definitely an allergic reaction. Two, you could see some sort of soft stool, so maybe soft serve yogurt, poop or it could go as severe as pure liquid. Then once is okay, but non stop, that's a problem. Let your veterinarian know. Then you'd also might see some soreness at the injection site. Depending on which vaccine we're giving, we usually give them in different spots so that we can track which vaccine is causing a reaction, which one's not. That can notice a little bit of a knot or a ball. Sometimes that ball can last for a few weeks, even a couple of months, or you may even notice some soreness at the injection site. The other thing that you might see is they could be sleepy. And so that sleepiness May range between 24 to 48 hours. In rare cases, sometimes it'll go as long as 72 hours. One of the other things that you may see, which is very uncommon, is something called an anaphylactic reaction. That's where the eyes swell up, the mouth swells up. Very rarely do dogs have difficulty breathing as a result of an anaphylactic reaction from vaccines, but it is definitely a possibility. Usually if that's that kind of reaction is going to happen, it's going to happen within the first four to six hours. So most of the time, if we have patients that we are boarding here, we will try to give the vaccines first thing in the morning so that we can monitor them the rest of the day to make sure that they are not going to have any allergic reaction. If you guys are concerned because you're going somewhere afterwards and you and you won't be able to monitor your baby after the vaccine, then what you can do is you can premedicate them with Benadryl. The Benadryl you'll give is 1 milligram per pound and typically Benadryl comes in 25 milligrams. Okay, you're going to want to normally give it 45 minutes before going into the vet's office. Otherwise it's totally fine to give it after the vaccine. Shouldn't really make that big of a difference. If you guys have any other questions about this particular topic, leave it in the comment box. Otherwise, if you found it helpful, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe and share. Thanks for watching and have a great day.