When it comes to keeping your dog as healthy as possible, vaccines play a crucial role. For most pet owners, keeping up with vaccines is easy, as it's a routine part of their vet visits managed by their veterinarian and care team. But for some pet owners, going into the clinic every time their dog needs a shot or vaccination has proven to be inconvenient and has led them to seek out other options, like giving their dog vaccinations at home.
How to Give Your Dog Shots at Home – The Safe Way
Can You Vaccinate Your Own Dog?
The short answer is technically, yes, but there is quite a bit of nuance that comes with that answer.
You should always speak with a veterinarian before administering any shots, like insulin or vaccines, at home. Your veterinarian can help you determine if at home vaccinations are safe for your dog, what techniques and dosages should be used, and when and how shots should be administered. At the end of the day, your dog's health is too precious to risk by leaving veterinary professionals out of their care plan.
3 Important Steps When Self Administering Vaccinations to Your Dog:
1. Select a Reputable Vaccine Manufacturer
Not all vaccines are created equal. Those wishing to vaccinate their dog at home should use high-quality vaccines that have been shipped and stored at refrigerator temperatures, mixed immediately before use, and administered at recommended ages and frequencies.
Vaccine manufacturers that we recommend include:
2. Handle At Home Pet Vaccines Properly
Upon receipt of your order, check the shipping box for temperature – the ice packs may be soft but should be cool. Refrigerate the vaccines immediately upon receipt.
If expired, made up too far in advance, or not shipped and refrigerated correctly, discard vaccines. Vaccines contain living virus and bacteria – they are fragile and ineffective if not handled with care.
Vaccines should be stored in a refrigerator, on a back shelf, not on the door where there are temperature swings. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature stored. Vaccines that are too warm or too cold in storage may have an increased risk of adverse vaccine reactions or failure. Keep the vaccines refrigerated until just prior to use.
3. Understand How to Administer At Home Pet Vaccines
Some vaccines are in a single vial of liquid. Some require reconstitution – mixing the lyophilized (freeze-dried) cake with the matching liquid portion. In these cases, the liquid may be just a diluent, or it may contain vaccine antigens. Only use the diluent that comes in the same tray or package as the cake – do not mix and match. Some vaccines come in multidose vials. Use only a one-use sterile needle, drawing up the recommended volume. Roll or shake these multidose vials before drawing the vaccine into the syringe.
Do not mix vaccines together unless the manufacturer has them paired up.
Using a new needle and syringe – usually a 3 cc syringe with a 22 g needle, push the needle into the vial with the liquid and aspirate the entire contents of the vial. If you need to reconstitute the vaccine with the diluent, push the needle into the vial with the dried cake, let the fluid enter the vial, roll to mix, and then aspirate the entire one cc contents back into the syringe. Keep the needle sterile until use. Administer within a few minutes after reconstitution. Do not makeup in advance of administration.
Some vaccines are intended to be given as a subcutaneous (SQ) injection, some for intramuscular (IM) injection, and some for oral or nasal administration. Take great care to administer by the route intended by the manufacturer. Do not give intranasal (IN) vaccines or intraoral (IO) by injection.
Administering vaccines in specific locations has the advantage of making tracking adverse local events more easily. In our practice, we administer DAPPv and Leptospirosis over the right shoulder, Canine influenza, and Lyme disease over the left shoulder, and Rabies in the right rear leg. Avoid injecting into the scruff of the neck; instead, vaccinate over the shoulder off the center of the dog's back or neck. As long as you track and are consistent with the administration site, you will better be able to report reactions to the manufacturer. All adverse reactions should be reported either to USDA or the manufacturer.
Veterinarian Vaccination Tips
- When handling litters for vaccines, place all pups in one enclosure, then transfer them to a second enclosure as they are vaccinated. This way you will be certain you have vaccinated each pup once and have not lost track of who is and is not vaccinated or one who has been given a vaccine twice.
- Most single-dose vaccines have a label that can be peeled off and saved to record the manufacturer, lot, and serial number. This is important for the future owner to share with their vet and to use if there is a need to contact the vaccine manufacturer (vaccine failure or adverse event).
The Pros and Cons of At Home Pet Vaccination
The Pros
The primary reason that pet owners try to administer vaccinations to their pets on their own is the cost. When owners purchase a vaccine and administer it to their dog or cat in their own home, they eliminate the fees of a vet visit and the service costs associated with a professional administering the vaccine. For the average owner that has one or two pets, these cost savings can seem negligible; however, for those with multiple pets or larger breeding operations, the elimination of a vaccination service fee can incur great cost savings, tempting many to go the at-home route.
Other pet parents are motivated by the appeal of not having to physically go to the vet in order for their pet to receive the necessary vaccinations. The reasons for this range from distrust of modern veterinary medicine to owners wanting to spare their dog or cat the stress of a car ride and time spent in the waiting room.
The Cons
While you may save some money doing dog vaccinations at home, you also create the potential for several new risks that would not be present if the vaccinations were administered by a licensed and qualified veterinarian.
Two of the most common issues that can arise are related to incorrect administration and adverse reactions.
Incorrect Administration
The average pet owner is not specially trained to handle and administer shots and vaccines like a veterinarian is, creating a larger margin of error when pet owners choose to give their dogs vaccinations at home.
When vaccines are administered incorrectly, a dog can become susceptible to a number of health complications, ranging from mild to serious. These complications can include:
- Dermatological reactions and issues
- Nerve damage
- Infections from improperly handled equipment
- Vaccine failure
Adverse Vaccine Reactions
Adverse vaccine reactions can come in several forms and can impact your dog's overall health in a number of ways.
You may want to discuss limiting the number of antigens your pup or dog receives at any one given time. Too many vaccines at one visit can overwhelm the immune system. If you are doing your own vaccinations, this is easy. If you are having your veterinary professional vaccinate your dog, consider splitting the vaccines up across more than one visit. You may have to pay for an additional office visit, or your veterinary clinic may allow these split vaccines to be given by one of their technicians. Even if your dog has previously handled many antigens at one time, it could backfire at an upcoming visit. When discussing this, count the number of antigens given. For example, the DAPPv vaccine has four antigens. The Leptospirosis vaccine has 4 antigens. Rabies has one antigen. Count up the total. Some vaccines play nicer with other vaccines, such as the three way Bordetella vaccine. Although it contains 3 antigens (Bordetella/Parainfluenza/Adenovirus), because it is intranasal and not injectable, it creates a very small ripple systemically and can easily be combined with any other vaccine.
- An anaphylactic reaction is the most acute and life-threatening reaction. In this case, the dog will suddenly, within seconds to minutes, collapse. His or her gums will be pale, may vomit, and you will be terrified. This reaction requires IV fluids and drugs. In most cases, the dog will make a rapid recovery with supportive care.
- A second and more common reaction will occur about 45 minutes to a few hours after the vaccination. The dog will have significant facial swelling, starting at the lips and moving back to the eyes and ears. There may also be vomiting. Rarely, there can be difficulty breathing. These patients will respond well to diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and/or prednisone.
- A third reaction can be swelling and pain at the injection site, starting a few hours to a few days after the vaccine is administered. This generally requires little to no treatment.
Because you cannot predict which dogs and when a dog will react, it is best to vaccinate your dog; you do it yourself when there is a nearby veterinary clinic open and available to manage adverse reactions. Many vaccine manufacturers will cover the cost of supportive care if the vaccine is administered at a veterinary clinic.
Rarely do we see long-term vaccine adverse events, including immune-mediated diseases.
If your dog has had an adverse reaction, you should discuss which vaccines should be given individually, with a pre-medication, or at all, with your veterinary professional. In some cases, your veterinarian may suggest you eliminate some vaccines altogether.
The Legitimacy of At Home Pet Vaccinations
Additionally, when opting to do pet vaccinations at home, you run the risk of not having the vaccine manufacturer support that you would have if the vaccine was purchased and administered by a veterinary professional. In these cases, if your dog contracts a disease that is supposed to be prevented by a vaccination you administered yourself, a majority of vaccine companies will not cover any medical costs. So, in the long run, you may save money by including your veterinary professionals in your vaccine program instead of trying to do it yourself.
But that's not where the potential issues created by at home vaccinations end. Some veterinarians, boarders, or even groomers will not "respect" the vaccines administered by the owner or breeder or the nomograms done to time puppy vaccines. This discrepancy can cause major issues when trying to work with certain hospitals or pet care industry vendors and may end up incurring more costs in the long run.
When it comes to some non-veterinarian-administered vaccinations not being recognized as legitimate, the same can be said for some state governments. In fact, states that have legislation requiring rabies vaccinations stipulate that these vaccinations must be performed or supervised by a licensed veterinarian in order to be legally recognized. This means that at-home vaccinations, in this case of Rabies, are neither recognized nor recommended.
When to Skip the At Home Vaccinations and Head to the Vet
While at home pet vaccinations may be safe for some dogs or cats, they're not right for every single pet. There are a number of factors that can make dogs poor candidates for receiving vaccinations outside of a veterinary clinic. These can include:
- Young puppies needing their first round of vaccines
- Dogs who have a history of adverse reactions to shots or vaccinations
- Dogs who are pregnant or are nursing
- Dogs who are currently being treated for illnesses or other health complications
Remember, your veterinarian is specially trained to manage and administer vaccines. No matter how attractive the cost-savings or convenience of at-home pet vaccinations may seem, there's never a good reason to leave your veterinarian out of the conversation when it comes to your dog's care.
If you have questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (920) 269-4072, or you can email us at [email protected]. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram.