There’s no reason for not vaccinating your pets. Just like children, pets need protection against easily preventable, yet threatening, illnesses.

There has been a lot of controversy recently over whether or not parents should vaccinate their children. The recent skepticism of human vaccination has in turn led to a decrease in pet vaccination. Regardless of a person’s current standing on human vaccines, one thing is evidently clear: pets need to be vaccinated.

Similar to the controversy over human vaccination, there are holistic individuals who believe that vaccination is actually detrimental to an animal’s life. These people fail to acknowledge that illnesses that were common and deadly in the past are almost nonexistent today because of vaccines.

The idea that vaccines are harmful is a hard one to believe. While there are a number of veterinarians who are against vaccinations, the majority recognize the life-saving potential and discredits the belief that vaccines weaken overall health.

“Through 38 years of managing pet diseases and seeing tens of thousands of patients live well into their teens that have had numerous vaccines almost yearly throughout their entire lives,” said Wisconsin veterinarian T.J. Dunn. “I am not convinced by experience that vaccinating has a destructive effect on the overwhelming majority of animals.”

During the first year, puppies are susceptible to dangers such as parvovirus and distemper. Both are life-threatening yet easily preventable with vaccines. It is essential that puppies, especially when exposed to other dogs, are vaccinated. There’s a reason a puppy must have its first round of shots before a breeder can sell the dog.

There’s an entire list of dog vaccinations and a lot of them depend on the age and location of the dog. There are, however, certain vaccinations that are essential. As mentioned earlier, the parvovirus and distemper vaccines are a necessity.

Distemper is a serious viral infection that is easily passed from canine to canine either through direct contact or from an infected environment. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially in younger dogs, but easily preventable with a vaccine.

Parvovirus is another highly contagious and fatal viral disease that is common with puppies. The symptoms include vomiting, bloody diarrhea and severe dehydration. It is similar to a puppy flu but can lead to death if not treated immediately.

In addition, every pet needs to be continuously up to date on their rabies vaccination.

Rabies isn’t really a common disease today but that is thanks to vaccinations. Regardless of the likelihood of a pet contracting rabies, unvaccinated animals are still a hazard. When a pet doesn’t have its rabies shot humans are put at risk.

There are countless vaccines for different sorts of pets, but its important that they are not taken lightly. Before deciding to not renew a vaccine, make sure to talk to a veterinarian.

Most vaccines seem useless because the chances of contracting severe diseases are low, but that is simply because of the effectiveness vaccines having in preventing illness. Most of the fatal diseases are difficult to recognize the symptoms early on and are often too progressed once veterinary medicine is sought.

Bottom line, deciding to not vaccinate not only puts your pet at risk but other animals and humans as well. Animals aren’t able to protect themselves against diseases, so make the right decision.