s owners and operators of animal enrichment centers like doggy daycares, boarding facilities and training centers, we all require some level of vaccination for the dogs visiting our businesses. For example, all you need for a dog to join your daycare group is proof of rabies, distemper, kennel cough and a temperament test.
Seems pretty simple, right? The pet parent will bring in a printout of vaccines and due dates, and then you can update your software. Well, Mrs. Jones arrives with Rocky and hands you that printout. You scan the proof of vaccines looking for familiar words, but come across something more like this:
Some vets will use the specific trade name of the products they carry such as Novibac Intra-trac 3 IN, but that can cause issues when a vaccine is on backorder and alternatives are used. Others will default to a reasonable compromise of names like DA2PP, DHLPP, Intranasal Bordetella and Rabies Vaccine 3-year. So as the vaccine gatekeeper at your facility, you are left with an alphabet soup of names and descriptions.
In this article, I will attempt to explain the important parts and decipher the names you may come across to at least give you the information to ask the right questions. We will cover what I consider to be the “core vaccines” of animal enrichment centers: Rabies, distemper and kennel cough vaccines.
Rabies is generally the easy one. Every facility needs to enforce the rabies vaccine. Rabies presents a public health risk and a risk to your employees, as it is a virus that can pass to people, and it is always fatal for both pets and people. The only acceptable proof of a rabies vaccine should be the rabies certificate—not a receipt from the local pet or feed store or a rabies tag. Also only accept a rabies certificate that is properly filled out and signed. If you are not sure what a real rabies certificate looks like, you can find samples online.
At this point, you should start to recognize several letters. Some of those vaccine names contain a “PP” or “PiPv,” which would be parainfluenza and parvovirus. You also can see “A,” “A2” or “H” referring to adenovirus or hepatitis.
If you keep looking at those names you may see a few more letters floating around like “L” and “Cv.” These refer to leptospirosis and coronavirus, respectively. Don’t panic—this coronavirus is not COVID-19. It’s not even respiratory and is not often used by veterinarians. With maybe a few exceptions, leptospirosis and coronavirus are generally not important for the dogs in an animal enrichment center but may be important for other lifestyle factors.
The final letter in that soup is the “r.” That is referring to a specific type of vaccine known as recombinant, which doesn’t change the components of the vaccine so you can ignore that letter, too.
To recap, keep a lookout for the D, A (or H) and two P’s. Anytime you see a reference to a 4-way, 5-way, 6-way and so on, it simply refers to the number of diseases that a particular vaccine is protecting against.
As you may know, there is not a single virus or organism that causes kennel cough. Kennel cough is scientifically known as the Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex (CIRDC) and it is more like the common cold with many different viruses and organisms that may be the cause. Unfortunately, there is not a true kennel cough vaccine that will protect dogs from all possible infections. Frustratingly, we all deal with a kennel cough outbreak at some point, but having your canine guests vaccinated correctly will reduce the incidence and severity.
All kennel cough vaccines will contain Bordetella bronchiseptica. The better vaccines will also contain adenovirus and parainfluenza. Hopefully, those two look familiar from the distemper vaccine. A unique characteristic of the kennel cough vaccine is that it can be squirted in the nose (intranasal), mouth (oral) or injected like other vaccines, depending upon the brand and preparation.
The most effective way to give this vaccine is intranasal because it stimulates a local immune response in the nasal passages where respiratory diseases begin. Fortunately, most intranasal vaccines have at least Bordetella and adenovirus, and some have the additional parainfluenza. The least effective way to give this vaccine is injectable, largely because injecting a respiratory disease under the skin misses out on the aforementioned local stimulation of nasal passages. So, ideally, dogs will be vaccinated with an intranasal vaccine that is at least a 2-way, or even better, the 3-way.
If it is a requirement at your facility, that is great. If you don’t require it, at least recommend it. And always keep a watchful eye on cases appearing in your community, at which point you will want to start requiring the canine flu vaccine.
It’s important to know your vaccines, or at least the ones that apply to your facility’s protocol. You have a responsibility to the health of the pets in your care. Consider assigning a single employee to be the “Vaccine Czar” so they can develop a deeper knowledge and assist other staff in correctly understanding and recording vaccines. Also, the more knowledge you have, the more your pet parents will trust you—and your entire business is built on trust.
Dr. John Beres is a veterinarian who owned and operated a boarding and daycare facility along with his general practice for 12 years. He is now the CEO and owner of Canine Lab Testing. Canine Lab Testing partners exclusively with pet enrichment centers like doggy daycare and boarding facilities to provide Healthy Pets Healthy Packs solutions, including parasite prevention programs. He can be reached at testyourdog@caninelabtesting.com and found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/johnpberesdvm