New owners of recently acquired puppies and kittens often bring the newest members of their families directly to the pet hospital for a checkup to ensure the pet is healthy. While this takes place daily in every country, a unique situation we see in China is that nearly all of the owners of purchased pets were told by the sellers or breeders that their pets are already fully vaccinated and won’t need additional shots. The pet vendors and sellers in China are largely unaware of the proper vaccination schedule for pets and so start vaccinations much too early, meaning the puppies and kittens are improperly vaccinated and inadequately protected against common infectious diseases such as canine or feline distemper virus and parvovirus and even the deadly rabies virus.

Our puppies and kittens need to be vaccinated to protect them against infectious diseases that they may be exposed to in their daily routines. Vaccination is particularly essential in China as the pet population is largely unvaccinated at this time. A low vaccination rate means that there is a higher rate of infectious disease within pets in our community. We recommend vaccinating all pets against rabies and distemper annually. The canine distemper combination vaccine protects against the distemper virus and several other infectious diseases such as hepatitis, parvovirus, parainfluenza, leptospirosis and coronavirus in dogs. For cats, the feline distemper virus protects against feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, and panleukopenia virus. Our recommendation for annual vaccinations extends to both indoor cats and dogs that rarely go outside as some of these viruses may be spread by fecal matter tracked into the house on soles of shoes.

Young or previously unvaccinated animals must be vaccinated several times in order for them to develop a sufficient level of antibodies for protection. Vaccination must be performed on a certain time schedule to develop immunity against a disease. We vaccinate starting at six-eight weeks of age to protect the animal should they have received insufficient protective antibodies from their mother.

If a young animal still has high maternal antibodies the initial vaccines will not stimulate the immune system, as the maternal antibodies will neutralize the vaccine. The age at which the maternal antibodies are low enough for the vaccine to stimulate the immune system is different for each animal. Based on the science of immunology, we vaccinate in a series of injections (called booster vaccinations) approximately every three-four weeks until an animal is 16 weeks of age. If we were to merely wait until an older age to start vaccination, the animal could be at risk of infection because the maternal antibodies may be too low.

So for a six-eight-week-old puppy or kitten, he or she would receive three injections of the distemper vaccine at three-four week intervals and then the rabies vaccination when they are at least three months (or 90 days) old.  The time period between each booster vaccination is also important. If given too closely together, vaccines can interfere with each other and insufficiently stimulate the immune system. Your veterinarian will make recommendations for your pet’s vaccination schedule based on your pet’s age, breed, health condition and medical history, before providing a tailored vaccination schedule for you to follow and take with you. Following these recommendations closely is crucial to protect your pet against infectious diseases.

To ensure the safety and quality of vaccines for your pets, please take your pets only to officially designated animal vaccination hospitals. These officially designated animal vaccination hospitals are issued a bronze plaque from the Agricultural Bureau that must be displayed prominently for all pet owners to see. The animal rabies, distemper and other vaccines used by officially designated animal hospitals may only be sold to them by the Agricultural Bureau that acts a vaccine distribution monopoly and controls all vaccine imports and sales to designated animal hospitals. Any other outlets cannot legally purchase rabies vaccines, and so their only recourse is to purchase vaccines from unsecured illegal channels where the vaccines may be counterfeit, expired or improperly stored and therefore, ineffective.

By vaccinating our pets against zoonotic diseases such as rabies, we are also safeguarding human public health. Click here for more information on rabies awareness and prevention.

You can follow ICVS on Weibo, Twitter and Facebook.

Mary Peng is the Co-Founder & CEO of International Center for Veterinary Services (ICVS).

This post first appeared on thebeijnger.com on July 30, 2014.

Photo: thebeijinger.com

On June 25, I got a WeChat message from my roommate. Jonny and his friend Jan had found a puppy all curled up in a paper bag hung from Jan’s bike handlebars. The person who left him there had written in Chinese on the bag: "For a good-hearted person to take in." Jonny and Jan brought the puppy to our house, toweled him off, and made sure he was warm. The dog was dirty, exhausted, and smelled faintly of urine, but above all tiny.

We speculated about the puppy’s age and what we should feed him. Jonny asked his mom over Skype while Andrea (our other roommate) and I "ooh" and "aah"ed over our new charge. He peed on us a few times, but we were too enamored to care. Jonny and Jan nicknamed him "Baxter Wang Hund" to reflect his British/Chinese/German surroundings.

We knew couldn’t keep him. Not only were we too busy with work, but Andrea was mildly allergic to dogs. We posted about Baxter on Facebook and asked if anyone could take him in. The response was swift. One friend wrote "Send to Canada!" and another "I’m literally dying here … AAHHHHH I want a puppsie wuppsie!" One person came over to see him that very night. Clearly, Baxter wouldn’t have trouble finding a good home.

Mary Peng, the co-founder of the International Center for Veterinary Services, also saw our message on Facebook. She offered to give Baxter a free physical exam; as a rescued dog, he also qualified for ICVS’ discounted vaccination program. The latter gives 60 percent off on all the shots needed during a dog’s first year of life.

A few days later, Jonny and Jan took Baxter to ICVS. Jonny called at some point; there seemed to be some confusion about the price of the physical exam. He passed me to the Chinese-speaking receptionist, but the details were too technical to understand. I hung up and called Mary. She was caught up in a meeting, but would help us find out what was going on as soon she got out.

When she called back, it was with bad news. "I’m so sorry, Sijia," said Mary. "This puppy is very, very sick." I was shocked; after all, we were just trying to confirm whether the physical was free. Turns out it was, but the vets had found something terribly wrong with Baxter; the receptionist was just trying to tell us that further treatment would cost more.

Baxter was diagnosed with canine distemper, a viral disease that initially infects the respiratory system but can move on to the digestive system, nerves, and brain. The canine distemper virus (CDV) spreads through the air from coughing and sneezing and through contact with infected bodily fluids like discharge from eye and nose discharge, feces, and urine.

There is no known cure and puppies are especially vulnerable. According to the ICVS website, fatality rates are "as high as 70 percent among puppies and dogs with weak immune systems or a poor history of vaccinations."

Yet, the diagnosis itself wasn’t the most heartbreaking part. The general consensus is that puppies should only be separated from their mothers at eight weeks of age or older. Baxter was only three weeks old. In addition, marks on his skin suggested that he’d received treatment before ICVS.

The most likely story is that Baxter was taken from his mother too soon, kept in a crowded environment that was a perfect breeding ground for disease, and peddled to an unsuspecting customer. His new owners soon realized there was something wrong with him, took him to an animal hospital, and abandoned him when they learned how futile and expensive treatment would be. "This is an all-too-common story in Beijing," said Mary.

Since there is no cure for CDV, the only thing that ICVS can do if a dog is diagnosed with distemper is to support the animal’s immune system as much as possible. Antibiotics may be administered if there’s a secondary infection, but the veterinarian will focus on helping the immune system fight off the disease on its own. Combined with early diagnosis, many dogs survive CDV but end up with lifelong health conditions. The most serious include “degeneration of the nervous system” and “progressive deterioration of mental abilities and motor skills” (Wikipedia).

A more conservative person might say that the chances of survival for a 3-week-old puppy were very low. In effect, they were next to nothing. I called Jonny to relay everything I’d found out. I told him that the decision should be his and Jan’s, since (a) they found Baxter and (b) were at ICVS with him.

Eventually, they made the difficult decision to put him down. To say that we were heartbroken was an understatement. Andrea had taken care of Baxter day in and day out at home, while Jonny and Jan had been attached to him from day one. Perhaps because of his impossibly small size, we’d all felt extra protective of Baxter.

There was anger too. Anger at the thought of a puppy being taken from its mother so young, anger at people for supporting this industry (however inadvertently), and anger that Baxter would never get to play fetch, chew on a shoe, or become someone’s best friend.

We’re constantly told by animal shelters and hospitals to adopt, but that never really sank in until we found a dog, loved him, and lost him to a cruel disease. We have no illusions about the fact that stories like Baxter’s will continue to happen again and again in this city, but you can help bring down those numbers:

• Adopt, don’t buy. Beijing has a huge overpopulation problem with both dogs and cats. With so many animals in need of a home, it’s frankly cruel – not to mention irresponsible – to support the repulsive pet industry. Click here for our March 2012 feature on where to adopt.
•  Spread the word. Did your friends just buy a tiny, adorably puppy from a box on the street? First, find a polite way to tell them that that was a dumb move. Then (because dogs are forever), refer them to the next and final point.
• Vaccinate your puppy. Puppies should get their first distemper vaccination between six and eight weeks of age, then continue getting the booster shot every two to four weeks until they’re 16 weeks old. They will not be protected against CDV unless they complete the series. This is crucial; owner irresponsibility is a major contributor to CDV outbreaks.

To find out more about canine distemper and other diseases, visit the ICVS website. Mary and her staff will be happy to answer all your questions.

Photos by Andrea Caballé Pais