Preventative health practices are the most cost-effective means of assuring a long and healthy life for you and your pet. Vaccination of dogs and cats has led to a dramatic decrease in infectious diseases of our pets over the years. The practice of yearly vaccination of dogs and cats has been 'standard veterinary practice" for decades. New scientific data, however, has begun to reveal that this may no longer be necessary. We have continued this practice because of lack of concrete information that indicated that we are doing harm to these pets. However, there has been mounting evidence that vaccination of dogs and cats can result in serious adverse events. The introduction of better vaccines and recent duration of immunity studies suggest that many of our vaccines provide lasting immunity and there is less need for annual revaccination in most pet situations. By minimizing frequency of vaccination, your pet will still benefit from disease prevention with a reduced risk of negative side effects.

Stone Veterinary Hospital will be changing our routine immunization recommendations. Specifically, we will still be recommending puppy and kitten vaccinations as performed previously. However, after dogs and cats are boostered a year later, these vaccinations will only be recommended every three years for the rest of your pet's life. It must be stressed that each pet's situation will be addressed individually. Some may be better protected with a continuation of annual vaccines depending on its risk of exposure to various infectious agents. Rabies vaccination will continue to be given based on current state and federal law.

Because we are still interested in the long-term health care for your pet, we request that you return with your pet for annual (as you have been doing before) physical examinations and disease risk assessments.