As a follow-up to Jean Dodds vaccination recommendations:
Since I do not take my dogs into heavily wooded areas, they are in our backyard or in open agility fields this is the protocol I follow.
1. I now give only distemper and parvo to puppies and the same at one year of age.
2. I do not treat for fleas except when travelling. I have not seen a flea on my dogs since we left Toronto over 15 years ago where we lived in a sandy area.
3. I do not use tick meds since they take 48 hours to kill the ticks. The damage is done by then. Removing them is the only viable option.
4. I test regularly for heartworm, but I do not give heartworm medications even when we are in Florida. It takes at least a week (research says ten days, but I am being conservative) of temperatures over 70 degrees for a larvae to mature in a mosquito. Rarely do we have that many hot nights. Once the temperature drops below 70 degrees the larvae dies.
