do you give your dogs their shots or do you get em at the vet?

just curious cause i just gave my dog his booster. i went to the store and grabbed it up and it was only $8
8 in 1. next time the pet store is doing a rabies clinic i will get that one done for $10.

just a heads up to people that take their dogs to the vet and get bent for innoculations. you can buy them and administer them yourself....well, all but the rabies.
i don't know why we can't do rabies but you can do all the rest.

so who innoculates their dogs and who takes em to the vet?

dude has all kinds of extra skin by the scruff so he is real easy.



for those that don't, i recco you try. it is very easy and the dog does not even feel it. it saves quite a bit cause when you go to the vet you get charged fo an office vist. then they try to clip you for stoll samples and bloodwork. the shots are more expensive.

give her a go

I gave my woman a puppy for christmas. I have to give my woman shots in the arm sometimes for migraines so why not shoot the dog up too. I know they sell them around here at the local tractor supply store. I think thats how I will go about it because the vet can take the bill and shove it Im keeping my money thanks.

reply to post by Boondock78


Thanks so much for the information. I am wondering if this is something that only certain states allow?

I have 4 dogs and spend a lot of cash at the vet. One is only 14 weeks old and lacks a gene that allows him to be suseptable to mange. He's on 3 different kinds of anti-biotics, one for eyes, ears, and skin, has special shampoo that is $11.00 for 6 oz. and takes some sort of cattle medicine for the mange that is about $23.00 for 2 oz. All that in addition to the regular immunizations, plus the office visits. He's an expensive mutt!

Then the other 3. The vet refuses to just hand over heart worm or flea meds without a yearly exam.

There is one store in Baton Rouge that sells meds like a people pharmacy, but you have to bring a script from the vet.

Where exactly are you getting these medications? Also, what is the 8 in one shot for that you gave your pal? He's cute by the way!

reply to post by Enthralled Fan


i got the shot at a place called truck and tractor supply.
as far as what is in it i would have to go get the package but the one thing that sticks out is parvo. so it is the parvo vaccine and 7 others....
i have to fire up the grill but later i will get my package out and see what all it covers.

i will do the grill in a minute.....the 8 in 1 protects against

canine distemper virus
adenovirus type 1
adenovirus type 2
canine parainfluenza virus
canine parvovirus
leptospirosis

for some reason that is all that is listed...

What about deworming can you get something from someplace besides wal-mart thats as good as the vet?

Originally posted by SoLaR513
What about deworming can you get something from someplace besides wal-mart thats as good as the vet?

that i am not sure about....i am pretty sure though that you can call your local apl or something like that and ask them....hell, pick a vet out of the phone book and call em and ask em....don't hurt to ask.

i don't know what the criteria is for stuff that we can administer vs's what the vet has to give....like the rabies...i don't know why we can't administer that ourselves....

i know here that is the only one that is required by law so maybe that is it....you go to the vet and get the rabies shot and a tag saying you got it....the ones i gave today are not required by law but it is simply good pet ownership...

i know that around here every so often there will be a vet at the local pet joint giving a 'rabies clinic' where you can get rabies shots for like $5...call the apl and ask them....that or the spca

reply to post by Boondock78


Thanks again for the information. I appreciate it. The young guy has to go back on the 18th and I am going to ask for a schedule of what he's due for after that. All the other 3 are due in May for yearly stuff.

I have tried talking the boyfriend into taking them all some place else because this vet charges $45.00 for office visits alone, but she is a relative (you would think she'd give us a break!) and he doesn't want to tick her off in case we have to go there for an emergency. Oh well....he has no excuse to complain about the cost!

Yeah Ill call around cause I know when you take them to a vet here to get shots they give them some kind of dewormer that does the job right, but I have tried all that garbage from wal-mart on various dogs I have owned and the stuff is worthless.

Originally posted by SoLaR513
What about deworming can you get something from someplace besides wal-mart thats as good as the vet?

we used to have our dogs on "interceptor" which we got from the vet.

our vet is great, he see's both our dogs in the one visit and gives them a general health check to make it worth while.

He charges bugger all too because our dog's have always been to him including for a few surgeries earlier in life so we really only get charged for med's.
(one had surgery for a snapped knee ligament, the other had 3x surgeries for entropian eye)

hes the sort of vet who tells you what med's are available and goes as far as to work out the dosage for each pet for EACH med, and tell us which is cheaper/more expensive to help us make a smart decision.

why does the vet give them the dewormer automatically.? i mean if the dog does not have worms then it don't need the meds.
when you go do they check a stool sample and all that?

i try to curb the costs as much as possible cause it does add up.

reply to post by Boondock78


You don't have to deworm unless you know they have it, however many puppies can have it at birth which is why I think many breeders prefer to do it automatically to get it taken care of so that it won't spread to other pets.

We have a store here called Petco that had a dewormer that seemed to work fine when one of my digs had it as a puppy. Check your pet supply store.

As for giving shots, my fiance and I are way to squeemish to do it. We do not trust ourselves to give our dogs their shots by ourselves.

I give my dogs all their shots, except rabies. I have to give our little pom mix insulin twice a day, so I am pretty practiced at it. It is so much cheaper to do yourself, and it really is easy just go fast and the dog wont feel it.

Our poor little sick dog, my wife just talked to the vet and the vet is afraid our little pom has cancer . That will be a sad day for us if that is true, she is the greatest little dog, but I wont allow her to suffer on with that crap. Ah just thinking about it gets me teary eyed, and my poor wife, she has been through a lot with that little dog, I fear that will hit her really hard.

Originally posted by snowflake_obsidian


As for giving shots, my fiance and I are way to squeemish to do it. We do not trust ourselves to give our dogs their shots by ourselves.

you can do it....it is very, very easy and you don't need to be a darn vet to do it...the needle is very small and you can feel it break the skin. just grab some of the scruff and get a good handle on it and stick the needle in at a bit of an angle and push the plunger....the dog can't feel it...

nothing to worry about....
about the deworm, i know they give it to pups automatically....

reply to post by gunner36


sorry to hear the potential bad news gunns. my mother just put down one of her dogs last week cause it had cancer. he had a tumor on his leg. it didn't spread but he was 17 years old and they didn't think he would make it through the surgery and all the after care and that.

just to hit 17 is an accomplishment. not a lot of dogs live that long.

i have my fingers crossed for you...

i know that my dog is my best/only friend(not counting my wife of course). he is a basset mix and i could not handle it if he came down with cancer or something hardcore like that...i would totally lose it.
hoping for the best man....good luck

reply to post by Boondock78


interceptor is a heart worm tab that does the others aswell, we mainly used it to protect against heart worm but havent in the past few yrs.

no he doesnt check a turd sample, but he does look at both ends, weigh them and all that.

they just go once a year for their regular shots.

our big boy choco' was on rymidal (sp?) for bad hips during winter but during summer we let him go without because long term use of rymadil can affect the liver, so we only use it when he's feeling real stiff in the hips when he awakes.

gunner, sorry to hear about the bad news. i could get teary eyed just thinking about life without my two lab's, dogs truely are mans best friend.

I was in the glass business for years and thought it was no big deal to dig around in my fingers and hands with a razor blade and remove foreign bodies. Never had much of a reaction to wounds and blood other than, "you oughta' get that looked at"....

But it freaked me out to stick a needle in my dog and inject them. Couldn't do it. Weird.