Leishmania Vaccination

Leishmaniosis is a (sub) tropical disease caused by a blood parasite  , present in Spain , which is transmitted by a mosquito and which can cause a crippling disease affecting the skin , eyes and organs and ultimately death . It affects especially dogs but also humans and cats.

This mosquito  feeds itself on your dog mainly in the evening hours during the moments that the dog is in rest / lying / sleeping.( unlikely when the dog is walking )

When clinical disease develops and detection is early enough it can be treated and controlled , but not cured and requires lifelong medication and checkups .

When your dog therefore has a outdoor lifestyle which involves a lot of lying outside , especially in the evening / night , you should consider to vaccinate for Leishmaniosis.

The vaccination program starts ( after a minimum age of 6 months )  with a bloodtest to screen for a negative leishmania test. When the test is negative the vaccination can be given. The vaccination is repeated yearly. This vaccination can not be done at the same time as other vaccinations ( min. 2 weeks apart )

When your dog does not have an outdoor lifestyle , he should not be vaccinated , but you should still apply mosquito prevention with for instance a Scalibor/Seresto collar or Advantix/Vectra drops and mosquito netting. This mosquito prevention should also be continued with vaccinated dogs.