This question was submitted during the webinar titled Time to Get Tough and "Ruff": Protecting Dogs from Infectious Disease:
Once a dog is over six months, if they come to a shelter should they get the full puppy series of core vaccines or is the adult series sufficient?
Dr. Jason Stull, VMD, MPVM, PhD, DACVPM responded:
Per current WSAVA guidelines, when the first dose of the core modified live vaccines is given at 16 weeks of age or older, only one dose is generally needed (since very low chance that maternal antibodies would interfere). However, giving two doses, 2–4 weeks apart, may be prudent as there are a small percentage of dogs that don’t develop a response with only one dose of modified live vaccine.
