Vaccinations:  

The Board of Directors of the Weimaraner Club of America recommends when vaccinating Weim puppies, the Distemper and Parvo shot vaccines be administered separately. Any other vaccines should be administered separately as well. While this protocol helps, it does not prevent the auto-immune response in all puppies. The shot schedule is more time consuming, but worth the effort.  

Puppy Shots:  For puppy shots I highly recommend giving a 'killed' Parvo only vaccine no earlier than 8 weeks; followed by a  single Distemper only vaccination at 11 weeks; follow that up 4 weeks later with a combo Parvo/Distemper  OR have a titer run to determine level of immunity.  If you absolutely must give a 5 or 4 way global type vaccination (DHPA) use Absolutely No Corona or leptospirosis - use sterile water as the diluents instead of the lepto. Rabies no earlier than 6 months, and the later the better, depending on your location.  This schedule is the best at preventing immune problems in your puppy...These three diseases are life threatening so I do recommend vaccinating for them, but the others are basically cold/flu type viruses and the vaccine can actually be worse than the disease.

Boosters:  The American Veterinary Association changed their policy regarding boosters a few years ago  You do not need to booster every year  and definitely should not.  A vaccine should give immunity for up to 5 years and most likely longer.  My puppies that have been titered after only 1 dose have shown ample immunity.   Use only killed 3 year rabies vaccine for adults and give it separated from other vaccines by at least 3-4 weeks. In some states, they may be able to give titer test results in lieu of a booster.  Further vaccinations do not confer additional immunity and actually can cause cancers and other diseases.

There is no reason to use  Bordetella, corona virus, lyme, or leptospirosis vaccines unless these diseases are endemic in the local area. Furthermore, the currently licensed leptospira bacterins do not contain the serovars causing the majority of clinical leptospirosis seen today. 

Also do not give vaccinations when the dog is ill, or has just had surgery, i.e. spaying/neutering.  Vaccines are small doses of disease, you do not want your dog to have to fight diseases while ill or recuperating from surgery.

Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy:     

HOD is an inflammatory disease of young, rapidly growing, large breed dogs wherein the growth areas of the bones (called the metaphysis) becomes swollen and inflamed.  Most dogs exhibit a very sudden onset of lameness, some dogs being reluctant to stand or move at all; pain and swelling will occur near the joints, with a loss of appetite, fever and weight loss occurring concurrently. Diagnosis is based on history, clinical signs and specific bone changes that can be seen on X-rays.   (There are some linking this to the reactions with the distemper vaccinations).  Large Breed Puppies should be fed a quality food similar to what adults are fed.  They should not be fed a 'puppy' food which can cause them to grow too fast resulting in bone and growth conditions such as HOD.  Raw of course is highly recommended over any kibble product.  They will grow much slower and be leaner overall. 
   

Diet 

After much research of commercial pet foods, I made the switch to raw food or what is known as the BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet for my dogs.  Dogs evolved eating a meat based diet.  Kibble is basically a grain product - mostly 40 % in order to be formed into those extruded pellets.  Also the high heat necessary to produce the extruded pellets pretty much kills all the nutrients.   Much of the allergies and chronic illnesses we are seeing today can be eliminated by feeding your dog a diet it was genetically structured to eat.   

Click here to see What Really Is In Prepared Dog Food. There are some excellent quality kibble products coming on the market - they are definitely more expensive, but will be much cheaper in the long run due to the dog being in better health. Whole Dog Journal puts out a list every year of the kibble products that meet their high standards.  So if you must feed a kibble product at least feed one of the products on that list.

I would hope that my pups would continue to be fed a proper raw diet to achieve proper growth and maintain good health.   Click on these links to see samples and more info on feeding raw:   http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm ,   http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm ,  http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.html  ,   http://www.switchingtoraw.com 

Hip Dysplasia:   

My breeding pair's pedigrees have been thoroughly researched with OFA . There is no history of dysplasia through their great grandparents as of this date.  See this link   -   Canine Hip Dysplasia

Bloat:    

Weims are one of the breeds that have a problem with this condition.  They don't yet know what triggers it, but the stomach twists and food cannot get in or out.  The stomach swells with gases and eventually ruptures resulting in death.  When you get your puppy spayed or neutered, I suggest having the stomach tacked so it cannot twist.  This does not stop bloat from occurring, but it usually stops the torsion, thereby giving a better outcome.  It is an additional expense, but should bloat ever happen, it would have been an inexpensive fix.  There is no history of bloat through the great-grandparents of my breeding pair.  Bloat is 1300 times more common since the advent of prepared dog food (kibble).