tell the truth...do you vaccinate your animals

1sue23

Flea and worming treatments yes ,vaccinations on elderly dogs no, no longer go in kennals because of age and the last time I had my elderly german shepherd vaccinated she became poorly and started to suffer from hind leg weakness ,the vet diagnosed cdrm this was two years ago since then she has not got any worse in fact hindleg weakness has almost gone ,I now put it down to the vaccinations that she had .

rita-rabbit

I don't have insurance for mine & now they are old so they have annual vaccs (I didn't when they were younger - about every three years or so). Note: 1 is an indoor cat so I didn't flea regularly until there was a massive infestation & so now do flea & worming as prescribed.

vl2588

There is evidence that dogs build up a level of permanent immunity to some of the diseases they are vaccinated against (so sorry been out of the loop for a number of years hence forgotten which ones) so when they are older they may be OK to have a reduced set of vaccinations.

I am not sure if this is the case with the cat vaccine but I doubt it as the flu ones change every year (like ours) and imagine it might be similar with enteritis.

ailuro2

We vaccinate every year without fail, she needs it done to get into the cattery, but we would do it anyway.

What we do though, as recommended on here, is stretch the year by a couple of weeks, as the vaccinations last 18 months but the vet wants a whole set rather than a booster done if you go too long over the year mark. Every little helps as Mr. T says.;) So our dear little kitty gets checked and vaccinated once every 54 weeks.:D

Tigsteroonie

I worm & flea-treat our cats on an as-needed (as spotted) basis.

I stopped bothering with booster jabs when I moved to Scotland, living a pretty rural life, knowing that I wouldn't use a cattery. A couple of winters ago, three out of the four cats got cat flu (one of them caught it at a vets and brought it home), I successfully nursed all three of them through the illness; the fourth never caught it, despite being around the invalids all the time.

I haven't bothered with boosters for my two cats in Manc either. One cat has since wandered off, never to return (I don't want to think about other reasons for his disappearance). The other has had a mild form of cat flu in the last couple of weeks, and I was on standby with syringes and wet food for nursing if necessary, but he seems to have shaken it off. I will only get him jabbed if we have no alternative but to put him in a cattery for a stay.

chocdonuty

I was up to date with my cats vaccinations ect but she became an indoor cat last august. I am wondering whether it's worth it to keep them up or to even keep up with the insurance. It's very unlikely she will go out, even less likely to meet another cat or dog to catch anything. I just don't know, how likely is it she will need them?

Sequeena

All my gals have their initial vaccinations. I don't believe in over vaccinating though so I then booster them every 2-3 years after that. I don't put my dogs in kennels (I don't go away) so there's no need for me to keep vaccinating them.

I worm when I see signs and same with fleas. I haven't had to deflea or worm for over 6 months

donnac2558

My cats are house cats and I never get the booster. Quite a few vets have come forward in articles saying if the cat/dog is vaccinated their own immune system should kick in. Therefore they do not need boosters.

I do worm and flea treat every six months.

Lil_Me_2

I have a monthly plan set up with my vets for around £23 per month which covers all flea and worm treatment plus their yearly vaccinations and six monthly check ups so yes we do both.

I noticed a few saying that they use Advocate and just wanted to point out that Advocate is great but doesn't cover tapeworms. Worth remembering to use a wormer to cover those too. We use Advocate and Droncit (both spot ons). So taking into account the monthly cost of the advocate and droncit our vaccines are pretty much free.

On the flip side my parents never give their cats or dog boosters or wormers only flea treatment.

Paradigm

I've always had my dogs from puppies & they have all had the intial puppy course with booster (6 months or whatever it is) & that's it!

Unless they have had to go to a kennel who required an up to date vaccination they've never had a booster.

There is more & more evidence that certain dog vaccinations are effective for much longer than thought...8,9,10 years or even the lifetime of the animal. So much so that many drug co's & vets are moving away from annual vaccs to bi or even tri-annual.

There is also some evidence that vaccinating when not needed can over stimulate the immune system leading to other problems, some of which can be severe.

On the other hand, research has found that the Leptospirosis vaccination may become ineffective in as little as 6 months.... yearly boosters may not be enough!

In my view the research into the effectiveness of animal vaccinations has a long way to go before it's fully understood but, also in my view, I can't believe that a dogs immune system is that much different to ours.... we only need one course of vaccs for certain diseases to give a lifetimes protection, why can't the same be true of dogs or cats?

Note: Most of the above is specific to dogs, I don't know much about cats apart from they !!!!!! in my garden