what to do about dog's vaccinations

rising_from_the_ashes

zaksmum wrote: »

Thanks picklepick, yes he is insured. I never thought of that. He's only about six weeks beyond the date when he should have had them...maybe I'll speak to the vet about my concerns about him being ill again.

6 weeks over is fine for a booster - my vets will happily do them up to 15 month in between (which I do) without having to do a new course.

Check the insurance t&cs (some say vaccines are needed & others will exclude illnesses that would've been prevented).

For me, other things are ... where do you live / does your dog regularly come into contact with others / how old it is etc.

Have a chat with your vet again. Good luck, Ben was always terribly ill after his jabs so I know how difficult a decision it is.

RedFraggle

Also keep in mind that a vaccination is designed to provoke an immune response in the dog, it's body needs to react to it to develop the immunity it needs to prevent it from the disease the vaccination is protecting it against. I would rather have an animal that was unwell for a couple of days every year than one which became deperately ill with something I could have vaccinated them against.

Paradigm

RedFraggle wrote: »

Also keep in mind that a vaccination is designed to provoke an immune response in the dog, it's body needs to react to it to develop the immunity it needs to prevent it from the disease the vaccination is protecting it against. I would rather have an animal that was unwell for a couple of days every year than one which became deperately ill with something I could have vaccinated them against.

But what if you're making your pet "unwell" for no reason?

RedFraggle

Paradigm wrote: »

But what if you're making your pet "unwell" for no reason?

Just providing the other side of the coin. It's always personal choice. I've never heard of a dog dying from a routine vaccination (not saying it hasn't happened just that I'm not aware) but they can die and can be very unwell and have to fight for their lives as a result of not being vaccinated. Also depends on where you live and what contact your dog is likely to have with sources of infection. Again, it's personal choice.

Misty_Blue

Another point to consider is that if you had an emergency and needed to put your dog into kennels quickly, most wouldn't accept a dog without up to date vaccinations. Some will accept a blood test result from a vet, saying the dog has been shown to have sufficient levels of antibodies in its blood, but this is relatively uncommon at the moment.

A lot of the people who choose not to have their dogs vaccninated seem to use "but he's always been fine!" as "proof" that vaccinations are not needed. They don't seem to consider that this may well be because all the dogs theirs comes into contact with have been vaccinated, thus are preventing the spread of disease.

My personal view is that we probably vaccinate more frequently that is necessary, but I will continue to do so until a reliable alternative is available. As another poster said, I would rather my dog was under the weather for a day or two than suffered terribly from a preventable disease.

Paradigm

RedFraggle wrote: »

Just providing the other side of the coin. It's always personal choice. I've never heard of a dog dying from a routine vaccination (not saying it hasn't happened just that I'm not aware) but they can die and can be very unwell and have to fight for their lives as a result of not being vaccinated. Again, it's personal choice.

Of course it's personal choice but why would anyone intentionally inflict a day or two of illness if it's unnecessary? In the OP's case they are already aware that vaccination leads to an adverse reaction making their dog ill....

No-one has suggested not vaccinating, the initial puppy vaccs are vital! It's the annual boosters that are the issue.

Why would an annual booster be required when the AAHA has moved to 3 yearly (or longer) due to comprehensive research?

We are no longer living in the 1970's, things have moved on & the idea that an annual booster is needed is somewhat outdated.

This is not a crticism af any pet owner boosting annually but a dig at the "establishment" who seem to want to encourage pointless vaccinations despite ample evidence that they are not only useless but could be damaging.

While death from vaccination is rare in dogs try a search for "injection site sarcoma", not that rare in cats.

This is an hour long but comes from one of the worlds foremost animal vaccine/immunology experts... well worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Xd5ghnlJ4&feature=related

emma12345

Just curious, but does anyone know if there are many instances of unvaccinated dogs contracting these diseases? When I was growing up 30 to 40 years ago our dogs were never vaccinated and lived long healthy lives. Both my previous and current dog have not had many if any vaccinations beyond the original course as a puppy and so far (fingers crossed for current dog) are very healthy.

Not saying I wouldn't take my dog for boosters yearly, I probably will, I just wondered if any vets or vet nurses know if these diseases that are vaccinated against are common.

Person_one

emma12345 wrote: »

Just curious, but does anyone know if there are many instances of unvaccinated dogs contracting these diseases? When I was growing up 30 to 40 years ago our dogs were never vaccinated and lived long healthy lives. Both my previous and current dog have not had many if any vaccinations beyond the original course as a puppy and so far (fingers crossed for current dog) are very healthy.

Not saying I wouldn't take my dog for boosters yearly, I probably will, I just wondered if any vets or vet nurses know if these diseases that are vaccinated against are common.

Ring Battersea or somewhere like that and ask how often they see pups with parvo and kennel cough.

Completely unvaccinated dogs are still very vulnerable, but most who've had their initial ones but don't keep the boosters updated are usually fine.

I vaccinate mine as I want them to be able to go to training classes, agility, I want to be able to put them in kennels in an emergency and I could never forgive myself if they suffered seriously because of my failure to.

zaksmum

Thanks everyone for the input. It's quite a dilemma really. Humans don't need boosters every year when vaccinated and I can't really see why dogs should. My dog's a whippet/labrador cross and quite slimly built due to his whippet dad, and he really was so unwell last year after the booster - shaking, shivering, throwing up...the picture of misery. Only for a day and a half, but still...

It's hard to inflict that on him again. I checked my insurance and it does say they won't pay out for a condition he should've been vaccinated against. If I do have him done, I definitely don't want the primary course...that's TWO lots of the poor little fella feeling like death.

I made an appointment for Monday and I'll see what the vet says, but I'm not at all happy about knowingly making him so sick.

RedFraggle

While death from vaccination is rare in dogs try a search for "injection site sarcoma", not that rare in cats.

My friend lost a cat to that and I believe there is some evidence that some adjuvents in vaccines can cause that but other vaccines for the same illness are considered safer (i.e. it isn't the active in the vaccine that is the problem). A veterinary scientist (in Bristol I think) has been collating data on deaths from fibrosarcoma for a few years and trying to find the actual cause. The aforementioned friends vet has started vaccinating in legs where owners are concerned on the basis that if there is a tumour in the leg they can at least amputate. I would perhaps question that as all of the pre-licensing efficacy research will be based upon a scruff vaccination. Unfortunately there is no legislative requirement to look at long term affects at the injection site when registering a new veterinary vaccine for use in the UK (or Europe) they only look at acute reactions (i.e. significant inflammation and irritation at the injection site within days after vaccination) rather than what may happen later down the line.