Sara- What ages do you give your vaccines? It's was always debated in my family when we had puppies. We all agreed less is more but never at what age to give.
Hi --
Not Sarah, but I'd make sure to have the last shot around 16 weeks when you can be sure maternal antibodies are gone. The reason there is a puppy series is because we don't know when the antibodies from the mum will fade, and those antibodies interfere with the pup's response to the vaccine. For many pups, 12 weeks will be old enough, but for some, they may not make their own response till 16 weeks. Why do it sooner, then? Because we want to housetrain our puppies, and because even if we kept them inside/in a yard, we can (and do) track parvovirus in on our clothing and shoes. It can live for 3 years outside, even, depending on climate, so you can easily bring it home, and if you're unlucky enough to do so between the period of the mum's antibodies waning, and your dog having a vaccine and creating a response, then your puppy is out of luck. I have seen puppies die from parvo despite intensive and excellent veterinary care.
On the Kennel Cough shot. Kennel Cough is like the flu and often the dogs that are vaccinated get it from my observations in a boarding kennel. You are always supposed to wait 3 weeks after getting the shot because your dog is contagious to others.
This is untrue. The vaccine is of a non-pathogenic (non-disease causing) strain, and no one should be getting sick from it. For the intranasal vaccine, some dogs get nasal irritation from it and can snort afterwards, but if they do any 'shedding' it will be of the same, non-pathogenic strain. What often happens is that dogs are vaccinated then put into a kennel environment and get sick before they make an immune response to the vaccine, and everyone says either "the vaccine made them sick!" or "the vaccine is worthless!" due to this misunderstanding. There are many different things which can cause 'kennel cough' besides bordetella ("whooping cough" in humans), so sometimes the dogs are successfully vaccinated for this disease but get mycoplasma or influenza and the distinction isn't noticed.
NYC has been struggling with a complex of respiratory diseases, inc. 'kennel cough' which have incubated in the city's shelter system and become drug-resistant. I live near a shelter, the dogs are walked outside, and vaccinated my dog because of that. It was about 2 years ago now, and I always debate re-doing it, but have just kept to a circuitous walk route so far ...
I sparingly vaccinate my animals, taking their risk factors into account, and Calvin (who's gotten two DAPPV shots in his 3 years of life) will probably only be vaccinated twice more in his lifetime. He's at a high risk, given our proximity to 'unknown dogs' and my line of work, so I'll use common sense there. I think it's reasonable, and there is a scientific basis for this based on duration of immunity studies.
... However, I think that it is very easy for people to shout "it was the vaccines' fault!" over every little thing, and it's tiresome and has little scientific basis. Scare mongering like in the last article posted "If your dog is vaccinated yearly for distemper, then he will receive 14 unnecessary vaccinations in his life – if he’s lucky enough to survive those vaccinations for 12 years" is ridiculous IMO. The idea that 100% of animals can be vaccinated once and have 100% immunity is just as irresponsible. I've been vaccinated for rabies, and my first rabies vaccine didn't "take" -- I had my titer done a few years later and it was non-existent. I went about for those years considering myself vaccinated, but I was an initial "non-responder." The booster did work, as we checked this time by doing a titer 6 mos later. This happens with dogs and cats too. You can do titers on animals in the same family, year after year, and get varying results on different animals.
I think in our collective history as mammals, vaccines have been an amazing, life-permitting discovery (see the eradication of smallpox and rinderpest! and reference the huge wave of dog deaths when parvo emerged 40 yrs ago) and I think exclamation-laden headlines on the deadliness of vaccines should be taken with a grain of salt.
Also, re: the vets as greedy money grubbers, they make more off of titers than they do from vax
As for Chase
he's proven he's a dog of steel, what with taking out 2 motorcycles and 1 car on his own! I think vaccines have zero to do with it--he's got the genes of a survivor.
