Vaccination schedules

The time has come for me to make a decision about whether to give Cox his annual booster as his previous vaccinations expire this month.

Cox, at 2 and a half years old, has had the normal puppy jags, and then the standard puppy jags again exactly a year ago.

Although I have not 100% made up my mind, I am reaching the conclusion that personally, I am more comfortable with not giving him annual boosters. I am therefore interested in hearing from people who do not follow an annual booster schedule on how they protect their animals.

The intervet website now states that some vaccines for dogs are now licensed to provide 3 years protection against parvovirus, hepatitis, and distemper, but helpfully does not say exactly what type of vaccine these are.

I also understand that recent research (I'll have to find the reference) states that one the dog has had the puppy jags and then a booster after 6 months of age that protects it for years, if not life (at least for the above 3 diseases).

That leaves the lepto vaccine - all sources I have read say that protection fades after 12 months, if not earlier.

Parainfluenza vaccine - I'm not sure about how long that lasts.

Putting all this together, I think I would only be willing to vaccinate Cox every 3 years against the parvo, hep and distemper at the most, but undecided as to whether to leave that much longer.

The lepto vaccine troubles me because to be effective it needs to be given at least every year, but it is the most dangerous one so far as frequency of bad reactions to it go. I just don't know whether to give this one or not.

Sorry for the longish post, I just wanted people to know where I am coming from. So those of you who don't follow the standard annual booster protocol, what do you do?

Cheers!

I don`t have the boosters done - never have had. I`ve had dogs for 40 years - maybe we`ve just been lucky, but I`ve a deep suspicion about my dogs needing boosters when my kids never did. I`ve not got a problem with the vaccinations - just the boosters. When I needed them for a club I used the homeopathic nosodes from my vet instead.
Insurance is affected only if the dog contracts the disease you would have boostered against, and some kennels don`t accept nosodes but I don`t use Kennels and as I say we haven`t had any outbreaks near us. It`s my understanding that the Lepto doesn`t cover all strains and doesn`t last 12 months, so it`s a bit of a lottery anyway.
I think it needs to be each pet-owners choice - I`m just saying what I do, not advising anyone to do the same.

My dogs get boosters every year but they don't get everything every year and I think you will find most vets do this

All mine get the puppy shots and then that's it for life for my crew. There is alot of evidence out there now that suggests boosters are purely for pharmaceutical company and vet profit, nothing to do with immunity.

It also depends what the vaccine is for - if it is a viral infection the vaccine will last for life. If it is for a bacterial infection, the vaccine will not last for life, however re-vaccination still may not be necessary.

If you think about how the body works generally and with vaccines; they inject a tiny amount of the disease and the body creates anti-bodies to protect against it.

Once those anti-bodies are created for viral infections, you don't need to create more, the body doesn't work like that!

There's tons of info on this around the net once you start digging - for now, here's a link to get you started!

http://www.caberfeidh.com/Revax.htm

Far too simplistic an explanation and therefore misleading, No DOI studies are available that suggest immunity is longer that 3 years even the hallowed R Schultz in his latest work is stating this

So why weren`t my kids re-vaccinated every 3 years? Just wondering...

Because your kids are not dogs and there are DOI studies that confirm immunity will last for longer than the duration for which we have data in dogs.

Personally my tetanus is renewed every 5-10 years all others tend to be boosted as required before travel except Hep B which just won't produce any antibodies at all so I keep getting stuck - damn it

I really don't know on this one. We've stopped giving boosters to our eldest (14), as she had a bad reaction last time and although the cause was never confirmed, to us, it's not worth the risk. A day or so after the she'd had the injection, she became very fearful, rejected her normal walks, and began 'wandering'. It took a long time for her to return back to normal - it was like a temporary senility. She also has bad arthritis, which some have linked to over-vaccination, but it's probably more like old age.

As for the other two, I have no idea. Although our vets insist on giving the whole vaccine again, not just the booster if you don't give the booster within 18months or something - is this normal?

I do also wonder, who would fund studies into duration of immunity/over-vaccination in dogs? I know who wouldn't be funding them..!

As for Dr. Schultz, do you have any links to the reseach he's basing his latest opinions on?

Thanks for the info - I`ll stop trying to tick and worm them.
So why does immunity last longer in humans than other mammals?

I have heard of lots of people titre testing and their dogs still have imunity above 10 with just puppy shots
The studies just havent been done because it is not in the interest of the company to stop getting the money
THe immunity dosent not last as long - its just the studies havent been done
I had a long chat with my vet, she does the main ones every 3 years and lepto yearly
although she confessed that it is only effective for about 3 months anyway - so most of the time the dogs are not protected anyway

I declined