Titre Test, So relieved I had It Done

A couple of weeks ago I had Milo my 16 month little Jack Russell blood (titre) tested to see if he needed his yearly boosters, after losing my last 2 dogs Chocky and Kizzy at such young ages to auto immune disease, I now believe to have been caused by immunising religiously each year when they may not have needed it.
Anyway have his results back.

For Parvo a high titre result for no vaccination to be given is 128 his result was 4096 . He has incredibly high immunity already.

Distemper Again high titre result is 128 his was again showing incredibly high immunity at 1448

The CAV-2 he had a moderate result of 64% which means he has no need for a booster at present but advise to have levels checked again in a year, which I will.

Just so glad and relieved I didn't go shoving uneccesary vaccines into his body and maybe causing him other problems. (phew)

Bev

Hmm very interesting! So what will you do now, do you wait to see next year?

Just out of interest how much was it, seems better to do this than vaccinate every year just for the sake of it.

Yeah, I'd like to know how much that costs. It would have been crazy to revaccinate in your case!

It cost me £46.02 which included everything, the consultation and blood being taken, lab fees for Glasgow University and to go back and be given the print out and have them explained to me.

I will have him tested again next year as the CAV-2 result was moderate showing he didn't need the jab this year but it may drop showing he needs it next year.
If all are high results next year I will most likely have it done every 2-3yrs.
The vaccines can be given seperatly though so if some are high and one is low you can just have the low one done.
My 2 dogs that died of auto immune disease from vaccinating when they probaly already had high levels of immunity cost me over £11,000 in total in a year to try and save them, so i think £46.02 is a small price to pay to stop them suffering the hell they went through. if only I had known about titre testing then.
I have also just phoned up a few boarding kennels and explained the titre tests to them and they will take my dogs as the test results show more than a vaccination card that they really are covered against these diseases.

Bev

Wow, I had never heard of the titre test... I thought it was either take the risk vacinating or take the risk and leave it.. i'm so glad there's a middle ground.. thank you for posting, I will look into it for my little pup for next year

GW

I wonder if rescue centres would be the same? Part of the reason I do mine every year is because a lot of the big rescues ask for proof of vacc before you can rehome!

And I never know when the urge might take me to rescue another mutt!

I'm just thinking about having Banjo's titre levels done before his booster's due as we've just been diagnosed as being addisonian and really I'm in a quandry as to what to do, the vet says he'll be ok to booster :smt104 but alot of people with addison affected dogs have advised me to have titre levels tested and not booster I work at a boarding kennels and Banjo comes with me .... Really don't want to risk his health but really don't want to risk leaving him home alone either! :smt017

I'm guessing it'll cost me a little more than £47 for him to be done as his blood tests for his electrolyte levels cost £100 +

I'd never heard of titre tests before I started lurking on doggie websites! But I think it's got to be a good thing not to overload dogs with vaccinations, I know I tortured myself with the ones my kids had (MMR mostly!) And I'll have them bloodtested when they're teenagers to see if they're immune, so why not for my dog?

BTW, you just cleared up a little niggle I had, I had my application to join C****dogs refused when I declined to give them very personal information via email, and now I've seen the way your thread descended into a bitchfest over there, I'm glad I joined here instead!

Vicky

Thanks for your post - very interesting and good news for you.

great news and well worth the test .........just goes to show eh ?