booster help please

was at vets last night for dogs yearly booster.was told as its 18 months since his last 1 and not 12 months as should have been he will have to come back in 2 weeks time to get another booster the same as he got last night.dog is 5 yrs old and i thought his system would have been fine with the jab he got last night.would like any advice if any 1 has had same experience as i dont want him over innoculated,any links etc would b appreciated,thanks

Your normal jab will last anything from 3 to even 5 years, and the annual booster will only cover Lepto and Kennel cough. So, if your dog will ever go into kennels then it is absolutely vital you do what the vet asks. If, however, you will not be putting your dog in kennels where it is a requirement or your insurance also says it's a requirement, then you have a choice. There are loads and loads of threads on here regarding the current dilema about boosters, and I'll try and find some for you. The main reasons being, a lot of peops are afraid of that Lepto vac, it seems to be the one causing all the problems if there are any of course, and quite honestly, it will only last 6 months max, there are so many different strains of lepto that they can't possibly cover them all, and unless your dog is going to be exposed to places where rats congretate, personally I don't see a lot of point in it. The other alternative you can have is the Titre test, whereby the vet can check via bloods, whether or not your dog carries antibodies in his immune system, and this will cost anything up to £100. It really is a dilema, and we've been discussing this quite a lot of late, but hopefully I might be able to dig something up for you. If you ask your vet what the last vaccine was your dog had, i.e. the full one, you can then look up exactly how many years it does cover you for anyway? Maybe he might even know! All the best, I'll be back with anything I can find.

hi helen thanks for that.i just didnt want him getting a double booster if it wasnt neccesary,i have had problems with this vet before so felt i had to ask others.thanks

same as helena really- the vet is in effect restarting the booster prgram, like he would of had when he was a puppy, a lot of people just get the pups first vaccination course and the have the booster a year later and thats all. My dog has a lot of health problems- i dont know whether they were brought on or made worse by vaccination but he wont be having any more. but at the end of the day it is your decision to make as to whether in the future you want him to continue having annual boosters or not. it definatly comes down to personal choice. hth

One of my dogs only ever had his puppy booster and a titre test each year since has shown he has still well above immunity to the diseases so has never needed a booster.
I think I paid around £48 for my last titre test.
I have lost 2 dogs to vaccinations because they were given when obviously not needed and caused the body to attack itself.
I personally, because of my experiences with vaccinations and knowing that one of my present dogs could have possibly have been dead by now if he had just been routinely vaccinated without checking it was needed first, would never restart a vaccination programme without checking it was needed first. My dogs that died were only 4yrs and 7yrs old and may have been alive today if I had known then about titre testing first.
My other dog had her puppy vaccs and didn't need a booster until last year.
As your dog is only 6 months overdue a booster anyway it will NOT need to restart the vaccination programme again. i would change your vet.

The only reason puppies have two sets of identical vaccinations is to ensure that the vaccine isn't nullified by maternal immunity. An adult dog does not need a double dose as any maternal immunity will have long disappeared

This isn't just my thoughts BTW, but the advice of a veterinary immunology specialist

This was from a couple of years ago, but on a similar subject:

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php...hlight=booster

So would a titre test not show that then? Be good if it did?

Yes but vets make more profit from puppy vax. I never vax without titre testing first & I even had one dog dog who never needed a vaccination at all

thanks every 1 for the feedback.the reason i asked is i was wary of this vets advice as they previously wrongly diagnosed 1 of my dogs and last night 2 of them were due thier annual boosters.both dogs were done seperately and vet was with both altogether for a maximum of 3 mins.no temperature taken,heart checked or nothing.was a straight in , jab on back of neck and next please.previously with all other vets all my dogs are given a mini MOT ie heart, weight, gums,ears etc checked before given their booster but she couldnt have been any faster if she tried.