Hi, Kallie had her annual check up yesterday..... full blood work and the like. Thank goodness she checked out A-OK (she is 2-1/2). While she was there, the vet and I discussed whether or not to give her the Parvo/Distemper vaccine. I am concerned about the information I've been reading about a possible relationship between the shots and immune mediated disease. (I think I have the disease name correct).
There are some authorities on the Web saying that dogs have a lifetime immunity once they have one booster vaccine; however, my vet said he has never seen any research to prove it and that is what they go by.... research. AND what is interesting is that no one is doing the research because it is hard to get it funded. Normally, drug companies fund research, but what drug company would fund a project that might prove that yearly vaccines are unnecessary?
So anyway, one option was for Kallie to have a titre. The titre tests to see how much immunity she has in her blood from her previous vaccines. They look for a number 1-5 of immunity and she did have it, so I am not going to give her the shots. However, the vet said there has been no research proving that a dog with a titer result of 1-5 would not get the disease if exposed, but it is presumed that they would not.
Even though one of the diseases, I believe Parvo, is caused by eating feces of an infected dog and mine never walk on public streets, a fly could actually transmit the disease from an infected dog to my house if it landed on my dog's food bowl, etc.
Anyway, sorry for the long post.... Just curious.... what do you all do about yearly vaccines?
There are some authorities on the Web saying that dogs have a lifetime immunity once they have one booster vaccine; however, my vet said he has never seen any research to prove it and that is what they go by.... research. AND what is interesting is that no one is doing the research because it is hard to get it funded. Normally, drug companies fund research, but what drug company would fund a project that might prove that yearly vaccines are unnecessary?
So anyway, one option was for Kallie to have a titre. The titre tests to see how much immunity she has in her blood from her previous vaccines. They look for a number 1-5 of immunity and she did have it, so I am not going to give her the shots. However, the vet said there has been no research proving that a dog with a titer result of 1-5 would not get the disease if exposed, but it is presumed that they would not.
Even though one of the diseases, I believe Parvo, is caused by eating feces of an infected dog and mine never walk on public streets, a fly could actually transmit the disease from an infected dog to my house if it landed on my dog's food bowl, etc.
Anyway, sorry for the long post.... Just curious.... what do you all do about yearly vaccines?