View Full Version : Pet Vaccinations ?
Hi all
So we have 2 dogs, aged 12 years and 2 years. We've always kept up on their annual shots but have been reading lately that they may not need them EVERY year....I'm especially concerned about our older guy; could his having his shots every year end up being more harm than good? Any experience / advice, folks? Thank you!
Sometimes I don't vaccinate my senior citizen dogs except for rabies which is required by law.
My father only vaccinated our dogs for rabies in order to get their license. Never had a dog live older than 9. But that was more likely due to a lack of routine vet care as he used the rabies clinic in town and didn't take them for routine exams.
Personally I have my dog get all her shots on a routine basis. She'll be 10 in November.
Hmmm.....that's a good question. I even forget what's all included. We've always gotten them every year for our pets. I get the kennel cough vaccine for our dog too, just in case we have to go out of town quickly. We haven't needed to board her in years, but you never know. And some kennels require you have that vaccine a certain amount of time before boarding.
I know this isn't a vaccine, but I quit giving my cat the flea and tick medicine, because he always acted strangely for a few days after the pill.....really out of it. So we just took our chances. But then he became in indoor cat and we didn't really have to worry.
We actually had this discussion with our vet for our cats. He knows we keep them in the house and do not bring in any additional animals. If the dogs go walking and could be subject to other dogs then it is a more problematic.
This is a lifestyle question and cannot really be answered by others. Just like humans, it also depends on where you live and what diseases the vet is seeing coming into his/her practice.
I've mentioned my friends and their uber-healthy cats who visit vets only for neutering and the (rare) illness. I feel the same way about vaccinations for pets as I do for humans--I'll consider them on a case by case basis. When/if I have another cat, they'll probably get a rabies shot. Funny how animals seem to need immunizations every year when humans--even with the ridiculous number of "mandatory" vaccines--don't.
One of my cats breaks out in a rash every time she gets shots, so I've been trying to minimize it. Both cats act strange for a few days, so I wonder about the side effects. I do the rabies one because I have to per MA law.
The vets always make me feel like a bad pet parent for not going the full gamut. I think the risks are low for them , other than for rabies which they could encounter with the critters who live around the property,
We take our dog once a year for a checkup which includes a heartworm test, nail clipping, kennel cough/rabies shots and get the heartworm pills and anti-tick drops. We have done this basic health routine with all our pets over the years. They have lived long lives in great health with no difficulty ever in boarding them plus I always have a vet certification that our pets are safe should anyone have a concern about rabies or anything else. We also are fortunate to have a great, common sense and modestly priced vet service.
Some people spend money on things that I find strange in priority but basic vet care for our dog is important to me.
treehugger
6-13-12, 7:49pm
Some vaccinations are of course important, and rabies vax are required by law (for dogs), but I prefer to assess the need for them on a case by case basis, just like for humans.
I'm glad we only need to give a rabies vax every 3 years here, and our dogs don't need bordatella (kennel cough) since we never board them. I do keep them on heartworm pills, but I don't believe the yearly test is necessary since we never skip a dose. We adopted our dogs as adults, so they came to us with all the necessary puppy shots taken care of. We are lucky here in California that we don't have to worry about a lot of the diseases domestic animals get in other places. Our groups' greyhounds being brought in from the Florida tracks, for instance, all have to be treated for...something noxious that I can't remember the name of now.
My cats are strictly indoor cats so, with the support of my vet, we don't even vaccinate them any more (they had their kitten shots).
Kara
...
Some people spend money on things that I find strange in priority but basic vet care for our dog is important to me.
It's never been about money for me. I'm very conservative when it comes to medication for myself or for my cats.
Tussiemussies
6-13-12, 11:11pm
In the pet Holostic community vaccinations are very controversial. My dog around the age of eight developed a big tumor at the vaccination site and it had to be removed. Some Holostic vets feel that over vaccination is killing cats. What you can do is have your dogs' blood titrated every year to see if they actually need the vaccine. We did this with our dog and she did not need a rabies shot that year.
Although it is controversial we do live in a country area now so we do vaccinate her regularly, there are many animals around, whereas before we lived in a town with barely any wildlife around so you might want to take location into account too.
There is a wonderful Holostic vet that I follow Dr. Karen Becker, she is wonderful in her work with animals and has quite a lot of imformation that is not being given by the pet medical community.
You may want to follow her.
Tussiemussies
6-13-12, 11:13pm
Here is Dr. Becker's URL:
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/dr-karen-becker.aspx
I have had a dog die in my arms of distemper, watched another's die of parvovirus, so for what it's worth I don't mind giving my dogs (who are very social) their annual DHLPP and 3-year rabies. I'm aware there are horror stories on both sides, but for me it's just a cheap insurance policy against "just one more thing that can go wrong".
Thank you all for the replies! Our dogs are super important to us and we want the very best for them (we are child free by choice so the pets are IT! lol) so it's important we do the best thing for them at all times. We're considering all the research and are leaning toward no shots or possibly just rabies for the 12 year old... still thinking about the 2 year old....
Funny, growing up, we lived in the woods & I don't think any of our dogs went to the vet ever...they all lived well into the double digits, with our collie-malamute mix living to 17! Hmmm
The best defense against illness is robust good health, which natural food sources and exercise in fresh air and sunshine support. Too many vaccinations, stressful vet visits, processed food, and too little outdoors time are all powerful stressors, and contribute to ill health, IMO.
The best defense against illness is robust good health, which natural food sources and exercise in fresh air and sunshine support. Too many vaccinations, stressful vet visits, processed food, and too little outdoors time are all powerful stressors, and contribute to ill health, IMO.
I agree wholeheartedly. We've always made their food & treats; they're super healthy pups--the more I read about vaccinations, the less I want to have them administered!
We read and use only holistic vets and our understanding is that the first rabies vaccine lasts for life, and that all vaccines can cause them big health problems, which has happened with two of our dogs, who we had treated for vaccinosis.
When I adopted my dog, she had all the basic shots and boosters up til the age of four, when I got her. After that, I think she had one rabies vaccine. Eight or nine, maybe ten years later I titered her for rabies and she still tested high. Seven years after her last distemper I had her titered and she tested high also. My dog developed mammary gland cancer and my holistic vet wrote rabies waivers for my town to avoid getting her vaccinated. Dr. Dodds is doing a Rabies Vaccine challenge to see just how long they are effective.
I think most vets want you to vaccinate because it makes you bring your pet in for a visit at least once a year; w/o that, many owners may not do annual checkups.
I totally agree with the health and diet being a great help. My dog was raw fed for most of her life, minimally vaccinated, no flea/tick/heartworm meds and she lived to fifteen; her only health problems were breast cancer (probably because she was spayed late by previous owner) and a brain lesion. There are lots of articles floating around about the effects of overvaccinating. I believe my late cat was hyperthyroid because of annual vaccines (although she lived to nineteen).
Thank you all again for the replies!
Between this post & our researching the vaccines recommended by our Vet, we made our decision:
Took lil one in for SOME shots yesterday while our 12 and a half year old sat it out at home.
We'll decide whether lil gets shots in the future....
I always figured if I had had human kids, they would be the unvaccinated, homeschooled kind heh. Since my pups are my kids, well.....
:)
try2bfrugal
7-11-12, 11:41am
We have a new dog and have been having to make the same decisions regarding shots, drops and pills. We delayed on the tick medicine until he we found a few ticks. That made the drops the lesser of two evils. He also gets heart worm pills. Our last dogs had that and they lived to ripe old ages. We use Heartguard.
Rabies and distemper are required by law where we live so we did those. We talked to the vet about what to get in order to take him to the dog park and the vet recommended we add in the bordatella, so he will get that soon.
So my list is Heart guard, Advantix, rabies, distemper / parvo, and bordatella. If he wasn't going to the dog parks or be boarded I would skip the bordatella. I also would have skipped the Advantix if ticks had not been a problem. We are just kind of playing it by ear. We found a vet through Consumer Checkbook that was highly rated for price and quality and they do not have the big, scary laundry list of vaccines that the corporate vet clinic we first saw tried to talk us into.
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