I chose to go down the regular vaccination /flea/worming route ,as you say some conflicting stories on the matter.
I have received conflicting advice on this subject including from the breeder of my latest dog .
I would be grateful for your thoughts and experiences on this matter .
I have owned and loved my dogs over the last 20 plus years and have followed the vets reminder without question until this year .
Now I have a dilemma as a result of the conflicting advice and research results .
The dog that is due for the jab has had 11 years of boosting vaccinations .
Thank you in anticipation of your responses / time .
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I chose to go down the regular vaccination /flea/worming route ,as you say some conflicting stories on the matter.
I've probably read the same conflicting advice but I've always done it, too. A case of better safe than sorry. Besides anything else it's one of the conditions of the insurance policy.
And don't the vaccinations have to be up to date for stays at boarding kennels?
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A friend who’s a vet said “first 7 years, do it” forget the reasoning behind it but....
Vaccinations needed for where I take Loki, not kennels but a dog sitter. Always keep up to date with flea, worming, kennel cough etc....although he hasn't had many yearly ones as his only 18 months😁
We vaccinate our dog and the kennels we use require. Bear in mind that kennel cough is a live vaccine and our kennels won’t accept a dog until 3 weeks after the booster. We found this out when we had the kennel cough booster one week and took him to kennels the following week. The kennels refused to take him which was awkward as we were flying away on holiday the next day. Thankfully friends and family helped us out.
My daughter works in a vets and has seen some very sad cases due to non-vaccinations. There are some very nasty diseases and infections in the animal world.
The only reason not to vaccinate would be if a titre test shows immunity to still be at the correct levels.
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Every year.
Why would you stop? Really?
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I agree, there is lots of conflicting advice and something we struggle with every year with our three, primarily due to concerns about 'overdosing' the animal with potentially harmful and unnecessary volumes of chemicals which are no longer required, if they already have adequate resistance to the 'problem/infection' already anyway.
We were under the slightly misguided impression that the dog received a booster shot of everything every year, but that is not the case.
Speak to your vet, as we were reassured that not all vaccinations are now given every year, unless it is essential or recommended to do so based on ever-changing veterinary advice.
Despite our concerns, our three still have their annual boosters.
We do NOT do kennel cough though.
1) that could be more expensive (blood test); furthermore, it would need to be an accredited lab and they are few and far between, thus creating a worse bottleneck than it already is (because of... Brexit!)
2) it would still not meet legal requirements whether to go abroad or to kennel the dog.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
We don’t like the idea of over vaccinating so we do a blood test...
Last year 1 dog need the vaccination, but the other showed enough antibodies that he didn’t need further vaccination.
We do the same with the horses and worm treatment, you can send a sample of horse poo to a lab, and they do a worm count. The results dictate if the horses need worming or not..
Bought a vac for life and ask the vet each year what is actually needed, some things are skipped as being up to date. Kennel cough is not covered though. As he doesn't go into kennels and doesn't really mix with other dogs I stopped the kennel cough now he's five.
I don’t bother with an annual dog vaccination.
To be honest, I don’t even have a dog!
HTH
Most places that care for dogs won’t except them if they not up to date with vacations, so most people end up having them for this reason.
When I was young we had a dog that didn’t have any more after the puppy vacations. He lived to 18 and was very rarely in the vets do to illnesses.
The dog we got after had the yearly ones and got Sick nearly every year and died at 9.
The next dog same again so my mum didn’t bother with the yearly and has never been ill.
I see it’s like the human drug companies all about money!
https://dogsfirst.ie/health-issues/d...ations-part-1/
Thank you all for the spirit of the meaningful replies.
The variance of responses is most useful .
The dog in question is 12 years old a now retired ( well deserved ) working black labrador who is suffering from age related arthritis and general aches and pains ( turmeric based “Joint Aid” food supplement has given him a new lease of life compared to 12 months ago , however he does not go into kennels and I do not wish him to suffer at all .... from either over or under medication ... as he has been and is a star and cost is not an issue .
Thank you all for your time and meaningful input .
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Annual vaccinations include a yearly health check so that is one reason to keep them up. Then you have the kennel requirements.
When a dog gets older s/he could get away without yearly parvo and distemper but if they go for walks along rivers etc. probably best to keep the lepto up as this is a really nasty disease (spread by rats). Since most vaccinations are all in one it is probably just safer and more straight forward to keep them up.
There is zero risk of “over vaccination”. In dogs or humans!
I am an ex vet.
Last edited by johnthemull; 17th January 2020 at 01:05.
Know little about dogs but curious as to why vaccinations are annual unlike most human vaccinations given once or twice as a child.
Are the vaccines slightly different each year as viruses evolve (like flu vaccine)?
Some are annual, others last longer. Also, at the moment it has to meet pet passport standards for the country. A few years ago, the rabies vaccine was good 3 years on the continent and 1 year here. Then it became 5 years here while still 3 years on the continent. Funny thing is, it was and still is the same vaccine by Merieux
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
It is not always so simple to follow that school of thought either though, as quite a lot of veterinary research is funded by the animal pharma companies.
We all know it goes on, but are brainwashed with such huge amounts of 'science' and advice that it becomes overwhelming, particularly when there is SO much information available nowadays.
I may be a bit more sensitive to it though, as I have just watched 'The Dallas Buyers Club' 2 days ago.....
There is a meme I posted several times, about the consequences of not vaccinating children.
The same can be said for pets. It’s a choice you make. The risks are reasonably low for some (rabies, if you accept you will not be able to travel abroad with your pet) and significantly higher for others (KC, Leptospirosis, depending on where you live).
If money is the deciding factor you may want to contact animal shelters/charities which may be able to help.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Yep we do. Not sure if it’s absolutely necessary but the dogs mean too much to us I’m not taking the risk.
Considering how much value they give to the family I think it’s a small price to pay.
Cheaper then over priced Nikes ,Xbox’s and expensive tech for the teenage kids!!
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Yep, agreed and exactly what the vet said. Can't say he never meets another dog when out but he tends to avoid them and we go off the beaten track, so the risk is reduced. Man reason for not having it is that he hates it and going to the vets was becoming a real problem, he's fine with injections but goes loopy when they go near his nose.
Taking our 8 year old lab for hers tomorrow. It is a condition of her insurance that she has her annual vaccinations. Also I think it is good for her to get a check over from the vet anyway once a year. Our dog is getting a bit old for kennels now as started getting nervous so we don't put her there through choice anymore but at least we know she has all our jags should something unexpected come up and she needs to go there for a night or two.