Does anyone here NOT vaccinate their dogs every year?

[WriggleJiggle]

If so, would you mind telling me why?

I have vaccinated the dog every year without even thinking about it, but then I started to wonder why. Is there any independent research that suggests vaccination is not a good idea. I can imagine there is quite a lot to suggest it should be done (and probably sponsered by the drug companies).

lol @ you lot "just forgetting"

NB you should all check your MOT

You mean you don't all note on your calendars your:

pets birthdays
boosters due
worming due
flea treatment due?

Who said get a life?! I heard that, morningpaper!

With all that on my calendar 'tis a wonder I can still squeeze in 'dinner with Sean Bean 8pm'

My typing's getting worse

too true, morning paper, too true

writes note to self to check mot date . . .

We vaccinate our 3 dogs every year.

However, our oldest dog (he is 15!) was a bit poorly at the time it was due last year, and we were advised to leave it until he was better.
It was actually almost 3 months later when I took him back, and our vet said he was happy to do it up to 3 months late without restarting the course.

their have been studies done and the vaccinations DO last longer than 12 mths and they dont need them every year cause they last for 3-4 years. when my vet put down the wrong date then told me i would have to pay for the 2 injectons again that is ridiclous, it was the vets mistake not mine that is when i made up my mind not to have her done and reading the studies. an injected dog CAN die frm what the injections a meant to prevent.

In 14 years of clinical practice I have never seen a dog die from a vaccine. I have seen dogs die from parvovirus, leptospirosis and distemper however. Yes it is possible marie, but the safety/risks of the vaccines vs the risks of diseases to me are pretty convincing.

Someone asked why animals do not have lifelong immunity like humans do - actually it is disease specific in humans and not all things we are vaccinated for last a lifetime. In animals the immunity varies according to the disease vaccinated for and the vaccines given each year are varied to contain those that are required at the particular time based upon those administered previously. As for "why exactly 12 months" - as people we work with regular units of time. Immunity will reduce over a period of time and the interval needs to be set such that a high percentage of individuals receive their boosters before immunity dips too low to be effective and respond appropriately to just a booster (hence the need to restart vaccines in some cases). If the interval is deemed to be at about 13 months for example then the annual vaccine will be recommended. If it is say 25 months then biannual vaccine etc. People do not work on "odd numbers" of months in terms of remembering things and as you can probably see from the thread, even on an annual basis there is a high percentage of owners that forget to get the vaccines done.

We had are dogs vaccinated this week, but am still not convinced by the need. I think its a very good way of getting the animals regulaly seen by a vet. Part of ot os that I've never heard of any dogs actually getting these diseases in RL.

If you read back in this thread, wrigglejiggle, you'd see that i've been involved with quite a few deaths due to parvo recently. And in November we had an alsatian die from lepto. Excuse my ignorance, but unless you worked at a vets, how would you really hear of any dogs dying of these diseases in RL - it's hardly the type of stuff news programmes or papers report on (although our recent parvo outbreak did make the local news).
Finally, what's so bad about getting your pets seen by the vets regularly?? Good pet healthcare should be about prevention, not treatment. At these annual checks, a lot of things can be found by the vet that would have otherwise possibly gone unnoticed until too late - like tumours, heart disease, many internal issues that only a trained professional could find. If the annual booster charge is roughly £50, is that really too much to pay for peace of mind??
It seems to me a lot of people (in RL as well), get pets, but expect their upkeep costs to be minimal & really begrudge paying to keep in the best possible health.
Having a pet is a choice & a luxury. Not a necessity.

Have a good weekend

I am a vet and left the hospital where i work last night having euthinased a puppy dying of parv. i admitted an adult dog with parvo yesterday who also has pneumonia from inhaling his vomit. There are 2 other dogs in the ward all suferring the horrible disease that is parvo. They vomit profusely and usually have bloody dirrhoea- like turing ion a tap in the worst cases.
We have dogd dying from parvo in our hospital on a frequent basis. This is not becuase we are bad at treating it- it is because it is a terrible disease!
I also saw a puppy die from lepto yesterday, he was a few months old

all these animals are obviously unvaccinated and sadly live in an area where parvo is a massive problem.

where you live is important in deciding whterther or not to vaccinate-
FWIW all my pets have been vaccinated as per the guidlines - i'd hate to see my lvoley pets die from preventable diseases.

I'd avise people to speak to their vets and see what they advise.

If you live in a parvo/lepto area then i'd advice vaccinate vaccinate vaccinate.

but maybe in an area where the risk is lower you may get away with vaccinating less often.

But my thoughts are to get the correct advice for your pet each time, not to listen to a bunch of people on an internet forum who have no idea about you, your pet and the area you live in..

Exactly, oops. I believe these forums can be useful for minor issues and behaviour queries, but where an animal's health is at stake, and especially if it's potentially life or death, then it's the owner's responsibility to seek veterinary advice.

Parvo is VILE and a horrible horrible way for a dog to die. There are areas in the country where it is more common and dogs do build up some immunity as they get older (this was deemed true when I trained as a vet nurse but research may have moved on). But they then become more vunerable as they get older so the window is pretty small.

I'd get them done every year simply because if they do get the illness they are particularly horrible, the death rates are high and the treatment very expensive.

BUT disclaimer here - I havent been a vet nurse for some years.

There is a form of cat parvo panleukopenia. We got a kitten who came with the illness and died after a few days, very suddenly. Months later my OH bought home another kitten. 2 days later I found him very very ill with the same illness. Luckily and lots of money later he recovered. But it shows how strong that virus is and how long it hangs about. Its not like I dont clean my house! (in fact I am a bit obsessive).

when i vaccinate my kids, I play fast and loose with the recommended times between vaccines. it's pretty much never a problem. so the vaccines can be spaced out a lot more than it says in the red book

yet when I turn up with my cat for her booster a few weeks late - oh, we have to start all over again. really??? or 'oh sorry, we have to #charge# you all over again'

so cat has only had 1 lot of vaccines and won't be getting any boosters, she'll have to take her chances. do worm and de flea regularly but then you can buy those over the internet. vets wouldn't even sell me them without her having her vaccines

Wrigglejiggle - have to agree with PP. This diseases are a huge problem in most surgeries. I worked in a large charity hospital and our iso wards were full of parvo and lepto dogs. All spent the whole time with stuff coming out of both ends.

Fecal vomit is a particularly distressing symptom of parvo. The dogs have a particular smell and look about them which I have never forgotten.

Animal care is very expensive but thats part of having an pet. If people are on a low income they can go to PDSA or RSPCA but they shouldnt get an animal without costing in the price of vaccs. Thats like getting a dog and complaining they havent got the money for dog food.

It interests me that things like Parvo are so widespread. Vets always seem to have lovely displays in their waiting rooms about weight control and microchipping in cats and dogs, but it would be interesting to be educated about other things as well.

The standard response to vaccinations whenever I have questionned it has always been something along the lines of 'the drug companies say you should, better to be safe than sorry', which although I have always gone along with, certainly isn't as hard hitting as hearing that these diseases are still very much a problem.

May be other surgeries do things differently .

Morocco - the starting again thing with vaccines seems to depend on the surgery. I have been 6 weeks late and had to complete the full course again, yet at another vets have been 3 months late and continued with just a booster.

And, i also really really want to advise against just googling something and then reading the first few pages.

What one needs to ameka sensible informed decision about anything is to know that you are looking at peer reviewed up to date papers.

I googled lepto and the first page of results I got were petinfo type websites that are just the opinion of a person, amybe a vet, maybe not.
There was ONE paper in that group- about raccoons and lepto in man in washington.
If you look, you'll see the difference. To get an sceintific article into a reputable journal one needs to submit it to the journal, It is then read and discussed by a number of other professionals who question and check the results and only if it is a viable paper will it be included in the publication.

This is a far cry from somebody posting some stuff on an internet page- which we could all do very easily.

Yes, there are debates about whther or not to vaccnate every year, there are discussions about which diseases to vaccinate against in any given animal. the drug companies so far still recommend year vaccinations- and many vets follow the manufactuers' recs to the letter. imagine if they didn't and your pet died of one of the disease that can be vaccinated against- you'd be livid.

It's a mine field- honestly, there's been very big discussions here and in the USA.
And then biggest, most important advice I can give on an internet forum is that these diseases do exist. Animals (and people in the case of lepto) do die from thses illnesses each year.
Your pet may be massivley at risk if for example it is a puppy or young unvacciinated dog and is from an unvaccinated mother and you bring it to live in certain areas of (eg) London and then your bring in some dog poo on your shoes or let the puppy out in the street by accident. This is a classic parvo situation in my experience.
If your dog is 7yrs old and goes out in the filed in the back of your garden and rarely meets any other dogs and had its first vaccs, then it probably isn't at such a high risk. But if you live near water, and there's alot of rats then maybe it is at risk of lepto- the sort we cna and the sort we can't vaccinate for...
I could go on...

The pont I'm trying to make is alot of you haven't had your pets vaccinated and the risk for your pet is low, so it's probably fine. But you didn't knwo that specifically.
Your advice may mena that somebdoy else decides not to vaccinate their new puppy and then it dies in a pool of bloody vomit and diarrhoea in a year's time- but ypu'll never know that is how it worked out for that dog.

Speak to your vet and take advice about the disease risks in the area you live in... and evaluate the "advice" you find on the net- look for proper papers and read them as critically as you can.

It takes 5 years to train as a vet and we aren't all money grabbing gits- most of us just want you to have a nice life and keep your pets as healthy as we can.

Now I am going to agree with YOU wiggle . Most people I know have never heard of the diseases and do not know why their animals need them. Its simply not a consideration when the aquire an dog.

I think there are many people who own dogs who are not dog lovers IYSWIM. They would not of dreamt of owning one before staffies became a status symbol. Of course some do love their dogs but the majority in my area know nothing about animal care and have desire to find out. Vaccinations, worming etc are waaaayyyy down on their list of priorities and therefore the rates of these highly infectious diseases can only rise.

Dooomed, we all doooomeed I tell you

I have my dogs vaccinated every year, but not my cat. That's because he HATES going into his box and wees and poos in it and gets very upset.
(my dogs are staffies, btw, chegirl - and they are not in any way a status symbol for us - more of an embarrassment really!!!!)

oh, and not all vaccines are the same company- there are a few comapnies who make them.
So the advice on revaccination after a lapse may well be different depending on the specific vaccine the vets use. (I don't specifically have this info to hand- so i could be wrong there)