Booster vaccinations ???

[janmk]

As i had my previoys dogs off a breeder who was dead against boosters they didnt have them. They were fully vacvinated as pups but not given boosters. My current dogs are rescues and were fully vaccinated before we got them.The vet brought up boosters today and I really dont know which way to go on this as have been reading online and there are various arguments for and against.....wondered what others thought about this ?

This is always a controversial subject, as for human vaccination.

Many of the arguments are similar to those for and against human vaccinations, so I suspect if you are an ardent anti-vaxer for your DC, you will probably feel the same way about your dog, and any arguments in favour are unlikely to sway you.

I think if you believe that magic water is a plausible medical treatment, then I'm probably wasting my time in putting forward any thoughts in favour of vaccinations. All I will say is that Parvovirus is a VILE disease, often fatal, especially for pups, and outbreaks are sadly still occurrring. Unvaccinated dogs provide a vector for transmission, a reservoir for the disease and die horribly in the process, as it's nearly always fatal.

If yu live in an area where there are other dogs or walk where other dogs are walked, vaccinate or test for immunity ( which is more expensive than the boosters ).

Why would you not vaccinate?

Surely it's the only responsible thing to do.

What reasons are there for not vaccinating? I love my dogs and want them to be protected.

The world small animal veterinary association has produced vaccination guidelines. This organisation and this particular committee are independent of the vaccine companies.
The current recommendations is full puppy vaccination course of 8 weeks, 10weeks, 16 weeks with another full vaccine 1 year after the 16 week vaccination. The gold standard would then be titre testing every year and vaccinating when needed. However, they accept that titre testing can be more expensive than a booster if this is the case they recommend distemper, hepatitis (adenovirus) and Parvo every third year.

However, they say these guidelines have to be interpreted with a view to local risk factors and vaccine licences.
So in my practice we see a lot of Parvo, leptospirosis and corona virus our vaccine shows good levels of protection with only a two shot primary course. So we do 8 and 10 weeks with full booster at one year then lepto and coronavirus one year and full the next year.
Hope this helps you to consider what to do.

I am referring to the debate on whether annual boosters for all diseases are actually really necessary ( as immunity lasts longer with some vaccines than 1 year, potentially a lot longer) and also to whether in some circumstances they can be damaging. For me this is not a straight forward argument and one I haven't yet made my mind up on. I do love my dogs and if I didn't want to do the best by them then I would not be asking this question or be looking into the research. I have also discussed with the vet who agrees that not 'all' vaccines need to be given annually and blood tests can be done to check immunity levels but these are probably as expensive or even more so than the vaccines , hence they usually just give the vaccine. Both my dogs are overdue for their booster so would need the whole set again.....I don't just want to hammer them with another two sets of injections without thinking about it. I posted just to see if there was any more thoughts/ research that had been done recently.... I am not anti vaccine just don't want to over vaccinate....

Lonecatwithkitten- Thanks for your reply and the info. I have just dug out the vaccination certs for my dogs. It looks like one had the full set Feb 12 ( at anything from 4-7 years of age) and the other had the full set in June 11 at approx 1/2 years of age. Both were rescues and the older one had been in and out of the local dogs home, not sure if they vaccinate?? Would you be recommending a full set again or just boosters/ selected vaccines?? I am reluctant to hammer them with all the vaccines again??

Janmk I would suggest you find the WSAVA guidelines online and read them. this should give you a good quality peer review of the current evidence by veterinary immunologists from across the world.
The paper is easily avaliable to download.

The dog who had a full vaccine in Feb 12 I would give a lepto now as we are less than 15 months from previous vaccination. The one who last had a jab in June 11 I would discuss with you the dog's lifestyle is it going to into kennels, if the dog is going to be kennelled then a course would necessary to satisfy local authority regulations. If the dog is not going to be kennelled and you were reluctant for a course I would give a full booster, but adv. the lepto cover may not be complete.

oops sorry meant feb 2011. neither dog will be kennelled but they do go for walks off lead and one goes into water. Thanks for your help x