Dog vaccination costs

[M001]

My mistake, i thought they did or used to.

I remember getting a card from my vet yearly reminding me that vaccinations were due?

I know the insurance requires the vaccinations are upto date and obviously if they are to go into kennels.

[bexVN]

They are done every year but we don't vaccinate against everything every year like we used to. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my previous post.

[M001]

It wasn't you, it was me not reading it properly!

[bexVN]

No worries . I am the worst for not reading posts properly and then having to hastily edit a reply!

[nick_j007]

M001 said:

I've read a few reports that having a pet vaccinated yearly is unecessary and just a money spinner for the vets and vaccine manufacturing companies? After all it's rare that humans require yearly vaccinations, tetanus, yellow fever, etc.

Are the pet virus's that virulent that they need a constant booster? Surely nowadays modern medicine means not?

I don't boost my dogs at all.

[Mrs Grumpy]

M001 said:

I've read a few reports that having a pet vaccinated yearly is unecessary and just a money spinner for the vets and vaccine manufacturing companies? After all it's rare that humans require yearly vaccinations, tetanus, yellow fever, etc.

Are the pet virus's that virulent that they need a constant booster? Surely nowadays modern medicine means not?

Some diseases - such as Parvovirus and distemper - are killers. A really horrible death too As Bex has said, some vaccs are required annually and some every three years. You could titre test instead to see if your dog has immunity, but I think the costs are similar.

Personally, I would rather vaccinate unless I had a good reason not to. Most (all?) kennels and training classes will require your dogs to be up to date with vaccinations.

[M001]

I would rather have mine vaccinated than not and as you say, it's required if they have to go into kennels.

I just think that as with humans, they should be able to manufacture one vaccine that last years?

From a vet's point of view it would be interesting to know exactly what they vaccinate for and the timescales between. I assumed it was the same vaccine every year, but as bexVN says, this isn't necessarily the case.

[bexVN]

There are diffrent vaccine brands out there so I can only advise on protocol on what we ue but here goes. All puppies will have at least 2 vaccinations (sometimes 3 3rd for parvo if high risk early or later if low pick up in certain breeds)

These vaccines cover:

Distemper, Hardpad, Parvovirus, Parainfluenza (a severe strain of kennel cough) and leptospirosis.

1st booster is all of the the above.

2nd and 3rd booster is just Parainfluenza and leptospirosis, this is because these are bacterial infections so immunity to them is shorter.

Steps 1,2 and 3 are then repeated throughout life.

The only way to guarantee coverage of the others would be to do blood test titre levels every year, some dogs will keep immunity and others will drop. It is generally thought to be safer to advise the above vacc protocol (and cheaper!)

The above is a simplistic take on vaccines (ie I've not explained which ones are live, which attenuated or killed and why)

Personally I've never seen a case of eg. distemper in 20yrs because of good vacc programs. I still see too many parvo cases and it has bouts where it flares up, there are different strains I think and the vacc covers the most severe.

I would never risk not vacc for this alone, pups most at risk and adults that have never been vacc, however we do see adults that have lapsed vacc pick it up as well.

Hope this helps a bit.

[M001]

That's great, thanks Bex.

I didn't realise there were so many and that the bacterial infection immunity was shorter.