E-Vet Clinic - Dog Health Care

Is your dog being overvaccinated and your vet is not following the new guidelines? How many of you are still getting annual “shots” for your dog? Has your vet told you that there is a “new” protocol for vaccinating your dog? I say “new” loosely because the guidelines have been around for over 5 years now! That is beside the point, lets just go with the new guidelines given out by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) last year in 2006.

First, a bit of information about the vaccination of your dog - many dog owners know about getting rabies for their dog and then “another shot” some people call it their distemper shot, others call it their parvo booster. Well to be honest the most common other vaccination given to your dog besides rabies is a 5 or a 6 in one shot. Meaning there are 5 or 6 different types of diseases your dog is being vaccinated for in one shot. The common acronym for this vaccine is DHLPP and sometimes added in there is a C. The letters each stand for a different disease – D=Distemper, H=Hepatitis (also known as Adenovirus), L=Leptospirosis, P=Parvo, P=Parainfluenza, and C=Corona. In future posts I am going to go through each of these diseases and tell you about the vaccine for the disease and its effectiveness – you will be surprised!

For the new guidelines lets take the three core vaccines, the three that your dog should be vaccinated for Distemper, Parvo and Hepatitis (Adenovirus). After your dog has been initially vaccinated for these three core diseases usually as a puppy and then a year later with a booster, your dog has prolonged immunity against those diseases. What do I mean by prolonged immunity, well the research shows, your dog is immune for 6 to 9 years!

That’s correct! The research done by reputable immunologists, such as Dr. Ronald Schultz, shows that after the initial puppy vaccination and a one year booster many dogs are protected for the majority of their life. Similar to humans isn’t it? But I digress; let’s get back to the new guidelines given out by AAHA. Their suggestion or guidelines after puppy vaccination and the yearly booster is that the three core vaccines, only need to be boostered every three years. So according to the guidelines, instead of annual revaccination, your dog really only needs to be revaccinated every three years.

In fact, did you know, annual vaccination of your dog can cause severe diseases. Overvaccination has been linked to cancer, allergies, and other auto-immune diseases such as Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia. More research needs to be done but many of the recent studies show these links exist. In fact, in cats, overvaccination has been proven to cause sarcomas, a very severe cancer.

So now the question becomes, if the vaccines have been shown to produce immunity that lasts quite a bit longer than what was originally thought and annual vaccination might be the cause of certain allergies and other immune system diseases including cancer, then why has my vet not told me about this? Why am I still being pestered to have annual vaccinations done? Why when I am late on my vaccines does the front desk make me feel like a bad dog owner? Unfortunately, the answer is money, if not money then it is pure ignorance on your vet’s part. Yes ignorance, as in not current in their education or just an unwillingness to change because the old way is the way things have always been done. Money is the other answer and no it is not because veterinarians are greedy, but rather in many veterinary offices, 33% of the annual income comes from vaccinations. This is a large percentage of income that with the new guidelines will be cut. Veterinarians are not prepared for that kind of an income cut. Many could go out of business. Many clinics do not have the management skills or their other services are not priced correctly to compensate for that kind of an income loss. So changing to the new vaccination guidelines although would benefit your animals health can be a tough business decision for the owner of the veterinary clinic. Just remember though you have a responsibility as a pet owner for the health and well being of your pet and less vaccinations IS better for your pet, regardless of the business problems that some clinics may have going to the new guidelines.

Be prepared for a change in the veterinary industry, services will be offered more frequently. Wellness panels, which entail annual blood tests for internal organ function (kidney, liver, pancreas, blood counts), will replace annual vaccination. Checking titers, a blood test to check the immune status of your dog against certain diseases, will be offered to ensure that your dog has the proper level of immunity for the vaccines that are no longer going to be given every year. In my opinion, this is a good move, it will force the veterinarians to provide the best health care and to become more innovative in the services they provide. Imagine yourself right now going to your doctor for a physical and check up and they do not take blood or make you pee in a cup (take a urine sample), that is unheard of in present times. The same will and is occurring in the veterinary industry. It will provide a much improved quality of medicine, a higher standard than already exists. All stemming from the fact that your dog does not need yearly vaccinations, in fact it is putting your dog at risk to be giving yearly vaccinations.

So if your veterinarian is still requesting annual vaccinations, ask why. Be informed, make the right decisions, choose to protect the health of your dog by learning what your veterinarian is giving to your dog and why – specifically why, not just because he is the vet and it is to better the health of your dog. Ask questions, be dangerous!

For more information on the 2006 Canine Vaccination Guidelines check out www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/VaccineGuidelines06Revised.pdf

That title is correct federal health experts in Atlanta today are expected to announce that the Canine Rabies Virus has been eliminated from the United States and Canada. There has not been a case of Canine Rabies in 2 years. Heres a link to a news story about it -
Canine rabies wiped out, experts say

So does that mean you should not have to vaccinate your dog for rabies anymore?

Unfortunately no. There are other strains of rabies virus that your dog can still contract with skunks, raccoons and bats being the top carriers of the disease. However I do hope that it will cause some looking into how often we should vaccinate our dogs for rabies. There is on going studies right now with Dr. Ron Schultz at the University of Wisonsin - Madison to determine the actual length of immunity that a rabies vaccine has for a dog. At this point the intial results appear likely that your dog will be immune for 5 to 7 years after receiving a rabies vaccine. For more information check out this site - Rabies Challenge Fund

One of the veterinarians that has really been at the forefront of overvaccination in pets is Dr. Ron Schultz of University of Wisconsin School of Vet Med.

His research is the foundation for the reason that the AAHA and the AVMA have decided that we should only vaccinate for Distemper, Parvo, and Adenovirus (Hepatitis) every three years instead of every year. In fact his research suggests even every three years is too much. Anyway now he is conducting a research program sponsored by Hemopet. There is a need for $177,000 to conduct this research for the first year, they have only collected $65,000 and they need every animal owner, who cares for their pet’s health, help to get to $177,000 just for the first year. Obviously pharmaceutical companies are not going to contribute large sums of money to this research project because if Dr. Schultz’ preliminary research is correct we would only have to vaccinate for rabies every five to seven years - the drug companies will lose money.

To learn more about this project and make a contribution if you so desire visit - Rabies Challenge Fund

I went to a seminar this past weekend and found out that the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) the elite of elite in small animal organiztions, released their guidelines for Canine Vaccination.

Heres the link for their recommendations - AAHA Guidelines

Still the same - with 3 year booster recommendation for the core vaccines - Distemper, Parvo, Hepatitis and Rabies. It is up to your veterinarian to determine if other vaccines are necessary for your pet and it is very dependent on where you live and/or where your dog spends a lot of time.

Also for those of you that are vaccinating your own dogs it came to my attention at this seminar that many of you are not using high quality vaccine. Even though I am a proponent of less vaccination and I feel that at times I am not in agreement with the major drug companies there is one thing that is guaranteed by using their products - high quality. This is vitality important when vaccinating your pet. We are influencing the immune system and you want a product that has gone through safety measures and quality measures. It just makes sense, why would you trust your pet to some fly by night company that is making vaccine in their basement? You have gone through the study and research to realize that vaccinations are important but that we need to give them less frequently if at all after puppy vaccines why would you accept a company that you know nothing about or that you only read about on the internet. The major drug companies have protocols and procedures and safety guidelines - there is a reason that veterinarians use them and it is not because we are in bed with them but rather they are a proven reliable safe source.

One last thing - there is a vaccine company out there that has on their website a vaccination guideline for puppies that is totally incorrect and could actually cause your puppy to be not immunized because one vaccine will counteract the other. I am going to do my own research to find out if this company still has this on their website and if it does I will post it here to show you what not to do and why. But let me give you a little hint - there is no reason and it can be detrimental to vaccinate puppies every week!!!