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Hi everyone,
I don’t post often but I felt this was an important issue that you should talk with your vet about.
There has been a growing concern over the years that we may be over vaccinating our dogs. By doing so we may be causing an increase of auto-immune disorders and possibly cancers.
Vets have been leery to change their protocols for several reasons. There had been no specific recommendations from the American Veterinary Medical Assn. or the American Animal Hospital Assn. to change the protocol. And by changing the protocol vets would lose a big chunk of change by giving vaccines less often. Don’t be surprised to see the costs of office visits to go up over the next year or 2 as these protocols are changed.
I am attaching the link to the AAHA special report recommending to all vets to change their protocols for vaccinations. Please take a look at it. Print it out. And discuss it with your vet. Only you and your vet can decide what is right for your dog. But I highly recommend that you consider what they recommend as does Gina.
We had a run in last summer with our eldest “Michelob” having auto-immune disorder. We never did figure out what caused it. But it darned near killed him and it was very expensive to treat. Since then we have decided never to vaccinate Michelob again. Michelob is a pet therapy dog and as such we have to prove that he is current on his vaccinations. Since he will not be vaccinated anymore this entails getting a letter from our vet every year explaining that he cannot tolerate vaccines any longer and that he has sufficient anti-bodies built up over the years to protect him and others he comes in contact with.
Please understand that this article is written in medical lingo. So I will try and capsulize as best I can.
Currently most vets give a combo shot DHPP (distemper, hepatitis, parvo and paraifluenza) to puppies at 6-8 weeks, 9-11 weeks, and 12-14 weeks. Most adult dogs get the same shot annually. The new recommendation is the same for pups but to go to every 3 years for adults.
There are other shots that are given also discussed in the article. They are based on needs in certain geographic areas. So if your vet is giving any of those shots please refer to the report. But in many cases they are recommending not giving the shots to adults or going to every 3 years on these shots.
Rabies shots do not change as they are controlled by local laws. But the reports recommendation is every 3 years for adults. But many localities require annual shots.
Here is the link:
http://www.dogs4sale.com.au/AAHA_Special_Report.htm
Regards,
Rick
Rick Reid, Yanna Jorni and The Golden Menagerie - Jake, Chelsea, Michelob and Austin
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