Vaccinating In Heat Females - Page 4

Hexe, that's not a fair statement- I know of NO ONE, vet or even vaccine manufacturer who recommends vaccinating a bitch during heat or pregnancy. To say there is something wrong with a dog whose reproductive cycle is messed up by a standard booster shot is deficient somehow is denying the very method in which vaccines work. Vaccines work by stimulating the immune system. Heat cycles lower the immune system (or the body would fight pregnancy). To do both at the same time is risky, at best. How do vaccines work if they don't ALTER the immune system? Isn't that the whole point of them? Why bother if they don't? And, let's be realistic. It doesn't take much to alter the female cycle, dog or human. Stress of any kind can delay, shorten, or otherwise change ovulation timing, so really, considering spacing vaccinations around heat cycles is far from holistic voodoo.

 

But yes, I agree, people go too far and I wholeheartedly agree about your thoughts on special diets, although I do feed my dogs very good quality food. That is a personal choice- not because they have any issues with any particular food.

I agree, and I don't feel at all comfortable with vaccinating my dog near her heat. How long to wait is a real gray area. There is a medical health exemption in Ca & some other states. So i guess that means I have to take it up with the county, that her reproductive system is an important part of her overall health & is impacted by this shot.

Latest update from the Rabies Challenge Study.  Here's hoping that once the data is in changes in the rabies laws will be made quickly.

Rabies Challenge Fund Update - January 25, 2018

 

UPDATE from Dr. Ronald Schultz:  "Results to date of The Rabies Challenge Fund research study showed protection from live rabies virus challenge five years after the dogs received 2 doses of rabies virus vaccine.  Other data are still being collected and analyzed for the 6.5 and 7-year post-vaccination periods."

Thanks for posting that, very promising!

Is vaccinating when a bitch is in heat or pregnant ideal? No, of course it isn't.


The rabies vaccine is a killed product--as such, the risk is so negligible, I dare say even non-existent. The public health folks don't play around with zoonotic diseases that are still viewed as always being fatal [despite the very few patients to date that have survived], so I'd rather risk doing the rabies vaccination that possibly placing the dog at risk for being put down in the event of human bite.

Hexe, you have a point there. While growing up, I didn't see dogs dying eating raisins or chocolate toxicity. Nowadays, I hear that dogs in your country are allergic to milk. So much fuss about what should be fed and what not.

But, why should I inject something into my dogs they don't require?

Hexe, killed virus shots need adjuvants. The risk to fetuses is in the adjuvants, and the body's reaction to them, not so much the killed rabies antigen. Non-breeding heat, not ideal but I wouldn't stress too much over it. If I were breeding that heat, no way would I do so and vaccinate for rabies (or anything else) at that time, hence my recommendation to the OP to just skip this heat.

It depends on the state, but I have had titers run in lieu of revaccination and gotten zero argument. The dog was 19 years old and produced a measurable titer, thus satisfying the requirement. If she had bitten someone, it would have meant she needed to be quarantined despite the titer, but so long as no one was bitten, it was no problem, nor would she be euthanized if she were to bite, as the titer was considered a valid argument against her having the disease. So, I weigh my risk v. benefits. There are some I wouldn't dare be a day late with due to temperament and low tolerance for idiots :D

Swarnendu, the theobromine in chocolate has always been toxic to dogs *if they ingest a sufficient amount*. It's the last 6 words that are the key.

The raisins thing IS new--it wasn't uncommon, 30+ years ago when I was apprenticing as a trainer, for some people to use them as training rewards. No one has been able to pinpoint what it is in grapes that is now causing kidney failure and death, but I do wonder if it's not the dogs who changed when it comes to raisins, but rather the grapes used for raisins--perhaps in trying to develop strains that are more resistant to fungus/molds/insects/etc., there's been a change in chemical properties of the fruit that is toxic to our dogs.

I'm sure there have always been dogs here and there that had food sensitivities, but those would have been unlikely to thrive before commercial dog foods were introduced and more likely to succumb to the diseases we can now vaccinate to prevent such as distemper...thus those dogs likely didn't have the opportunity to reproduce.

Nowhere did I advocate injecting a dog with something it didn't need--the discussion here was regarding a dog whose rabies vaccination has expired.