Rabies Vaccinations for puppies What age is best? - Page 4

 sueincc,

Your question about combo vaccines is a good one. The general objection seems to be that it is too much of a challenge to an immune system, but again this is not really true. The immune system handles millions of challenges during our lifetime, probably hundreds or more a day,  and during the life of a canine or other animal. One of the important things about the immune system is that is has the ability to be very specific in responding to those challenges and in building an adequate immune response. While it is sometimes a concern that a person or animal is weakened, due to age, prior or concurrent illness or injury and, in such cases, makes some sense to resist an added challenge to the healing or failing body, it does not necessarily mean that we cannot have an appropriate response to combo vaccines and that they are not safe to give.

What so many people don't understand is that cancer, autoimmune diseases, thyroid problems etc., are all based in genetics. For example, as we age, the thyroid may not function as well. Sometimes people are born with incompent thyroids. Can environmental insults add to the possibility of a dog having an illness start or be exacerbated? Sure.

Read medical history. See that we find evidence of many of the same diseases hundreds and hundreds of years ago, indeed thousands of years ago, in both animals and humans and these same diseases plague us now. No one or animal was being vaccinated then, but they still had the same medical conditions. Then go read about the health of people and animals even a hundred years ago. Learn how many people died of now preventable diseases, in part because we vaccinate. It is sheer folly to think that we die now of cancers and other diseases because we are all over vaccinated.

One recent study is this one and there are others for the researching:

DOI: 10.1892/0891-6640(2006)20[818:LOABRV]2.0.CO;2

J Vet Intern Med 2006;20:818–821

Lack of Association between Repeated Vaccination and Thyroiditis in Laboratory Beagles

Immunology and vaccines have come a long way. Vaccines are not simply developed out of the blue. They are tested and tested and tested. There ARE studies being conducted in many species, including humans, to see if vaccine frequency or the dose can be cut and still give the same protection. Much remains to be accomplished.

These are links to Dodds' most current vaccine protocol:

http://www.doglogic.com/vaccination.htm

http://www.wellpet.org/vaccines/dodds-schedule.htm

Her current protocol is basically the same as posted above by Trailrider. I believe that most of the vet schools agree with her protocol. I am going to check on that and will pst what I have found out.

This is a link to Dodds' resume.

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/DODDS-RESUME.htm

Dodd has been around for a long time, has spent the larger part of her career researching autoimmune diseases in dogs. IMO she is the authority on the results of over vaccinating animals. I will continue to follow her protocol with Blitz and any dogs I may have in the future. 

You may have to type the link to her resume in your browser or google  - Jean Dodds resume.

For every veterinary report on the net that disagrees with Dodd, there is at least one that agrees. Do your homework and make up your own mind about which vacs your dog/s needs and how frequently they need them. Also read up on how antibodies are generated with the use of vaccines and how those vaccines are manufactured and the extenders that are used. It wouldn't be a bad idea to learn about all the vaccinations your doctors want to give to you either. ..flu shots, pneumonia, tetanus. Humans don't need boosters every year, why do dogs?

My personal exerience with too many vaccinations has not been a good one. Not only did I lose my first GSD to leukemia at 7 1/2 years - he had 8 rabies vacs by that time - my daughter's cocker also developed leukemia 2 months after she was vaccinated for rabies, distemper/parvo, kennel cough and lyme disease all on the same day. 2 days later she developled a fever and and abcess at one of the injection sites and 6 weeks after that she was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. That was also a very bad year for a friend with a sheltie. another dog that was bombarded with rabies, distemper/parvo, lyme, and kennel cough vacs annually for all 7 years of his life. 3 months following his last series he too was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. We all treated our dogs at the same time and all 3 died within 2 months of the other. A coincidence? Maybe but I sure don't plan to take the chance again with another dog.

Dammit, not everything is "researched" or in the "literature". Sometimes, one has to rely on anecdotal experiences.

For example, there is my old guy who died over 4 years ago. When he was about 9 1/2 and I was bathing him on the grooming table. When I stepped into the house for a few minutes, he slipped while jumping off the wet table and landed on his head and screaming. In hindsight, I should have put him on IV mannnitol to prevent cerebral edema.

Anyhow, about a year latter, he experienced his first idiopathic seizure and was placed on phenobarbital (by a local vet--not my regular vet). The vet surmised that the previous fall had resulted in a concussion and that scar tissue that had broken loose and caused the seizures.

The following year, the dog's damned rabies vaccing was due--for licensing purposes. I asks the local vet to give me a written statement that, because rabies is transmitted via the peripheral nerves, a  vaccine was contraindicated because the dog already had a neurological disorder.

Sorry, but the SOB replied that this was "public health issue" (for an old dog that never left the premises).

To make a long story short, within a month, the old guy became non-ambulatory and died at home within 4 weeks of the vaccine. IMO, this reaction was a form of vaccinosis.

After a rabies vaccine, another healthy young dog had a vaccinosis in the form of Staph pyoderma on his ventrum. Please, don't give me the crap that this dog already had a weakened immune system. I don't buy this.

No more rabies vaccines for my guys when they are due next year.

Louise I was thinking the same with my girl ( no more shots). My other two had no reaction, I saw , to rabies and are due again next year. But it was pretty darn creepy having a dog with no health problems for over a year of her life suddenly act a bit off and not hold down anything for 24 hours after getting the rabies vaccine. She did not have a fever but if she was not better by morning I was going to bring her in anyway.

 Blitzen that is so sad, sorry for you, your daughter, and your friend...

I must admit to paranoia to vaccinating our dogs after years of following the vets schedule we had a single pup from a litter of American bred showlines come down with red mange right after the 2nd puppy shot. 1st shot was done by our vet and 2nd right on time by the owners vet. He insisted we had "bad blood" the genetics were probably prone to auto immune disorder. We fixed both parents and retired them keeping 1 female as a pet she was/is perfectly healthy as the parents continue to be in their adopted homes. We purchased a work line pair Cz/DDR who had 4 and 5 yr old progeny showing good health and abilities and on our first litter had a 2nd case of mange vet  says again we had "bad blood" the gentics were probably prone to auto immune disorder. In both cases the vet scared the customer saying the pup would probably die from localized deomodectic? and that all related dogs should be fixed - wow since these pair were used by a well known kennel and sold to service, sport homes and breeders that was a tall order. We adjusted our dogs lifestyle after the first case switching to raw diet and natural health care methods in attempt to produce healthy immunities and unless it is in our water only one thing that was the same in both cases 2 yrs apart = THE SAME VET!!! I do not trust them and in both cases they ordered a treatment regime that was expensive and unneccessary and I end up with a bad reputation of unhealthy dogs while customers believe every word the money grabbing scammer says.

the last pup i imported was in december and she had to have a rabies vac at 8 wks.  i don't recommend this.  like several others have suggested, i would prefer to wait till the pup is 6 months old.

pjp

91 was a bad year, Trailrider. My GSD was sick most of his life with allergies and autoimmune problems and he was probably a dog that should never have any rabies vacs instead of one per year. I almost gave up on the breed at that point, I've had a lot of Malamutes over the years, never one with any health problems.  All but one of my other dogs lived long, healthy lives dying  no younger than 12  years of age.  One lived to be 14 1/2. The ones I showed had annual distemper vacs, the rest had one every other year until they were 8, then I stopped vaccinating for anything. Never gave lyme or kennel cough and I never had a dog with kennel cough either.  Rabies every 3 years for the ones that I was showing, if they didn't leave the kennel, they never got rabies.  I worked as a tech then so gave all my own vacs including rabies. I liked GSD's so much that I decided to give the breed one more try. Blitz's temperament is not the greatest with strangers, but  he's never seen a vet for being sick and was 6 years old in December. I've follow Dodd's protocol with him and refused to allow the vet to give him his first rabies at 3 months as she wanted and as PA law dictates. I can't say if that's why he's been healthy to date, but can't say it's not the reason either. For now, I'll stick with what's working and has worked for me since 1970.

Uh, I meant 2001 was a bad year. I must still be half asleep this morning.

In Massachusetts, dogs are required to have their Rabies vaccine by 6 months of age. Also, "According to state law, a rabies vaccination is considered valid for only one year unless a primary series is verified.  A primary series is defined as two rabies vaccinations given within nine months to one year of each other to the date.  If this is met, the rabies vaccination is valid for three years."