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Posted by Deerhounds on October 01, 2002 at 19:13:53:
In Reply to: to vaccinate or not posted by angel416 on October 01, 2002 at 17:28:42:
:My puppy is 9 months old. His conventional vet sent me a postcard telling me that it was time to boost Cole's corona and parvo.
Corona is, in the immortal words of Alice Wolf DVM, a vaccine in search of a disease. According to all I have read, coronovirus almost exclusively causes disease in very young puppies, puppies too young to be vaccinated. Not one vet school recommends or uses coronavirus vaccine.
Now, my basic feeling is I would have a hard time trusting a vet who used and recommended coronavirus vaccine for dogs, because I want vets who are at the cutting edge of their profession. If they haven't kept up on that, then what else might they have missed? It's the kind of thing that worries me!
:Cole alos has a holistic vet. The holisitic vet told me to slow heartworm medicine down to evey other month,
I understand why your holistic vet said that, due to the fact that Heartgard (and I believe also Interceptor, although I'm not sure of that) actually retroactively kills heartworm for a TWO month window, not a one month window, after infection. The problem is, if you give the medication once a month, and the dog throws up the dose or you forget or something, well, you hav ea whole month's worth of leeway. If you are on a two month schedule and you forget or the dog throws up the dose, you have just missed the window and the dog is susceptible.
I think this is a fair compromise of protection and safety IF you can be perfectly sure there will be no late or missed doses, and if the vet who recommends this program fully and completely explains the risks to the owner.
: and to only vaccinate (with the exception of rabies - legal reasons) every 5 years.
This is a very conservative approach. My vet has a different recommendation, and I myself have yet another. And remember, immunity to bacteria such as lepto and bordatella does not last, sometimes not even a few months. On the other hand, immunity to the common viruses like parvo and distemper is probably lifelong. So in a way, the five year interval is just as arbitrary as a one year or three year or ten year interval. Dr. Schultz's ongoing research has found 7+ years of immunity to those diseases by challenge, and 15+ by serology (titer testing), so I feel that when the data is all in, we'll most likely not be re-vaccinating for those viruses once immunization has occurred.
In the absence of final duration of immunity studies, most vets and owners are either sticking with label recommendations (which I think is excessive and risky), or crafting customized recommendations based on the patient's risk and lifestyle, which I think is the best choice to make.
:I am a little nervous about not vaccinating for parvo.
If your dog is already immune to parvo, there is no evidence the boosting him again will make him "more immune," and evidence does exist that suggests that in fact, you CANNOT make an already-immune dog more immune to parvo by giving a "booster" shot. The previously existing antibody will act like maternal antibody and inactivate the vaccine. There will be the usual risk that any vaccine has, but without any benefit to balance it out.
However, is your dog already immune to parvo? Good question! Without knowing the answer to that, you can't really know if your dog needs to be re-vaccinated for parvo. Dr. Schultz recommends doing a titer test after vaccination, to determine if an immunizing response (AKA sero-conversion) has occurred. You don't have to guess, you CAN know. According to Dr. Schultz, "The correlation among vaccination, the development of a "positive" antibody response, and protection from exposure to virulent virus is excellent. Furthermore, protection from exposure derived from immunization is sustained for periods as long as 5 or 6 years or more." (Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XIII; 2000; "Vaccines and Vaccinations: Issue for the 21st Century", Richard B. Ford and Ronald D. Schultz.)
:Any suggestions, ideas, comments?
I have an article with more information, including links to Dr. Schultz's research and other sites on this subject, at http://www.caberfeidh.com/Revax.htm. You might also want to join the Yahoogroup "BeyondVaccination" at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BeyondVaccination/.
Christie Keith
Caber Feidh Scottish Deerhounds
Holistic Husbandry since 1986
http://www.caberfeidh.com