Titers & Continuum 3 Year Dap

[kudzu]

My dogs have been on a 3 year vaccination rotation for 15 years. Usually on year two of the rotation I get titers run. In general, after age 8-11 my dogs no longer get vaccinations except 3 yr rabies. Venus is approaching 10 yo & though her last distemper/parvo was 3 yrs ago I had not intended to do that vaccine for her. In the past I wasn't a big fan of titers because I'd not found too many conflicting opinions on how to accurately, reliably interpret the results. However, Venus goes so very many places with me in so many different environments that I asked the vet to include parvo & distemper titers among the bloodwork at her senior wellness exam a couple weeks ago. The results came back with her titers in the "no protection" range. The quote is from the vet. I'll get a copy of the results later today. Will do some research on titers tomorrow but was wondering what others currently think of using titers to determine immunity level. I need to decide whether to vaccinate her again or not. Am leaning quite heavily to vaccination.

 

That leads me to the question of 3 year DAP vaccination. I'd not heard of that before. My prior vet was already doing a 3 yr protocol when I started there 11 years ago. If they at some point switched to an official 3 yr vaccine they never mentioned it. The new vet said they use a 3 year parvo/distemper vaccine, I believe the Continuum DAP. It's from Intervet. Anyone use this?

[Batmom]

Unfortunately, an antibody titer is the only safe way to estimate whether the dog can mount an immune response to the disease or not. The nonsafe way would be to expose the dog to the disease and see if s/he gets it -- not a good option for anybody outside of a controlled research setting.

 

If you had money to burn you could titer at intervals after revaccinating to see if your dog is one whose antibody levels drop quickly, or who doesn't respond at all, or who didn't respond in the past but responds now, or ......

 

Haven't heard of the Continuum DAP, would have to look that one up.

[Guest d0ggiem0mma]

My vet clinic used the Continuum 3 year. My dogs have all done fine with it.

[tbhounds]

It's my understanding that there is only one company producing a true 3 yr vaccine. Just because your vet stated that the test came back "no protection" doesn't mean there's no immunity. I might suggest a more comprehesive titer panel- sadly it usually comes at a big price-- most folks choose to just vaccinate at that point unless there's an underlying medical condition not to do so.

[Guest Swifthounds]

Titers like any other blood test, are merely a snapshot of body functioning at a specific moment in time. You can take her to an event where she's surrounded by other dog's shedding the virus either from exposure or from recent vaccination and if her immune system isn't impaired, tiger and get a higher number. Neither result means she is/isn't protected.

 

Interesting that the Continuum DAP is licensed for three years. It's a nice marketing ploy, and I'm always pleased when a vaccine company will spend the money (usually someone else's money) on a study, but the challenge studies show results similar to those done with other vaccines. If vaccinating again, I would go for separate vaccines if possible over the combo and do the recombinant distemper. Revaccinating a dog properly minimally vaxed as a pup with another vaccine as an adult doesnt increase either individual or herd immunity, so if u were going to do it, I would choose the safest option.

[NeylasMom]

This is one of my favorite links on vaccinations and titers. The first 2 articles are most relevant, especially the first one, which explains in a very easy to understand way why your dog's low titer does not necessarily indicate a lack of protection.

 

Personally, I think if you've been vaccinating for as long as you have, your dog is protected, but under that assumption I wouldn't spend my money on titers either. If you need that high titer to confirm that your dog has protection for your own peace of mind, then I guess you need to revaccinate. There's really no way to know for sure either way at this point unless you rerun the titer a few times until you get a high enough value, but that might not even happen.

 

But to be honest, as much as I'm not a fan of overvaccinating, if Venus isn't sick and you don't have any other reason to suspect that the titer might cause ill effects (she's had a reaction before for instance), it probably won't hurt to redo it. Given her age, I imagine this woudl be the final time you'd have to make this decision because at 13, you're not going to bother, right?