Vaccinations

[tra708]

I was wondering if you guys get your greyhounds vaccinated for rabies and distemper. I usually wait several years in between, and then only get them if they are required by a place we're going. Am I being lame?

[TheFullHouse]

Ours get them yearly until they become seniors, usually around 12 and then we don't vaccinate them any more.

[Guest newgreymama]

Around here, Rabies is required as a one year vax the first year, after that, it can be administered every three years. Other vaxes here aren't required by law, although since we do take our dog in public, we do a complete set every year. When I worked at the veterinary office, there were clients who chose to do the other vaxes (aside from Rabies) depending on the titers. Titer tests are a lot more expensive than the vaxes though.

 

ETA: Sorry, by complete set, I mean a distemper and then the Rabies every third year. I like the chart that is linked below, I might discuss with my vet only doing rabies going forward.

Edited September 13, 2012 by newgreymama

[Guest PiagetsMom]

Just got back from the vet and doing that very thing. Rabies here is every 3 years - everything else is yearly.

[JAJ2010]

We follow Jean Dodd's Vaccine Schedule

http://www.weim.net/emberweims/Vaccine.html

[MaryJane]

Rabies is usually every three years after the first one and it is required by law. But, there are other good reasons for your dog to have it - if they get bitten by a rabid animal I'm not sure how the vet/Animal control/police would handle it - the vet might need to report it. AND more importantly, what would happen if your dog bit someone - since the dog is not vaccinated that could mean that the authorities could euthanize the dog to see if it has rabies - otherwise the person that got bitten would have to go and have shots. You might be able to get a stay of execution but you would be dealing with small town politics which does not bode well for getting your point heard. Too many ifs .... better to just vaccinate the rabies especially if they are out in public.

Edited September 13, 2012 by MaryJane

[OwnedBySummer]

Rabies is the law here, nothing else is. So her rabies is done every 3 years, using the 3-year rabies vaccine. Her other vaccination (the core vaccines -- DHPP -- 4-way -- whatever you want to call it) is done every 3 years but not the same year as the rabies. I do Bordetella and Leptospirosis vaccines yearly, solely because she gets a lot of contact with other dogs and we camp a lot.

Edited September 13, 2012 by OwnedBySummer

[EnzaFerrari]

Rabies should be done as scheduled. There has been a rash of rabid animal attacks in the DC Metro region (raccoon, beavers, etc). Even in the City I live in, I often run into raccoons, possums, and foxes. I would never ever ever risk the life of my dog as rabies make animals violent and more likely attack.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Rabies is required by law almost everywhere. A titer as a substitute for a rabies shot usually is not legally accepted.

 

Canine distemper is serious, contagious, and incurable. It can be contracted by contact with an infected dog; wildlife also can carry canine distemper.

 

If you ever need to board your dog, almost all facilities will require that dogs be up-to-date on their vaccines. (And if the facility accepts unvaccinated dogs, do you want your dog there?) And in an emergency, an animal hospital might require your pet's vaccinations to be brought up to date for the safety of the staff and other patients. In an emergency, that's more stress than I want to put my dogs through.

 

Under ordinary circumstances, my dogs are probably will not require any of the medical protection offered by vaccines. But vaccines also protect your dog against trouble with animal control. I won't risk having to surrender my dogs to animal control authorities because they weren't vaccinated on some occasion when they needed to defend themselves from another dog.

[Guest KennelMom]

Every three years for rabies and dhpp

[racindog]

I think you are being very smart. Some recent studies have clearly shown that routinely vaccinated dogs suffer significantly more health problems than unvaccinated/minimally vaccinated dogs. I am certain that it was bad rabies vaccine that contributed to my Minny's early demise. I realize this flys in the face of many but if you do the research the legitimate info is out there. With many of the common vaccines the dog is much more likely to be harmed by the vaccine than he is to catch the disease it is supposed to prevent. Further most of them provide immunity far far far longer than the 1-3 year protocol. It is IMO unnecessary to continuously assault their immune systems with shot after shot. JMO based on my experience and research. The law on rabies shots needs to be updated and IMO vets shouldn't even be allowed to give a 1 year shot which requires the poor animal to have its life and well being risked again in only a year instead of 3. That alone would prevent the death and suffering of many dogs. JMO.

[gazehund]

Rabies every three years as required by law in NY. Nothing else.

[JAJ2010]

Since curiosity killed the cat and I'm not feeling too wise at the moment...

 

Everyone who only does Rabies (Like I do), how do you handle your rescue groups that your involved with? Are they ok with that? Do they give you push back? etc

Edited September 13, 2012 by JAJ2010

[brandimom]

We have seniors so we do not do the regular vaccination except for rabies every three years. We do a titer for rabies and this yr my seniors had enough vaccine in them to not warrant a rabies vaccine so our vet gave us a rabies certificate which we carry in our glove boxes.

[Newgreymom]

Rabies every 3 years and nothing else.

[gazehund]

Since curiosity killed the cat and I'm not feeling too wise at the moment...

 

Everyone who only does Rabies (Like I do), how do you handle your rescue groups that your involved with? Are they ok with that? Do they give you push back? etc

 

I am not involved with any group. My hounds came directly from their racing kennel. Stud farm in Cracker's case. My hounds' previous owner is fine

with it. She does the same for her hounds.

 

Edit to add my first found hounds came from groups. They didn't give me any crap about only doing rabies. Their adoption contract stated

the dogs needed to be kept current on vaccinations. Rabies is the only vaccine requirement in NY and the only one my hounds have ever received.

Edited September 13, 2012 by gazehund

[Hubcitypam]

I do rabies every 3 years as required and DHPP every 3 in younger dogs - Buddy will be 8 next week received DHPP last year so he and Poodle (14) are done with everything but rabies as far as I'm concerned. Poodles last DHPP was probably 5 or 6 years ago. Barkley is 4 and no proof of shots came with hm, but I feel sure he had some at some point. The SPCA required a full round at his neuter two years ago. I'll get him one more round next year then he too is done except for rabies. My vet stops all but rabies in his older dogs so he's fine with it.

 

As far a groups, I've never had a group follow up on my dogs shots after they were adopted, but only two of my six came from adoption groups (well, Bella was a sorta - I ran the group )

[RedHead]

I do 3 years for most things (although I think in most cases, the vaccines probably last way longer). I do Lepto yearly just because we do a lot of outdoor stuff and it apparently really does only last a year. I don't get anything extra like Lyme, Kennel Cough, etc.

 

All of my vets have attempted to just go with the yearly vacs for everything, I had to tell/ask them about the 3 year. After I did this, they all said 3 year was fine and put me on that plan. If I didn't open my mouth they would have done everything, every year.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

Just Rabies after age 10 or possibly younger depending on medical issues. I have had no problems with anyone on this. A lot of people who work with dogs think all these vaccinations are too much. The chance they are not immune by age 10 if they have been getting regular vaccines is pretty slim. I would get bordatella if I board, but that's pretty much never.

[GreytNut]

Vaccines offer valuable protection against diseases that are far easier to prevent than to treat. I've seen dogs with parvo and distemper and it's horrible.

 

However, I do think that yearly vaccination is unnecessary and probably does more harm than good. I've been a big fan of titering whenever possible and just doing the 3-year rabies shot as required by law. I titered Argus and Raven for 5 years straight for DHPP and their antibodies never dropped below acceptable levels, indicating that 5 years after receiving their DHPP booster they still had immunity.

 

However, since moving to South Dakota I've gotten a lot of grief from vets about this. South Dakota requires rabies every 2 years and the vets are adamant about doing DHPP every single year. No titering. It drives me nuts.

[KF_in_Georgia]

The problem with titers--at least for rabies--is that no one is sure what a "good" titer is. Sure, there are rabies antibodies showing on the titer, but are there enough to protect the dog? From what I read, there is no data that establishes what a safe rabies titer is. (And how are you planning to test to develop the data? Find "volunteer" dogs, run a titer on them, then deliberately infect them with rabies and see who dies?) Lack of data is why most jurisdictions will not accept a titer in lieu of vaccination. If you're withholding vaccines because your dog has an issue with the vaccine, you're doing what's best for your dog--but you may have a fight on your hands later on. If I had a dog with an established problem with vaccines, I wouldn't waste my money on a rabies titer since it's not valid with the authorities.

 

Those of us with older, home-body dogs can pick and choose our risks. My 12-year-old will be due for (3-year) rabies in February, and he'll get that in case the neighborhood's suicidal Bichon throws itself in Sam's path again (risking that I'll have to appease the authorities), but he didn't get any other shots this year. I'm counting on built-up immunity along with my efforts to prevent exposure to lepto and other potential problems. He gets placid walks to the corner to pee and poop, and he gets car rides to the vet. Other than that, he doesn't go anywhere and he's never boarded.

 

My girl is younger (she's 7). She was picked up as a stray, and she has a two-and-a-half-year blank spot in her history--no idea whether she got any vaccines in that period or not. And she travels: a meet and greet or two every week lately, some of them with lots of dogs (20 at a local football game); an upcoming visit to a farm; nose-to-nose with stranger dogs; and a few health problems that have her going to the vet's often enough to pick up whatever germs might be going around there. And we might want to start some nursing home visits, where the requirement is that visiting dogs be up-to-date on vaccines. (Some of the things dogs can get--like lepto--are contagious to humans, too.) And Silver's got that frail brother at home; I'd just as soon she didn't bring home anything that could be dangerous to him (which is why she got the bordatella vaccine last month).

Edited September 13, 2012 by KF_in_Georgia

[retread]

I was wondering if you guys get your greyhounds vaccinated for rabies and distemper. I usually wait several years in between, and then only get them if they are required by a place we're going. Am I being lame?

 

You have obviously never had a dog with distemper.

I did 50+ years ago.

I would not put my pet at risk of that.

To answer your question, YES.

[Guest kess]

thank god with our quarantine laws rabies isn't a problem in Australia

[Guest Amba1027]

I personally would be very careful if not getting a distemper vaccine. We have seen a lot of cases of it this year. It seems to have slowed down but I would still be careful. Not many of the pets have survived.

[Guest WhiteWave]

Rabies every 3 yrs and nothing else. If I get them as puppies, I do give 3 rounds of DHLP and then booster at 1 yr, but nothing after that. If I get them as an adult with unknown vaccine history, I do give one DHLP, mainly for distemper. Retired racers get plenty IMO by the time they make it to adoption groups.

 

I've had dogs get seriously ill from vaccines. Rocky almost died and he showed symptoms of distemper after the stupid shelter veterinarian vaccinated him 3 times for it in one month in their effort to prevent the disease. All they did was make dogs very ill. They kept them one month after adoption to keep vaccinating them every 2 weeks. I will never vaccinate Rocky again for it. He just rabies every 3 yrs.

 

Also when Pongo was a puppy he was unvaccinated and we had a litter of Doberman pups who were vaccinated (2 rounds at that point) and they all got Parvo (from going to the vet's office to get the shots!) and Pongo who was only a few months older never got it even though he was with the pups 24/7. So vaccines are not full proof. 7 out of 10 Dobe pups died. Pongo is 15 now and I will not vaccinate him again for anything.