look-a-more 3 wrote: Its not that we only have to vaccinate every three years, its that Rabies vaccines are available in 1 year, 2 year or 3 year doses.
That was my understanding as well regarding the dosage.
In WV vaccinations are required every 2 years by state law; in MD it is every 3 years. For meeting the law you need a valid vaccination certificate. For cost (rabies clinics) we vaccinate in WV; dispite living in a state that only requires vaccination every 3 years we must do this every 2 years to have a valid certificate.
Mark
Mark & Renee
Jasper the Greyhound
Working Border Collies: Gyp (retired), Jody, Peg, Bette, BJ & Nell
2001 Chevy Express 2500 Cargo (rolling kennel)
2007 Nash 22M
Code2High is on the right path. My dogs get nothing BUT rabies every 3 years. There is a high incidence of dogs bleeding out because we are giving them too many shots too often and many vets are pulling back based on a large study done by Tufts Veterinary School. I can still board them at the kennel we use. I do sign a waiver that states the kennel is not responsible if the dogs get sick. Many of the shots are not effective enough to warrant the risk plus the antibodies stay with dogs for many years. My SIL who is a breeder does nothing but puppy shots & rabies shots. Ask you vet for what is called "titer testing". If the antibodies are present, the testing will show them. I haven't vaccinated my dogs other than rabies in four years.
Crowe has provided good information. Many Vets, today, believe that a number of the problems today's pets have can be traced to over vaccinating them.
On your next trip to your Vet, be sure to ask about the "titer testing" and the three year Rabies shot.
Bud WB4LTF
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."
In some states.... CA being the one I know about... you can also get rabies waived if you have a vet that will do it. Its a medical waiver and the vet has to give some sort of a reason. Also of course you need to consider the dog's lifestyle, exposure to wildlife, and particularly, the dog itself and whether or not it is likely to bite. A holistic vet is more likely to be open to a waiver on more dogs, but if you have an ill dog, a regular vet is more apt to consider it.
I would definitely look into it if you have a dog with any kind of chronic problems as vaccinations stress the system and can really aggravate those. And especially anything that is related to immune function such as severe allergies or the MS type thing that Gen Missy has, or probably Cushings.
Lori, do you show titers to get into the kennel? Along with the waiver? I know some places take titers, but have never heard of a waiver. Lots of things I'd like to be able to have my dogs do involve lots of shots, and I'm not going to risk screwing up their immune systems for anything non-essential.
Nope, no titers need to be shown at the kennel, just the waiver. We understand we are putting the dogs at some level of risk by not vaccinating but our vet absolutely refuses to give him anything other than the rabies shot due to his previous reaction.
Here is an excerpt from "Report of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Canine Vaccine Task Force: 2003 Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Recommendations, and Supporting Literature" which discusses the committee's thoughts on titers. What is most important to note is that not all titer tests are created equal. In two examples the committee discusses which specific titer test has been shown in clinically to correlate to immunity. There are other titer tests available; however, the results from these tests have not been correlated to immunity in the animal. Be sure you know what test you're paying for and that the test results will be relevant to the question you and your vet are asking (does my dog need to be revaccinated).
Quote: The important issue regarding antibody titers is not their value but the accuracy of the results reported from various laboratories. To have any clinical value, any test used to determine an individual’s immunity must be standardized against an accepted reference and demonstrate a very high degree of specificity and sensitivity. It is reported in the literature that titers of 20 for CDV and 80 for CPV are protective. 30,32 However, what is often not reported, or little understood, is that the test for CDV must be the virus neutralization (VN) test, and the test for CPV-2 should be the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test performed with pig or monkey erythrocytes or the VN test, if those titer values are to be used. Those are the tests (VN and HI) that correlate with immunity by challenge studies. None, or few, of the commercial laboratories perform these tests, and the results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or fluorescent antibody (FA) tests may not correlate with the titers from the VN and HI tests. Thus, antibody titers are useful if you have a laboratory that performs the correct test, or if a test like the VN and HI or another test that has been standardized to correlate with protective immunity were available. Veterinarians should be sure that the laboratories they use for serological testing adhere to these principles.
Recently an “in-office test” was approved for detection of antibody to CDV and CPV-2 in dogs.c The test is designed so that a positive sample indicates that the antibody level in the sample is above the titer that provides sterilizing immunity for these respective viruses. A negative test result shows the titer to be below the level providing sterilizing immunity but does not indicate the animal would be susceptible to developing clinical disease if challenged by exposure, because infection could lead to an anamnestic (secondary) response, thus no clinical disease. The test is useful if the clinician needs to have some assurance that a vaccinated animal has immunity to CDV and/or CPV-2. These are the two most important viruses in the list of core vaccines. It is not necessary to determine a titer for rabies since revaccination once every 3 years after the first year is required and the 3-year rabies vaccines have that period as a minimum DOI. The CAV-1/CAV-2 titers need not be done, because exposure as well as vaccination with CAV-2 ensures protection from CAV-1, the more important pathogen of the two CAVs.
BCSnob wrote: Here is an excerpt from "Report of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Canine Vaccine Task Force:
Quote: The important issue regarding antibody titers is not their value but the accuracy of the results reported from various laboratories. To have any clinical value, any test used to determine an individual’s immunity must be standardized against an accepted reference and demonstrate a very high degree of specificity and sensitivity. It is reported in the literature that titers of 20 for CDV and 80 for CPV are protective. 30,32 However, what is often not reported, or little understood, is that the test for CDV must be the virus neutralization (VN) test, and the test for CPV-2 should be the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test performed with pig or monkey erythrocytes or the VN test, if those titer values are to be used. Those are the tests (VN and HI) that correlate with immunity by challenge studies. None, or few, of the commercial laboratories perform these tests, and the results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or fluorescent antibody (FA) tests may not correlate with the titers from the VN and HI tests. Thus, antibody titers are useful if you have a laboratory that performs the correct test, or if a test like the VN and HI or another test that has been standardized to correlate with protective immunity were available. Veterinarians should be sure that the laboratories they use for serological testing adhere to these principles.
Recently an “in-office test” was approved for detection of antibody to CDV and CPV-2 in dogs.c The test is designed so that a positive sample indicates that the antibody level in the sample is above the titer that provides sterilizing immunity for these respective viruses. A negative test result shows the titer to be below the level providing sterilizing immunity but does not indicate the animal would be susceptible to developing clinical disease if challenged by exposure, because infection could lead to an anamnestic (secondary) response, thus no clinical disease. The test is useful if the clinician needs to have some assurance that a vaccinated animal has immunity to CDV and/or CPV-2. These are the two most important viruses in the list of core vaccines. It is not necessary to determine a titer for rabies since revaccination once every 3 years after the first year is required and the 3-year rabies vaccines have that period as a minimum DOI. The CAV-1/CAV-2 titers need not be done, because exposure as well as vaccination with CAV-2 ensures protection from CAV-1, the more important pathogen of the two CAVs.
Mark
Now will someone translate all that into something us dummies can understand
Bottom line, while titers are useful, we aren't sure the numbers measured always mean the dog (or cat) is protected from getting the disease when exposed. We think they are, but...
Just a note, I've a few patients that are 6 years out on vaccine titers and they still have titers we think are protective.
Doug, DVM
Doug & Sandy
Megan (15 yr old Golden)
2008 Southwind
2001 Honda CRV
Offline
