Injection Advice

[running_free]

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Was wondering everyones opinions on giving your pets the initial jabs and booster jabs?

Some people I know do not believe at all in the injections and their dogs are fine healthy dogs. Our Bichon is 13 and has never had a jab and TBH has never been ill. Well he did have a tetnus when attacked by a dalmation.

We are getting 2 new whippets soon and really want the dogs to have a long and fruitful life.

Is it wise to take the homeopathy/natural route or not

 

[Avalonia]

Some people I know do not believe at all in the injections and their dogs are fine healthy dogs. Our Bichon is 13 and has never had a jab and TBH has never been ill. Well he did have a tetnus when attacked by a dalmation.

We are getting 2 new whippets soon and really want the dogs to have a long and fruitful life.

Is it wise to take the homeopathy/natural route or not

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You have a very fortunate Bichon and you should count yourself lucky. Few dogs who get to 13 years of age without any vaccinations live that long to tell that happy tale.

While I do not agree with vaccinating dogs annually, especially after they have been revaccinated a couple of times in their first years of life, I can tell you we won't even sell a dog until after it has had its first of three jobs (one at 8, 12 and 16 weeks), and I am still astonished that people in the UK would sell an animal with no jabs at all. This is like rolling the dice because the dog's natural immunity is gone by 8 weeks of age and the dog is vulnerable to everything that is out there.

If you seriously want your two new dogs to live a long and healthy life, then give them a good start in life and protect them from the very awful diseases that the puppy shots are designed to immunize them against.

Have you ever seen a dog die of distemper? I have. I owned one as a child -- a stray my parents took in -- and I can tell you it is awful! Have you ever seen a dog dying of parvovirus because I have, from volunteering at an animal shelter where rejected animals were brought and where some of the unprotected had to be euthanized when they manifested symptoms of very virulent diseases that are found on footpaths and sidewalks and everywhere in real life and they had to be terminated because these diseases are so virulent. They put every dog with a weak immune system or not current shots at risk.

If you are going to spend good money buying two new whippet dogs for heavens sake ensure you protect them and your investment in them. Get them legitimate shots for the things that are out there that can make them so ill they die, or so ill they cost you a fortune to return to some semblance of good health.

IMHO, homeopathy is not worth the paper it is printed on. If you want to practice homeopathy then for heavens sake practice it on yourself first, not on a vulnerable puppy who hasn't elected to make that unwise choice for itself.

Lanny

 

[running_free]

Thanks Lanny for your input and comments which I have taken onboard with great thought. I havent seen any of what you have seen but I did see my poor whippet Jack fit 3 times, he had been given injections and though the judgement of the vet saying he had a back neck rather than notice he was heamoraging. He died in the space of 3 days. I will be getting my pups innoculated but was really wanting to hear opinions from all sides of the fence. Dont be judgemantal about our Bichon he is strong and has outlived all the dogs of his breed that were pups at the same time in our local area.

Anyway thanks for those comments and cant wait till the 5th Feb for the madness to start again.

 

[dessie]

Well, I am in the other camp. I have seen a fully vaccinated puppy die from Parvovirus because I believe he had never built up 'field immunity'. He came from a remote kennels in the wilds of Scotland (a top breeder/exhibitor not a puppy farmer I hasten to add) where the dogs never went anywhere other than their own land. He came to our home in an urban environment and mixed freely with my own dogs and a litter I had bred myself of the same age. They all went through the same innoculation programme. He died at 5 months of age from Parvo. NONE of my other dogs, adults or puppies were affected in the slightest and I actually had a PM carried out.

Since then I thought long and hard about vaccinations as I also know of another dog who died from Leptospirosis, after always having his innoculations as regular as clockwork.

For the past 12 years I have been using homeopathic nosodes, plus feeding a BARF diet. I can honestly say my dogs are a lot healthier and robust. I am happy to believe that is is effective. One instance is one of my dogs travelled to a show with my friend's dog. Her dog and all her sister's dogs were laid low with a bad bout of kennel cough within a couple of days of attending the show. My dog was not afflicted although he did have one day of reverse sneezing and I gave him another dose and he stopped that.

 

[~whitecross whippets~]

Was wondering everyones opinions on giving your pets the initial jabs and booster jabs?
Some people I know do not believe at all in the injections and their dogs are fine healthy dogs. Our Bichon is 13 and has never had a jab and TBH has never been ill. Well he did have a tetnus when attacked by a dalmation.

We are getting 2 new whippets soon and really want the dogs to have a long and fruitful life.

Is it wise to take the homeopathy/natural route or not

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interesting read.......[SIZE=14pt]http://ukbarfclub.co.uk/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=58&z=16[/SIZE]

 

[*Lesley*]

I vaccinate mine and booster every year, I couldn't bear the thought of them getting some painful possibly fatal desease that one jab could have prevented, just my oppinion :thumbsup:

 

[05whippet]

I'm kinda in the middle here,I give our pups their initial shots but not boosters,and our dogs work as well as show so come across all sorts! They are all fine and well. The only other things I do are they get their tetanus once a year and if they get a bad cut or wound I inject them with pen & strep I do both jabs myself as I keep it for the horses too! And the main reason the dogs get them are because they work and are prone to getting cuts on brambles etc.

One thing I will mention though,is that if you intend to or need to kennel your dogs at any stage ie:holidays etc (what are they?) the propietors will insist on their jabs being up to date,plus they have to have the kennel cough drops too! More money!!!!

 

[*Lesley*]

I was wondering why people get the first jabs but not boosters they may live for 15+ years thats a long time to go on 2 jabs :unsure:

Not knocking just curious

 

[Seraphina]

The thing is that NO vaccination will provide protection for every dog which is vaccinated. Small proportion will develop only partial immunity, and occasionally some will not respond at all. THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE SHOULD NOT VACCINATE. If all dogs are vaccinated, these horrific diseases will become almost unknown, and the individuals who do not develop strong immunity are unlikely to come across these viruses. Unfortunately parvovirus and (i believe) even distemper are still with us. I have also seen pups die from both of these diseases and it is awful, painful death, even those who survive have health problem for life.

Thirty years ago I lost 3pups from my litter to distemper, they got sick one day before they were 6 weeks old. My dogs were, of-course, vaccinated, but later on I was told that the 2 dogs next door were not, and were sick with it about the same time. Owner of these dogs believed in natural diet, she followed the famous Afghan breeder Levi-something book. Used garlic for worming, did not vaccinate and fed raw meat. Anyway, her dogs survived the distemper and I asked her to allow me, just this once, to give her dogs some worming tablets. She agreed, and next day she called me over, absolutely horrified, to show me the amazing amount of worms her dogs passed.

To save rest of my litter cost me about 3x the amount I could normally sell them for, bur as I was worried they will never be 100%, I just placed them to loving homes for the cost of vaccinations.

 

[Seraphina]

I was wondering why people get the first jabs but not boosters they may live for 15+ years thats a long time to go on 2 jabs :unsure:
Not knocking just curious

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I would worry about that as well. Older dogs become weaker and more susceptable to illness anyway. If I decide not to vaccinate yearly during the "middle" years of a dog's life, I would definitely start again say at 9 and repeat every few years.

 

[Avalonia]

As I said earlier, we vaccinate all our pups against distemper, parvo, parvinfluenza etc. before they leave home, and urge the owners to have the dogs receive two booster shots a month apart thereafter.

For many years I believed in the need to vaccinate dogs every year to protect them, and did so at considerable expense but was happy to do so. However, over time my thinking on this evolved as I realized that if people do not need all their shots done every year, but sometimes as little as once every five or 10 years, then the same should be applicable to dogs. Annual vaccination may be too much of a good thing -- and better at feeding the vet's pocket than the dog's needs.

In conversations with good, caring vets who have cared for our dogs over the years, we have developed a practice that suits us and that seems to ensure our dogs remain protected for all their lives. We do three puppy jabs, then revaccinate again at 1 year. Then we skip a year and revaccinate at 3 and then again at 5. Then we skip three years and the last shot we give our dogs is at 8 years of age. The best advice we have from these vets that we fully trust is that our dogs are well and truly vaccinated at that point and never need more shots than this.

The one extra we ensure our dogs get because we run a small boarding kennel on our premises and we show our dogs, is that all our dogs get bordatella drops to prevent kennel cough. This year at shows around here there were a number of severe instances of kennel cough and other breeder/exhibitors had their entire dog population affected when they came home from these shows. Though we had dogs at the same shows the fact we keep our bordatella current was comforting because we had no instances of kennel cough at all.

We did ourselves have one instance of parvo in a dog, and it was actually vaccine induced. It was a show greyhound we owned who received her second vaccination from our vet and within days was deathly ill. She dropped in three days over 6 pounds and almost died. It was the vet himself who diagnosed the disease. He blamed himself and did the entire treatment on her without charge to us because he said the fault was in using a live vaccine, rather than a modified live vaccine for parvo. A minisculey small number of dogs may contract parvo from a live vaccine, and Megan happened to be one of the unlucky ones. Her illness was halted, she returned to good health, the vet ceased all use of live virus vaccines from that point forward, and Megan went on to become an all breed Best in Show winning greyhound for us here.

Lanny

 

[05whippet]

I was wondering why people get the first jabs but not boosters they may live for 15+ years thats a long time to go on 2 jabs :unsure:
Not knocking just curious

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I used to give annual boosters years ago but was told by our very good vet thatn really they were unnessecary,as the adult dog builds up a natural immunity to disease but pups dont that is our reason for no boosters.It has worked with us now for years and we certainly have never had any health issues with any of our dogs,though have to say here that other people have who do give boosters.

So work that one out :blink:

We all are slightly different in our beliefs but as long as our dogs dont suffer needlessly I personally dont see that there is any problem?

This is just my humble opinion :lol:

 

[~whitecross whippets~]

remember a fully vaccinated dog will only be accepted into kennels/dog training and also insurance will not generally insure your dog unless it is vaccinated

going to dog shows and vet practices where there are many dogs is putting unvaccinated dogs at great risk

the more dogs not being vaccinated increases the risk of other people taking disease home to their unvaccinated pups!

although i agree as do most vets that yearly boosters may not be necessary every year ...there is no easy way to check your dogs levels of immunity unless you blood test it all the time and it isnt always 100% accurate.

i do vaccinate my dogs as i have made the informed desicion to do so....i have also nursed dogs dying of parvo/distemper and it is not nice to say the least....but on the reverse my son who is autistic has not been vaccinated with his childhood vaccines for several years.. as long as it is an educated decision then that is the best you can do :luck:

 

[running_free]

remember a fully vaccinated dog will only be accepted into kennels/dog training and also insurance will not generally insure your dog unless it is vaccinatedgoing to dog shows and vet practices where there are many dogs is putting unvaccinated dogs at great risk

the more dogs not being vaccinated increases the risk of other people taking disease home to their unvaccinated pups!

although i agree as do most vets that yearly boosters may not be necessary every year ...there is no easy way to check your dogs levels of immunity unless you blood test it all the time and it isnt always 100% accurate.

i do vaccinate my dogs as i have made the informed desicion to do so....i have also nursed dogs dying of parvo/distemper and it is not nice to say the least....but on the reverse my son who is autistic has not been vaccinated with his childhood vaccines for several years.. as long as it is an educated decision then that is the best you can do :luck:

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I just read the link to barf club you posted earlier in this thread and very interesting read it was. I have never had the impression that vaccines should never been administered. I quote from the article 'So it seems nosodes may not fully protect and vaccines may damage your dog subtly' now thats a scary thought eh! It also states that 'Pups should be vaccinated late - 12 -16 weeks for the first vaccine. This allows maturation of the immune system before being hit by the vaccine insult.' Ok I see that he is saying give them nosodes before and after the vaccines, but where we live is on a park and the back garden/home territory restriction is neigh on impossible as basically we have many dogs walking past at all times of the day.

So here is my dilema, dont want to damage my pups by giving them jabs too young but also do not want to risk them in anyway by delaying the first jab, if we give the pre jab nosode vaccine would that be suffice enough to boost mums immunity until the first jab? I know everyone seems to have different ideas on this matter but as you can understand I just want the best for the newbies. Is 8 weeks too young for the first in your opinion?

Thanks for everyones input it is appreciated.

 

[*Lesley*]

remember a fully vaccinated dog will only be accepted into kennels/dog training and also insurance will not generally insure your dog unless it is vaccinatedgoing to dog shows and vet practices where there are many dogs is putting unvaccinated dogs at great risk

the more dogs not being vaccinated increases the risk of other people taking disease home to their unvaccinated pups!

although i agree as do most vets that yearly boosters may not be necessary every year ...there is no easy way to check your dogs levels of immunity unless you blood test it all the time and it isnt always 100% accurate.

i do vaccinate my dogs as i have made the informed desicion to do so....i have also nursed dogs dying of parvo/distemper and it is not nice to say the least....but on the reverse my son who is autistic has not been vaccinated with his childhood vaccines for several years.. as long as it is an educated decision then that is the best you can do :luck:

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I just read the link to barf club you posted earlier in this thread and very interesting read it was. I have never had the impression that vaccines should never been administered. I quote from the article 'So it seems nosodes may not fully protect and vaccines may damage your dog subtly' now thats a scary thought eh! It also states that 'Pups should be vaccinated late - 12 -16 weeks for the first vaccine. This allows maturation of the immune system before being hit by the vaccine insult.' Ok I see that he is saying give them nosodes before and after the vaccines, but where we live is on a park and the back garden/home territory restriction is neigh on impossible as basically we have many dogs walking past at all times of the day.

So here is my dilema, dont want to damage my pups by giving them jabs too young but also do not want to risk them in anyway by delaying the first jab, if we give the pre jab nosode vaccine would that be suffice enough to boost mums immunity until the first jab? I know everyone seems to have different ideas on this matter but as you can understand I just want the best for the newbies. Is 8 weeks too young for the first in your opinion?

Thanks for everyones input it is appreciated.

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My vet told me that it is best to vaccinate at 10 and 12 weeks because they are more effective at that stage, some vets think differently as they will do them at 8 and 10 weeks so I think it's down to your own choice and which vets you use really, I don't know who's right :unsure:

 

[~Helen~]

I've just added this thread to the FAQ page on vaccs. There are a few discussions already there which cover quite a bit of ground :thumbsup: so if you're interested in further reading, then the link is here:

Link to health threads scroll down for vaccs

 

[saraquele]

I vaccinate mine and booster every year, I couldn't bear the thought of them getting some painful possibly fatal desease that one jab could have prevented, just my oppinion :thumbsup:

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im with you on this one lesley :thumbsup:

i take the risk of my children having their vaccines so i owe it to my dogs to do the same for them.

i know dogs can still get the disease just like children can

and i also know some dogs can and do react badly to the vaccines again just like children can.

but at the end of the day if their is a vaccine out their to stop all these nasty viruses then im all for it :thumbsup:

after all the distemper epedemic years ago was resolved by the distemper vaccine :thumbsup:

 

[Janimal]

I vaccinate mine too - but have spoken to many experienced dog owners and breeders that dont get the boosters at all. We dont vaccinate children every year do we, so I wonder why we have to with dogs - just a thought.

My hubby works for an Irish firm (animal health) - and Im almost sure there is a programme out there in Ireland (O5 whippet may know this) that involves only one jab. :unsure: the vets that work for his firm know about it too,

and some of my greyhound friends talk about this method.

The trouble is with with the vaccinations, we spend all the money on them and our pets can eventually die from something else - like an injury, or car accident, or some other disease maybe.

In other words the protection is useless then.

I used to get my cats first boosters- and now I dont bother getting any more and they (all 3 of them) very healthy cats.

Must admit leaves you very puzzled about getting the dogs boostered every year.

 

[Zoe G]

My vet mentioned that you get 6 months leeway on the vaccinations so I am opting to vaccinate mine every 18 months from now on. He's 3 and he's been fully vaccinated up to this point.

This should mean he is fully protected but will make it a bit cheaper )

 

[05whippet]

I vaccinate mine too - but have spoken to many experienced dog owners and breeders that dont get the boosters at all.  We dont vaccinate children every year do we, so I wonder why we have to with dogs - just a thought.
My hubby  works for an Irish firm (animal health)  - and Im almost sure there is a programme out there in Ireland (O5 whippet may know this) that involves only one jab. :unsure:   the vets that work for his firm know about it too,

and some of my greyhound friends talk about this method.

The trouble is with with the vaccinations, we spend all the money on them and our pets can eventually die from something else - like an injury, or car accident, or some other disease maybe.

In other words the protection is useless then.

I used to get my cats first boosters- and now I dont bother getting any more and they (all 3 of them) very healthy cats.

Must admit leaves you very puzzled about getting the dogs boostered every year.

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As far as I know there is a single shot,but it is only available in the South not up here in the North.Hopefully we will get it soon and so will you.I'm not too sure on this but I think it is still in the early stages of trials :unsure: But it sure would be a lot more handy!

I'm nearly positive though that the big Greyhound guys out there with large kennels of dogs dont give boosters every year,because they just could'nt justify the cost.But please don't quote me on that,I dont want to be in trouble with a heap of Greyhound men :b