Sprenkels American Bulldogs
Everyone wants to do the best thing for their pet. Of course your veterinarian will have your pet’s best interest to keep them health… Right? Sadly, this is not always correct. When it comes to vaccines, most vet’s are trained to believe that they must be done annually, this also gives them a chance to do an annual check-up. After a lot of research we recommended completing the puppy set of vaccines, along with rabies. After these vaccines, we discontinue any further vaccines and titer test our dogs every 3 years and only vaccinate if deemed necessary. Your dog’s vaccines in MOST cases are good for 7 years (at minimum!) in a healthy animal. Yearly vaccines are not necessary and there is absolutely NO scientific evidence or literature behind the need for yearly vaccines. For those who wish to vaccinate less and decrease the risk of vaccine related diseases, it’s important to understand what vaccines are available for your dog and the risks and benefits of each. Our dogs here only receive their puppy set of vaccine and rabies, after that we do not revaccinate. Our oldest dog is 10 years old and still has 100 % immunity to the shots he received 10 years ago!
Note: Rabies vaccine is required by law and we do recommend regularly completing the rabies vaccine to comply with local by-law enforcement.
Our goal is long term health and well-being of our dogs. We take all necessary precautions to make sure we are doing the best we can to provide them everything they need to thrive and maintain a healthy immune system.
Are you and your vet at odds about how often your dog should be vaccinated for the core vaccines?
Well we’ll help you cut through what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to your dog’s next set of vaccinations.
First, it’s important to understand that the core vaccines are not required by law – only rabies can be legally required.
Rabies is required in all US states and in some (but not all) Canadian provinces.
But apart from rabies, nobody can force you to vaccinate your dog with any other vaccine. Period.
This is a decision best left up to you and your vet.
But before that decision is made, make sure you’re both aware of the duration of immunity of those vaccines – and the potentially lethal consequences of giving just one vaccine too many.
When it comes to immunity and duration of immunity for vaccines, there is one clear expert.
Dr Ronald D Schultz is one of perhaps three or four researchers doing challenge studies on veterinary vaccines – and he’s been doing these studies for 40 years.
In fact, it’s Dr Schultz’s work that prompted the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) and AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) to re-evaluate vaccine schedules.
In 2003, The American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Taskforce warned vets in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) that:
‘Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating decreased frequency of vaccination’; ‘Immunological memory provides durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.’
‘This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information as well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.’
"The recommendation for annual re-vaccination is a practice that was officially started in 1978." says Dr Schultz.
"This recommendation was made without any scientific validation of the need to booster immunity so frequently. In fact the presence of good humoral antibody levels blocks the anamnestic response to vaccine boosters just as maternal antibody blocks the response in some young animals."
He adds: "The patient receives no benefit and may be placed at serious risk when an unnecessary vaccine is given. Few or no scientific studies have demonstrated a need for cats or dogs to be revaccinated."
Below is the result of duration of immunity testing on over 1,000 dogs and on every major vaccine.
Both challenge (exposure to the real virus) and serology (antibody titer results) are shown on below.
Dr Schultz explains "It is important to understand that these are minimum DOI’s and longer studies have not been done with certain of the above products. It is possible that some or all of these products will provide lifelong immunity."
Dr Schultz has seen these results repeated over the years. In 2010, he published the following with newer generation, recombinant vaccines. It is important to note that not only did the vaccines provide protection for a minimum of 4 to 5 years, it did so in 100% of the dogs tested.
Why is it important to understand Dr Schultz’s work?
Because vaccines can create very real health problems in dogs. It’s important that vaccines are only given when necessary because every vaccine has the potential to kill the patient or create debilitating chronic diseases including cancer and allergies.
Below is a list of potential adverse vaccine reactions, according to Dr Schultz:
Remember, immunity is likely lifelong … so why are dogs and cats routinely vaccinated every three years?
And, worse yet, why are 60% of vets reportedly vaccinating annually?
More is not better. More is just dangerous.
We understand vets are frightened because they’ve seen animals die and suffer from preventable disease.
But it’s critical to start recognizing that vaccine-induced diseases are also deadly and also preventable.
And they they can develop over time and won’t always be apparent days or hours after the injection.
It’s vital to understand we need to protect our dogs and cats not just from infectious disease, but also from vaccine damage.
We now have inexpensive in-house titer testing (Vaccicheck and TiterCHEK) – titer tests will determine whether your pet has responded to his vaccines and fo
rmed immunity
With in-house titer testing, there is never any reason to give any cat or dog over the age of 16 weeks another vaccine without a negative titer test.
Vets no longer have to guess at when to revaccinate.
They need to assume any dog or cat vaccinated at or after 16 weeks of age will never need another vaccine again.
And if they do get one, it had better be because there was zero amount of measurable titer!
Our companion animals rely on vets to make the right decisions when it comes to vaccines.