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I've discover that professors and veterinarian researchers are now backing up what I've often believed--that annual pet vaccinations are not only unnecessary, but potentially harmful. For all of the information, read this article: "Pets Don't Need Shots Every Year" by Leigh Hopper, Houston Chronical Medical Writer.
After having our dog Gidget just pass away unexpectedly two weeks ago from IHA, a blood disorder without an apparent cause that comes on suddenly and takes a healthy dog from fine to dead in a very short time, I came across the information in this article that some researchers and veterinarian professors are linking both this deadly doggie blood disorder and some forms of cancer in cats to over-vaccination.
Here's the deal, people...most vaccines for dogs and cats last a number of years. Just as people don't need annual measles vaccinations, neither do pets need annual vaccinations for many of their potential diseases. The rabies shot alone--the most common and most required vaccination for dogs--lasts 3 YEARS.
Directly from the article linked above, here's a breakdown of the vaccination findings that veterinary research is using to challenge the notion that pets need to be vaccinated every 12 months.
Dog vaccines/Minimum duration of immunityI've been so suspicious of this for a while. Now that it is being backed by research, I'm starting to look at my veterinarian with even more doubt than before. My suspicion of over-charging by my vet really became most evident when we had an estimate for our cat who had bone cancer. On that estimate was a $25 charge for an e-collar (that silly cone-thing they put around the neck of a dog or cat to prevent them from tearing out stitches). This was in a vet that was located INSIDE a major pet store (I won't name names, but you probably know exactly what pet store and vet's office I'm talking about...they're scattered across the country). I walked into the pet store area, down 3 aisles, hung a right, and at the end of the aisle (on an end-cap) I found a whole mess of not only much BETTER e-collars, but ones that were much more comfortable for the pet. Here's the clincher. I bought that better, more comfortable e-collar--a mere 20 steps or so away from the vet's front desk, right within the same building--for $10. Yes, you read that right. $10. They were going to charge me $25 for one that was not nearly as good and much less comfortable for our cat. My suspicion that I was being overcharged by my vet, at that point, started to take on really hard form. The information in the linked article above only greatly increases my suspicion.
· Canine rabies - 3 years
· Canine parainfluenza - 3 years
· Canine distemper (Onderstepoort strain) - 5 years
· Canine distemper (Rockborn strain) - 7 years
· Canine adenovirus (kennel cough) - 7 years
· Canine parvovirus - 7 years
Cat vaccines/Minimum duration of immunity
· Cat rabies - 3 years
· Feline panleukopenia virus - 6 years
· Feline herpesvirus - 5 or 6 years
· Feline calicivirus - 3 years
Recommendations for dogs
· Parvovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza, distemper: Following initial puppy shots, provide booster one year later, and every three years thereafter.
· Rabies: At 16 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law.
· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding; may be repeated up to six times a year.
· Coronavirus: Not recommended in private homes. Prior to boarding, may be given to dogs 8 weeks or older, and repeated every six months.
· Lyme: Not recommended.
· Giardia: Not recommended.
Recommendations for cats
· Panleukopenia, herpesvirus (rhinotracheitis), calicivirus: Following initial kitten shots, provide booster one year later and every three years thereafter.
· Rabies: At 8 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law.
· Feline leukemia: Use only in high-risk cats. Best protection is two vaccines prior to 12 weeks of age, with boosters repeated annually.
· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding.
· Feline infectious peritonitis: Not recommended.
· Chlamydia: Not recommended.
· Ringworm: May be used during an outbreak in a home.
Now, don't get me wrong. Vet's are VERY necessary and should be used regularly, but just as if you had discovered that your doctor was medicating you unnecessarily or charging you too much for services, this type of information would make you doubt any bill you saw, wouldn't it? I'm going over every vet bill and estimate now with a fine-tooth comb. We have 4 dogs and 2 cats, all of which we rescued from some place or another. The vet gets a goodly chunk of money out of us. Do they have to overcharge us as well.
Again, taken directly from the article linked above.
The news has been slow to reach consumers, partly because few veterinarians outside academic settings are embracing the concept. Vaccine makers haven't done the studies needed to change vaccine labels. Vets, who charge $30 to $60 for yearly shots, are loath to defy vaccine label instructions and lose an important source of revenue. In addition, they worry their patients won't fare as well without yearly exams.
"I know some vets feel threatened because they think, `People won't come back to my office if I don't have the vaccine as a carrot,' " said Alice Wolf, a professor of small-animal medicine at Texas A&M and an advocate of reduced vaccinations. "A yearly exam is very important."
The movement to extend vaccine intervals is gaining ground because of growing evidence that vaccines themselves can trigger a fatal cancer in cats and a deadly blood disorder in dogs.
Rogers conducts public seminars on the subject with evangelical zeal but thus far has been unsuccessful in persuading the Texas Veterinary Medical Association to adopt a formal policy.
"I'm asking the Texas attorney general's office if this is theft by deception," said Rogers, whose Critter Fixer practice won an ethics award from the Better Business Bureau in 2000. "They just keep coming out with more vaccines that are unnecessary and don't work. Professors give seminars, and nobody comes and nobody changes."
When rabies shots became common for pets in the 1950s, no one questioned the value of annual vaccination. Distemper, which kills 50 percent of victims, could be warded off with a shot. Parvovirus, which kills swiftly and gruesomely by causing a toxic proliferation of bacteria in the digestive system, was vanquished with a vaccine. Over the years, more and more shots were added to the schedule, preventing costly and potentially deadly disease in furry family members.
Then animal doctors began noticing something ominous: rare instances of cancer in normal, healthy cats and an unusual immune reaction in dogs. The shots apparently caused feline fibrosarcoma, a grotesque tumor at the site of the shot, which is fatal if not discovered early and cut out completely. Dogs developed a vaccine-related disease in which the dog's body rejects its own blood.
Our Gidget died from that very blood disease.
It's time to spread this word around and get it out there to the general public. After losing a dog to this strange disease, and after discovering that vets appear to be ignoring the information of vaccine durations just to get people back into their offices, I'm going to be mentioning this to every pet owner I know.
I love vets. Vets are necessary--vital, even. But, come on...I won't stand for unnecessary vaccinations of my pet, not only because of the money involved, but also because of the risk. I lost a cat in December 2005 to bone cancer, and a dog in March 2006 (3 short months) to IHA. These were both hard enough, but if I ever found out and could prove that over-vaccinations caused either of these, I'd be furious!
Keywords:dog,dogs,cats,cat,vaccination,annual,veterinarian,research,studies,unnecessary,duration,three,years,rabies,IHA,blood,disease
Gidget was fine until Tuesday, when she started sleeping more and being less active. We didn't think too much of it because she always slept alot and was always pretty inactive anyway, so the change wasn't really drastic enough that we noticed until after the fact. She was always quiet and laid back.
I rushed upstairs and told Eric what happened and that I was taking her to the vet. While upstairs, Gidget jumped down off the couch and came all the way upstairs by herself. Once upstairs, she arched her back again, went funny-limp again, and once more collapsed on her side. We didn't know it at the time, but she was having seizures. Looking back now, we believe this is probably what happened that caused her to fall down the stairs. We were thinking at the time that she had injured herself in the fall, not that the fall was a result of something else.
The emergency vet shot her with steroids and said her prognosis was very bleak. They said they could keep her overnight and do a blood transfusion ($1,000 worth of treatment), but they couldn't be sure it would work and that the chances it would do any good were very slim. They told us that at that point, in her condition, the medications they could send her home with stood just as good of a chance of working as the more expensive blood transfusion. She could die overnight while there getting a blood transfusion. We didn't want her to die in the emergency clinic surrounded by strangers. Since the transfusions stood a good chance of failing anyway, and we'd already spent close to $1,000 just that night getting her diagnosed, we opted to take medications and Gidget home to be with us. If she died overnight, at least she would die in her home surrounded by the people and animals who loved her.
I rushed to the vet and Eric and I made the decision to have her euthanized rather than have her suffer through more seizures while she died. Eric held her in his lap while they injected her and she went very peacefully. Like Mardigan, the cat we lost to cancer only three months ago, we're having little Gidget the Midget cremated.
