[MyFairLacy]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

We do titers on Ellie now and will be vaccinating every three years even if the titers are good (that is what her vet is comfortable with). I think 95% of dogs retain immune anywhere from 7 years - a lifetime, so I think they are a waste for the most part but hey, it gets me out of vaccinating.

Ellie had the parvo and distemper done ($85 altogether).
It is just a simple blood test and it is sent to a lab (Colorado State in our case). You will get the results within two weeks.

Ellie had been vaccinated the year before but I think they did too many at once because her parvo came back fine but her distemper was only 1:16, so I really had no choice but to vaccinate against it again.

So yes we use them but they don't give the whole picture and they don't take into account that just because there is a low titer, there are still memory cells and the dog would probably be protected anyway.

They are nice though for those who don't want to vaccinate...
It is certainly fair to vaccinate if there is a low titer though. It is better than vaccinated before even looking...

Does that help?

If the titers are good (even after three years), why would you still vaccinate? If a dog has sufficient antibodies, why vaccinate? Just curious what your reason for this is (besides that it's what your vet wants to do)?

I plan to do titers on my pets from now on. My youngest cat will get her 1 year boosters this year and we'll do that, but Lacy, my older cat, and my younger cat will have titers done from now on. As long as they are protected, I personally won't be vaccinating them period. I know I'll learn more about evaluating an individual animal's risk for actually contracting a disease while in school, and I plan to only vaccinate my pets for what I feel like they are actually at risk for from now on.

As a vet, I'm really going to try and look at each animal individually and talk to their owner about each vaccine. I will highly suggest yearly titers instead of revaccination as well...I just think overvaccinating pets is such a bad thing.