I'm not sure what to do about my girls vaccinations. At their annual checkups each year, I like to have a CBC run, titers run (more for doggie daycares than anything), heartworm test and fecal done, along with just an annual exam by the vet.
Everything came back great for both girls in terms of their health.
Rory's titer for distemper came back negative and parvo positive (they always test for distemper and parvo), suggesting she MAY need the distemper vaccine since I'm aware titers don't paint the whole picture. I'm hesitant to vaccinate her again, but I guess I don't really have a choice when it comes taking her to daycare. She has horrible separation anxiety, so avoiding daycare isn't an option unless I never leave our place again.
I've had Rory since she was a puppy, and she had all the appropriate puppy shots and one year DHPP booster along with a 3 year rabies vaccine. Last year, her titers for both distemper and parvo came back positive, so there was no issue.
Lane is a puppymill rescue who just celebrated her second year with us. Since I have no idea what shots she received as a puppy (if any), I wasn't too surprised to find her distemper and parvo came back negative last year (one year after we rescued her and she received initial documented vaccines from the rescue). I went ahead and revaccinated her thinking she might really need it. Well, her titers again came back negative for distemper and parvo again this year, and I really don't think she needs the vaccine again, but again, I guess I have no choice when it comes to following the rules of daycares. I guess I'm lucky that I have found some that accept titers, because many still follow the antiquated annual vaccine protocol no questions asked.
I guess my question is that I now know the AAHA suggests vaccines every three years or longer for the most part, which I still think is too often, though better than annually. Should I have them both revaccinated using what my vet refers to as the 3 year DHPP, so theoretically I wouldn't need to titer them for "proof" to daycare for at least three years?
Does anyone know if the DHPP 3 year vaccine is similar to some of the rabies 3 year vaccines where it is the same exact shot as the 1 year, meaning my girls in theory would be protected titers or not?
I'm also wondering if I should try to order just a single distemper vaccine rather than combo for Rory, but I could again be in this situation next year with titers coming back negative. Last year, I tried to get the vets where we lived at the time to order a single for distemper and single parvo for Lane and I literally called about 30 places before I gave up and just had the DHPP given (again since I wasn't sure about her puppy shots). We have since moved to a totally different state so I'm not sure how much trouble I'll have if I do decide I want singles.
I hope I am making sense. I have a call in to my vet. She isn't really pushing to have them revaccinated to be protected since titers don't necessarily mean they aren't protected. I don't want anyone to think I'm a negligent pet owner. I just don't want to overvaccinate, but I certainly don't want them not protected either - they are social attending daycare, going to dog parks and meetups. My last dog passed away after fighting lymphoma for two years, and who knows if overvaccination had anything to do with it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. OMG! I just saw how long this is all typed out. Thanks to anyone who read through it all.