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Originally Posted by gaijingirl  I would call your local county health unit. That is where I finally got the answer to whether or not my county accepted the 3 year. The state of TN has said the law is at least every 3 years, but municipalities can change to require the vaccine every year. My vet was told that it was every year, because animal control thought it was every year. But this was NOT written in my city law. Their ordinance on the rabies vaccine only said it had to be up to date. Knowing the state law was 3 years, and the local ordinance did not specify, I felt that one year was probably not correct. I called the county health department and they confirmed that it was, in fact, 3 years. Kind of disturbing that everyone else I spoke to, including animal control and our local shelter workers did not know that the state law had changed several years ago and that the county was following the state law of 3 years I hate that most of the dogs around here are probably getting subjected to an unnecessary vaccine if the common belief is that it should be every year. I did talk to one of the directors at the local shelter/animal control and he said he was going to look into it. |
I live in TN too and my vet said he would give my dog the 3 year vaccine, and I would have to come back every year to get an updated license tag. So I've never been quite sure whether the law said every 3 years or if my vet was just letting me do that and giving me the tags without a shot every time.
I've researched it and it seems to me that the scientific studies support the idea that most vaccines are lifelong and only need to be given to puppies. Just like most human vaccines. I'm convinced the reason we have yearly vaccinations in dogs is because it makes the vaccine companies more money!