Originally Posted by matese (Post 4797705)

You're caught between a rock and a hard place. Hope your Cushings specialist can give you some positive information. Matese always got the rabies vaccine, she was 17 years old when she had to leave me in 2013.

Originally Posted by aweitzm1 (Post 4798076)

My vet is very conservative with vaccines. I do the rabies every 3 years; distemper/parvo every 2 years. My previous vet wanted to give the shots yearly.

Unfortunately, in NYC bordatella is required every 6 months so that one I get more often.

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88 (Post 4797623)

Puppy boosters that are done a year after the first set whether against over vaccinations or not are EXTREMELY important and not the ones to skip.

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88 (Post 4797656)

And actually the one year boosters (the ones a year after puppy shots) are extremely important in building the immunity. Even those who don’t want to vaccinate anymore always get the one year puppy booster because it is significant in the process.

Originally Posted by Mike_and_Me (Post 4798124)

So I have been looking into this and couldn't find any info on how 1 year booster is specifically different from last shot in the puppy series or the ones 3 years later. Or how it is extremely important for immunity building process. I talked to my vet, who is very knowledgeable, and she said as well that IF there was an immune response to the initial series, the 1 year booster didn't make any specific difference in the immunity building, from let's say a booster 3 years later.

So if you will come across a reputable source in the future, could you please post a link on it.

This is not to say, however, that in a such delicate topic most of the decisions we make for our furbabies we do so with a risk. I'm just trying to differenciate a personal opinion from a fact or a research or an opinion from a reputable source.

Originally Posted by Mike_and_Me (Post 4797616)

Thanks to YT last year I read about titer testing, which lead me to read articles from Dr. Dodds and Dr. Schultz's work on this topic. Where we live it's not popular yet and most of vets vaccinate with 5in1 or 7in1 combo vaccines year after year and give rabies vax at a very young age and a lot of times give multiple vaccines at once. After our negative experience with puppy shots I was so lucky to have found a new vet who does things differently. We did rabies vaccine at 6 months old. Then this year we did titer testing for distemper and parvo instead of a booster. Mike has very high immunity against parvo and high immunity against distemper. Vet said that distemper might be showing lower cause dogs don't get in contact with the virus often like parvo so the antibodies might show as high while it's actually very high. For we are ok for min. 3 years, then we re-test and see if he needs a booster. That made me very happy.

We also just did titer testing for rabies antibody to get an international traveling certificate from government which is now required in most countries for traveling. But the certificate is valid for lifetime ONLY if you continue with yearly vaccinations(( Mike's titer came back three times higher than the "norm". Vet says immunity is ok for min. 7 years and possibly for a lifetime but unfortunately titer results are not accepted in lieu of vaccine so the yearly rabies must be given. And 3 year vaccine has not been yet approved here.

I'm quite frustrated the combo yearly vaccinations are still being pushed, that titer testing costs 5 to 10 times more than the vaccine and titer results are not accepted in place of vaccination.

Would love to hear what kind of protocols do you follow to vaccinate your furkids? Do you do titer testing? Do you do rabies yearly or once in 3 years?

Originally Posted by BarbaraM (Post 4798509)

Coming in late - but my bichon was showing signs of reaction to full series of vaxxes. Took him to a Pet Smart type dog shot day - with veterinarians - and she noticed Sam having difficulty after the injections. Gave him Benadryl and noted on my form to either not vaccinate or use under watch.

When it was time to revaccinate, I went to our vet and gave him the notes.

He decided to full on vaccinate Sam and within moments Sam became anaphylactic *sp? Facial swelling, laying on ground, eyes rolling, vomiting and vet came running after my daughter screamed there is something wrong.

They took Sam back in the care room and we waited for a couple hours pacing the floor with his friend Ted - my little yorkie...awful. he was treated and released after observation.

Why the vet did not believe the notes of the last reaction? Not sure. But he did give me a letter signed by him that Sam was not ever to receive any type of vaccinations--because of the severe reaction.


I stopped with Ted too. Not even rabies. They were about 7 years old. We never did dog parks - had our own backyard. Took for leashed walks only. Treated backyard for fleas with a garlic spray. Etc. I became a helicopter mom. Always hovering...still am. RIP Sam - from dementia And Ted from collapsing trachea. Love you and miss you guys sooo much!!! You are still very much alive in my heart and soul. Two super adorable furry kids.