Over Medicating?

I saw the tragic post about Juliefurry's dog and it prompted me to post to make this statement and have us all ask some serious questions to ourselves about how we vaccinate and medicate our dogs.

Over medicating is something my wife and I have been concerned with for a while. People get all wrapped up in the annual shots and booster thing that is pushed by our vets (so they can make money), but often our pets don't need them. We've decided we will no longer give any dog we own any kind of combo shot, ever. It's too much at once- how often does a dog get all 5 diseases in a 5 in 1 shot at the same time? If your dog has a bad reaction to the shot, how do you know which part of the vaccination caused the reaction?

After talking extensively with Daisy's breeder, and based on her experience over many years, and reading we did on our own, we decided that all we were going to vaccinate her for was distemper and parvo, in individual shots, with each 2 weeks apart. The reality is some of the things you get in the 5 in 1 or 7 in 1 shots are not even needed depending on where you live. Corona is rare. Bordatella is something you'll never need unless you are going to board your dog somewhere.

Same with wormers- if the dog doesn't have worms, why give them meds for it? Daisy was never wormed by her breeder, we had her tested at the vet, and she was clean. So we didn't give her any wormer.

Heartworm preventatives and rabies are the only things we're going to keep up on now. Rabies only because it's the law. Heartworm only during mosquito season. We're going to do annual blood titers to check for immunity for other diseases and vaccinate only if they are at risk.

Sorry to ramble but I think we all need to look closely at how we vaccinate our pets- give only what is needed, give one thing at a time, have your dog tested for immunity rather than get shots they don't need.

I'm doing titers this year instead of the combo booster; I have to give a six month Bordatella because of where I work and Sawyer goes with me most every day.

Heartworm is only during the active months, which is still 9 months out of the year around here. I've been skimpy on the flea/tick as well, though with all this rain I need to get some more. I think I'm going to switch to K9 Advantix and see how that works out.

I fully agree though about overmedicating.

I agree. I am lucky to have a supportive vet who doesn't recommend vaccinations every year and he vaccinates puppies way less than your average vet. I do all my own vaccines, but it's nice to have a vet with a supportive philosophy on the issue.

Bordetella a dog can pick up anywhere because it's airborne and so easily passed. If an infected dog plays with your's at the park, they'll catch it. But, with that said, the vaccine is useless in my opinion. I can't tell you how many dogs I know that were vaccinated appropriatley for Bordetella and still got it. The way I see it is even if they do get it, it's typically not fatal and a healthy dog overcomes it fairly easily on their own even without treatment. All my dogs have had the Bordetella virus and they all were vaccinated first!

If I ever have a litter of puppies under my care, I will do very basic vaccines as well and I wont start them until the pups are older etc.

I also run a titers on all of my dogs (except Tia now) and have for several years. I'm lucky to have found my Vet too. She doesn't believe in over vaccinating either.

AAHA now advocates 3 year protocol on DHPP, so I feel less overwhelmed at giving vaccines. I may titer when we hit the three year mark though rather than just give the shot.

i do vaccines every 3 years with my dogs, and i'll continue to do so. i'm comfortable with it. they don't get any of the extra stuff- lyme, bordatella, etc. they don't need it. they are dewormed monthly as a by-product of their heartworm preventative. if it weren't for the risk of heartworm, i wouldn't.

i have one cat who does escape regularly so i finally broke down and started the feline leukemia vaccine with him.

it's frightening sometimes the stuff that puppymills / puppy stores / bybers give. we see pups wormed with three different medications on several occasions, vaccinated every 2 weeks starting at 4 weeks (including for bordatella!), all kinds of crazy stuff. it's scary.

i totally agree, my guys get titers and rabies every 3 yrs (and only cause its the law)

I have been thinking about this too. I don't want to hijack your thread, what is done when having titers done? Is it just bloodwork?

I also do titers on my dogs. They haven't had any vac's for 3 years or so, and are still titering good.

I had to give rabies to two of them this year, and of course it's the two who have weird problems. I went with Thimerisol free rabies vac's, (also there are TF regular vacs), Thimerisol is a preservative (mercury)you find in multiple dose vials of vac. Most vets stock multiple dose vials as it's more cost effective.

I'm lucky I have vets who are very open minded, and also stock single dose vac's or will get them if they don't have them, and are TF.

Diane

I had titers done on Meg this year as well, and was glad I decided to. It was quite a bit more expensive, but managable. And she didn't need the vaccines.

Yes. They draw blood and send it out to a lab. I think it took four or five days to get the results back.

I have my dogs on a every 3 year schedule for vaccinations.

Good dog clinics don't like to over do either !! Lets face it , we have to use our heads and just medicate when needed ,.

I do puppy shots, a one year later booster and that's it. My vet is supportive and the reputable, state of the art specialty care hospital that Lyric has been in here in Seattle....the vet there said, that she and the other vets don't vaccinate their own dogs much at all. I'm sure it depends on a lot of things...where you live, what age the dog is, how many dogs he's around etc. But yes...I don't see any reason to do all that over vaccinating. I think for most dogs' life spans, once is enough or should be to create antibodies to a specific disease. Once they're developed in the body, they're there, "sleeping" until needed. Then they come out with their bazookas if the dog comes in contact with a bug.

So happy to hear that so many of you are going for natural means in ensuring your pets do not get immunized unnecessarily! After their 3 booster shots when my dogs are pups, they are free from yearly immunization since.....

I do get them tested for heartworm too once every 6 months instead of injecting them yearly or giving them heartworm tabs.