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.
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.