Don't OVER-vaccinate your dog or cat with "boosters"

There it is again. That reminder postcard from your vet that Fido is due for his booster vaccines. Some vets have gotten smarter about it and instead ask for you to come in for an annual wellness exam. Those are great for your peace of mind that your beloved pet is doing okay, but as a pet owner you should go armed with knowledge before the vet starts using fancy terminology and pointing at posters and charts trying to scare you into getting more vaccines than your pet needs.

If you are lucky you have a very knowledgeable vet that actually cares about your pets health and not just about padding their wallet. Unfortunately just like every industry there are bad players lurking. If your vet ever tries to rush you, doesn’t seem to be listening to your concerns, or starts pointing to scary posters on the wall or wooden models to scare you into buying something that you don’t completely understand you should find yourself a new vet office immediately. You are your pets voice.

Another warning sign of a questionable vet is if they try to push you to buy dog food from their waiting room, if it’s inferior commercial kibble that they call “prescription diets” you should really do your research on that brand first, you will be shocked at how low quality it is. They only sell it because they get a kickback from it, many vets sell the food brand that sponsored their brief veterinary class on nutrition. If you love your pet always research the food you give them first especially when there’s ulterior motives at play. Hills, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, and other grocery store brands all have great t.v. marketing with happy dogs and cats running around designed to trick consumers into thinking their product is the best but you would be shocked at how inferior the ingredients actually are. Your pets long term health is worth putting the time in to research (if you want to find a higher quality dog food a popular website is Dog Food Advisor which gives ratings and explains the ingredients).

Back to vaccinating. Most vets won’t tell you that instead of getting a “booster” shot for DAPP/DHPP (Distemper / Adenovirus / Parainfluenza / Parvovirus) you can instead get an antibody titer test for those core vaccines. The test results typically take a few days to come back since most vet offices mail the vial of blood out to a lab, but the results will show you the level of antibodies to the core diseases. The results will basically show your pets immunity level, if it’s within a certain range then the pet is considered to have immunity to that particular virus. So no “booster” will further “boost” immunity that already exists. Getting titer tests done is especially important if your pet has ever shown an adverse reaction to those awful 4-in-1 vaccines, they aren’t exactly filled with rainbows and unicorns. If you call the manufacturer for the vaccines and ask for the ingredients, they will tell you “Sorry we can’t give that information because it’s proprietary ingredients”. So yes, they essentially want you to inject your precious pet with mystery goo and expect vets to sell you their product. Great system. If you do some research you’ll discover that most of those pet vaccines are no different than the ones for humans and contain aluminum and mercury (disguised as Thimerosal). So the less you inject them with toxins in their lifetime the less chance of health issues later in life.

Dog Daycare Vs. Titers

One issue with titer testing is that if your dog goes to doggie daycare some daycare centers won’t accept just the titer test results for DHPP, you will most likely need a signed note from your vet that states that “based on the test results your pet has sufficient coverage for DHPP”. If your daycare still won’t accept that, find another daycare that understands that your pets health trumps their unfounded fears. Bordatella (similar to a human cold that goes away in a few days) is unfortunately still a requirement for daycare centers to protect their insurance policy so you won’t be able to opt out of that one even though it has low effectiveness just like the human flu shots strains that scientists typically guess wrong at every year. But at least bordatella can be given as a nasal dose nowadays so no needles touch your pet. Outside of individual pet daycare rules rabies is the only vaccine required by law, though hopefully in our lifetime we will see blood tests showing coverage being accepted for that as well so that we can stop over-vaccinating our beloved pets with unnecessary toxins.

All we can do as pet owners is feed our pet the best that our budget allows for, give healthy supplements as needed, and research everything that goes into their body. And in the back of your mind always remember that in both the veterinarian world and human doctor world they both stand to make the most money when there’s sickness so take their advice home and then do your own research so that you can make the best decision for you and your pet.

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