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Thanks for all the feedback and help so far. I really appreciate it. My husband I have been really upset.
Sorry you guys are going through this. When I was a kid, we lost a dog from a severe vaccine reaction. I then vowed to never overvaccinate my dog when I get one, and he has been on a limited vaccine schedule and has had no reactions. I've read up a lot on the matter, spent time with holistic vets and really opened up my eyes regarding the animal vaccination policies. The rabies vaccine will protect your dog for 7 years (it has been proven time and time again, yet the govt refuses to accept these studies), yet they make you re-vaccinate every 1 or 3 years, depending on the vaccine. It's all about making money with this particular vaccine and my dog is not going to suffer because of money hungry government officials.
She is 10 weeks. She is doing well...but she still is still pretty tired.
10 weeks? What age did you start her vaccinations and how far apart were they? Standard protocol for puppies is every 3-4 weeks starting at 6 or 8 weeks old and having the last booster after the age of 12 weeks.
The reason that vaccines are spaced like this is maternal antibody interference. The immunity that Mom conferes will actually fight the vaccine and prevent the puppy from responding to the vaccine the way we want him to. The problem is that we don't know exactly how long the maternal antibodies will be present in any given puppy. So the idea is to try and protect the puppy by giving vaccines starting when the maternal antibodies may have started to wear off in many puppies. The last one is given after 12 weeks because the vast majority will no longer have maternal antibodies at that point. We also want to get in one effective vaccine and one booster, as it's the booster that really bumps up the antibodies to protective levels and helps them stay up where they need to be.
I don't know if getting titers would be a good option in your case, but it might be worth looking into. If your puppy's maternal antibodies faded away early enough, he may not need the 4th booster. But if they haven't, please consider the distemper and the parvo. Both diseases are really horrible and really contagious.
BTW, I totally agree with MAK802 that it's time to revise the rabies vaccination laws.
10 weeks? What age did you start her vaccinations and how far apart were they? Standard protocol for puppies is every 3-4 weeks starting at 6 or 8 weeks old and having the last booster after the age of 12 weeks.
I don't know if getting titers would be a good option in your case, but it might be worth looking into. If your puppy's maternal antibodies faded away early enough, he may not need the 4th booster. But if they haven't, please consider the distemper and the parvo. Both diseases are really horrible and really contagious.
BTW, I totally agree with MAK802 that it's time to revise the rabies vaccination laws.
Titers are worthless, unfortunately. I wish it wasn't the case, but it sickens me when a vet wants to charge $100 or more to do titers, knowing that they really show nothing. Until we can measure memory cells (not gonna happen), titers have no place in the medical field.
"A titer test does not and cannot measure immunity, because immunity to specific viruses is reliant not on antibodies, but on memory cells, which we have no way to measure."
The problem as I see it with revising the rabies law nationally is that, to a degree, it's quite area specific - i.e. there are states with few/no cases of rabies and there are states with higher numbers and within the "higher" states there are further areas of still higher risk. It's all a bit fraught - but not impossible. It's compounded by people's willingness to accept a vet's advice as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth....
Josci - for what it's worth, I have a dog that had an allergic reaction to a bordatella vaccination. The problem with the combo vax is you can't isolate exactly what the dog has reacted to.
In my opinion, you'd want to do a bit of research and find out what is endemic in your area and what is not before you say "yea" or "nay" out of hand. The risks of exposure in my area of the country are going to be rather different to yours I suspect.
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