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The last two years that my dog got her yearly vaccines, her face was swollen. The first year, I took her back to the vet and he thought that maybe she had been bitten. He said it should be fine but asked if I wanted her to have a cortisone shot and I had him give her one. The swelling went down after about 24 hours. Well, last year the same thing happened so I was convinced it was the vaccine. It is getting about that time of year so I "googled" and found it doesn't seem to be that uncommon. Our dog is 8 years old and never had a problem before and we have had and known many dogs in the past and have never seen this. I plan to only get the rabies shot this year anyway since I do not wish to continue to overload her system with these vaccines. Has anyone had this happen to their dogs? It just seems that nothing is safe anymore.
My dog had a problem with the 7 in 1 vaccine from the feed store, her shoulder swelled up and she couldn't walk for a day. This time, I gave her the 5 in 1 and she didn't have any problems.
The face swelling sounds like an allergic reaction to me. I definitely wouldn't do anything but MAYBE rabies, and that on a 3 year schedule. But you might be able to get an exemption from getting it. I would ask the vet if you can.
The face swelling, heavy breathing and scratching happened to my pug a few yrs back. All she got was the rabies vacc. so we knew it was that. Took her back right away and they gave her meds to counteract it and she was fine a few hrs later and the next day she def. was her old self. I was just glad I was home when it happened bc Im in and out a lot and had no idea this time would be different. She got the rabies vacc. every 3 yrs previously in our town but as she got older, it became a problem. She never got another rabies vacc, the vet ran titers and she had enough antibodies and the town gave an exemption.
The face swelling, heavy breathing and scratching happened to my pug a few yrs back. All she got was the rabies vacc. so we knew it was that. Took her back right away and they gave her meds to counteract it and she was fine a few hrs later and the next day she def. was her old self. I was just glad I was home when it happened bc Im in and out a lot and had no idea this time would be different. She got the rabies vacc. every 3 yrs previously in our town but as she got older, it became a problem. She never got another rabies vacc, the vet ran titers and she had enough antibodies and the town gave an exemption.
This happened to my pug. She was the 7th dog to come back into the office with this type of alergic reaction to the rabies vacc. She had a shot right away to counteract it and also meds to take at home for a day. She had cortezone for a few years after that everytime she had a rabies shot but it never happened again. I think it was just a bad batch of the vaccine.
An 8 year old dog is probably immune to every disease he is being vaccinated for, and you can find that out by having the vet do "titers" for rabies, distemper and parvo, or if you're sensible and want to save money (because parvo and distemper are so very rare in older dogs) -- just get the rabies titer. I'd put money on your dog having adequate antibodies for rabies. Our dogs went 8 years between rabies shots, getting titers every year in between. And yes, they were vaccination outlaws, and I think the annual requirement in Kansas is ignorant and barbaric, but our vet was fully supportive of what we wanted to do and she said she is always supported by local authorities when a dog is found to have titer tests but not the vaccine. She also said a healthy dog 8 years or older probably doesn't need any more vaccinations, except for the bordetella intranasal.
Look at it this way. When a dog is shipped overseas, vaccinations are not sufficient paperwork. Titers are required.
I wouldn't vaccinate my dogs for nothing (they are very healthy)...I also have 6 cats...one of them closing in on 18, and I know she wouldn't have made it that long if she'd been vaccinated.
This happened to our red lh dachshund once. She also had slightly labored breathing for a while. We were on the verge of taking her to the emergency room vet and it started to subside. Later I heard that some red dachs have problems with the lepto vaccine. Obviously ours did. It did not happen again though. The single incident was when she was a very young dog. It is scary.
Different states have different requirements for the rabies/shots I think. Check your state.
Thanks for all the replies. They were all very helpful. She is due in Sept for shots and since we live in town, she must have them to get a license but many don't bother and she is not a runner. I had never heard of testing for immunity before to rabies. It was terrible! She is a chow mix and her face was huge and she was so miserable and the shot still took the 24 hours to kick in. I should move to the woods and leave no forwarding address! Thanks again to all.
Save her from more suffering and skip her sept shots.
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