Do you vax your pets?

My dogs are 9yrs old and were vaxed as pups and thats been it besides rabies every 3 yrs. Ive read alot about vaxs and animals, and the vet world is rethinking this. One of my dogs has allergies......and i was advised by a homepathic vet not to give them to her. You can ask for a titer to be done and vax accordingly.

I recently got into it with the receptionist at the vet where I take my animals. I took my dog in to get her teeth cleaned, a procedure that requires her to be put under. They started asking about her vax record, and I told them. The woman started going on her speel, about how she could pick up parvo from being at the office..etc etc. I told her that being put under and having this procedure was going to be enough on her immune system, and that even if I got her vaxed today, it wouldnt protect her from getting parvo anyways. She was like.......oh......well......yes.........thats true. Then later they did a blood panel on her (standard before being put under) and found she had a kidney condition. If I had gotten her vaxed that day........it would have been a serious compromise on her. She is now on some serious medication to cure her problem......but Im really glad I stood my ground on this!

Read Dr Pitcairns Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.

I do vax our pets, mostly. We have one cat that's not vaxxed. It would be SO stressful for this particular cat to have to be put in a crate and taken to the vet that it's just not worth it. She's a strictly indoor cat, and every other pet in the house is vaxxed, so we are relying on herd immunity.

Aside from the rabies vax being required by law, with no exemptions that I know of, the fact is, it's a lot harder to protect your pets than your children. They'll eat garbage, and other animals' waste products without a second thought as to whether it's "safe". Even if you can get them to wash their paws, I don't think it'd help much. LOL We did skip the bordatella vax until the dogs were going to be at training classes though. That's pretty much standard at our vet's office, you don't get that one unless you ask for it. And there's another one, the name of which is escaping me, which is only given to high-risk dogs.....if you take them out in the woods where they'd be around deer, or farms around cattle. We opted out of that one too. If for some reason we get our Border Collie into herding trials that involve cattle, we'll get it then.

I guess it's about the same as I do for my kids........the major vaxxes, we get, the optional/convinience ones we skip unless necessary.

We haven't tried any natural flea repellants yet, I need to look into that. For now, they are all on Revolution, which is flea and heartworm protection combined. After last years massive flea infestation and everything it took to get it cleared up, I'm hesitant to change something that's working. Kind of OT with pets......we've had good luck getting rid of ants with Tabasco sauce. Also works well to stop pets from chewing on the furniture.

From everything Ive read that was written by VETS on this subject, we are OVER vaccinating our pets. They dont need all these vaxs every year. Its as big a money making business and vaxing our kids.

Its just as easy to get a titer done, and see what the dog has immunities to, than to overload their systems with vaxs they dont need. The vet world is rethinking this......Ive talked to my vet about it and he admitted that some of these vaxs are not needed as much as they have been giving them in the past. Dogs have suffered from over vaxing too......just like our children.

I would also never give my dogs that stuff for fleas........theres enough info on that too warrant suspicion. My dog was allergic to fleas and had a heavy skin problem. It was totally taken care of with natural methods, diet, etc.

Ill try to posts some links on the subject.

Sorry, I just have to add my 2 cents on the whole money grabbing issue.
#1, Vets don't make a hell of a lot of money for what they do, neither do their staff. (this is not to say that there aren't bad vets--I just despise blanket statements)
#2, Yes vets are re-looking at the vaxing issue, the main issue here is that when people don't "have" to come in for vaccines, often very treatable problems in our pets go un-noticed. As much as 65% of treatable health issues in pets are located during the animals annual exam. It's been proven that people will not bring their pet in for an annual exam if they "think" all is well (Again not to say all people, but most)

Fact is its' really easy to blame every little health problem on a vaccine the animal got, but that doesn't make it true. I have a completely healthy 10 yr old dog whose only health problem has been a ruptured disc in his back.
While working at a clinic one of our vets was sued because she agreed that perhaps a dog that the owner said never went anywhere did not need to be vaccinated. The owner then sued and won when her dog died of parvo. It's stuff like this that has vets making sure their receptionists insist upon and push vaccines. If we could guarentee that nobody would be stupid, I suppose these "silly" receptionists would not have to follow rules.
Also, I've suggested people titre their dogs often, however when they find out how much it costs to run a titre, they use that as an excuse to call the veterinary community money hungry as well--so all in all, most of us do a job where we get bitten, peed on, shit on, puked on and bled on on a daily basis and we do it because of our love of animals--not the rather small paycheck.

I do vax our pets, mostly. We have one cat that's not vaxxed. It would be SO stressful for this particular cat to have to be put in a crate and taken to the vet that it's just not worth it. She's a strictly indoor cat, and every other pet in the house is vaxxed, so we are relying on herd immunity.

Aside from the rabies vax being required by law, with no exemptions that I know of, the fact is, it's a lot harder to protect your pets than your children. They'll eat garbage, and other animals' waste products without a second thought as to whether it's "safe". Even if you can get them to wash their paws, I don't think it'd help much. LOL We did skip the bordatella vax until the dogs were going to be at training classes though. That's pretty much standard at our vet's office, you don't get that one unless you ask for it. And there's another one, the name of which is escaping me, which is only given to high-risk dogs.....if you take them out in the woods where they'd be around deer, or farms around cattle. We opted out of that one too. If for some reason we get our Border Collie into herding trials that involve cattle, we'll get it then.

I guess it's about the same as I do for my kids........the major vaxxes, we get, the optional/convinience ones we skip unless necessary.

We haven't tried any natural flea repellants yet, I need to look into that. For now, they are all on Revolution, which is flea and heartworm protection combined. After last years massive flea infestation and everything it took to get it cleared up, I'm hesitant to change something that's working. Kind of OT with pets......we've had good luck getting rid of ants with Tabasco sauce. Also works well to stop pets from chewing on the furniture.

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And ive got two 9yr old dogs that were only vaxed as pups, that are healthy without vaxs. Im not doing it bc of neglect, but bc I truly believe, from everything Ive read and talked about with my vet and also a previous homeopathic vet, they dont need to be vaxed every year. Ive got concerns bc of my dog who has severe allergies, thats what started my journey of finding out about vaxs.

Just my opinion.

I didnt imply I thought the receptionist was "silly". She was doing her job. I just dont think its wise to advise someone to vax their dog before a procedure where the dog is being put under...... but Im sure it was standard MO. But in our case, not something I was willing to just go along with bc its what they do.

But youre right, alot of people dont vax.........and are also just neglectful of their pets.

I don't vax our cats any more. They're indoor only, and I don't believe they need repeated shots every year when they're not exposed to the diseases in question.

One of our cats had a reaction after a rabies vaccine - because our vet doesn't use PureVax, which has demonstrably lower rates of reactions. If and when I take them to get rabies boosters again, it will be PureVax or nothing.

Also, if you get your cats vaxed, make sure the vet does the injection in the legs rather than the back. Cats are susceptible to vax-induced sarcomas (tumors) and if they get one in the leg it can be amputated more easily and save the cat's life. (This is from my mainstream vet friend).

I believe we over-vaccinate our pets, and I don't think it's a good enough reason that if we over-vax them we'll be able to pick up on other health problems. Vaxes are not sugar pills - they do have effects on the animals, and some animals are more vulnerable than others, just like in humans.

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I dont feel I bashed her.......but I do think she was in error. Getting vaxs before a major life threatening procedure would not (should not) be recommended by anyone knowing about the immune system, human or canine. Its just not a good idea. AND, it wouldnt have prevented my dog from getting parvo that day. Besides the fact that my dog has severe allergy issues. And like in humans, vaxs are not a guarantee of prevention. As it turned out, it would have been a big deal if I would have agreed to it, considering the findings of the blood panel that was done that day. I wasnt rude to her, but I just pointed out my concerns, and signed the release she typed up, not holding them liable. Personally, I would never sue my vet if my dog did get a disease. I understand its the risk we are taking. But thats just me. THere are plenty of people out there who would.