Avoid Unnecessary Pet Vaccines
“I don’t want to give my dog any unnecessary vaccines.”
Who does? thinks Doc Truli.
We get the point. You want a veterinarian and veterinary team that is thoughtful and specific about what vaccines they recommend for your puppy or dog and why. Unfortunately, many veterinary teams offer “customized packages.” You may pay less for the package and get more, but you may get vaccines you don’t need. For example, have you heard a friend say, “they told me it would cost more to take the bordetella vaccine out of the package. So I just went ahead and got it anyway.”
It hardly makes sense, does it?
Prescription for Care
Vaccines should only be administered to healthy animals. It says so on the package! Your veterinarian needs to consider your pet’s lifestyle, the prevalence of the disease in your area, the route(s) of transmission, the severity and forms of the illness, whether it is transmissible to humans or not, and the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Your previous experiences with certain diseases, your risk aversion (how bad will you feel if your dog caught a rare, painful, but preventable disease?), and your preferences for medicalization for your family will guide your decisions.
Rabies Vaccine
For instance, most people do not have personal experience with Rabies. (Most veterinarians do.) But the disease is deadly to humans, expensive and painful to treat in humans (if you know you have been exposed and get the treatment right away), deadly to our dogs and cats, horses, and most other domestic animal species. Rabies is relatively cheap to prevent. Veterinarians have a public health duty to society to help stop rabies from spreading.
There are possible side effects from the vaccine. They are statistically rare. They can be deadly. If you decline a rabies vaccine in case there is a side effect, you really cannot understand what you are risking for your pet and your family unless you have been through it before. If you have had rabies in your family, I bet you will want that vaccine. Like, yesterday!
The seriousness of the public health risk, the deadliness of rabies, and the ease of spread in wildlife populations are 3 good reasons it is the law to vaccinate domestic animals in the US.
Distemper Vaccine
Distemper is an often fatal dog virus. It spreads through secretions, especially snotty noses in crowded environments like some animal shelters. It causes a really high fever and pneumonia symptoms and if the dog survives, they have neurologic signs like seizures when they are older. The vaccine works well and the disease is bad. It is considered a dog “core” vaccine in the US.
Here’s a little-known reason why this vaccine is important: distemper mutates and crosses into other species than dogs. For instance, dog distemper virus kills sea lions really well. And we do not want that! You are helping other innocent animals when you provide protection for your dogs.
Parvo Virus Vaccine
Parvo virus is a very contagious dog virus that causes vomiting and bloody diarrhea. You carry the virus on your shoes and clothing and do not know you are bringing it home with you. Many infected puppies die from it. Adult dogs can get very sick. It is difficult to save them with or without intensive care in the hospital. The vaccine is effective and also considered a core vaccine for dogs.
Other Vaccines
There are several other common dog vaccines available in 2018. Parainfluenza, Hepatitis, Bordetella, Canine Influenza Types 1+2, Leptospirosis, Coronovirus and Lyme disease to name a few. They are considered non-core vaccines and should warrant an especially careful discussion with your veterinarian.
A Word About Thimerosal
Thimerosal is ethyl mercury. It is found as a preservative in some dog vaccines. If a vaccine says “preservative-free” on the label, it may contain minute amounts of thimerosal. If it says “thimerosal-free” it contains no thimerosal. Of course, we would like to decrease lifetime exposure to mercury in any ways we can control. Using thimerosal-free vaccines is one was to accomplish this.
Market availability and manufacturing change, so a list will not suffice to be posted here. Your veterinarian or veterinary technician can provide the information for you for the vaccines they recommend. Sometimes compromises must be made if a valuable useful vaccine is unavailable thimerosal-free at the time.
You can also ask the brand name and look up the “package label insert” for the product. They are usually posted online and you can read it for yourself.
-Doc Truli provides holistic house calls to the greater Tampa Bay area. Many, many clients call Doc Truli for an objective, thoughtful consultation about vaccines without recrimination or hard feelings.
“The best pet parents question the standard of care and want better for their loved ones,” Doc Truli.
Email DrTruli@VetVMD.com any time of day or night to find out appointment availability for your area. (Doc Truli understands these pet concerns keep us up at night. She will get back to you in the morning!)
