Do You Still Vaccinate An Old Dog?

[New Age Outlaw]

My (nearly) 6 year olds haven't been vaccinated since they were 3, the 11 year old's last vacc was when she was about 5 and the 9 year old was vacced just before I got her last year, and won't be again in her lifetime.

[sllebasi]

what an interesting thread , never really thought about not giving my dog yearly vaccinations. she is now 12 years old and has had 12 monthly needles for the last 10 years - but she has always gone to the kennels during a calendar year. now that we are moving, and likelihood of her going to kennels are remote, am now putting it on my job list to talk to vets about requirements.

would be interested in learning more about this topic - am a little biased towards vaccination as I have worked in the childcare industry for the last 15 years. Is there a 'loose' difference between childhood illnesses and dog illnesses or are they similar - by saying this I mean obviously there must be some need to vaccinate and are we possibly encouraging outbreaks by not vaccinating????

[Sandra777]

Sllebasi - no one in this discussion has (AFAIK ) suggested no vaccinations at all, just stated their opinions about repeatedly vaccinating adult dogs.

Children are vaccinated, this vaccination isn't repeated every year throughout life - the immune systems of people and dogs works pretty much the same way

[Sheridan]

Judging by the fact they are diagnosed with a immunity disorder and one of them has cancer for the second time. My dogs are exposed all the time due to me being a vet nurse. I bring it home no matter how much cleaning and scrubbing I do. Do NOT judge me because I choose to vaccinate to protect my immunity challanged dogs. I respect everyone's decision to vaccinate to their beliefs, so I'd hope people on here would do the same. I really resent the fact you are implying I'm costing my dog

Ignore it. Evangelists tend to be unnecessarily rude.

[Miss B]

I also believe that if a vaccinated (adult) dog gets Parvo, then it likely would have regardless of whether you vaccinated it triennially, annually or even weekly.

That is a very interesting statement to me. Have you (Or others in the vet industry, open question) seen many already vaccinated adult dogs come in with parvo?

I have, in my time as a vet nurse, seen quite a lot of Parvo. And I can honestly say I've never, not once, ever seen an adult dog with Parvo. They have all been puppies and the vast majority of them un-vaccinated.

[Everythings Shiny]

I've seen several adult dogs with parvo over the last few months

[Jumabaar]

I actually based my decision not to revaccinate because I believe my dogs are exposed to these diseases relatively commonly. They are out 2-3 nights per week at training (mostly held in public parks so who knows whats passed through there!). I have worked in a vet clinic and I show or do sports most weekends. To me this means that they don't need artificial exposure from a vaccine because their immune system is being challenged semi-regularly with the real thing. Although in my area it is more likely to be Kennel cough although there were apparently some parvo cases in the general vicinity.

We vaccinate for specific strains of Parvo that are most common here in Australia. There are other strains that are not covered that are quite rare and I believe there is some cross protection between them. It would be possible for a new strain to have emerged that was not cross protected by the vaccine.

It is possible for a dog that is never naturally challenged for their titre results to drop below an acceptable level, however this does not mean that they do not still have immunity, just that it is not detectible which I am guessing is what Sandra's initial question was aimed at. For the time being titre tests are the best we have- its just a pain when you have a girl like mine that knows what a needle looks like and knows it aint going near her leg!!