Vaccinations
What Vaccinations Does Your Dog Need?
As I wrote a few days ago, I got to attend a terrific conference about canine health and breeding recently. One of the speakers was Dr. Margaret Casal of the University of Pennsylvania, who spoke on vaccinations for dogs and puppies. There has been a great deal of controversy in this area in the last few years. Many people have come to believe that we vaccinate our dogs too much and that vaccinations are compromising canine immune systems.
Dr. Casal gave a very interesting and educational talk about vaccinations. She certainly doesn’t advocate eliminating all vaccinations! But if she thought a vaccination was unnecessary or didn’t need to be given after the first booster, she said so.
Because of the public health risk to humans, we have to continue giving rabies shots to our dogs according to state and local laws. However, we can use more discretion and common sense about the other innoculations for our dogs.
Here’s some information from Dr. Casal and the University of Pennsylvania about vaccinations. You can find the entire protocol for dogs (and cats) at Bellwether 48: Vaccination Guidelines for Dogs and Cats.
Canine Vaccination Protocol at VHUP
*:Puppies: If a dog needs to be vaccinated before 6 weeks of age and has no known history of ingestion of colostrum or known lack of colostrum or in case of high infectious disease risk (*), it may be given measles virus vaccine to overcome maternal protection against distemper and killed canine Parvovirus vaccine (killed CPV). Do not use live CPV at less than 5 weeks of age because of the potential damage to still dividing and developing myocytes.
Coronavirus Vaccines: Coronavirus only causes serious, fatal disease in puppies less than 5 weeks of age. However, puppies are generally protected through colostral antibodies until 8-12 weeks of age. Thus, it is probably of little value vaccinating puppies against coronaviral infections.
Leptospira vaccines: This vaccine presents a dilemma for several reasons: In more recent times, several dogs seemed to have had allergic type reactions to the Leptospira component in the multivalent vaccines. It has also been suggested that the duration of immunity after vaccination only lasts for about 8 months. Recently, a new Leptospira vaccine has become available that contains four different serovars: grippotyphosa, canicola, icterohemorrhagica, and pomona. The vaccine is now purified, which may reduce allergic reactions and although titers drop significantly after 6 months, challenge with pathogenic forms of L. icterohemorrhagica and canicola one year after vaccination did not cause disease. Because of these recent developments we recommend this vaccine.
Lyme Disease (Borreliosis) vaccines: As the pathogenesis of infections with Borrelia burgdorferi is still not clearly defined, this should not be a routine vaccination. Post-vaccinal Lyme-like syndrome has been described and it is possible that the same dog breeds that have had these types of reactions may also be the ones that have more serious disease after infection with the pathogenic strain. The vaccine also interferes with interpretation of titers possibly for years after vaccination.
Bordetella bronchiseptica vaccines: This is probably not a very effective vaccine, and there are not enough studies to document either short- or long-term efficacy. However, there are some kennels that require Bordetella vaccinations before the dog can be boarded. The intranasal vaccine seems to provide marginally better protection than the injectable form. The dog should receive a booster 2-4 weeks after the initial vaccination, if given the killed injectable vaccine. A single dose of the intranasal vaccine is likely to be sufficient in a puppy older than 14 weeks of age, when the maternal antibodies have dropped to undetectable levels.
Vaccines *Neonates Puppy Series Last Puppy Booster First Adult Booster Adult Boosters
Distemper/Measles 2-6 weeks
Killed Parvovirus 2-6 weeks
Distemper 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks#, 16 wks, 15 mths, every 3 years
Canine Adenovirus
Type 2 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks#, 16 wks, 15 mths, every 3 years
Canine Parainfluenza 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks#, 16 wks, 15 mths, every 3 years
Canine Parvovirus 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks#, 16 wks, 15 mths, every 3 years
Leptospirafour 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks#, 16 wks, 15 mths, annually
serovars
Rabies Virus 13-16 wks, 15 mths, every 3 years
Bordetella (optional) 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks, 16 wks, 15 mths, annually
Lyme (optional) 6-8 wks, 10-12 wks, 13-16 wks, 16 wks, 15 mths, annually
#: Optional; usually present in combination vaccines together with canine Parvovirus.
Remember that puppies are born without immune protection and only get immunity from their mother’s colostrum. Studies have shown that within a litter, immune quality can vary greatly. Some puppies get more or less immunity from their mother’s colostrum, depending upon how much they nurse in the first 24 hours, how much colostrum is in the milk, and other factors. It’s very important to get those first shots between six and eight weeks and then to continue with your puppy’s vaccinations. At six weeks the puppy may — or may not — still have immunity from his mother. He may fight off the vaccination that he is given at six weeks and so get no immunity from it. That’s why it’s necessary to repeat some of these shots several times until it’s definite that the maternal immunity is gone and the vaccination has taken effect. Only then will your puppy be safely immunized from deadly diseases like parvo. Or, his immunity may already be gone by six weeks, leaving him susceptible to deadly diseases. Puppy vaccinations are vital.
Once your puppy has his puppy shots, his last puppy boosters and his first adult boosters, you can put more time between getting shots — in most cases, three years. It’s a good idea to alternate shots, getting rabies one year, distemper one year, parvo one year. That way you can be sure your dog sees the vet at least once a year for an annual check up.
