Dog Shots Needed Every Year?
We all get them in our mail box. Mine are sent to my email. Those little reminder cards from your vet/clinic that it’s time for Fido’s annual vaccinations. But after looking a bit closer at the risks and benefits of these vaccines, you might want to waiting before assuming that dog shots needed every year is absolutely necessary.
Could these dog shots we give every year not only be unnecessary, but actually harmful to your pet’s health?
We overvaccinate our children — but at least we eventually stop after puberty. But with our pets, we continue vaccine boosters until they are well into their senior years.
What Shots Do Dogs Need Every Year?
As an adult, I don’t assault myself with annual boosters, and I certainly wouldn’t do this my elderly family members. So why do we inflict this upon our pets, regardless of their immune status or age, when common sense would tell us those vaccines should last longer than a year?
Additionally, there are no adjustments in dose for size or age of your animal. Your five-pound Miniature Pinscher receives the same size vaccine as your 150 -pound Rottweiler. Your 10 -pound housecat gets the same quantity as a 400 -pound lion.
All of these vaccines are overwhelming your pet’s immune system. Vaccine reactions are at an all-time high.
A study of more than 2,000 cats and dogs in the United Kingdom by Canine Health Concern depicted a 1 in 10 risk of adverse reactions from vaccines. This contradicts what the vaccine manufacturers report for rates of adverse reactions, which is” less than 15 adverse reactions in 100, 000 animals vaccinated”( 0.015 percentage ).
Additionally, adverse reactions of small breeds are 10 times higher than large breeds, suggesting standard vaccine doses are too high for smaller animals.
A few bold veterinarians have paved the way for ending overvaccination, but the research is sparse and the opposition is great, just as with the human vaccine industry — and for similar reasons.
This article addresses three main points:
1. There is no scientific evidence that dog shots needed every year are necessary, and in fact once animals attain immunity from their initial vaccines, they appear to have immunity that lasts for many years, and often for life, without boosters.
2. There is growing alarm that overvaccination appears to be causing a multitude of serious medical problems, particularly with the immune system, including allergies, seizures, anemia and cancer.
3. Vaccines are a very profitable part of veterinary care — in fact, some vet practices are built around them. Long-term studies of animal immunity would require a substantial outlay of fund — the kind of fund that merely the drug companies have, and Big Pharma is much more interested in selling more vaccines than challenging the need for them.
How Current Vaccine Schedules Were Determined The current recommendation from many veterinarians is for dogs is to receive rabies, parvovirus, distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza, leptospirosis, coronavirus, hepatitis, lyme( borelia ), and annually, bortadella( kennel cough) sometimes being recommended every 6 months.
Cat are advised to have rabies, feline leukemia( FeLV ), distemper( panluekopenia ), rhinotracheitis, and calcivirus annually–and depending on risk, chlamydia, feline infectious peritonitis( FIP ), and ringworm can be added.
Many vets advise both puppies and kittens get their” core vaccines” at ages 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks, and 16 weeks. Then, they get boosters at one year, and annually thereafter.
All of these shoots add up to a tremendous vaccine load over your pet’s lifetime!
How did these recommendations for dog shots needed every year come about?
One of the veterinary pioneers, Dr. W. Jean Dodds, president of the nonprofit animal version of the Red Cross called Hemopet, reported that the recommendations for annual vaccines were just that — recommendations. They were not based on any scientific evidence.
The recommendations for annual vaccination were put forth collectively by the United States Department of Agriculture and the drug companies, more than twenty years ago. And veterinary medicine has continued to do it that way because, well, that’s the way it’s always been done.
And it’s a good deal for them financially. So far, protests to annual vaccines have been mild.
Now the USDA puts the annual vaccination recommendation right on the product label.
Veterinary Vaccines are Big Money for Many Vets — and Even Bigger Money for Big Pharma Without some driving force for change, there is no motivation for the industry to change the most lucrative part of its practice.
Many vets cling to annual vaccine schedules because of economic dependence more than preserving a “cautious” standard of care. This is particularly true for the typical small vet practices( 1-3 people , non-specialty , non-emergency practices ).
Consider this …
One dose of rabies vaccine costs the vet about 61 cents. The client is typically charged between $15 and $38, plus a $35 office visit. The markup on the vaccine alone is 2,400 percentage to 6,200 percentage — a markup equivalent to charging $217 for a loaf of bread.
According to one estimate, removing the one-year rabies vaccination and consequential office visit for dogs alone would decrease the average small vet’s income from $87,000 to $25,000 — and this doesn’t include cats or other vaccinations.
According to James Schwartz, writer of Trust Me, I’m Not a Veterinarian, 63 percentage of canine and 70 percent of feline vet office visits are for vaccinations.
Dog Shots Needed Every Year Vaccine Recommendations
Wellness visits are important for other reasons than vaccines, such as checking for heartworm and tumors and assessing general health status. I do recommend continuing these checkups every six months, although I do not recommend annual vaccines.
Rabies vaccines are required by law. There are approved 1-year and 3-year rabies vaccines. They are the same product. Please ask for the 3-year vaccine, if you opt to vaccinate your pet against rabies. I also recommend you consider seeing a holistic veterinarian that will provide you with the homeopathic rabies vaccine detox, called Lyssin.
Ask for a Vaccine Titer Test: this is a how you can determine if your pet has adequate immunological protection from previously administered vaccines( puppy or kitten shoots ). Antibody levels can be measured from a blood draw, in place of revaccination. The type of titer that best assesses immune system’s response to vaccinesis called IFA, or indirect immunofluorescent antibody.
Please discuss with your veterinarian the risks versus benefits of the diseases you are considering vaccinating for, before you automatically assume that dog shots needed every year is necessary.
Indoor housecats should not be vaccinated annually, especially if they never go outside or have access to other cats( potentially exposing them to infectious disease ). I believe overvaccination is one of the main reasons the general health of our feline patients is deteriorating.
Do not vaccinate your dog or cat if it has had a serious life-threatening vaccine reaction.
Do not patronize any boarding facility, groomer, developing facility or veterinarian that requires you to vaccinate your pet more than necessary.
The decision by some veterinarians to come forward with the truth about pet vaccines and the true amount of dog shots needed every year is a positive step toward changing our animal health care system. Veterinary vaccines are one more unfortunate instance of the corporate greed that permeates the pharmaceutical industry.