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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:33:12 PM Just finished four hours of lecture from Dr Rich Ford from the University of North Carolina. "Vaccines and Vaccination: Issues and Controversies" Thought you might like to hear some of highlights of what those involved in developing vaccine guidelines have to say: Vaccination does not equal immunization. Most common reason for vaccine failure is giving vaccs too early and two many given too close together. Current Recommendation is to give two vaccs 3-4 weeks apart, and last vacc should be given at about 15-16 weeks. Maternal immunity lasts longer and prevents vaccination immunity than previously thought. He didn't give us a time frame, but old thought was 8 weeks. About 25% of pups vaccinated for Parvo fail to have immunity, mostly due to improper vaccination schedules. (too many given too early) Core vaccines include parvo, adenovirus, and distemper. He freely admitted that parvo and distemper shots are good for at least 7 - 9 years. The only reason they came out with the recommendation to vaccinate every three years was because they figured it would be tough enough to get DVM's to stop annual vaccinations and to recommend every 5-7 years would have zero compliance. Feline leukemia is a kitten disease. Cats that reach 8-10 months have natural immunity, whether vaccinated or not. No need for annual vaccinations. He also talked about post-vaccine related vasculitis from the Rabies vaccine. It can cause ischemia (circulation loss) at the injection site or on the ear tips, tail, scrotum, and paws up to one month post vaccination. (I bet a lot of Drs at the conference never assumed it was d.t. rabies vacc when they saw the problem one month later). He then showed us a picture of a small fuzzy 12 week old pup on a ventilator. He was given distemper, adenovirus, distemper, parainfluenza, corona, lepto, bordetella, and rabies all in one visit. Pup collapsed within 15 minutes and started passing red foamy discharge from his nose. He was rushed to the University hospital, placed on a ventilator for 3 days and did manage to survive. Someone asked Dr Ford if he would be getting the H1N1 flu shot. He said "No." He had gotten the anthrax vaccine and got deathly ill from it and was told at that time that he may have to spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair. He recovered and a couple years later he got a "flu" shot and within 30 minutes started showing similar symptoms. Luckily he recovered in just a couple days. But he says now if he sees a flu shot he runs the other way. He talked in length about bordetella bronchiseptica and said that it is contagious to humans. They have actually cultured it from techs who work in large shelters. He said most cases in people are in those that have a compromised immune system. Canine Influenza is actually Equine Influenza. They recently came out with a vaccine for it. It mainly affects clusters of dogs (boarding kennels/shelters) under stress. Eighty percent will develop mild infection - cough and low grade fever. Symptoms will resolve in 10 days with or without treatment. Five - 8% will develop severe illness, cough, high fever, hemorrhagic lungs and death. Twelve-14% will not develop any signs. Vaccine does NOT provide immunity or prevent viral shedding. It will only decrease the severity of clinical signs. Vaccine NOT recommended for the family dog. He mentioned the vaccine induced fibrosarcomas in cats. It was recommended that the rabies vaccine now be given in the right rear leg as low as possible so if the cat developed a tumor, you could amputate the leg. He said "How would you feel if you took your child to the pediatrician and they said that they would give the vaccine in the toe, so if your child developed cancer they could just cut off the toe?" I guess the amputation theory isn't so great anyway because the tumor often spreads to the pelvis. Dr Ford also mentioned the liability issue to a veterinarian if he neglects to vaccinate for a disease and the dog comes down with it. He said in talking with the AVMA professional liability insurance attorney, no Dr has successfully been sued for lack of vaccinating, but there have been many lawsuits against Drs for vaccine induced damage. Dr Susan www.horizonvetserv.com

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Kristen - owner of Hominy Valley GSD Rescue
Gypsy - chow/pitbull mix
Deja - German shepherd
Naccia - German shepherd
Rascal - Gray tabby DSH
Spook - Black DSH

My dogs are all vax-free now, too. I use nosodes beginning at 3-4 weeks of age, in case of exposure, and I do still give a single parvo and a single distemper shot (spaced 2 weeks apart) to puppies before they go to their new homes, but that's it. The vaccination clause in my contract states that the new owners are to have a titer check run 2 weeks after that 2nd shot, to make sure that the shots were effective. I use high titer vaccines, which are designed to overcome maternal immunity, so it's unlikely that a second parvo or distemper shot would be necessary. It states that another titer check is to be done when the dog turns 12 months, and no further vaccines are to be given if the results of that titer produce a number higher than zero. Low titers are not an indication of low immunity; it simply means that the dog has not been recently exposed to the disease, and so has not mounted an immune response. I also specify which specific brands of vaccine may be given, and offer to provide them to the new owner at no cost, if they are necessary.

The only thing I say in my contract about the rabies vaccine is that it should be administered no younger than 6 months of age, and must be given no sooner than 3 weeks after any other shots. Because they are required by law, I do not want to have it in writing that I've told the new owners not to give them.