I am doing some research on what is the difference between the one year and three year rabies vaccine, and it seems the only difference between the two vaccines is the way the testing was done. There is no more serum in the three year vaccine than in the one year vaccne, which means all that time we thought we needed to give our dogs the rabies vaccine every single year, we really didn't need to!
Apparently they are coming out with other three year vaccines for other canine diseases, but again, there is no more serum in the new three year vaccine than the one year vaccine.
So why aren't the vaccine companies straightforward with us and tell us that is has been discovered that we never needed to vaccinate our pets that often, rather than make us think there is difference between vaccines labeled one year and three year?
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Interesting Tidbit About Vaccines
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5 comments:
When we had our little dog named Kisses (you can read about her on Happy Tails) as she got older I didn't have her vaccinated every year. We did the 3 year rabies and then I only did the other vaccines every 3 years as well. And you know I actually had a vet tell me that they are doing some research that may show that older dogs who have been vaccinated several times may not need their vaccines yearly.
What's interesting also is I had to really push for the 3 year rabies vaccine at my current vet and they charged me A LOT more for it....which is interesting considering what your post just talked about.
Rabies is the only shot I make sure my dogs are current on just in case they were to bite someone. My dogs aren't around other dogs hardly ever and they don't go to parks and such so their risk of catching anything is very small.
Thanks for this post!
Blessings,
~Mrs.B
The pro to being update on rabies vaccine is in most states, if your dog bites soemone, you can do the 10 day quarantine at home. Otherwise the dog has to be quarantined at the animal shelter. The animal shelter I worked at ten years ago, we quarantined the dog at the shelter wether or not the dog had proof of rabies vaccine. It varies state by state.
It is good to weigh in local laws, how high of an incidence rabies is in your area, and your dog's health. If your dog has a health condition such as epilepsy or cancer or etc., then the vet should be willing to write a waiver on the Rabies vaccine.
I am all for vaccinating if the situation calls for it, especially since I have watched first hand so many dogs be extremely ill =( from parvo when I worked at the shelter, but I try not to vaccinate more than needed. (My dogs are around lots of other strange dogs, so we vaccinate for parvo and etc.)
We dont vaccinate our kitty at all. She is strictly indoors and never around other cats at all. We have had her for 14 years an she is approx. 16 and doing great!
Sounds like a good vet that you have for him to tell you that older dogs may not need to be vaccinated yearly. I am just now learning about the issue of over-vaccinating pets, and Riley is 12 and has never missed a shot. I wouldn't be surprised if he now has life long immunity to everything he has been vaccinated for.
The 3 year rabies vaccine might have cost more because of the more extensive testing done for it? Yet it as the same level of serum as the one year stuff!
A whole bunch of good articles on vaccines can be found on these pages:
http://b-naturals.com/email.php
http://www.ilcockerrescue.org/philosophy.htm
Just scroll down a bit and you'll see the links. I know a lot of people are going for the more holistic approach, and are only vaccinating to the legal limit and then stopping. Since my brother and I used to live in Texas where we played with lots of dogs, swam in a lake that was always full of dogs, and lived near the shelter, we were always fully vaccinated. But now that might change...
There's so much to learn!!
So there's no difference at all between the 1 year and 3 year vaccines (except the price)? Well, well, well. Somehow that doesn't surprise me at all. Please be sure to let us know how the raw meat diet goes; I'm very interested in that.
This was really interesting, Emily. It's sad that drug companies or vets are charging so much for vaccinations that are the same thing. :-( I have always kept my cats fully vaccinated, and they never go outside or are associated with other cats. I wonder if I'm over-vaccinating?
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