[gmein]

Hello to all, Just joined today.

I have a question regarding vaccinations and a dog that I brought home five days ago. I would like to start here as I know we have some very sensible people with dog experience and maybe even veterinary history. I would believe that among you are plenty with experience and seat time.I will not call a vet for these questions because I have had issues with them just like the car dealer. The first thing they want you to do is bring in the dog or the car. So I am a little prejudiced here. It is simple stuff but I need a little direction. The dog is a beautiful red nosed/fawn female Pit Bull and is very health with no known issues. Her previous owner, a breeder claims she had her first shot at 8 weeks and a second shot of the same vaccination at 16 weeks. I can believe this but of course there can be skepticism. She did send me a text with the label off of the vials. The shots were as follows, 1st Vial contained Type 2 Parainfluenza Vaccine CDV-CAV2-CPI MLV. The 2nd Vial contained Parvovirus CPV MLV and of course you mix them and hopefully they were administered.

My question, does my dog need a third application of this same vaccine, she is now 30 weeks old. Also, is she in need of any other vaccine other than rabies, please reveal.

If necessary, I will purchase and administer myself, although I do not want to over vaccinate. I am also taking a chance on what the owners had told me, I would like to believe they were being truthful. I am in a little bit of limbo as I would not want to lose the dog to any virus had they not been truthful but if I was administering a third shot I would be in an area of at least getting on board with the dogs vaccinations. I do not know the schedule of this vaccination and how many should be given in the dogs first year and if I was ending up by giving her two or thee applications on my own, it's a question of being safe or did I over vaccinate. I hope you can see my quandary.

Thanks to any responses and thanks to the Forum

 

[LeoRose]

The reason you do a series of vaccines as a puppy is because maternal antibodies can interfere with a puppies ability to make their own antibodies in response to the vaccines, and there is no set "this is when maternal antibodies wear off and vaccines start taking effect" time.

It's possible that your pup is protected. It's also possible that she's not. If you don't want to vaccinate unless you have to, you can try finding a vet who will titer. Just be prepared to pay more for the titers than just boosting the vaccines.

Of course, it goes without saying to always follow the law for rabies vaccination. I don't know where you are, but there are several hundred confirmed cases of rabies in both domestic and wild animals every year.

 

[storyist]

I had both your concerns - not wanting to overvaccinate and wanting to be sure my puppy was safe before I took her out and about. So I had titers run on both my Rottweilers as puppies. As LeoRose said, it's more expensive than just continuing to plunk vaccines in them, but it was IMO worth it. As you probably know, titers show whether the vaccine given has caused an immunity to form in your puppy.

For my two girls, one showed a high titer level after only the shot the breeder gave her at 8 weeks and one I had the vet give at 12 weeks. The other girl showed no titer at all to distemper and parvo after those same two shots and only minimal to the other diseases the vaccine covered. The vet then recommended and administered single vaccines as opposed to the common 5-way. So we gave a vaccine for parvo only that day, considering it the greatest risk, and two weeks later a vaccine for distemper only. After that we had to wait. Can't remember for sure, maybe another two weeks, before rerunning the titers, and to my relief, the puppy then had moderate titers for parvo and distemper, which were in the safe zone.

So, you may want to avoid vets (IMO you ought to find yourself a good one now before you NEED one), but in your shoes, if you can afford it, I'd call around and find a vet who can do titers on your puppy. There might also be titer/vaccine clinics in your area, and I think I read something a while ago about new titer tests vets can run in their clinics (at the time I had it done the blood had to be sent out to a lab, my dogs are now 5 and 7) that are less expensive, although they're still more than vaccination.

 

[gmein]

Thanks LeoRose for responding.

I have no concerns at this point with the rabies vaccination. We will get there at licensing time. My concerns are with Distemper, Parvo, and those influenza and intestinal diseases. I have lost them on that account before. Most recently about a year ago. I had a dog come down with one of those terrible diseases and it was not curable and she was excreting bloody stools and she did not make it. She was a dog that seemed to like to eat cat doo and coyote doo and all we can figure out was that something from those animals got her sick, a neighbor nearby had the same issue. To point out, whatever it was is now in my soil and I am a little edgy with a new dog. It really hurt to see her go through that ordeal.

My concerns and being ignorant of the fact about over vaccinating was, if the previous owner did not truly do the first two series then I would be left to get things started. If you say it is three series of the same vaccine that I mentioned in my first post, then for safety sake, I could do another and follow up with the next two. The question is, "Is that over vaccinating"??? I want to take all the caution that she has built up the anti bodies. If I go by the presumption that the previous party did in fact give her the first two series, then I only need to do one more. In theory, if she gets only the one that I give her which would be her first, she would be do for two more and that is where my concern was about over vaccinating. If it is not a big deal, then I will administer her my first shot and then continue to do the next two series.

Just want to be careful and not upset her chemistry. I am a farmer, if we give an over abundance of a macro nutrients or of micro nutrients, the trees do not care, they uptake what they need and the over abundance is meaningless. Kind of like the same with humans and taking vitamins. I just do not know so much about these vaccinations and what harm may come from giving more dosages than what the animal needs as it does have to do with their immune system and the antibodies. That is why I have come here to ask. Every vet I have gone to was no different than a medical doctor. They do not spend too much time to discuss with the lay person about the particulars of our animals health and the particulars pf why we are visiting them. It's basically. "Business as usual", next one up!

 

[LeoRose]

These are the latest guidelines from the American Animal Hospital Association. Canine Vaccination Guidelines (2017) AAHA Not all vets will follow them. I know mine doesn't, but since I otherwise really like this clinic, and have been going there for a long time, I've been reluctant to switch to another vet. That said, vaccine are generally regarded as being extremely safe, and any adverse reactions tend to be mild.

Personally, I would far rather give a vaccine that may not be needed than to watch a dog die from parvo or distemper. When I got my GSD, even though she was in pretty poor shape, I had her vaccinated for parvo because she was a stray who's history I didn't know and my then next door neighbor had a litter of puppies dying from what I suspected was parvo.

 

[gmein]

Yes LeoRose,
Albeit, this is exactly where I am at and I was most curious as to if it was healthy to overdose. In reality, I do not want to purposely do this. As you can see by my reference to tree nutrients and human vitamins, I was concerned about over vaccination, and if there was an effect from over administering these vaccines. I would concur that getting the dog on a vaccine regimen may be better in the long run rather than seeing a poor beast suffer. I will probably go on this manner out side of doing what is also possible as Storyist has stated regarding a titer test. I really am not wanting to see my new found dog get affected by any of these sicknesses. Thank you so much for both of your inputs. And I will do this three times over. Thanks a lot

 

[Mithency]

Personally, I never vaccinate my dogs. They receive nosodes. I know people are going to freak out about this post. I've only ever had one case of parvo and that was from a pup I got from a breeder that received 3 parvo vaccines. None of the dogs I have now have ever been vaccinated in their lives. This is why I had a 12 yr old English Setter x Chesapeake Bay Retriever that can still hunt, no arthritis, no cancer, no allergies, etc.

 

[Doglight]

Personally I never take a shower. This is why my car gets such good mileage.

 

[parus]

None of the dogs I have now have ever been vaccinated in their lives. This is why I had a 12 yr old English Setter x Chesapeake Bay Retriever that can still hunt, no arthritis, no cancer, no allergies, etc.

My girl never missed a recommended vaccination and she lived to be 17, without being sick or lame a day in her life until her last six months, if we're trading anecdotes here.

 

[Lillith]

You're not going to sicken or kill your dog by giving them a vaccination that they may have already had. It's more likely that they get a disease those vaccinations are supposed to prevent, and that kills them. Follow the advice of your vet.

 

[LittleFr0g]

Hello to all, Just joined today.

I have a question regarding vaccinations and a dog that I brought home five days ago. I would like to start here as I know we have some very sensible people with dog experience and maybe even veterinary history. I would believe that among you are plenty with experience and seat time.I will not call a vet for these questions because I have had issues with them just like the car dealer. The first thing they want you to do is bring in the dog or the car. So I am a little prejudiced here. It is simple stuff but I need a little direction. The dog is a beautiful red nosed/fawn female Pit Bull and is very health with no known issues. Her previous owner, a breeder claims she had her first shot at 8 weeks and a second shot of the same vaccination at 16 weeks. I can believe this but of course there can be skepticism. She did send me a text with the label off of the vials. The shots were as follows, 1st Vial contained Type 2 Parainfluenza Vaccine CDV-CAV2-CPI MLV. The 2nd Vial contained Parvovirus CPV MLV and of course you mix them and hopefully they were administered.

My question, does my dog need a third application of this same vaccine, she is now 30 weeks old. Also, is she in need of any other vaccine other than rabies, please reveal.

If necessary, I will purchase and administer myself, although I do not want to over vaccinate. I am also taking a chance on what the owners had told me, I would like to believe they were being truthful. I am in a little bit of limbo as I would not want to lose the dog to any virus had they not been truthful but if I was administering a third shot I would be in an area of at least getting on board with the dogs vaccinations. I do not know the schedule of this vaccination and how many should be given in the dogs first year and if I was ending up by giving her two or thee applications on my own, it's a question of being safe or did I over vaccinate. I hope you can see my quandary.

Thanks to any responses and thanks to the Forum

It is against forum rules to seek medical advice instead of speaking to a qualified veterinarian.