I give my cats their kitten series and a booster in a year. That's it for life---although if I can find a vet that will sign off on 3- or 4-year rabies vaccine, I would like to do that for legal reasons. But, like Trainer said, either the animal is immune from the first adult vaccine or it isn't, and extra vaccines aren't going to do any good.
The main thing that changed my mind about vaccines is that the 1-year and even the 3-year recommended intervals are NOT based on ANY scientific data! NONE! They just said, "well, lets vaccinate the dog and see if he's immune in a year", and of course the dog was still immune in a year so they decided to sell it as a yearly vaccine. Once health problems started popping up from yearly vaccines, they tried 3 years, and of course the dog was still immune, so they went with that. But nobody has ever done a study to see exactly how long the vaccine DOES last. Although I think there's a rabies challenge study going on, and it started in 2000, and, last I heard, the test dogs were still immune in 2008. Hopefully that study will make a difference.
Unfortunately, I do have to vaccinate my dogs according to the vet's schedule because I have to board them occasionally. My vet's vaccine schedule for dogs is every other year for the core vaccines. Since the boarding kennel requires Bordatella vaccine, I get them the intranasal vaccine, since I feel that's somewhat safer than the injectables. I wish I didn't have to, though
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The main thing that changed my mind about vaccines is that the 1-year and even the 3-year recommended intervals are NOT based on ANY scientific data! NONE! They just said, "well, lets vaccinate the dog and see if he's immune in a year", and of course the dog was still immune in a year so they decided to sell it as a yearly vaccine. Once health problems started popping up from yearly vaccines, they tried 3 years, and of course the dog was still immune, so they went with that. But nobody has ever done a study to see exactly how long the vaccine DOES last. Although I think there's a rabies challenge study going on, and it started in 2000, and, last I heard, the test dogs were still immune in 2008. Hopefully that study will make a difference.
Unfortunately, I do have to vaccinate my dogs according to the vet's schedule because I have to board them occasionally. My vet's vaccine schedule for dogs is every other year for the core vaccines. Since the boarding kennel requires Bordatella vaccine, I get them the intranasal vaccine, since I feel that's somewhat safer than the injectables. I wish I didn't have to, though
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