Yearly vaccines necessary?

The heartworm sounds a bit high, for me it's about $70.00 for the year per dog, it can vary by size needed, but I'm referring to the cost for a 70lb dog. The frontline though sounds pretty right on.

As for vaccines, well, there are a lot of different opinions. For me we do rabies and distemper every three years, bordetella (kennel cough) intranasal every six months (doggy daycare and lots of time at the dog park), and lyme yearly (very high lyme area, at least a dog a week is diagnosed at work).

The lyme is only really in areas that are at risk and bordetella is only really needed for at risk dogs or as required by doggy daycares.

Rabies could be a town thing, most only require it every three years but some still do want it yearly, so check into that.

Distemper yearly is no longer the accepted protocol and I, personally, would probably be looking for a new vet that is up-to-date on current vaccine protocols.

CrzyBritNAmerica said:

It was most likely the Frontline that raised the price of your visit. That stuff is outrageously expensive. In my opinion (and my vet/boss) it's not even worth it.

Unless you are concerned about your dog getting fleas (which can be gotten rid of in other ways) it's not worth it. I was going to start it with Bridgette because we go into the woods a lot and see ticks on occasion. The vet told me that all Frontline does is kill a tick that bites your dog, it doesn't stop them from biting in the first place.

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That seems kind of odd. While it's true that Frontline does not repel (Advantix does) it still kills the ticks before they would have time to transfer lyme disease.

A tick must be attached for a minimum of 24 hours and generally more like 36 hours to transfer lyme disease.

It doesn't matter that Frontline doesn't stop them from biting in the first place. It matters that it gets the ticks off before they can spread disease.

Personally, I do use tick control all year long. I found a tick on Guinness in the middle of January this year when the temps were hovering around 20 degrees. All it took was one day of it getting back up to 40 and the ticks were out. That's in a backyard with all dead grass that happens to have some bushes along one fence line. It's not even like we were out in the woods or something. We live in the middle of total suburbia.

I've seen some really miserable dogs with lyme disease. Since it's so common around here I just won't risk it.

First off, that map was great. I'm going to bring in that link to work to show everyone. It also confirmed what I see a work, a lot of lyme very little heartworm. To tell the truth the only positive cases we've ever seen were transplants from the south. Even so I do seasonly use heartworm preventation. Those positive cases from the south (and that's maybe one a year, literally) mean that there are dogs around that can infect mosquitoes and hence infect my dogs.

As for people bringing dogs in we seem to have three types, the first two being the large majority. The first we only see for rabies, so maybe every three years, they never come just for a checkup. The second seems to come in constantly for every little thing. The third comes for a checkup every six months to a year and then we see them for illness once in awhile.

I love those in the third group and wish they were the majority. I also want it clear that I do not put a person in the second group who has a pet with a legitimate illness that needs to be seen frequently. I'm talking people who the second the dog has a soft poop are making an appointment.