Vaccinations

There are five main diseases we vaccinate dogs against. These are Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Parainfluenza and Bordatella.

II'll begin by describing the traditional dog vaccination program that has been in use for the past twenty years, before explaining the more modern approach which has been available in Australia for the past two years and used extensively overseas for the past five or six years. We'll explore the pros and cons of each method, and we encourage clients to make up their own mind how they would like their pets to be vaccinated. If any confusion remains, please feel welcome to call us at any time. Our nursing and veterinary staff are more than happy to help you over the phone at any time. Also refer to our “risk versus reward” considerations.

TRADITIONAL REGIME:
Pups receive an initial course of three vaccinations; one each at 6, 12 and 16 weeks. Pups on this regime are still at risk until two weeks after their final vaccination. Hence full protection hasn't been achieved until week 18. After this, dogs need an annual booster for all 5 diseases, as the company doesn't guarantee immunity after 1 year. These boosters continue for the rest of the dogs life.

MODERN REGIME:
Pups receive 2 lots of vaccinations, at 6 and 10 weeks. Full immunity is attained at 11 weeks of age. 1 year after this all 5 diseases are boosted, but from then on 3 of the 5 diseases only have to be boosted every 3 years. The companies making these vaccines have proven that immunity has not even started to waiver after 3 years, for Distemper, Hapatitis and Parvovirus.

Personally I recommend the newer regime. I believe this to be better for two main reasons. Firstly, pups have earlier protection against parvovirus in particular. This is still a common disease that is often fatal. The new regime affords maximum protection by 11 weeks of age. With the old regime pups aren't protected until 18 weeks of age, almost doubling the risk period. The second reason I believe these vaccines to be vastly superior is that after the first full annual booster, Parvovirus, Hepatitis and Distemper only have to be repeated every 3 years, not annually like the old regime. Only Bordatella and Parainfluenza need to be repeated every year.

Why are less vaccines better? As a generalisation, all drugs that have any effect possibly have deleterious effects as well. What I am about to explain is a theory without proof, but for me, just good common sense. Over the last 30 years pet owners have been inundated with processed unnatural commercial foods, vaccinations, intestinal worming tablets as often as every month, routine flea treatments whether there's a flea problem or not, flea preventatives, heartworm preventions, medicated shampoos. And the “marketers” will have us using these as often as we possibly can, the more the better!

In this time we've seen ever increasing numbers of dogs with chronic skin allergies, intestinal disease, cancers, immune-mediated diseases (of which vaccinations have been implicated), organ disease, arthritis obesity etc. The list goes on. For me it makes sense that if there is absolutely no advantage in giving something, it's probably best not to give it.

A drug given needs to carry a potential positive that outweighs the potential negative. Even with the “old” yearly vaccinations for Parvovirus, Distemper and Hepatitis, in 15 years I, nor any colleague I've asked, has ever seen a case of these in an adult dog that has had their puppy vaccines and then maybe missed 2-3 years along the way. Hence I see no advantage in vaccinating yearly for these diseases, but I do see plenty of possible “diasadvantages”. At Dingley we still have both regimes available for those clients still wanting to stick to the old regime, and we encourage you to make up your own mind. But my dog is certainly not vaccinated yearly for these diseases, only Bordatella and Parainfluenza.