As usual, with any health information I read from the list, I share it with my vet. He has given permission to post his reply to the list.
Hi, I must say that I agree with everything in those articles. It's all true but a might impractical on a large scale application. Getting clients to bring in pets for separate vaccinations if they were commercially available, would be impossible in most all situations. I would say that at least 50% of dogs that came in for initial immunizations are now overdue. That puts everybody else's dog at risk. The ideal, as one of the articles mentioned, is to draw titers, but that is very expensive compared to just vaccinating especially considering that each titer is run individually. Considering the low level of immunity in the dogs, in this area at least, I think that any dog is at risk of being exposed to any of the contagious diseases that we vaccinate for. If we don't know a dog's titer or that is current on vaccinations, I think he is at risk. I've had dogs with parvo up to 12 years old and saw my first lepto. case last summer in a Boxer ( I had quit vaccinating for lepto. because of the reactions, anaphylactic and autoimmune, about a year and a half ago, and because the "experts" said we don't see lepto much any more}, but, now I use it again, at least on the bigger dogs. It's interesting stuff. Some breeds like Akitas are so autoimmune prone, I sometimes wonder whether to vaccinate them or not. Then somebody, you know her I think, comes in with a litter of Akita pups with parvo, then you wonder why they didn't have any maternal antibodies. This immune stuff makes for great coffee table discussion. I think we need to either draw titers on everybody or vaccinate, not knowing is the worst scenario. Byron Shado Run Cavaliers : http://www.shutterfly.com/my/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b3180c7fa4ad ========================================================"Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
