Vaccinating your animals...

Please choose all that are applicable.

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Horses are always vaccinated.

Dog - had puppy vaccines but is 8 now and hasn't been vaccinated since 6-12 months old. Mainly as I was too young and my dad decided he didn't want to pay for it. We don't walk him with other dogs as he is slightly aggressive towards strange dogs, and no need for him to go into kennels.

Cats - Never been vaccinated. They have unlimited outside access via cat flap, are 9 this year and never had a problem with them.
 
Interested to read the replies to this as the last 4 years Toffee has reacted to her vaccinations. Started with a stiff neck to last year a football size haematoma. I am very reluctant to get them done as her reactions seem to get worse each year. She's 20 and competes locally occasionally :confused: Vet has tried different drugs and different places, the one in her neck caused so much scar tissue she had to be scanned to make sure he wind pipe wasn't affected. :(
 
the horses are only vaccinated so i can get them out and about and compete, if it wasnt regulations i probably wouldnt bother
 
Harper_Gal said:
Horses - the lot, else we can't show them
Dogs - the lot, else they can't go to kennels
Cats - nothing.

If I could get away with not vaccinating anything, I would. I believe over-vaccinating is cruel, criminal, a waste of money and dangerous for the animals health.

Dorey will be restarting her vaccination programme for the 3rd or 4th time in 7 years due to lapsing. You seriously telling me that after being pumped full of these vaccines she's suddenly going to drop dead of tetanus after a day?

It's a scam, one huge scam which causes the animals harm (studies are starting to show repeatided vaccines in the same place can cause cancer, apparently!!) and if I could not be a part of it, I would!
Click to expand...



Bull****.
Vaccination is one of the most effective ways in the world of controlling dangerous diseases.
Its used in humans as well as animals for a reason
Yes there are risks inolved in vaccination but the benifits of vacines outweight the risk of negative effects in the vast majority of cases.

Yes there are some reactions to vaccines,the risk of cancer that you are talking about however has been completely blown out of preportion though.

It refers to a risk of sarcoma in cats to 2 specific types of vaccine.the rabies vaccine and the Felv one...it also thought to be the adjuvent used that is the issue.plus the risk of a cat geting either of those diseases is actually much higher than the risk of a cat getting a sarcoma from the injections.Its also generaly seen in repeated injection sites to the one area so most vets now alternate in sides of the necks used for injections.
It is extremely rare in dogs...as in there are only a few cases studies where its thought that maybe the vaccine might be linked to sarcomas but it isnt certain in most cases because these cancers do happen sadly anyway to dogs.

Tetanus is also extremely dangerous to horses,they are the most susceptable creatures to its toxins.
Your horse wont die in a day if it gets tetanus..it will take a while but it will be stiff and sore the next day before it eventually gives in to the spasms then lockjaw and dies.It is one of the worst ways a horse can die.
To not vaccinate when its so preventable is out and out cruelthy in my eyes.Sure maybe your horse will be covered by old doses but there is no certaintly with the length of the cover over a year so why risk it?
The antitoxin that is given in the case of some injurys only gives short term protection so its much kinder to the horse to give a vaccine as cover rather than inject antotoxin every time they get a cut that breaks the skin.

The flu vaccine,fair enough, is not as essential.The flu is not as likely to be fatal to a young fit horse.It can however still be a serious illness in some cases.
In the case of the flu,vaccination is a responsible way to prevent epidemics of the flu staring amoung te general horse population.Thats why its enforced for shows and large equine gatherings so people failing to bother to vacccinate there horse wont start an outbreak by bringing the animal to a show and letting the disease spread throughout the country.The flu can stop a horse from training for weeks!it can also kill older or immunosuppressed animals

With dogs vaccination is changing,some vaccines such as canine distemper do cover for 3 years not just 1.However not all of the dogs vaccines do..ie lepto etc still seen as 1 year cover.
Plus as multivaccines are mosre common now as an all in one injection its generally seen as easier to inject once a year than to give seperate, multiple injections depending on the timing of the cover...i know id much rather 1 injection once a year than have to face a 4 or 5 seperate ones even if they were spaced out.And i certainly wouldnt choose to have multiple injections for my own dog if i knew there was a one off availialbe once a year,she doesnt like them the last thing id want to do was give her 2 or 3 injections at the one time unnessecarily.
The immune responce started by the injections will be the same either way and i have never heard of any issue coming from having to repeat a vaccination specifically(a small precent of dogs react to the vaccines anyway regardless of when its given,thats the issue with side effects it happens in most drugs and vaccines)

I DONT believe over-vaccinating is cruel, criminal, a waste of money and dangerous for the animals health.
Any thing but in fact.
Add to that that in a lot of cases the overvaccination is due to a human error on the owners part and restarting vaccinations is the most reliable way to insure cover and id wonder why its an issue....
id see not vaccinating as cruel as your putting your pet at an unnessecary risk of preventable diseases
#Criminal?How?
Not vaccinating and then having to get a vet out for intensive trestment of a preventable disease seems much more of a waste of money to me.
Dangerous to an animals health? how? id really like to know where you get that one from ? got many reliable studies to back up that claim?


The benifit of lowering the risk of disease in the vast majority of cases far outweights the risk of an adverse reaction.

Fair enough if your willing to take the risk and keep your own pets unvaccinated,its a personal choice and to be honest vaccination is expensive.

But it is important to know that a lot of the disease's that the animal vaccines protected against live in animal environments,some are spread from animal to animal like the flu but others like parvo can survive in the ground once its contaminated for months on end.

Vaccination is proven to help can prevent illness otherwise it simple would never have been done in the first place.
The side efects are not a good enough excuse in my opinion to justify not vaccinating initially...if your animal has adverse affects fair enough vaccination may an option but the vast majority of animals dont have side effects and have only the positive effects.

If you dont want to vaccinate then dont,take the risk and if anything does go wrong then go to the vet and give your animal some chance at a recovery but dont expect any sympaty if you choose to put your pets at risk because you were afraid of adverse effects...most of the illness' are much more severe.
 
Absolutely agree with Aru, but too lazy to type all that!

Plus, am I the only one who thinks its actually very insulting that people often say vaccines are a scam, propagated by drug companies (and also incidentally, doctors, vets, scientists etc....). You are basically implying that all the medical and veterinary practitioners/reserachers who advocate immunising your animal/child/self are part of some massive cover up to force people to take drugs. I'm a scientist (not a biologist, though know people who work in immunology,medical research etc), and I'd be greatly offended if people kept on saying what I did was fraudulent without understanding all the background of the field.

And just to add, for some diseases (possibly less relevant animal ones, and more ones people are vaccinated against) its not just you who are effected by whether you are vaccinated. Some members of society can't be vaccinated (eg those who are immunne compromised due to some other condition) who rely on enough of the population being immunised to a disease so that they receive 'herd immunity' i.e. so few people can catch/carry/spread disease it dies off before it can reach them. A disease which you may carry relatively harmlessly can kill someone in an immune compromised state.

Through vaccination, the smallpox virus (which can have a death rate of up to 35% depending on the strain) has been eradicated, saving thousands of lives. It had been predicted we would have eradicted polio by now, if it hadn't been for people refusing to be immunised against it.
 
horse - yes (he likes to break himself so I'm not taking any chances!)
cats - yes (although one needs a special one as he's allergic to the other).
bunny & guinea pig - no (they are only 6 months), but will be later in the year when I register at a multi-pet vets (cats go to a cat only vet).

If I get the go ahead for my puppy, it will be done too - I think its our job to do what we can to keep our pets well, although I must admit to not knowing much about it, just go ahead with the advice from my vet.
 
All horses and donkeys are always vaccinated for tetanus.
I used to keep my dogs fully vaccinated, but after the results shown by my sisters dogs, and undertaken in conjunction with the vaccine manufacturer, we no longer vaccinate dogs after their first annual booster.
Never vaccinated any other animal.

In my own personal opinion, there is no point in vaccinating yearly for many things.
 
Horses are off to the vets on Friday to be vaccinated.

Dogs are vaccinated(except one who is getting his started again next week, silly me forgot) although they dont really mix with other dogs, but there is the chance they may have to go to kennels due to away shows or hols etc so best to keep them done.

Cat isnt done as he is a demon in disguise and vet will barely let him through he door never mind vaccinate him :(
 
found this on 'dogster'

(Dr. W. Jean Dodds) Dogs’ and cats’ immune systems mature fully at 6 months old, she explained. If canine distemper, feline distemper and parvovirus vaccines are given after 6 months, a pet has immunity for the rest of its life.

(Dr. Robert Rogers) “Dogs and cats no longer need to be vaccinated against distemper, parvo, and feline leukemia every year,” Rogers said. “Once the initial series of puppy or kitten vaccinations and first annual vaccinations are completed, immunity…persists for life. Not only are annual boosters for parvo and distemper unnecessary, they subject the pet to the potential risk of adverse reactions, he added.

and this BBC report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3588457.stm
 
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