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No Flea Preventative and No Vacs This Year?


DogPaddle

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So I have decided to take the plunge. I will get the dogs titers (sp?) for rabies done this year and chuck everything else. No vaccines unless they need rabies, no flea preventative except a touch of garlic. I am going to give them heartworm meds though because the mosquitos around here are bad and a good number of the dogs that end up in rescue have them.

Can anyone who has stopped vaccinating etc tell me what their experiences were and give me any important info?

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titers are worthless...let me go find the info..

ok here it is..it's from a vet tech on another board

Titers for vaccines are expensive and tell you nothing. They can be very misleading as they are not a measure of immunity. A High titer does not mean they are immune, and a low titer does not mean they need to be vaccinated, yet veterinarians use them for this. Trying not to get too technical...
[b]Titers are a measure of antibodies which are produced by the immune system when triggored by memory cells in response to exposure to disease. Got that? Memory cells can not be measured. So, a low titer may only tell you that the memory cells have not been triggored to produce antibodies yet because the dog has not been challenged recently...a high titer may tell you that the dog was challenged recently and has all these antibodies circulating today. So... an animal with a low titer does not neccisarily need to be re-vaccinated. Some vets would argue that a memory cells do not need reminding, and therefor revaccination is unneccisary and harmful if there is a high titer... that kind of goes back to the whole beginning. Even in my virology class, I was taught that vaccination over the age of one year in dogs and cats was unneccisary. I would love to believe that... but the challenge studies done by fort dodge on their DHPP vaccine showed otherwise. (like I said, im going to keep my eyes out for those DOI studies) I do not know the specific mechanism of vaccines for bacteria, however so I cant say more than I know the DOI's are 6-12 months.

In my opinion, if you are going to waste the money on titers.. don't bother. Either choose to vaccinate the dog or don't. [/b]

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