Vaccinations/Boosters

[Julia Grace]

I'm interested to hear what your thoughts are on booster jabs with your dogs. Harley is done on the dot when he is due them but a friend of the family has only had his dog done with the initial jabs and hasn't kept up the booster.

His reasoning is that the dogs his parents had when he was growing up were never vaccinated and they were fine.

My other query is, if his dog got ill with tetanus then where would he stand on insurance? Surely not having your dog vaccinated and it then getting ill through something that could have been prevented with a booster jab would invalidate the insurance policy?

It's just something I am mulling over and would be interested to hear your thoughts on :-).

[Angela Clarke]

There is a clause in my insurance policy that says just that, but I do let the boosters run over by 4 to 6 weeks each year.

[silvia]

i think none insurance will pay it the vaccinations are not up to date.. not mine certainly.. cheers

[Fran Griffin]

Most insurers actually mean that they wont pay out for any disease which is linked to something which could have been vaccinated against. I have never known an insurer check whether your dogs are up to date with boosters or not, otherwise I think there would be some companies in existence by now who would cater for owners who don't want to boost, as it is well known that many don't.

[Jane Mugford]

I rarely give boosters only if needed for boarding for instance but that is not needed now we have our own kennels.

We don't have insurance, except for the boarding dogs, but I expect it would invalidate it if boosters not given.

For boarding dogs we have to insist on up to date vaccs. but it really annoys me when if a dog has just missed it's booster date by say a month the vets say it needs to start the whole course again.

most of the vaccine manufacturers now say boosters every 3 years is ok except for leptospirosis which is annually

[sue morgan]

I agree  with Jane, I dont boost after  3 years  of age,but mine dont go in Boarding Kennels,also  now we only have 2 I dont insure either....

How ever ,,,,,now we are off to Spain   ,My vet has advised  they start  their   innoculations  anew    and  obviously    their   Rabies  innoculation   ,,,,,   also  Advocaat     for protection   against  Fleas    Sand flies  etc

Lepto  should  be boosted  annually as we all go to show grounds   (note  bait boxes around agricultural buildings  also  canal walks)    but  Parvo and distemper    every 3 years ........

[Fran Griffin]

Yep, spot on there Sue.

[Teresa]

Every 3 years is fine for most of them. Lepto should be done every year, but if you are in an area where leptospirosis is common it actually should be done every 6 months!

I'm sorry that this next part is off topic, but I had to write it...

Sue, if you are going to Spain, let me advice you to put a Scalibor in your dogs. Spain is right next to Portugal and here, the only thing that is really effective against the sandflie that transmits Leishmania (specially if your dogs go in the water)! I'd expect that in Spain there is the same level of resistance to other products as here. For thicks and fleas almost everything still works! I'd also search the area you are going for the presence of Dirofilaria and if it exists, I'd add Interceptor to the mix, just to be on the safe side(heartguard has stopped working a long time ago in Portugal...).

[silvia]

Sue (morgan)/Teresa: i agree, we went to corsica (just back :) camping for 3 weeks, and we did the same last year. In addition to normal advocate, while there I integrate with advantix + scalibor collar . According to our vet (and to the french vet we visit for the treatment we had to do before to come back in the UK) this is not too much: advantix and scalibor give different protections against parasites and leshmaniosis,, and when it's back to leshmanoisis is better to be safe than sorry:((

the only advice is to remove the scalibor collar 1-2d before the advantix/advocate is due and put it back 1-2d later. also, both advantix and advocate are due every 4 weeks and I alternate them with a 15 days lag from each other..

as for the sue humprey comment: sorry, i agree with you! I gave for granted that the original question re insurance refers to illnesses which are related to the vaccinations. I should have specified that even my comment that our insurance  doesnt pay only refers to the case in which the claim is related to something against which the dog is suggested to be vaccinated.. sorry for the confusion i have created! cheers

[Dee Rance]

I always do the first 'puppy' jags, then give the first years booster, and then every two or three years for a full booster, Most vets will agree....all be it in private....that we give too many injections for the immune system  so long as there isn't an 'outbreak' of something or another, then maybe a teeter test, just to see what is needed...if anything...

[silvia]

btw: apparently the vaccination against leshmaniosis is available now (in france for sure and probably in portugal as well since i have  been told it was the first country which had it..)

I am not sure it is worth for just an occasional trip: it takes 3 inoculations starting ~3months before the trip and then a booster yearly.. maybe for just a short vacation the protection with advantix and scalibor is fine, and the vaccine is more suitable for people leaving in the mediterranean area: that I dont know, but I will ask the vet advise next year, in case it becomes available in the UK.. sorry if this post takes the discussion off the initial topic, but i though is important to know this info.. I am a bit paranoic with leishmania :(

[sue morgan]

Thanks  every  one  yes   S collars  ordered   and my vet  did suggest   alternating   advocaat and advantis,there is an English speaking vet in the village  and I will see what they also suggest

Happy to report  no side effects  from The Rabies   ,obviously a better  innoculation than the human version.........I remember being quite * RUFF*  when  I had my first    and third     and a later booster  also caused my arm to swell and  throb    ,

[Teresa]

There is a vaccine for leishmaniosis, and Portugal was the "test country". However, I personally would not reccomend it for several reasons: It's insanly expensive; If your dog has and adverse reaction, this vaccine can't be reverted with corticosteroids and the dog dies; It does not prevent the infection, it only masks the symptoms longer, so you still have to spend money preventing the flea bite in your dogs; most test kits will stop working because you'll have Leishmania antibodies in the dog so it'll be harder and more expensive to find out if the dog is inefected. I'd much rather have early symptoms and to an early treatment that makes leishmaniosis manageable for a lot longer than only finding out when my dog is termianl and there is nothing I can do!

(oh, and I only know one vet that actually gave the vaccine to his dog, the rest of them prefered to wait a couple more years and see more studies published before even considering it on THEIR dogs!)