# DNM: A Large Vaccine Problem For Small Dogs



## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

A Large Vaccine Problem For Small Dogs | Dogs Naturally Magazine

If you look at cats, they’re pretty much all the same size. It’s the same with other species like ferrets and horses.

But no other species has such a vast variation in size and weight like the domestic dog does.

This creates a unique vaccination challenge, the consequences of which are starting to surface.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Did you know that a 160 pound Mastiff and a 10 pound Chihuahua both get the same amount of vaccine? Unlike every other veterinary drug, 1 ml of vaccine is given to every dog, regardless of his size.

Why is this a problem?

There seem to be a few problems with this approach. Researchers (Moore, Guptill, Ward et al, “Adverse events diagnosed within three days of vaccine administration in dogs” ) looked at veterinary records gathered from Banfield veterinary clinics for two years to find any trends in reactions suffered three days after vaccination. What they found was that small breed dogs (especially if they were young or neutered), were at the greatest risk.

In fact, the risk increased as the body weight went down, just like a sliding scale. Overall, dogs weighing 11 pounds or less were four times more likely than dogs over 99 pounds to suffer an adverse event (and medium sized dogs also had an increased risk over larger dogs).

Why Are Small Dogs More At Risk?

The answer to that is simple. Vaccines contain only a small amount of antigen for safety reasons; you wouldn’t want your dog to get rabies from the vaccine! So vaccines contain either small amounts of inactivated antigen or, more recently, subunit antigen particles that look like a virus to the body but can’t really stimulate much of an immune response on their own.

So the vaccine needs to contain some pretty toxic ingredients called adjuvants (stuff like aluminum) that make the body respond to vaccines quicker, longer and more actively. These adjuvants create an inflammatory response that can range from a bump at the injection site to allergic reactions, anaphylaxis and even cardiac arrest. With time, they may even lead to chronic allergies, joint disease and cancer – but we’ll stick to adverse events that occur within 72 hours of vaccination, because most vaccine reactions that occur outside that timeframe (and many do!) aren’t considered vaccine related by most vets and aren’t reported.

So that’s why small dogs are more at risk of vaccine damage…they get the lion’s share of adjuvants (and other things like mercury, formaldehyde and foreign animal protein) in their 1ml of vaccine.

The (Not So) Good News

If you have a small dog, the good news is that antibody titers seem to increase as body weight decreases. That means that the little guys should show protection when you titer test them (and you do titer test instead of vaccinating, right?)

The downside is that while high antibodies mean the body has responded to a vaccine, they also mean that the dog is in a pretty inflamed state and can set the stage for auto-immune disorders like allergies, hypothyroidism, diabetes, joint disease and more.

What About The Large Dogs?

Don’t feel too good about this if you own a large breed dog. Because vaccines are tested on medium sized dogs, the large and giant breeds might not be getting enough! This could be why many large breed dogs are more susceptible to parvovirus, even when vaccinated.

What To Do?

If you choose to vaccinate your pet, it’s a very good idea to run a titer test two to three weeks after the vaccination. This is good for the big guys, because any amount of titer means he will be protected, likely for life, and won’t need another vaccine.

If you have a small guy, ask your vet to give a smaller dose of the vaccine. Again, thanks to titer tests, you can measure whether the dose was large enough to produce immunity in your dog. If it does, he won’t need another vaccine.

There are inexpensive, in-house titer tests available. If your vet doesn’t offer one, encourage him to do so. Alternately, pay to have the titer test sent to a lab. It’s worth the money to do so, if it means protecting your dog from unnecessary vaccination.

What About Rabies?

While vets may be able to give partial doses of the core vaccines, the law requires them to give a full dose of the rabies vaccine. This is bad news indeed for the little guys. If you live in an area where rabies is required, make sure you give the vaccine no more often than necessary. It’s also a good idea to have a homeopathic vet on hand to deal with any possible vaccine reactions or issues. You can find a great homeopathic vet at theavh.org.

Remember that adverse events are vastly under-reported and the incidence of vaccine related disease is much higher than you would think. If you are wondering why you need to vaccinate less, you can view a list of vaccine related health problems and how long vaccines really last here.


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

What Every Vet (And Pet Owner) Should Know About Vaccines | Dogs Naturally Magazine

Are you and your vet at odds about how often your dog should be vaccinated for the core vaccines? We’re here to help.

First, it is important to understand that the core vaccines are not required by law – only rabies can be. Nobody can force you to vaccinate your dog with any other vaccine. This is a decision best left up to you and your vet. Before that decision is made however, make certain that you are both aware of the duration of immunity of those vaccines and the potentially lethal consequences of giving just one vaccine too many.

More is not better

When it comes to immunity and duration of immunity for vaccines, there is one clear expert. Dr. Ronald D. Schultz is one of perhaps three or four researchers doing challenge studies on veterinary vaccines – and he has been doing these studies for 40 years. It is Dr. Schultz’s work that prompted the AAHA and AVMA to re-evaluate vaccine schedules. In 2003, The American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Taskforce warned vets in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) that ‘Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating decreased frequency of vaccination’; ‘Immunological memory provides durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.’

‘This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information as well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.’

“The recommendation for annual re-vaccination is a practice that was officially started in 1978.” says Dr. Schultz. “This recommendation was made without any scientific validation of the need to booster immunity so frequently. In fact the presence of good humoral antibody levels blocks the anamnestic response to vaccine boosters just as maternal antibody blocks the response in some young animals.”

He adds: “The patient receives no benefit and may be placed at serious risk when an unnecessary vaccine is given. Few or no scientific studies have demonstrated a need for cats or dogs to be revaccinated. Annual vaccination for diseases caused by CDV, CPV2, FPLP and FeLV has not been shown to provide a level of immunity any different from the immunity in an animal vaccinated and immunized at an early age and challenged years later. We have found that annual revaccination with the vaccines that provide long-term immunity provides no demonstrable benefit.”

Below is the result of duration of immunity testing on over 1,000 dogs. Both challenge (exposure to the real virus) and serology (antibody titer results) are shown below:


Table 1: Minimum Duration of Immunity for Canine Vaccines


Vaccine

Minimum Duration of Immunity

Methods Used to Determine Immunity


CORE VACCINES

Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) 
Rockbom Strain 7 yrs / 15 yrs challenge / serology 
Onderstepoort Strain 5 yrs / 9 yrs challenge / serology 
Canine Adenovirus-2 (CAV-2) 7 yrs / 9 yrs challenge-CAV-1 / serology 
Canine Parvovirus-2 (CAV-2) 7 yrs challenge / serology 



It is important to note that this is the MINIMUM duration of immunity. These ceilings reflect not the duration of immunity, rather the duration of the studies. Dr. Schultz explains “It is important to understand that these are minimum DOI’s and longer studies have not been done with certain of the above products. It is possible that some or all of these products will provide lifelong immunity.”

Dr. Schultz has seen these results repeated over the years. In 2010, he published the following with newer generation, recombinant vaccines. It is important to note that not only did the vaccines provide protection for a minimum of 4 to 5 years, it did so in 100% of the dogs tested.



Vaccine Dangers

Why is it important to understand Dr. Schultz’s work? Because vaccines can create very real health problems in dogs. It is important that vaccines are only given when necessary because every vaccine has the potential to kill the patient or create debilitating chronic diseases including cancer and allergies.

Below is a list of potential adverse vaccine reactions, according to Dr. Schultz:

Common Reactions:
•Lethargy
•Hair Loss, hair color change at injection Site
•Fever
•Soreness
•Stiffness
•Refusal to eat
•Conjunctivitis
•Sneezing
•Oral ulcers

Moderate Reactions:
•Immunosupression
•Behavioral changes
•Vitiligo
•Weight loss (Cachexia)
•Reduced milk production
•Lameness
•Granulomas/Abscesses
•Hives
•FacialeEdema
•Atopy
•Respiratory disease
•Allergic uveitis (Blue Eye)

Severe Reactions triggered by Vaccines:
•Vaccine injection site sarcomas
•Anaphylaxis
•Arthritis, polyarthritis
•HOD hypertrophy osteodystrophy
•Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia
•Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia (IMTP)
•Hemolytic disease of the newborn (Neonatal Isoerythrolysis)
•Thyroiditis
•Glomerulonephritis
•Disease or enhanced disease which with the vaccine was designed to prevent
•Myocarditis
•Post vaccinal Encephalitis or polyneuritis
•Seizures
•Abortion, congenital anomalies, embryonic/fetal death, failure to conceive

Dr. Schultz summarizes his 40 years of research with the following:

“Only one dose of the modified-live canine ‘core’ vaccine (against CDV, CAV-2 and CPV-2) or modified-live feline ‘core’ vaccine (against FPV, FCV and FHV), when administered at 16 weeks or older, will provide long lasting (many years to a lifetime) immunity in a very high percentage of animals.”

We understand vets are frightened because they have seen animals die and suffer from preventable disease. Vaccine-induced diseases are also deadly and they are also preventable. Our companion animals rely on vets to make the right decisions when it comes to vaccines. We are begging vets to stand up and take notice – our pets’ lives depend on it.

Here is a printable download of this article you can share: More is not better


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## Jayda (Jun 15, 2012)

Wow, this is really interesting. This mentions "inexpensive, in house titer tests".....anyone have a vet that uses these? My new vet said they are willing to do titer testing but it is the type that of test that sends it to a lab. I would love a cheaper, in house option since I have three pups.


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Jayda said:


> Wow, this is really interesting. This mentions "inexpensive, in house titer tests".....anyone have a vet that uses these? My new vet said they are willing to do titer testing but it is the type that of test that sends it to a lab. I would love a cheaper, in house option since I have three pups.


I think my vet sends it out but not 100% sure. The titer test costs about $50 but if they need a vaccine it is free after the titer


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## Chiluv04 (Dec 19, 2013)

Awesome post!


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Thanks! I post stuff like this to keep people thinking. Better to make your own decision then to just believe everything you hear.


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## Angel1210 (Mar 14, 2011)

Thanks! Maybe I need to move to WVA! lol I asked my vet's office about titers and they kind of snickeredand said it would cost around $250.00. They said they didn't think it was a necessary step! That kind of put me off. Find a new vet!!! Yeah, but I hear so many stories about other vets, too!


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## Zorana1125 (Oct 24, 2010)

Love love love this article. I am right there with you Christie when it comes to any vaccines. We always titer first, stick if necessary. Our vet sends them out too, I think it's around $70-80 for a parvo/distemper titer which is good for 3 years. 
Thanks for spreading the word!!

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