Just a quick question really, there seem to have been a lot of 'fading puppy' CHV related issues on here at the moment, I am in the process of waiting for my foundation bitches next season within the next couple of weeks to have her mated (fully health tested, registration started as an Assured Breeder, mentor in place and Ive spent 12 years planning this so hopefully all i's dotted and t's crossed as far as I can).

My mentor doesnt see the benefit in having the CHV vaccine unless there is a problem with a previous litter, so I wasnt really considering it until I had read other people's experiences.  Is is something I should seriously be looking at, does it seem to be more prevalent at the moment?  Where exactly does it come from, is it transmitted from the Stud? (The one Ive chosen is experienced, history of producing healthy litters etc).  It is something that Ive tried to read up on, but a lot of information is a bit conflicting.  I very much advocate leaving the bitch free of all unecessary chemicals (other than worming) etc if I can, so if I dont need to vaccinate I wont.  What is your opinion?

All three dogs are due their annual boosters potentially during the pregnancy/rearing of these pups if she falls pregnant.  Like a lot of people's insurance, mine states that the dogs have to be boostered every year, although my vets do only do a partial booster and rotate them around.  I am very concerned about having live vaccines shed whilst the pups are tiny, how have people got around this?  But I dont really want to restart the vaccinations from scratch if we miss the timescale for the booster.

I can only speak from experince at the moment of losing healthy puppies from my litter and its heartbreaking. My bitch also previously whelped her first litter with no problems and no signs of puppy fade. From now on I will give the CHV vaccine.

I've just bred my foundation bitch and this is my first litter too. I did opt for the CHV. Several reasons, the main one being that I was using a popular stud dog, but I also wanted to ensure that I was covering as many possibilities of problems as possible. Although it's cost me approx £120 for the two jabs, IMO it's cheaper than losing pups or costly vet bills

From what I gather, the virus is easily caught and may as well come from the bitch as the dog. I found this article very informative:
http://www.2ndchance.info/herpesvirusdog.htm

Having said that, I've stopped using the vaccine as with my dogs, it didn't make a difference. I never used it for Malinois, and have never lost a puppy other than one we PTS after a efw days as it was so small and weak, and 2 that were stillborn in large litters. So have just lost 3 pups in total over the years in them. Then I mated a Papillon for the first time and in her first litter there were two stillborn pups, one that had died very recently, one had probably been dead a week or more. No live ones. So next time we used the vaccine. She had two stillborn pups again (so vaccine made no difference) and one live, then was spayed. The next papillon I used the vaccine on the first time, the second time I didn't bother. 3 live pups first time, 4 next time. However, as there is no harm in using it, you  can always play safe!

I have had a bitch boostered at the same time as mating, ten live pups. I honestly can't remember if I ever had anyone else boostered when I've had newborn pups.

See here : http://www.vetanimalhouse.co.uk/hottopic_canineherpes.asp

I have just mated my foundation bitch and opted to use the CHV as a preventative measure. No harm in trying.

First two litters born no problems other than one stillborn in each. Last litter was a nightmare. 5 stillborns, 4 died in the first week, 1 died at 4 weeks, same symptoms - weakness refusal to feed, difficulty breathing in the last few hours of life. Tests revealed no infections viral or otherwise, no herpes virus as most people told me would be the problem. It wasn't. Vet said 'fading puppy' and not to breed from her again. I was heartbroken at the loss of those little lives, and its something I hope I never have to go through again. The two remaining pups are healthy normal bundles of fun.
My girl had the CHV vaccine before all 3 litters, boostered last year and wormed a month before mating.