Hello can anyone tell me why we give dogs booster jabs every year. When I was a child many years ago my father bred dogs and they were only injected once as puppies. I would have thought once you have immunity you don't lose it yearly. Many thanks Wendy

Wendy, we don't all give our dogs booster vaccinations every year - many of us, like your (wise!) father, don't! 

My dogs get puppy vaccinations (without lepto now) and then either a titer test to confirm they worked or a booster at 1 year old - and then no more vaccinations for life.  Except for rabies if I take them abroad of course.

Thank you... One of my dogs who is now 8 has terrible side effects so I do not want her to have anymore... I just don't understand why vets do this every year. I thought everyone had boosters. Many thanks

The manufacturers advise the "booster" protocol for their vaccines. Some vets stick rigidly to them & others don't. My vet does inhouse titre tests & vaccinates in line with results. He also will not vaccinate young puppies under the age of ten weeks & always titre tests first.

He has found over the years an increasing number of bad reactions to vaccinations especially in under 10 week olds. On doing a fair bit of research including titre testing, he has come to the conclusion that maternal immunity lasts longer than 8 weeks & the vaccines are the problem with the reactors. Since adopting the 10 week starting age & giving just the 1 shot(without either lepto) the levels have dropped to nearly zero. He also only gives Lepto 2 on request.

Vaccinations are a money making practice if done to the maunfacturers recommendations IMHO

Same as onetwothreefour - puppy vaccinations, no lepto and then a titre test at a year. If no immunity then a booster and then no more. WSAVA guidelines say core vaccines are only required a minimum of every 3 years - definitely not annually!

The vaccine manufacturers now say that the core vaccines cover for 3 years and advise boosting at 3 year intervals.

I just don't understand why vets do this every year.
It helps fill the cash till !!

Thank you for all your replies what is lepto many thanks

Do they call lepto L4

Lepto jab only lasts for 6 months anyway so for someone asking what lepto is I would recommend doing your own research on Leptospirosis and the other vaccines protocols, for me that one is about risk of exposure. (If considering L4 do take a look at the experiences of many having a vaccine covering those strains).    My vet recently called me in for an annual booster which I ignored but when I next visited for an unrelated issue the vet reminded me that I had missed the annual booster and I had to point out to him that the data sheet for the puppy jab given the year before stated booster every 3 years  Also very annoyingly many vets insist on ignoring the safety guidelines from the vaccine manufacturers that only healthy dogs should be vaccinated.     I have a friend with a senior dog suffering with pancreatic problems who still takes her dog to the vet for an annual booster.   I have tried to advise her but she always goes along with the vet's advice

The lepto jab is responsible for the majority of side effects.  It only lasts about 9 months so doesn't even protect the dog for a year, and it is only effective against either 2 or 4 of the hundreds of lepto serovars (strains of lepto). 

Lepto can be treated with antibiotics and is not a death sentence.  The risk of side effects with this vaccine means that it's best to skip it.  It is not given routinely in the US either!  (Yet they have the same incidence as lepto as we do!)

If you need to leave your dog at a boarding kennels this could be one of the reasons a reason why, I don't know to what extent boarding kennels can "choose" not to require regular vaccinations due to licensing and legal requirements.

Only Leptospirosis is boosted yearly, and KC if you choose to give it to your dog. The rest of the vaccinations are once in 3 years - iirc its been at least two years since my vets have started following this practice.

if you read the research on vaccines you will see that the core ( excluding lepto which is sometimes now considered core ) have been proven to last at least 7 years. The research stopped at that point due to funding apparently however the  bva decided to state in this country that it should be
no more frequently , not every 3 years as is often interpreted
Also if you miss a booster and decide to revaccinate it isnt necessary to restart the whole course . in accordance with manufactures only one vaccination is needed . it seems common for vets to say start all over again unfortunately

Even if titres show positive they do not show immunity in the immune mediated cells so it is not a fool proof way of proving immunity  . so if you decide to titre imo you must also be prepared to vaccinate if not the result you want. As I wont vaccinate as I believe mine are covered I don't titre

personally I do puppies vaccines  only and in the future having learned more will vaccinate once around 14 weeks and then titre a few weeks later when antibodies should still be circulating . Lepto however and KC cannot be titre for

> I don't know to what extent boarding kennels can "choose" not to require regular vaccinations due to licensing and legal requirements.

Basically none, unless they happen to be in an area with an enlightened council.  The vast majority aren't sadly, and most have to insist on the kennel cough vaccine as well.

> My dogs get puppy vaccinations (without lepto now) and then either a titer test to confirm they worked or a booster at 1 year old - and then no more vaccinations for life.  Except for rabies if I take them abroad of course.

Ditto.

> He has found over the years an increasing number of bad reactions to vaccinations especially in under 10 week olds. On doing a fair bit of research including titre testing, he has come to the conclusion that maternal immunity lasts longer than 8 weeks & the vaccines are the problem with the reactors.

I won't vaccinate before 10 weeks now, after a pup I bred had reactions after vaccinating at 8 weeks, basically developed extreme hayfever.  She eventually outgrew it, but not before the constant eylid swelling had caused thickening of one lid requiring surgery, so show career ended.

In her new home, no more vaccines and no more issues.

> Basically none, unless they happen to be in an area with an enlightened council.  The vast majority aren't sadly, and most have to insist on the kennel cough vaccine as well.

I'm thinking they also probably consider potential lawsuits should a dog they board get ill with one of the diseases, probably makes sense from their point of view to be careful as opposed to what may be seen "innovative"

From personal experience, one of my dogs fell ill with confirmed Parvovirus, most likely brought in the house by us (shoes) following a visit to the local vet few days earlier. My dog was about 2 years old at the time, she had been vaccinated as a puppy and boosted 12 months later, after which I stopped vaccinations. She was in prime health and this probably helped her that she eventually recovered (the treatment was intensive though with daily intravenous injections etc).

Hello I have been looking into lepo online I asked about it as someone I know had her new puppy vaccinated a border collie at 8 weeks then 2 weeks later the dog had a bad reaction and started having fits and they were so severe the dog had to be put to sleep... Online I have read that in the UK there are very few cases of lepo.

Can I also point out that only "healthy" dogs should be vaccinated so epileptic dogs or dogs with less than 100% health shouldn't be vaccinated

Hi the dog was very healthy it had fits after the injections many thanks

Wendy I don't know if you're on the dreaded Book of Face (Facebook), but there is a group called Nobivac Lepto 4 - Our experiences - which has more info on the lepto vaccine.

Hi I am not on face book I deleted a couple of years ago.... I am very interested in dogs my father bred gun dogs and I have worked in kennels and as a veterinary nurse 40 years ago... Things have changed so much... I think since the introduction of pet insurance vet bills have been risen ridiculously..... And people who get a new furry baby get had by vets especially with inoculations yearly which has been making my babies so poorly over the years... I am going to look into these titre tests that have been mentioned on here.

If u decide to do titre tests find a vet that uses vaccicheck it's usually way cheaper than vets sending off bloods to labs

The changes from 60 years ago re vaccinations is pet dogs WERE routinely vaccinated yearly for Lepto2 & after the first full booster around a year old, the core vaccines were bi annual.

Most working dogs only had the first puppy vaccine & nothing else. I know mine weren't & yes I had working dogs back then.

The other difference was that dogs were never feed highly processed foid, with all the additives they contain.

Annual vaccinations are not new, it's only down to "Class Action" in the USA against the vaccine companies that forced them to change their advised protocols from annual to tri annual. The companies list millions due to this, sadly it will not bring back all the dogs over vaccination has killed

I feel so sad by your reply that vets put our best friends in danger my first furry friend was a rescue dog  I bought her for a£150pound after my best friend died of cancer and in a horrid way I ended up with PTSD I was worried that my new friend I couldn't provide the walks that she needed but she provided me with the challenge I needed to get out of the house after a year being unable to go out of the house.... We go out on adventures that are simple walks that I found so difficult but with my furry friend I go out and meet so many people with whose furries friends are just going for a walk but they help me get outside... Brilliant x

We vaccinated our puppies at 10 weeks (UK 2 sets, 2 or 3 weeks apart) and then boostered 12 months later.   After that, until the advent of annual boostering being changed to every 3 years, we have done that.   We haven't boostered ours after around 7 or 8 years, feeling that if they aren't protected by then - well they should be/  We don't titre test, it being, locally, as costly as boostering.   We boostered Lepto annually (and would with rabies to be legal) as Leptospirosis dips over a 12 month period.   When we had rats recently, I had both mine re-vaccinated against Lepto, using Lepto 2.   

Frankly it's up to the individuall but if protection is there to use, it seems silly not to use it.   Further, if fewer and fewer bothered with this, it's totally possibly that the now rarely seen often fatal dog diseases would become more often seen.  My opinion.

wendy, the thing with titer tests is that at first they seem like the perfect solution and a no-brainer.

But titer tests can only measure circulating antibodies in the dog's blood.  And the dog will only produce these antibodies if they have been recently exposed to the virus in the environment.  A dog without antibodies is still almost always protected though (if they have been previously vaccinated successfully) - when they are exposed to the virus, their memory cells tell their immune system to manufacture the antibodies to it. 

So - a dog is protected if their memory cells are able to do this.  But we have no way to measure memory cells.

Which is all to say - if you titer test and get a positive result, then the dog is definitely protected.  But if you titer test and get a negative result, this doesn't mean that the dog isn't well protected.  It just means the dog hasn't been exposed to the virus in the environment recently.  If you then booster, you can still end up giving too many vaccinations.  Which is why many of us skip the titer testing. 

Titer tests do have a role to play immediately after vaccination.  For eg - there is a very small % of puppies who are non-responders.  They are vaccinated but they don't respond to the vaccine or make antibodies.  Titer testing 2-3 weeks after vaccination will definitely show you if a vaccination worked if you want to check that.

But titer testing a long time after a vaccination, is less helpful because you don't know how to interpret the negative result.

What 1234 has written here is more or less what the vet I asked about getting titres done before going ahead with boosters for our adults, some years ago now, told me.   In other words, it's a waste of money basically.   I knew of a couple out in Canada who had their puppies tested BEFORE giving them their FIRST shots, so they knew what was needed.  I couldn't afford to do that so went ahead with normally vaccinating our puppies, by around 10 weeks.  In their case, it was probably a good idea.

I would only titre within a few weeks of vaccines or other challenge. As mine have been vaccinated as puppies years ago now  and before I knew as much about vaccines it's pointless to titre now as it would not give me an accurate picture due to the immune mediated cells . Therefore mine are either covered by vaccines or natural immunity built up by exposure in general life
Titres arnt pointless but u do have to know how to use them and the longer u leave doing them the less accurate they will be. U can't boost immunity either it's there or its not

^ What is "natural immunity built up by exposure in general life"? Diseases such as canine parvovirus are viral, not bacterial, the only way to "naturally" develop immunity is to get ill with the disease and recover.