has anyone had any positive experience with their vets when enquiring about titre testing before deciding about wheather to have jabs or not.So far all our local ones have not been much help, but i would be willing to travel if only i could find one that would do them.

Yes, my vet had no problem with it!  They only need to send a blood sample off to Glasgow University, do a search for the veterinary dept, gives you all the info there.  Good luck.
Dawn.

Sorry t ask but what is a titre test???  I have never heard of it and would like to know!!!!

Rox

its a blood test to determine levels of immunity snd so poss avoid unccessary jabs, do a search on here for lots more info i'm still learning myself

Thanks alot! :)

Rox

Hi Rox do a search for titres/vaccs etc, theres a lot of links for info on titres here. If not give me a shout & I`ll put em up again :)

Christine , Spain.

All you have to do is tell your vet to take a blood sample of your dog & send it to Glasgow Diagnostic for titre testing against specific diseases :) In other words you tell him what you want him to do, very nicely of course ;) :D Look up Glasgow Uni for info.

Christine, Spain.

How much does this test cost?.

I paid around £40.00, icluding the vets fee for taking and sending the blood.
Dawn.

i got my bitch titre tested for parvo while she was pregnant as we had an outbreak of parvo in the area and i had forgotton my dogs booster vaccine it cost about £15 but put my mind at rest as she is a rottie and they are prone to icking up parvo. The reason annual boosters are given to dogs is because titre testing costs more than the vaccine so people are happier to pay for the vaccine rather than £50 for titre test and then have to give the vaccine which only comes in distemper/hepatitis/parinfluenza combined and lepto and parvovirus separate what if your dog is immune to all except distemper you still havve to give the combined vaccine anyway

Hi Maxi, seperate vaccines are available for parvo & distemper, the vet will probably have to ask around a bit tho. Booster won`t be necessary if high levels of antibodies are found tho & even then, just because they might be low doesn`t mean they won`t have immunity, titre tests can`t measure the memory cells that play a big role in immunity :)

Christine, Spain,

in england you cannot buy the separate vaccines only parvo and leptospirosis come separate the other parts of the vaccine are combined!! if you were to seek to buy them separatly then the cost would be such that really is not viable as in the end after titre testing and subsequent vaccination you are looking at around £80 instead of a yearly booster of £20 most people prfer to just routinely vaccinate instead because of the cost.

The following :-
*There is provision in the UK for a veterinary surgeon to administer a licensed product (under the cascade) without any specific safety studies i.e. this would permit the use of a licensed live canine distemper vaccine in seals if there was no authorised product for use in seals (VMD). However, the Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright would not recommend this course of action. A live CDV vaccine was used on the rare black-footed ferret in America with disastrous consequences (all the females of the breeding programme died following vaccination). It would be highly risky to attempt to use live CDV vaccine on seals outside controlled conditions, as it is not known how they would react. It is possible the vaccine strain itself may cause death or even cause a new epidemic amongst seals.* taken from the link below shows their are single vaccines of distemper in UK.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/ewd/seals/vaccination.htm
I managed to get distemper with adno a couple of yrs ago over here

if you read my post correctly you would see that  i said that it would be economically unviable to seek a separate vaccine - i am aware that they exist but at a cost, most vets buy vaccines in bulk so they are able to sell cheaply but if you were to request a single vaccine then the cost would rise because they would have to buy in a single dose of the vaccine, most vets are under some sort of deal with a vaccine company to enable them to get a good discount on vaccines so therefore would be unwilling to buy in a single dose of a different vaccine bearing in mind most vaccines the minimum you can buy is 10, so it would have to be worth them buying it in to vaccinate your dog so then they would have to charge you for it!!!! all i am saying is that the reason people don't titre test is because of cost, it is far cheaper to just vaccinate!!!!! similar to those people who have dogs who have seasonal allergies they would rather stick their dogs on steroids for ever than have an allergy test to the cost of around £200 and then have a vaccine made to combat the allergy at around £100 per vaccine - it all boils down to cost and as vaccine titre testing is not claimable of insurance how many people can really afford to spend £100 per dog a year for vaccination along with other routine treatment like flea stuff ear cleaner etc it makes owning a dog for the rich only!

most vets buy vaccines in bulk so they are able to sell cheaply
I've not known a Vet yet who sells vaccines cheaply!!  Last time I looked, they were $1.50 a shot in the States!!
To me costs isn't the priority.  It's trying to strike the balance between protecting my dog and not overloading their bodies with chemicals!!

most vets actually do vaccines at a loss so that they get you as a client and then can charge you more for other stuff!!!! but of course you can buy the vaccines on the internet and do it yerself.

No, you can't vaccinate your own dogs in the UK.
:)

Yes you can Jeangenie!
Dawn.

When did the law change? When my B-i-L was an RSPCA Inspector he was able to buy vaccine, but not administer it. By law that had to be done by a vet.
:)

The law is very confused in these matters.  I cannot buy vaccines in this country but I could buy them in Ireland or other countries and legally bring them into this country.  The law also states that no one (other than a vet) may treat a dog not belonging to them so I would be able to vaccinate my own dogs with the vaccine I had imported from Ireland, but could be prosecuted if I vaccinated your dog.

Joan
Take the rough with the smooth

As you say there are many different combinations of vaccines available. I have a dog that reacts badly to the combined vaccination and my vet went through the list with me to find alternatives. There were dozens of different ones - some single - many 2 combined - and of course the multi vaccs). Of course most vets don't stock any but the 5 way combined vaccination (some also the parvo/lepto) but they can get them. I don't remember there being any issue with excessive cost - they simply had to be ordered specially - and yes they had to buy a box of 10 (which they were willing to do). In the end the titre test showed her levels were OK so we didn't need them.

I think some vets claim these things are not available as they don't want any inconvenience - but surely treatment (including vaccination) should be tailored to the needs of the dog? My vet happens to be one of the signatories to the recent letter supporting 3 year protocols so she is willing to go the extra mile if she considers the "standard" approach risky to the dog which I appreciate.

Doing things the cheapest way is fine if the dog is not damaged by it. But where dogs have reactions to vaccines, autoimmune disease etc it is too high a risk just to save some money.
Like everything else as demand for titre testing increases, costs will come down and as more people question the need for combined vaccines annually, manufacturers will have to review their supply policies. It may take time but it is starting to happen. A few years ago titre testing was almost unheard of and was done in one specialist lab - now a test has just become available that can be done in a few minutes in the surgery!

Janet

im new on here so can you tell me what a titre test is please.

sorry should have scrolled up and read it all.
Im still learning how site works.