My Golden Oldie 'Poppy' had a bad experience with her Booster in December 2000, we nearly lost her as she developed a HUGE abcess, within hours of her booster on the site which covered the back of her neck across her shoulder and part way down one leg! This was a bad time for her as she was no spring chicken and the sight of her having to have this drained by the Vets then by us as she did get so stressed out at going to the Vets (understandably)was so awful. We didn't let her have her booster last year, well now we have the chance to a short holiday( i hate being away from my lot!!)and to go into Kennels she has to have a full dose of not a Booster but 2 injections to start the course again. I am so worried about her that I am contiplating finding a B&B where she can come too, or not going on holiday.
My query is has anyone had any similar sort of experience? Do you have you oldies Boostered?

Advise please
Sweep x

I have read that vets can test for vaccine antibodies in order to determine if the dog is still immune. Some people who are concerned about the possible effects of routine vaccination use this as an option rather than not vaccinating at all. There may be a homeopathic alternative too, but I'm not certain. If you ever get Dogs Today, I think there is a contributing homeopathic vet that can give you advice on these sorts of things. :)

I believe it's called "Titre Testing" when you check the levels of antibodies. It's what we have to go through if we plan to move to the UK. After the [rabies] test results come back as acceptable, there's a 6 month minimum wait after that date. Not sure how well "Titre Testings" are accepted for boarding. Good luck,
toodles

That six month rule is just for the Rabies, in order to come to UK from Pet Passport countries!

According to one of the reps of one of the main vaccine maufacturers at a recent seminar I attended, this having to have a full course is rubbish!!! I have heard this ploy by vets before, and beleive it is a way of ensuring people boost on time, or get punished by having to have a full course if late, thereby recouping possible lost revenue from the lateness. She should just be able to have a booster.

How many are in your 'lot' and do they need to stay together? Just a thought but would a friend be able to look after her or would that stress her more being away from her buddies? Or do you have someone that could stop at your place and keep them together?

Anita

I have 5 in my 'lot'.
I am seriously thinking of finding someone to have Poppy for the time we are away.

Re: Brainless - I totally agree that this is no doubt a ploy by the Vets to recoup monies, but as ever we are 'at their mercy'!!!

Sweep xx

I

Sorry I didn't mean lot in a funny way but a happy extended family way :D

I have looked where you are, and unfortunately I am in North Notts, but if you want to bring her up I'll have her:D If your going to Scotland up the A1 I'm not far from it:D
Anita

I would not have her injected again! There is the blood testing you can do to check immunity levels but this won't help you if you have to put her in kennels as they will require proof of vaccination.
There are lots of places in the UK that will allow you to take dogs - from one end of the country to the other - or you can get someone to stay in your own home and look after her.
I do get my oldies vaccinated but I don't vaccinate the cat because of an adverse reaction.

Hi Sweep.
If your dog is quite old 11yrs+ I wouldn't board her anyway, it can be stressful for some dogs. Boarding kennels MUST have proof of vaccinations, maybe it was a "one off" with the reaction.
Dawn.

unfortunetly as animals get older their imune systems aren't what they used to be and can be more at risk from diseases unless routinly given a booster. I however think that your dog would not need the whole course again, just a booster, if your dog has been routinuly vaccinated throughout its life then she would have good imunity. I don't beleive in homopathic vaccines (sorry) and they woundn't be accepted at kennels. Did your vet say what caused the abscess ? as this is very rare, does he re-sterilise his syringes? what make of vaccine does he use ? I would perhaps ask for a different make of vaccine. I can understand your worry of an abscess re-occuring but as long as your vet treated the jab as aseptic as poss i don't think that it could happen again ? Other than that see if someone will look after her ?
(why would a vaccine manufacture company suggest that re-starting a vaccine course is a Vets money making ploy ?? uh they sell the vaccine ?)

No I asked if this was a ploy by the vets, as he stated a whole course is not required when boosting even if not up to date, he just smiled wryly and shrugged his shoulders! :D Definately no need fro two jabs, as the purpose of these initially is to get immunity for sure, as the first may not have taken enough!

just checking :p i just get annoyed with people thinking that vet surgeries 'overcharge' people for things they think they should do themselves (see vaccine !) vets have to make money somewhere as people sometimes forget that they are businesses and have overheads etc, pets are classed as luxuries (which is why we pay vat on them) and if you can't afford their treatment don't have them ! preventive or not !
Sorry rant over (not getting at anyone in particular) and I agree with the idea that if a pet has had regular vaccinations and only missed one or two then a booster is fine. Its when the people come in and my pet has had its 1st vaccinations as a puppy and then nothing (and they think that is normal) and their pet is 8 years old then i think they should re-start a course.

Why can't I vaccinate my own dogs and save me some money? I've got 3 pups to vaccinate before they go off to their new homes. It'll cost me nearly £60 to have them done by a vet and only about £36 if I did it myself. I chip my dogs myself now I've gone through the training so that saves me nearly £14 per chip. This litter has already cost me a considerable amount of money in vets fees (over £700) so why can't I choose to save some at this stage?
Yes vets run a business and there are many procedures that only they can carry out. In the last 3 months or so my Poodle pup has had nearly a £1,000 worth of vet treatment so in total I have spent probably well over £2,000 at my vet in the last 2 months. Most of which I've had to pay for myself out of my own pocket as it isn't covered by insurance.
My vets are quite happy for my dogs to have boosters only despite being vaccinated only every 4 years or so but with 12 dogs in the house at the momnet if I had to pay £20 odd a dog for a booster I would run out of money. If I can save money without causing suffering to my dogs then I will.

Well I have no idea why you cant save some money , I do the vaccinations myself and my vet has no problem with that
He says there is no difference who does it as long as it is done .
He phones in a prescription for me to local chemist and that saves me a 44 mile drive . when I go up to him again he gives me the certs to say they have been done .
If there is a problem with the vacs, that is usually a reaction from the dogs , not the fault of the person who gives the injections.
Like people dogs have adverse reactions to certain things , even meat , so I think it would save the vets and us time if simple things such as that could be sorted at home , but then my vet is a down to earth man not your hand out for money all the time sort .
The seven in one nobivac costs about £8 over the counter , I f I go to a local vet it will be £30 , my vet charges £15 so how do the others justify their charges .
Mari

things can and do go wrong, it is rare but animals can die from vaccinations and i do not beleive un-qualified people would be able to cope with this situation - as i have said before do you have supplies of adrenaline/oxygen etc I wouldn't have thought so ? What is the point in veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses bothering to train and qualify if people are going to take it upon themselves to do it themselves. Vaccinations should be done by a vet who would be able to deal with a reaction, give a full exmaination, a lot of diseases/cancers etc are picked up on vaccination. I as a qualified nurse can't give a vaccination unless a veterinary surgeon is present, so why should anyone be allowed to give/prescribe prescription only medicine (unlike microchips) If it costs you so much money then why have so many animals ?? you should have thought about veterinary costs before taking on so many animals.

Firstly the reason why you have to have a vet present is because you are not treating your own animal. I would not be able to offer my services to vaccinate other peoples animals as that is against the law. It isnt against the law to treat your own.
I don't begrudge a penny I spend on my dogs but if 2 things are exactly the same yet one is cheaper than the other are you seriously telling me you'd buy the expensive one everytime? No, we all go for the bargains in the supermarkets, money off schemes etc.
I've had dogs that have had reactions to injections (not vaccines) but the dog reacted AFTER I had left the surgery so I had to go back anyway. I am competent enough to have recognised there was a problem and dealt with it accordingly.
I go to a vet because they have trained to recognise and deal with things beyond that which I can deal with such as surgery etc. I think you'd be pretty surprised at the amount of 'self treating' myself, and no doubt others on this board, actually do BEFORE we consider going to the vet.
Giving an injection is hardly something which you need huge amounts of training in. I certainly only needed a day on a microchipping course. If I can stick a microchipping needle in a dog then I think a vaccination would be a tad easier.

Hi Bec, I have an address for you if you want to buy your own vaccines in. Give me a bell, and we can make arrangements for next Sunday too. Please can I visit the pups before they go?

Cheers for that Phil I'll give you a call and of course you can visit the babies before they go. After all someones got to hold them while I chip and vaccinate!

Bec, Perhaphs we could manage sometime on Sunday if it suits you too?(Steve wants to see the pups too)

Thats great Phil I'll ring you tomorrow morn if thats OK!

With some of you talking about vaccinating your own dogs (nothing against it, I did all my rescues) and the original thread being about a dog maybe going in kennels, I though I might mention that it is unlikely that a boarding kennel would accept a dog not vaccinated by a vet.
Dawn.

Hi Dawn, Thanks for that. I did know, but some people who were considering doing their own dogs may not have done. My dogs never ever go in kennels, simply because with the number I have it would cost more to kennel them , than the cost of a holiday lol

Hi Phil, could I please have that address too? You never know when convenient friends will do something inconsiderate like changing jobs to a drug company without a vet. division :D.

Hi Sharon,Of course you can. They will also sell tubs of the old Pip.Cit worming tablets, which I prefer, as you can actually see the worms as they are passed. I dont like the " dissolve them inside" type. I like to see with my own eyes the evidence that they are dead.

Ian honked loudly when he read that Phil. I also like the worms to be seen on exit. But the operative phrase is "be seen". I'm phobic about all worms (stupid I know), so himself is on very reluctant output inspection and clearance duty post-worming.

Hi sharon, I dont think its silly at all, we all have our little hang ups, mine is spiders, totally terrified of them!!! My best friend is also worm phobic, so it must be quite common. To make your toes curl up even more, Erin caught a slow worm today, and before I could get to it, she had given it a good old Lurcher shake, and killed the poor thing.

Phil, I'd think about going for desensitisation if I had a really bad spider phobia, because you can't avoid them. Worms are bad enough. I'm not as bad as I used to be, but two pages of my 'A' level biology text went unread because they were glued together after one glimpse of the juicy worm photo on one of them :-).

Spiders don't bother me (which is good considering the Black Widows I had to get rid of in my house and yard in NM). Worms, Snakes, Bats, -- not a problem once I know they're there.
But I am quite phobic of ANTS esp. - BIG BLACK Carpenter ANTS!!!! Hate them: Loathe them : Die, ANT, DIE!!! I'm scared of them so I get violent --- wierd, but I hate being scared! And worse is I know why I'm scared of them and it doesn't change a thing. :(

I give myself a very stern talking to along the lines of......they are tiny compared to you, cant do you any harm, they are not poisonous, and does it make any difference............ no, not a tiny weeny bit :(

Positive thinking doesn't work for me Phil. As I said I'm a bit better than I used to be, and can look at photographs of worms without losing the head but I still wouldn't be able to stop myself having the real screaming hysterics if someone dropped a worm in my hand - and you probably know me well enough by now to realise that hysterics is not my usual thing.

Sara I am ant phobic too :( It's more I seem to be allergic to them than anything but this has made me scared of them.
Even little iddy black english ones bother me. I was weeding our planted water troughs the other day and disturbed an ants nest and they were all over me - I nearly ripped my clothes off but was at the side of the road so had to make do with slapping them off me, yelling and crying :( I was all red spots where they'd touched me.
When I was a teenager and went on holiday with my parents we walked through some woods and came across wood ants. I was crying with fear and my Dad was telling me not to be so silly - they'd walked on him and my Mum and they were alright - he then looked at my legs and I was all blood dribbles where they had got me with the acid. Think he believed me then ;)
All I can say is I'm glad we don't have BIG ones here !
Sara :)

We had a A- Frame cabin that my parents had built in the 1960s that we spent weekends when I was a child. It was located right outside of Mt Rainier National Park. I remember waking up to 1/2 - 1 inch large black Carpenter Ants biting my face and body inside of my sleeping bag. Sure, my parents would spray and kill them off, but it seemed that each year, they returned just for me :( Never bothered anyone else in the family. The cabin eventually "went" downriver in a major flood around age 10. So no more of that until.....

The monsters found me again when I was 12. Carpenter ants actually were chomping on my bedroom walls. My parents thought I was paranoid until my mom pulled the panelling off and could hear them. When she drilled a hole into the top part of the wall, they started pouring out!! That was it, I slept in the living room and left for music camp the next day for 6 weeks. :(

eeeeerrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh I'm all goosebumps now - sounds like my worst nightmare :(

Well, it is my absolute nightmare :( Sounds like a corny movie line though ;)

But it's why I grab hammers, boots, and anything else that's hard. Hubby thinks its funny that I never scream or get him to do anything about it I want them dead faster than he ever could respond to the situation. Then I spend the next 20 minutes shaking and cursing. But I don't think Germany has them, so I'm very peaceful here. No phobia to manage :D :D :D

Sharon, thanks a lot for bringing up phobias, or was it Phillipa? Hmmm. You're both off my cookie distribution list ;) :D :D :D oops sorry, Biscuit distro list. ;) :P

LOL! T'was me - sorry Sara ;-)

Sara, my worst was when I was temporary signal lady/railway crossing keeper in school and university holidays. One dreaded crossing was in the back end of nowhere. I caught the 2pm train out, and they dropped me a the crossing, then at 4am the next moring I flagged the last goods train down, opened the gates after it had passed and got a lift back in to the station. The 'accomodation' was a damp shack, furnished with an old carriage seat, a stove and a railway 'phone - and slugs. Lots of slugs. (I'm no better with slugs than with worms). They would start invading at about 1 am, and I'd sit rigid with terror until they decamped again, usually about 3 am. I earned my money in sweat and horror at that particular crossing.

Sharon,
Too bad you didn't have some salt with you and then you could have destroyed those slugs rather entertaningly :) Fizzle Fizzle Fizzle ;) I spent some of my childhood doing that for my mom's garden. I really wished we had Hedgehogs in Seattle then.
But you poor poor thing all alone with the invasion :(

Urrgh Sara! Fizzling or exploding slugs are even worse than crawling ones :-).

But they're dead and nothing remains except a tiny white spot :D :D :D

Phillipa spiders are my phobia also I am absolutely sick if I see one , will not go into to a room unless someone shows me the murdered spider stone dead
I cant help it is cold sweats even if I see them on tv.
I never saw the film arachnaphobia as that would to me be torture it is an awful phobia to have as there are so many of them, and even the itsy bitsy money spider can penetrate the skin. spiders are poisonous, and the Daddy longlegs is deadly , only they cannot penetrate the human skin , [not yet ] I know all about them , did so to try and get over my fear . did the hypnosis , no success . did the fear management , it was a joke. I am and will remain spider unfriendly forever and I do not care what theIr purpose is I want them all dead.
I am ashamed to say because of my roars and screams I now have to my added list of spider haters my litle 6 yr old grandaughter. . Mari

Hi Philippa
Could I have the address too please.
Devonelitelabs@hotmail.com

i have found that reactions happen normally as the client is paying ! but I have had 2 cases where they have got to the car and the dog has died. I am aware that if you own the pet then you can do things yourselves (more than I can) but the law will I expect change as people see fit to take it upon themselves to do more and more for example the couple that were taken to court for tail docking(not saying that giving a vaccination is that bad !) but as long as you are aware that things can go wrong. With regards to signing vaccination records - who signs your records ?? what if your dogs/puppies with new owners need to go in to kennels ?? I think on this one we will have to agree to disagree on

chloe tail docking and dew claws are also done by the breeders themselves here in Ireland
I suppose some dont agree with that either but , it is a much quicker way than going under anesthetic , it is done when the pups are two days old ,as the gristle is very soft . , some put a lamb ring on others twist it off . and some clip them off . the dew claws are cut off as well at two days . I could not do that but it looks much better than the surgical removed ones .
Tail docking is not forbidden here in Ireland , but ear cropping is .

Lara my fault , I should have made it clearer . guess I was tired Mari

Mari, since when did anyone give a two day old pup an anesthetic to do claws and tails ??? confused. My pups certainly did not !(thanks for the details in to ways to dock tails !!!!) they were done by a vet. The couple I refer to were taken to court for removing tails very badly and were not vets as the law states here in england.

chloe no not at two days old , I was saying the breeders felt removal, of the tails and dew claws were easier at that age instead of waiting for the vet to do so under anesthetic later .
I really must remember not to expect you read between the lines. :(
I do not have breeds needing docking myself and I also know I could never have the courage to dock or remove the dew claws.
I was only telling you how it is mostly done in Ireland , lol Mari

in my experience vets no do remove tails under anaesthetic in england anyway, so thats why i questioned it (i didn't expect you to give ga's 2 day old pups i was being sarcastic :rolleyes: !) My vet removes BACK dew claws only if they are in for another op, for example spaying. I suppose it is different in other countries. Anyway back to the thread !

Mari - I think it's great that your vet will give you a prescription and let you get the drugs yourself if that's what you want to do - but then to sign a valid vaccination form at a later date with only your word for it is irresponsible and unethical.
How would responsible kennels feel about people landing dogs to stay with fraudulent documents? because that in effect is what your vet is doing - signing his name to something he has not done. They are trying to keep their livelihoods free of disease!
Annual booster time is when dogs can enjoy a full health check from a vet. Hearts, lungs etc....
Everyone likes to save money but your vet is taking the ****.
Do others have vets that do this?

Lara I was not clear enough on that.
I was speaking about the nobi stickers you put on the cards to show what vaccinations they got .
As to does anyone have a vet like that , I dont think so .
He is the kindest one I know , will come out all hours , and that means drive the 44 miles , as well .
Does not over charge , has an animal hospital employs two nurses and two other vets
He goes to all the eoropean conventions and is a lecturer.
He never ever turned away a person because of money no I can safely say there is not many to match this vet
I can go to the pharmacy and buy the vacs myself, with or without the vets say so but I would rather have his advice on the ones to use
Most greyhound people do their own vaccinations here I dont hear of any higher mortality rate here re vacs than anywhere else
A dog can get a reaction to anything , frontline flea treatment , shampoos even food .
If a dog is going to react it usually takes time to show up so a vet giving a jab is not going to make a difference . Vets do not keep puppies that have been vaccinated in for observation .
It is common for people to vaccinate their dogs themselves .
I have not a problem doing it and as I said vacs can be bought freely here and indeed lots of other places as well.
I dont think Bec is trying to spare money on the dogs just the vets . whats wrong with that?.
I am not saying to anyone do it yourself I am saying I do ,and I dont see it is such a big deal if someone else does
best wishes Mari

Oooops!! Sorry :o I read it as your vet was actually signing the certificate - my mistake.