Finneus had his second set of jabs on Saturday morning (over here they vaccinate them at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks) and wasn't at all happy afterwards.  He was very sleepy, refused to eat and cried whenever you picked him up.  We took him to the vest first thing this morning (Monday) and the vet we saw has said he's not to have his 3rd vaccination but will need titre testing instead and then depending on what the levels are like will depend on whether he has his 3rd lot.  And again, he'll need titre testing at 15 months to see whether he needs his annual booster or not.

I like the vet and trust her a lot - my only concern is that his mum developed milk fever when the litter was 2 weeks old and stopped feeding them, would the 2 weeks have been enough to pass on the maternal immunity?  If not then would it be worth going ahead with the titre testing or should we just let him have his 3rd jab?  To date he's had 2 x distemper, 2 x hepatitis, 2 x parvo, 1 x parainfluenza, 1 x kennel cough and 1 x heartworm.  If he has his full jabs next time they'll be distemper, hepatitis, parvo, parainfluenza and kennel cough.  He's not due his next heartwork till he's 6 months old.

He's such a little dog (1.9kgs including lead and harness! at 12 weeks) and I don't want to overload his system with vaccines but neither do I want to put him through blood tests if they're not necessary.

thanks,

Sounds like an excellent vet you've got :-) It seems very sensible to to check his antibody levels and not to give him further jags if he doesn't need them. It may have been coincidence or it may have been his vaccination that made him ill - if the latter why risk more of them.

Just out of curiosity do they not vaccinate for leptospirosis over there?

Blood tests aren't usually too bad. Yes, I would definitely go for titre test. Excellent vet you got.

Be grateful that you've got a Vet who doesn't want to pump your dog full of unnecessary vaccine.  :)

Thanks, I think I needed to hear it from other people just to reassure me that what I thought was right actually was right.  He's such a little thing and I'm anxious about his reaction to the blood tests - at least I know how bad the injection was and how he reacted, the blood tests are somewhat of an unknown.

He's got puppy classes on Wednesday so I'll tell the vet then that I'll def be going with her suggestion.

Thanks again.

I titre tested one of my dogs when I decided to go down that route.  The only problem is not being able to get single vaccines.  my bitch was good count for two borderline for the other and needed one.

Dogs that are exported to Australia aren't supposed to have the leptospirosis vaccine - I think it is unknown in that countries.

> Dogs that are exported to Australia aren't supposed to have the leptospirosis vaccine - I think it is unknown in that countries.

Thats interesting, thanks :-)  When I sent some of the dogs semen to New Zealand he had to have lepto titre tests amongst others so they obviously have it there.

Looking at your avatar -is it Paps you have? My mentor in papillons only ever lets her pups have half a dose of vaccine and her vet agrees to it (but writes a note on the vaccination cards saying the pup has been vaccinated according to owner's wishes). She reckons that is safer as they are so small.

he is a pap - a sable/white little beastie!  that's interesting about the half dose of the vaccine - will mention that to the vet and see what she think.  he's feeling a lot better this evening - we've had some raging thunder storms today and this evening he sat on the verandah by my chair watching the kids playing in the rain and was wagging his tail and trying to get to them.  a definite improvement on this morning.