What Your Vet Doesn’t Know About Distemper

[Sherry]

www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/vet-distemper-dog/

Any vaccine given to any dog at any point in his life has the ability to cause harm. This makes it incredibly important to limit vaccinations to only those that will protect your pet. After all, the entire point of vaccination is to protect your pet from harm, isn’t it?

If improved health is the true goal of your dog’s vaccination program, then your vet must understand that any unnecessary vaccine should be avoided. Yet this almost never happens.

The reasons vets over vaccinate are varied: some are just unaware that they are vaccinating too often. Other vets don’t believe that vaccines have the ability to harm your dog. Others just stick to outdated schedules out of comfort or habit. It really doesn’t matter why dogs are over vaccinated – what really matters is that this practice is stopped.

If you don’t think your dog is being vaccinated too often, the following information about the distemper vaccine might offer a glimpse into how many unnecessary vaccines our dogs are exposed to.

What You Need To Know About Distemper
In a study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, renowned veterinary infectious disease expert Dr Ronald Schultz vaccinated puppies with just one dose of distemper vaccine just four hours prior to placing the puppies in a room with distemper infected dogs. All of the puppies (which were vaccinated at 12 weeks), were protected against distemper in this challenge study.

In fact, the distemper vaccine works so well, that it can even be given up to three days post exposure to healthy puppies and still offer protection. Dr Schultz offers his expertise on the subject in the following video taken from New Canine and Feline Vaccination Guidelines: What Has Changed and Why:



What About Booster Shots?
Many pet owners (and some vets) believe that it takes more than one vaccine to protect a puppy. This isn’t true in most cases. It only takes one vaccine to confer immunity, if delivered at the right time. Although two and even three doses of vaccine were the original recommendations made in the AAHA 2003 Canine Vaccine Guideline, Dr Schultz’s research shows that the series of vaccinations is unnecessary.Puppies vaccinated for distemper once at 12 to 16 weeks of age with a high titer vaccine have a virtually 100% chance of being protected. And that protection is most likely for life.

In 2003, The American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Taskforce warned vets in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) that “Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating decreased frequency of vaccination … Immunological memory provides durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.”

“This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information as well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.”

“The recommendation for annual re-vaccination is a practice that was officially started in 1978.” says Dr. Schultz. “This recommendation was made without any scientific validation of the need to booster immunity so frequently. In fact the presence of good humoral antibody levels blocks the anamnestic response to vaccine boosters just as maternal antibody blocks the response in some young animals.”

Below is the result of duration of immunity testing on over 1,000 dogs. Both challenge (exposure to the real virus) and serology (antibody titer results) are shown below:

Table 1: Minimum Duration of Immunity for Canine Vaccines
Vaccine
Minimum Duration of Immunity
Methods Used to Determine Immunity
CORE VACCINES
Canine Distemper Virus (CDV)
Rockbom Strain 7 yrs / 15 yrs challenge / serology
Onderstepoort Strain 5 yrs / 9 yrs challenge / serology
Canine Adenovirus-2 (CAV-2) 7 yrs / 9 yrs challenge-CAV-1 / serology
Canine Parvovirus-2 (CAV-2) 7 yrs challenge / serology


It’s important to note that this is the MINIMUM duration of immunity. These ceilings reflect not the duration of immunity, rather the duration of the studies. Dr. Schultz explains “It is important to understand that these are minimum DOI’s and longer studies have not been done with certain of the above products. It is possible that some or all of these products will provide lifelong immunity.”

Dr. Schultz has seen these results repeated over the years. In 2010, he published the following with newer generation, recombinant vaccines. It’s important to note that not only did the vaccines provide protection for a minimum of 4 to 5 years, they did so in 100% of the dogs tested.

[Thérèse]

I think that one reason some vets are hesitant to discontinue yearly vax is that yearly vax mean yearly health checks and they are worried that if no vaccination is required, owners won't bring their pets in for an annual check-up.

So trying to do all the current best practices for Jelly, so guess she is done with vaccinations.

[Deleted]

So then, the vaccine can offer full protection? I was under the impression that they could still get distemper, even if vaccinated. Unless that is strictly limited to ferrets?

[Heather]

No. All it means is that the immunities are there. It doesn't mean that your ferret will recover if it catches it.
ciao

[Deleted]

I am being the cynic here, but I think a big reason a lot of vets are hesitant to reduce vaccinations is money. If you have to come in repeatedly to get vaccines and pay an office visit each time and there is really nothing else to do for the animal that is bread and butter easy money. I have even heard it said that some vets resent clients that only bring their animals in when needed because they "expect" to have the regular business, so they resent having to help those clients in time of emergency.
I am not saying all vets are like this, but I feel a lot of them are.

[Sherry]

That's definitely the case sometimes. Other times is because it's the only way they got a chance to do a yearly wellness exam- which ARE important.
But what the study above is concentrating on is that repeat vaccines DON'T confer greater immunity. That first one covers an animal(in the study dogs) for many years. Not that those dogs can't get distemper, just that the system recognizes the virus for the lengths of time listed.

[Deleted]

I talked to a nurse once that said that she doesn't get the hep vaccine boosters like they recommend, she just has a titer pulled every so often to see if she is still good.
I guess a lot of vaccines are more effective than they have been given credit for.

[Sherry]

How often do you see human children getting shots year after year after year? It's the SAME THING! If that was done to human children the entire civilized world would be up in arms because of all the immune related problems and sarcomas that repeated unnecessary vaccinations cause.

[Deleted]

I was wondering about this. My younger ferrets have both received their distemper shots (but not rabies, as it's rare in the area) and I was wondering if they should get them every year. This isn't the first time I read material saying that repeated vaccination is dangerous for animals. Some have suggested blood work every year to check if immunity is there before vaccinating again. Though since there's so few testing done on ferrets, we don't really know how long the vaccine immunity lasts in them... I was thinking of getting them vaccinated every three years, but I don't know if that's reasonable. :/

[katt]

Very interesting article Sherry, thank you! Just think of this on human vaccination terms too... So many of the same points apply.

As for reducing the vaccine I think you guys are partially looking at it from the wrong perspective. Don't think of vets, individual vets wanting this or that. It's not each vet thinking hmmm I want annual exams to be kept up with or I want some more easy money. In most cases it's a matter of training. Vets are taught in school the importance of vaccinations, and their subsequent boosters. This is hammered into them repeatedly over their 4 years of school. (And let's not discount the ears of their lives before vet school in which their own vet reinforced the need for vaccinations in their own pets). Then after school the point is again driven deeper by continuing education courses, veterinary journals and catalogs that push vaccinations, and most of all the AVMA. It is just never questioned. Then when a patient questions it often becomes a matter of pride (you question me with my training?), if a vet questions again it becomes a matter of pride AND money (the AVMA said so, (they want money!!!!) how dare you question their knowledge and authority?). During all this pharmaceuticals push the vaccines as well with claims of their "research." The same exact model applies for kibble vs raw, among other issues. You see similar models in human health as well. It is sad, and the only way change will ever happen is if people push and keep pushing, spread the word, ask questions, and encourage others to ask questions and do their own research. Articles like this are a good weapon. Fight with facts. *nods*

[Sherry]

Sylika- there is another thread here tagt talks about how long vaccines last. It's showing to be a minimum of three years. And in many cases closer to 7

[Deleted]

Sherry, I found that thread afterwards! Thanks for pointing me to it still, and sorry for posting here. (I'm still getting a bit lost with all the threads... though I spend a lot of time daily reading different threads. ) I'm glad to know my 'every 3-year' logic makes some sense scientifically!

[Sherry]

No need to apologize It's a fairly complex site.