The Perfect Guide to Vaccinations For Dogs And Cats: Too Many, Too often?

As a dog owner, you want to do everything in your power to keep your furry friend healthy and happy. One of the most important steps in maintaining your dog’s health is getting them vaccinated. But with so many different vaccines available, it can be challenging to know which ones are necessary and how often they should be administered.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the topic of vaccinations for dogs and cats and whether or not they’re given too frequently. We’ll discuss which vaccines are recommended by veterinarians, how often they should be administered, and what potential risks may come with over-vaccination. So if you’re a pet owner concerned about keeping your furry friend healthy without overdoing it on vaccines, this blog post is for you.

Vaccinations, vaccinations, vaccinations.  Vaccinations for dogs and cats owners have been told by veterinarians and pet health care providers for years that annual vaccinations for Rabies, Distemper, Parvovirus, Feline Leukemia and on and on…are required yearly.  Annual  vaccinations, also called annual boosters, have certainly played a major role in disease prevention in dogs and cats.  Nevertheless, the question recently on the minds of dog and cat owners has been… Do these vaccines have to be given every year?  And a second and equally important questions is… are we vaccinations for dogs and cats too much?  Are we actually causing harm by over-vaccinating our pets? Are our decisions relating to vaccine use being made based on scientific and statistical evidence? After reading this article on vaccinations for dogs and cats, you, as the pet’s health care advocate, will be better equipped to answer the question: Vaccinations…Too Many, Too Often?

I put this article together in the hope that viewers, no matter what their stance is regarding the vaccination topic, will have a resource from which to assemble scientifically verifiable information for people and groups who truly have the most knowledge of the subject.  Times are changing and vaccine protocols are changing.  Do some pet owners fear vaccinating their pets because of unproved theories, anecdotal horror stories about vaccines causing widespread ill health among pets, or misinformation that starts as conjecture and gradually gains a life of its own and becomes a “fact” merely through repetition?  The truth is that some dogs, cats, and humans do have severe and life-threatening complications from vaccine administration.  The truth is, as well, that vaccines have prevented uncountable deaths over decades of use from diseases polio, small pox, whooping cough and rabies in humans.  In dogs we rarely see a distemper case but I vividly recall 40 years ago watching helplessly while some wonderful dogs in my care died miserable deaths or had to be euthanized.  Parvovirus is a deadly killer of dogs; the vaccine to help protect dogs from this disease are very effective and have prevented innumerable deaths.  I rarely see cats with feline distemper (also called panleukopenia) these days thanks to some effective vaccines.

Vaccinations For Dogs And Cats: Too Many, Too Often?

Nothing is sacred. Nothing stays the same. And so it is regarding the present state of affairs in the swirling waters of the pet vaccination world. There are a number of questions that could and should be asked before you allow your dog or cat to be vaccinated. Unfortunately, the answers to your questions will probably be determined not by firmly set scientific standards or universally accepted protocols but rather by the judgment and biases of the person you ask!  Therefore, educate yourself, ask your veterinarian about the pros and cons of any vaccine that may be recommended.

There are two major questions that beg for exact answers:
1.) Are multiple agent (multivalent ) vaccines “overloading” the pets immune system?
2.) Are “annual vaccinations” really necessary annually?

Not only are dog and cat owners beginning to ask about the safety and necessity of annual, multivalent vaccines for their pets but the entire veterinary profession is in a state of critical self-examination. From the highly technical research and development laboratories in the giant pharmaceutical corporations right down to the solo practitioner operating a mobile clinic, the veterinary health care providers are asking if the current suggested vaccine protocols are safe and effective.

Through eons of evolutionary trial and error, those species who best defended against pathogens were able to produce similar offspring who were also immune competent; that is, they were able to fend off those harmful invaders. So we can safely state that, in general, most individuals alive today have healthy Immune Systems, otherwise all those nasty pathogens would have their way with us in short order! But some experts believe the overall state of health in many of the earth’s creatures is declining, and that vaccinations are actually contributing to the demise of our immune systems.  Read Dr. Dunn’s article in the October, 2006, Dog World Magazine about “Does Stress Harm The Immune System”.

Vaccinations For Dogs And Cats-The Immune System

The Immune System … everybody throws this term around with reckless abandon and often the term is totally misunderstood. Here is what you really need to know about The Immune System if you are to have any calm water to swim through in this sea of controversy surrounding vaccination protocols:

The Immune System is really a general term for all of the body’s pathogen defense mechanisms.The Immune Systemis not a single, discrete system, after all. There are a multitude of biochemical and anatomical factors that make up The Immune System but only three aspects that we will refer to in this article. These three active barriers to disease that play a major role in vaccination for dogs and cats-induced immunity are the following:

1.) MUCOSAL IMMUNITY … takes place in the thin mucous lining of the mammary, respiratory, urinary, and digestive tracts. This important barrier to disease often is the first line of defense against viruses and bacteria and the ammunition used against invaders is called “secretary IgA” antibody. This complex protein molecule in mucous binds up invaders and prevents their entrance into the body. Vaccine technology has taken advantage of this line of defense through the implementation of intranasal and oral vaccines. Much more emphasis will be placed on MUCOSAL IMMUNITY in the future since there is increasing evidence that human and animal populations are experiencing a measurable decline in IgA immune proteins. Just what is triggering the decline in IgA levels and what role vaccinations may play in this scheme is as yet unknown.

2.) CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY … this refers to individual body cells that have learned by past experience (exposure to a pathogen) what foreign invaders look like and recognizes the invaders whenever they show up again!  So when a cell is exposed to an invader such as Parvovirus, the cell recognizes the virus as an invader and mounts a response by manufacturing immune proteins to destroy the virus. If the strength and numbers of the virus attacking the cell do not kill the cell, the cell is now educated as to what Parvoviruses look like and the cell becomes better equipped to defend itself from future Parvovirus attacks.  Natural exposure as well as vaccine products which “look like” a natural pathogen but don’t present a threat to the cell can induce the cell to remember what the foreign invaders look like. A healthy cell is then prepared to fend off future attacks.  (That’s the object of a vaccine… to trick the cell with non-harmful antigens into making immune proteins against a similar looking dangerous pathogen.)

There are lots of body cells whose main job is to fight off disease. Plus, every cell in the body that has a special function… let’s say a liver cell that has to store glycogen, make cholesterol, convert protein into building material, plus regulate numerous other chemical reactions…still has the ability to recognize an invader and fight for its life! For the most part, specialized white blood cells play a major role in CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY.

3.) HUMORAL IMMUNITY … works from the body’s fluid sources, the blood and lymph. This is where we test for a dog or cat’s immune levels (called antibody titers) so that we can get an estimate of how well the body can recognize an invader. If the body has had a previous encounter with a pathogen, just like with CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, the body makes “Opposite Invaders” to circulate in body fluids. The “Opposite Invaders” are called antibodies. These molecules attach to or otherwise disable invaders and prevent them from doing harm to the body. And just like with CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, it is safer for the body to learn to recognize an invader from a crippled or fake invader than to risk learning from an actual natural attack.

There are many other ways a “home-body” wards off disease, but these three major Immune System divisions working together carry the brunt of responsibility for defense against pathogens. Remember that there are no simple blood tests for CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, it can be assessed but it is difficult and expensive to measure.

“Are multiple agent vaccines overloading The Immune System?”  With your knowledge that every individual is continuously being challenged by invaders, it seems unlikely that “ganging up” on The Immune System is even possible. In fact there is overwhelming scientific evidence that a healthy body can respond with immune defenses to multiple challenges and can make protective levels of antibodies to a number of pathogens at the same time! Remember … we’re talking about normal and healthy cats and dogs.  With over thirty years of experience in  immunology, Robert Snyder, a Public Health Advisor at the Centers For Disease Control, has stated that there is “evidence that the more you stimulate The Immune System the better it works.” This statement may very well be true, unless there is an overwhelming number and virulence of pathogens.

If I, as a small animal practitioner with 37 years of experience, have a hard time reconciling these widely different viewpoints, how is the pet owner to make sense of these diverse opinions? And just to underscore the lack of uniformity of opinion regarding multivalent vaccines, in 1998 I sent questionnaires to over twenty veterinarians including Dr. Carvel Tiekert, at the time the Executive Director of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, seeking evidence that “too many” vaccines were causing harm to our pets. Not a single person I queried would offer any irrefutable evidence that the multivalent vaccines actually harmed pets. There are stories, there are opinions, there are theories, there is conjecture … even suggestions that veterinarians are knowingly using all those vaccines to further their financial gains! (On this point, you should know that giving a pet a single dose of a single vaccine, then giving subsequent single dose vaccines for different diseases spread out over a period of time would be far more expensive for the pet owner and generate far more revenue for the veterinarian than giving a multivalent vaccine.)

If you choose to believe that multivalent vaccines (such as the DHLPPCv so commonly used in dogs) are harmful to your pet and that only a single antigen (vaccine) should be given at a time, you may encounter difficulty since some vaccines are not available individually.  Keep in mind, though, that there are decades of evidence gathered from millions of individuals including humans, dogs, cats, cattle, horses, chickens etc. that multivalent vaccines are an effective and economical method of protecting individuals from disease.

Vaccinations For Dogs and Cats-Annual Vaccinations

The question of whether or not “annual vaccinations” really should be given yearly is a good one. How often is too often? The answer is somewhat elusive, too, because the only way we would know if an individual should be vaccinated right now would be to know that the individual is at high risk of getting the disease. In other words, if there was a nice test that would say “Yes, vaccinate immediately! This blood sample indicates that the immune system’s mucosal, cellular and humoral immunity is low and needs priming!,” then the choice to vaccinate would be simpler. (That is if you believed in vaccinating to begin with.) Some types of in-office blood tests are available at this time. However it may be a while before a wide range of simple and inexpensive tests for immunity-status-indicators for a multitude of pet diseases are available.  A complicating factor in duration of immunity after a vaccine is given is the unique character of each individual’s Immune System competence.

What should a pet owner to do?
Realize that pet health care providers who truly have your pet’s best interest at heart do not all agree on what is the ideal vaccination protocol to follow. Accept the fact that some pet health care providers truly believe that across the broad spectrum of optimum health, vaccinations throw the animal’s vital energies out of balance. The truth is that vaccines have undoubtedly prevented countless millions of disease related deaths; unfortunately, a few individuals may have been harmed along the way.  Like anything else in life, there is a middle ground that must be struck, an educated and informed judgment that needs to be made when considering the risks versus the benefits of Vaccinations for dogs and cats in our care. Let us all keep an open mind and a sensitive heart to this issue of vaccinations. If you do have concerns that need addressing, tell your veterinarian that you would like to consider all the options prior to vaccinating your special pet. Someday, hopefully soon, when we discuss vaccinations for Dogs and cats, no one will have to ask if we are giving Too Many, Too Often.

Vaccinations for dogs and cats are an important part of keeping them healthy and protected from diseases. While some pet owners may question the frequency or necessity of these vaccinations, it is important to remember that they can prevent serious illnesses and even save your pet’s life. Ultimately, the decision on which vaccinations to administer and how often should be made in consultation with a veterinarian who knows your pet’s individual needs and risks. If you have any questions or concerns about vaccinating your furry friend, don’t hesitate to reach out to your vet for guidance. Let us know in the comments if you have any personal experiences or opinions on this topic.

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