Vaccinating Senior Dogs

[Sharon]

I've been called a lot of things but never that, lol.

My 13 year old terrier is living the cushy life of leisure now so I'm opting out on the vaccines. I've always been conscious about over vaccinating, and now that he's an old man I'm hyper conscious about putting anything into his body that he may react negatively to.

You should be so lucky! LOL

I trust my vet and go with the vet's plan.
13 year old is not due until 2017 and I'd be very surprised if she lives that long.

[Ugo]

There is absolutely no way I'm getting my 12 year old setter vaccinated - haven't for a couple of years. Most Vets will tell you the same. It's not about the $$$. It's about wasting $$$ on non-required vaccination and the risks that can come from over-vaccinating.

[callie]

x2 Ugo other than rabies and heartworm med for an active field dog there is no reason to over vaccinate.

[Waftrudnir]

“over-vaccinating”?
I’m not paying anybody’s vet bill, so I’m not going to tell what you should or shouldn’t. I just think that this discussion is quite financially motivated (just as feed discussions most often are) and has nothing to do with risking a dog’s life because of giving him a vaccine.
The only factual discussion where one would use the expression “over-vaccinating” is in the context of potential exposure. For example, regardless if your dog is 6 months or 15 years old, if it spends its entire life in solitude on the sofa plus 5min/day in the same corner of a small backyard, well it becomes evident what vaccine preventable risks your dog is going to be exposed to…
However, if your dog potentially comes in contact with other dogs, perhaps you should talk to your vet about DHPPV (or at least read up on it on some legitimate www) and when you there just ask about Leptospirosis, Coronavirus, Bordetella bronchiseptica etc.
Compared to treatment, vaccines are really cheap. So unless you don’t care about herd immunity and you will shoot your dog before you even think of calling a vet, perhaps we should have a more discerning discussion on what and why.

[terrym]

Keep in mind some regions do have bylaws about rabies vaccination. Personally if it was a pet that didn't interact with wildlife I likely would leave the old bugger to his comfy couch and give him treats instead.

[Sharon]

Which is the real point. If my old girl(13 1/2) is still going to the bush /woods I want her to be vaccinated for leptospirosis which is contracted from water /soil where and an infected animal has peed .... very common in ON
When she dies I don't want it to be from lepto .

(I'm not a vet, but from what I read Coronavirus, and Bordetella bronchiseptica cause such minor symptoms that I'm not concerned about them.)

[Waftrudnir]

I have kind of a similar view as Sharon on Leptospirosis and Coronavirus (i.e. yes and perhaps not really). My vet is pretty passionate regarding Bordetella vaccine and it's hard to argue given the spread of the disease and how contagious it is (although it's not all that life threatening as far as I'm aware). The other question is if it actually poses a risk to humans.
The other vaccines I want my dog to have is distemper, adenovirus hepatitis and parvovirus (which often come in some sort of combination vaccine).
Rabies is not really a choice (and as my dog does not keep a daily log what critters she was chasing, she'd get it regardless).
On the other hand, I'm really not a believer in the cost/benefit of the heartworm test - at least for a dog that was treated during the previous summer.

[Sharon]

Now I want that heartworm test every year.

While the preventatives are excellent, and extremely effective (nearly 100 percent), they are not perfect. More likely than product failure is human error. People may forget to give the product (even if you don’t). Or the chewable may not be swallowed, and instead dropped behind the sofa. Also, people don’t always apply the topical product correctly. It happens, it really doesStill, why have veterinarians become so adamant about the heartworm test?
It’s possible that if a heartworm preventative is given to a dog with heartworm disease, there could be a serious reaction due to the rapid killing of circulating baby heartworm in the blood stream. Also, a dog with heartworm must be treated, and early identification makes it easier to treat (with fewer side affects), less expensive to treat, and there’s less suffering for the dog." quote

https://www.google.ca/search?sourcei...+every+year%3f

Just realized this was some off topic. Back to vaccinations and senior dogs

[Waftrudnir]

not saying there wouldn't be any value in the test, but if money is tight (again this and having a complete couch potato are the only reasons not to vaccinate a dog IMHO) the test is one thing I would start thinking about it.
the reason (and that is my very personal opinion and there will be many that disagree) is that for a dog that has been treated continuously during the summer months are
a) heartworm is not (yet) as prevalent here as in the southern USA
b) the antigen test will only detect adult female particulates in the blood
c) there is a 5-7 month migration time after infection
d) most vets will end up not prescribe milbemycin due to cost, because the owner is often not willing to pay for it...
e) they might use ivermecin (same as what is used in preventative drugs, which will kill larvae and microfilaria, but only sterilize the adult worms) instead.
this might work if it is given over a very long period in sufficient doses. the problem is that this way we will eventually end up with invermecin resistant heartworms (think of penicillin resistance, because we abused it for so long)

Again, I'm not recommending to take any shortcuts (regardless of the age of the dog), but if you think about not doing what your vet recommends, you better start looking into a lot of details.
Most likely you'll start to agree with your vet's recommendation or at the very least you will be able to have an educated discussion with them thereafter.

[Waftrudnir]

Keep in mind some regions do have bylaws about rabies vaccination. Personally if it was a pet that didn't interact with wildlife I likely would leave the old bugger to his comfy couch and give him treats instead.

not bylaws, it's the health care and promotions act and below is the list where rabies vaccination is mandatory for dogs and cats

Name of Health Unit	Effective Date
1.	Revoked: O. Reg. 331/00, s. 1 (1).
2.	Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Health Unit	April 1, 1986
3.	Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit	September 1, 1986
4.	Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit	June 2, 1986
5.	Peterborough County City Health Unit	May 15, 1986
6.	Perth County Health Unit	October 1, 1986
7.	Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit	September 13, 1986
8.	Middlesex-London District Health Unit	November 1, 1986
9.	Oxford County	March 1, 1987
10.	York Regional Health Unit	March 1, 1987
11.	Huron County Health Unit	March 1, 1987
12.	Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit	April 1, 1994
13.	Eastern Ontario Health Unit	July 20, 1987
14.	Revoked: O. Reg. 331/00, s. 1 (1).
15.	Kent-Chatham Health Unit	June 1, 1988
16.	Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit	June 1, 1988
17.	Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Health Unit	December 1, 1989
18.	Windsor-Essex County Health Unit	February 1, 1991
19.	Sudbury and District Health Unit	April 1, 1991
20.	Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit	July 1, 1992
21.	Revoked: O. Reg. 331/00, s. 1 (1).
22.	Revoked: O. Reg. 331/00, s. 1 (1).
23.	Niagara Regional Area Health Unit	July 1, 1994
24.	Brant County Health Unit	September 1, 1994
25.	Lambton Health Unit	November 1, 1994
26.	Halton Regional Health Unit	January 1, 1995
27.	Elgin-St. Thomas Health Unit	January 31, 1995
28.	Ottawa-Carleton Regional Health Unit	November 30, 1996
29.	Revoked: O. Reg. 66/05, s. 1 (2).
30.	Renfrew County and District Health Unit	July 1, 2000
31.	City of Toronto Health Unit	July 1, 2000
32.	Peel Regional Health Unit	July 1, 2000
33.	Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Health Unit	July 1, 2000
34.	Durham Regional Health Unit	July 1, 2000
35.	Waterloo Health Unit	July 1, 2000
36.	North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit	September 30, 2001