Pets don't need yearly shots.............

[Guest guest]

This was circulated some time ago but just in case people haven't

seen it I think it is important for you all to read this and decide

for yourselves : ) !

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Pets don't need shots every year. Experts say annual vaccines waste

money, can be risky

 

By LEIGH HOPPER Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Medical Writer

http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

 

Debra Grierson leaves the veterinarian's office clutching Maddie and

Beignet, her Yorkshire terriers, and a credit card receipt for nearly

$400.

 

That's the cost for the tiny dogs' annual exams, including heartworm

checks, dental checks and a barrage of shots.

 

" They're just like our children, " said the Houston homemaker. " We

would do

anything, whatever they needed. "

 

What many pet owners don't know, researchers say, is that most yearly

vaccines for dogs and cats are a waste of money -- and potentially

deadly.

Shots for the most important pet diseases last three to seven years,

or

longer, and annual shots put pets at greater risk of vaccine-related

problems.

 

The Texas Department of Health is holding public hearings to consider

changing the yearly rabies shot requirement to once every three

years.

Thirty-three other states already have adopted a triennial rabies

schedule.

Texas A & M University's and most other veterinary schools now teach

that

most shots should be given every three years.

 

" Veterinarians are charging customers $36 million a year for

vaccinations

that are not necessary, " said Bob Rogers, a vet in Spring who adopted

a

reduced vaccine schedule. " Not only are these vaccines unnecessary,

they're causing harm to pets. "

 

Just as humans don't need a measles shot every year, neither do dogs

or

cats need annual injections for illnesses such as parvo, distemper or

kennel cough. Even rabies shots are effective for at least three

years.

 

The news has been slow to reach consumers, partly because few

veterinarians

outside academic settings are embracing the concept. Vaccine makers

haven't

done the studies needed to change vaccine labels. Vets, who charge

$30 to

$60 for yearly shots, are loath to defy vaccine label instructions

and lose

an important source of revenue. In addition, they worry their

patients

won't fare as well without yearly exams.

 

" I know some vets feel threatened because they think, `People won't

come

back to my office if I don't have the vaccine as a carrot,' " said

Alice

Wolf, a professor of small-animal medicine at Texas A & M and an

advocate of

reduced vaccinations. " A yearly exam is very important. "

 

The movement to extend vaccine intervals is gaining ground because of

growing evidence that vaccines themselves can trigger a fatal cancer

in cats and a deadly blood disorder in dogs.

 

Rogers conducts public seminars on the subject with evangelical zeal

but

thus far has been unsuccessful in persuading the Texas Veterinary

Medical

Association to adopt a formal policy.

 

" I'm asking the Texas attorney general's office if this is theft by

deception, " said Rogers, whose Critter Fixer practice won an ethics

award

from the Better Business Bureau in 2000.

 

" They just keep coming out with more vaccines that are unnecessary

and don't work. Professors give

seminars, and nobody comes and nobody changes. "

 

When rabies shots became common for pets in the 1950s, no one

questioned

the value of annual vaccination. Distemper, which kills 50 percent of

victims, could be warded off with a shot. Parvovirus, which kills

swiftly

and gruesomely by causing a toxic proliferation of bacteria in the

digestive system, was vanquished with a vaccine. Over the years, more

and

more shots were added to the schedule, preventing costly and

potentially

deadly disease in furry family members.

 

The animal doctors began noticing something ominous: rare instances

of

cancer in normal, healthy cats and an unusual immune reaction in

dogs. The

shots apparently caused feline fibrosarcoma, a grotesque tumor at the

site

of the shot, which is fatal if not discovered early and cut out

completely.

 

Dogs developed a vaccine-related disease in which the dog's body

rejects

its own blood.

 

" That really caused people to ask the question, `If we can cause that

kind of harm with a vaccine ... are we vaccinating too much?' " said

Ronald

Schultz, a veterinary immunologist at the University of Wisconsin

School of

Veterinary Medicine. " As you get more and more (vaccines), the

possibility

that a vaccine is going to cause an adverse event increases quite a

bit. "

 

Less frequent vaccines could reduce that risk, Schultz reasoned.

Having

observed that humans got lifetime immunity from most of their

childhood

vaccines, Schultz applied the same logic to dogs.

 

He vaccinated them for rabies, parvo, kennel cough and distemper and

then exposed them to the

disease-causing organisms after three, five and seven years. The

animals remained healthy, validating his hunch. [sCHULTZ, STOP USING

ANIMALS FOR EXPERIMENTATION, EVEN FOR THE " BENEFIT " OF THE

ANIMALS! " VALIDATING HIS HUNCH " , INDEED!!! Adela]

 

He continued his experiment by measuring antibody levels in the dogs'

blood

nine and 15 years after vaccination. He found the levels sufficient

to

prevent disease.

 

Fredric Scott, professor emeritus at Cornell University College of

Veterinary Medicine, obtained similar results comparing 15 vaccinated

cats

with 17 nonvaccinated cats. He found the cats' immunity lasted 7.5

years

after vaccination. In 1998, the American Association of Feline

Practitioners published guidelines based on Scott's work,

recommending

vaccines every three years.

 

" The feeling of the AAFP is, cats that receive the vaccines every

three

years are as protected from those infections as they would be if they

were

vaccinated every year, " said James Richards, director of the Feline

Health

Center at Cornell. " I'm one of many people who believe the evidence

is

really compelling. "

 

Texas A & M's Wolf said the three-year recommendation " is probably just

as

arbitrary as anything else, " and nothing more than a " happy medium "

between

vaccine makers' recommendations and the findings by Schultz and Scott

aimed

at reducing vaccine-related problems.

 

But many vets are uncomfortable making a drastic change in practice

without

data from large-scale studies to back them up. There is no animal

equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

which

monitors outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease in people, thus

keeping

tabs on a vaccine's effectiveness.

 

Federal authorities require vaccine makers to show only that a

vaccine is

effective for a reasonable amount of time, usually one year. Richards

notes

that studies to get a feline vaccine licensed in the first place are

typically quite small, involving 25 to 30 cats at most.

 

There is no federal requirement to show a vaccine's maximum duration

of

effectiveness. Arne Zislin, a veterinarian with Fort Dodge Animal

Health,

the largest animal vaccine maker in the world, said such studies

would be expensive and possibly inhumane, requiring hundreds of

animals, some of

them kept in isolation for up to five years. [AND THEY'LL DO IT

TOO...IF PEOPLE CONTINUE TO BUY THEM! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE EVEN

TO " HELP " OTHER ANIMALS! THERE ARE REPLACEMENTS TO USING ANIMALS!

Adela]

 

" I don't think anyone with consideration for animals would really

want to

go through that process, " said Zislin, another vet who believes

current

data are insufficient to support an extended schedule.

 

Diane Wilkie, veterinarian at Rice Village Animal Hospital, said she

tells

pet owners that vaccines appear to last longer than a year, but her

office

hasn't officially changed its protocol yet. She said 20 percent to 30

percent of her cat patients are on the extended schedule.

 

" It's kind of a hard situation. The manufacturers still recommend a

year,

but they're the manufacturers, " Wilkie said. " It's hard to change a

whole

professional mentality -- although I do think it will change. "

 

In Houston, yearly pet examinations typically cost $50 to $135, with

shots

making up one-third to half of the expense. A dental check, heartworm

test,

fecal check and overall physical are usually included in the price.

Without the shots, vets could expect to lose a chunk of that fee.

[WHO CARES??? Adela]

 

But an increasing number of vets are emphasizing other services, such

as

surgery. Wolf said savings on vaccines might prompt pet owners to get

their

pets' teeth cleaned instead. An in-house test to check antibody

levels is

in development.

 

" I definitely think there's a profit issue in there; don't get me

wrong, "

Wilkie said. " (But) people are willing to spend money on their pets

for

diseases. Although vaccines are part of the profit, they aren't that

big a

part. We just did a $700 knee surgery. "

 

Vaccination findings

 

Veterinary research challenges the notion that pets need to be

vaccinated every 12 months. Some of the findings:

 

Dog vaccines/Minimum duration of immunity

 

· Canine rabies3 years

 

· Canine parainfluenza3 years

 

· Canine distemper (Onderstepoort strain)5 years

 

· Canine distemper (Rockborn strain)7 years

 

· Canine adenovirus (kennel cough)7 years

 

· Canine parvovirus7 years

 

Cat vaccines/Minimum duration of immunity

 

· Cat rabies3 years

 

· Feline panleukopenia virus6 years

 

· Feline herpesvirus5 or 6 years

 

· Feline calicivirus3 years

 

Recommendations for dogs

 

· Parvovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza, distemper: Following initial

puppy

shots, provide booster one year later, and every three years

thereafter.

 

· Rabies: At 16 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law.

 

· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding; may be repeated up to six times

a year.

 

· Coronavirus: Not recommended in private homes. Prior to boarding,

may be

given to dogs 8 weeks or older, and repeated every six months.

 

· Lyme: Not recommended.

 

· Giardia: Not recommended.

 

Recommendations for cats

 

· Panleukopenia, herpesvirus (rhinotracheitis), calicivirus:

Following

initial kitten shots, provide booster one year later and every three

years

thereafter.

 

· Rabies: At 8 weeks of age, thereafter as required by law.

 

· Feline leukemia: Use only in high-risk cats. Best protection is two

vaccines prior to 12 weeks of age, with boosters repeated annually.

 

· Bordatella: Use prior to boarding.

 

· Feline infectious peritonitis: Not recommended.

 

· Chlamydia: Not recommended.

 

· Ringworm: May be used during an outbreak in a home.

 

Sources: Ronald Schultz, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary

Medicine; Fredric Scott, Cornell University College of Veterinary

Medicine;

Colorado State University; University of California-Davis Center for

Companion Animal Health.

 

 

 

" Live in peace with the animals. Animals bring love to our hearts,

and warmth to our souls. "

 

Colleen Klaum

 

" He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with

men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. "

Immanuel Kant