How vaccinations work
Your puppy’s body has the ability to detect foreign and therefore potentially dangerous substances. Just like you, your puppy is able to produce antibodies, which identify and neutralise foreign invaders, such as bacteria or viruses. His system is able to recognise germs as dangerous, and so can manufacture the antibodies that he needs to protect himself. However, this manufacturing process takes time, and if a disease is serious enough, the puppy may not be able to manufacture sufficient antibodies in time to save his life.
What vaccination does, effectively, is provide the body with a memory of the necessary antibodies in advance. So if and when your puppy is exposed to the disease that he has been vaccinated against, his body is ready and prepared to fight it successfully.
What are we vaccinating against?
The vaccination programme recommended by your veterinary surgeon will protect your puppy from a number of serious diseases, and these recommendations may change over time.
At the time of writing, in the UK, the RSPCA recommends that all dogs are routinely vaccinated against the following diseases, but for the most up-to-date information, always check with your vet.
These diseases can all kill your puppy if he comes into contact with them in an unvaccinated state. Many vets will also recommend a vaccination against kennel cough, which is a bit like a canine version of the flu. It’s certainly unpleasant but does not usually do any permanent harm to healthy adult dogs, although it can be serious in any dog whose immunity is compromised, such as elderly dogs or those that are already suffering from a serious illness.
Are vaccinations safe?
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (an agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – DEFRA) regulates all veterinary medicines in the UK, including vaccines. Before any vaccine can be sold in the UK it must pass a strict, independent, scientific assessment. However, the tests that are carried out do not tell you whether or not the vaccine is safe for your dog. They can only tell you that the vaccine is safe for most of the dogs that are vaccinated.
There is no doubt that vaccinations can cause side effects. In fact, anything that has an effect is likely to have side effects to some degree. Scientists look for treatments that have the minimum of side effects with the maximum of desired effect. One of the difficulties in developing such treatments is that no two puppies will react in exactly the same way. You will get a spectrum of reactions that vary from no apparent side effects at all, right up to serious effects at the other end of the scale. The vast majority of dogs fall in the middle with mild or undetectable side effects.
In 2004, the Animal Health Trust funded a study of over 4,000 dogs. This study found that there was no association between vaccination and illness, such as might be expected due to side effects. In fact, a dog was just as likely to have become ill during the other nine months of the year as it was during the post-vaccination period.
Another study found that when side effects do occur, they are more likely to occur in very small dogs over a year old, and when several vaccinations are given at one time. If you have a small-breed puppy, you might want to talk to your vet about spreading out his vaccinations when you take him for his first annual booster.
Despite the relative safety of modern vaccinations, it is natural to worry about their effect on your puppy.
What if your puppy is the one who suffers from side effects? People naturally want to know whether there are safer alternatives to conventional veterinary vaccinations.
What about alternatives?
It would be truly amazing if we could find an equally effective and absolutely safe alternative to vaccination, and no doubt many companies would be clamouring to produce it. Sadly, at the moment, all the evidence points to the fact that there is no effective alternative available to us.
You may hear of nosodes – homeopathic preparations – being recommended as an alternative to vaccination. Unfortunately, studies have shown that homeopathic nosodes do not offer any protection against parvovirus and other diseases.
But my friend’s dog is fine
The chances are that you will know one or two people who do not have their dogs vaccinated, or who swear by some alternative treatment. So why is it that their dogs are in robust health? The answer to that question is a phenomenon called ‘herd immunity’.
In any population, as the proportion of individuals that are vaccinated reaches a certain level, the risk to unvaccinated individuals will fall. This is because the unvaccinated individual is less likely to come into contact with the disease. This is what we call herd immunity. However, once the uptake of vaccination in the dog population falls below a critical level, the diseases it protects against begin to increase, and risks to unvaccinated dogs rise sharply.
Relying on herd immunity to keep your dog safe is a risky strategy, because it is not possible to know what the vaccination uptake is like in your area at any given time. Outbreaks of all the canine diseases we vaccinate against still occur throughout the dog population. They have not been completely eradicated, and there is no way to predict when or where the next outbreak will occur.
Do vaccinations wear off?
The effects of vaccination do wear off over time, and your dog will need boosters at intervals. How frequent those intervals should be is a matter of some controversy. At one time annual vaccination was the norm, but there is no doubt that immunity for some of the diseases that we vaccinate dogs against lasts for more than a year. In theory, this means that if a dog is vaccinated against every disease every year, he is receiving more vaccine than he needs, and some dog owners are concerned about the potential effects of over-vaccination.
Vets are now responding to public demand and many are offering variable vaccine schedules. Vaccines vary in the length of time over which they confer immunity. This means that your dog might receive less, or different, vaccines when you take him for his annual booster than he did the previous year. Unfortunately, there is no really precise way of knowing if your dog is still protected against a particular disease without carrying out a blood test. This option is open to you. You can ask your vet to take a sample of blood from your dog and send this off for analysis. Depending on the result of this ‘titre’ test, you can then choose to have the dog vaccinated only against diseases for which he has no (or low) immunity. It must be said that this is not a cheap option, and still involves sticking a needle into your dog, which he may not be too happy about. But some dog owners feel it is worth it for the peace of mind.
What vaccination does, effectively, is provide the body with a memory of the necessary antibodies in advance. So if and when your puppy is exposed to the disease that he has been vaccinated against, his body is ready and prepared to fight it successfully.
What are we vaccinating against?
The vaccination programme recommended by your veterinary surgeon will protect your puppy from a number of serious diseases, and these recommendations may change over time.
At the time of writing, in the UK, the RSPCA recommends that all dogs are routinely vaccinated against the following diseases, but for the most up-to-date information, always check with your vet.
Canine parvovirus
Canine distemper
Leptospirosis
Infectious Canine Hepatitis
These diseases can all kill your puppy if he comes into contact with them in an unvaccinated state. Many vets will also recommend a vaccination against kennel cough, which is a bit like a canine version of the flu. It’s certainly unpleasant but does not usually do any permanent harm to healthy adult dogs, although it can be serious in any dog whose immunity is compromised, such as elderly dogs or those that are already suffering from a serious illness.
Are vaccinations safe?
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (an agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – DEFRA) regulates all veterinary medicines in the UK, including vaccines. Before any vaccine can be sold in the UK it must pass a strict, independent, scientific assessment. However, the tests that are carried out do not tell you whether or not the vaccine is safe for your dog. They can only tell you that the vaccine is safe for most of the dogs that are vaccinated.
There is no doubt that vaccinations can cause side effects. In fact, anything that has an effect is likely to have side effects to some degree. Scientists look for treatments that have the minimum of side effects with the maximum of desired effect. One of the difficulties in developing such treatments is that no two puppies will react in exactly the same way. You will get a spectrum of reactions that vary from no apparent side effects at all, right up to serious effects at the other end of the scale. The vast majority of dogs fall in the middle with mild or undetectable side effects.
In 2004, the Animal Health Trust funded a study of over 4,000 dogs. This study found that there was no association between vaccination and illness, such as might be expected due to side effects. In fact, a dog was just as likely to have become ill during the other nine months of the year as it was during the post-vaccination period.
Another study found that when side effects do occur, they are more likely to occur in very small dogs over a year old, and when several vaccinations are given at one time. If you have a small-breed puppy, you might want to talk to your vet about spreading out his vaccinations when you take him for his first annual booster.
Despite the relative safety of modern vaccinations, it is natural to worry about their effect on your puppy.
What if your puppy is the one who suffers from side effects? People naturally want to know whether there are safer alternatives to conventional veterinary vaccinations.
What about alternatives?
It would be truly amazing if we could find an equally effective and absolutely safe alternative to vaccination, and no doubt many companies would be clamouring to produce it. Sadly, at the moment, all the evidence points to the fact that there is no effective alternative available to us.
You may hear of nosodes – homeopathic preparations – being recommended as an alternative to vaccination. Unfortunately, studies have shown that homeopathic nosodes do not offer any protection against parvovirus and other diseases.
But my friend’s dog is fine
The chances are that you will know one or two people who do not have their dogs vaccinated, or who swear by some alternative treatment. So why is it that their dogs are in robust health? The answer to that question is a phenomenon called ‘herd immunity’.
In any population, as the proportion of individuals that are vaccinated reaches a certain level, the risk to unvaccinated individuals will fall. This is because the unvaccinated individual is less likely to come into contact with the disease. This is what we call herd immunity. However, once the uptake of vaccination in the dog population falls below a critical level, the diseases it protects against begin to increase, and risks to unvaccinated dogs rise sharply.
Relying on herd immunity to keep your dog safe is a risky strategy, because it is not possible to know what the vaccination uptake is like in your area at any given time. Outbreaks of all the canine diseases we vaccinate against still occur throughout the dog population. They have not been completely eradicated, and there is no way to predict when or where the next outbreak will occur.
Do vaccinations wear off?
The effects of vaccination do wear off over time, and your dog will need boosters at intervals. How frequent those intervals should be is a matter of some controversy. At one time annual vaccination was the norm, but there is no doubt that immunity for some of the diseases that we vaccinate dogs against lasts for more than a year. In theory, this means that if a dog is vaccinated against every disease every year, he is receiving more vaccine than he needs, and some dog owners are concerned about the potential effects of over-vaccination.
Vets are now responding to public demand and many are offering variable vaccine schedules. Vaccines vary in the length of time over which they confer immunity. This means that your dog might receive less, or different, vaccines when you take him for his annual booster than he did the previous year. Unfortunately, there is no really precise way of knowing if your dog is still protected against a particular disease without carrying out a blood test. This option is open to you. You can ask your vet to take a sample of blood from your dog and send this off for analysis. Depending on the result of this ‘titre’ test, you can then choose to have the dog vaccinated only against diseases for which he has no (or low) immunity. It must be said that this is not a cheap option, and still involves sticking a needle into your dog, which he may not be too happy about. But some dog owners feel it is worth it for the peace of mind.
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