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Old February 7th, 2010, 05:05 PM
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Dr Lee Dr Lee is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Welcome to the forum.

There are many risks and many benefits of vaccinations. First of all we need to make sure that the vaccines are indicated based off of lifestyle, demographics etc... There are so many vaccines available. Some are needed in some instances and not in others. Also just an FYI, combination vaccines (DHPP or DAPP) are good for at least 3 years. Here is a link to the AAHA 2006 Vaccine Protocols. Here is a link my summarization of them: Acerlux.

There are several problems with vaccines. Here are just a few:

1) We do not know how well they work in older pets or especially in older pets with illness. All the testing is done on young healthy laboratory dogs. In some cases the vaccines can make diseases worse and in other cases, the pet's immune system is non-responsive to the vaccine for reasons either of age or illness.

2) Vaccines are designed to stimulate the immune system. If there are any disorders that involve the immune system, then they have a higher rate of creating a disturbance within the disease.

3) All parenteral vaccines can make pets feel sore, grumpy and uncomfortable. For pets that may have impaired mobility, this can be a big deal.

Should you pet get vaccines? I cannot say. I would recommend that you look at my suggested links and talk to your veterinarian. You may also want to talk to her or him about vaccine titers. They are blood tests that can look at blood antibody levels for specific vaccines. If they are high enough, then your pet does not need the vaccine as the main goal of the vaccine is to obtain high antibody levels. There is a little controversy based on the fact that a high titer level does not confirm that the pet would meet a challenge of disease inoculation but then again, vaccinated do not confirm that either. Thus I am a great supporter of the use of vaccine titers.




As far as your other pet. There is a long list of disorders that will cause chronic diarrhea. There is a fairly straight forward sequence of diagnostics and therapeutic trials that your veterinarian can perform to solve and/or diagnose the cause of the diarrhea. If you want more information on this, perhaps start another thread that has some more specifics on the situation.


Hope that helps.
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Christopher A. Lee, DVM, MPH, Diplomate ACVPM
Preventive Medicine Specialist With a Focus on Immunology and Infectious Disease
myvetzone.com
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