For a long time I bought into the traditional views of vaccinations. Over time, I have readjusted my view considerably and would like to offer you a different point of view about vaccines for your coton.
As a (now retired) Registered Nurse for 40 years, I am no stranger to pharmaceutical drugs and do not adhere to a blanket acceptance or rejection of any of them. I take each drug, each category of drugs on their own merits. I do not automatically relinquish my authority regarding my dogs’ health to the “experts”.
Just What Do Vaccines For Your Coton Consist Of?
Vaccinations contain, obviously, the virus or bacteria of a particular illness. It is either killed or modified live. “Killed” is pretty self explanatory, where the pathogen is Incapable of replicating and so the body can react to the injected virus without danger of causing illness. “Modified” means that while it is a live pathogen and can replicate, the degree to which that is possible has been reduced to prevent the actual clinical disease from occurring. This attenuation is also is supposed to reduce the possibility of shedding. Shedding is when a pathogen replicates and then is excreted from the animal into the environment, where other, non-infected animals can then pick it up and become sick.
‘“Studies have shown that there is a low transmission rate between the vaccine strain of disease, demonstrating that it is unlikely for a horse to shed enough of the modified live vaccine to be able to vaccinate another herd mate. “
~ Chambers et al.
Note, they don’t say NO transmission, they say LOW.
The dog is given a tiny amount of this substance, so the body can recognize it as a foreign invader and create antibodies against it to fight off infection in the future.
First thing to understand is that the vaccines for your coton is not adjusted based on the size or age of the dog. Whether you have a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, they both get the same amount of vaccine. The 1 year rabies shot that your puppy gets the first time is exactly the same as the 3 year rabies shot he gets the next time and is the same as what is given to adult dog many times the size of your puppy.
But wait….
Because it is such a small amount of bad guys (dead or attenuated virus) in that syringe, there needs to be something really irritable in the vaccine for your coton to make sure the body takes notice that something bad has arrived.
Enter the adjuvant. That’s the stuff the virus is mixed with. It is what elicits a more marked immune response from the body. It was originally thought that the adjuvant was harmless. Now we are beginning to find out that sometimes these substances cause unexpected negative reactions.
What are some of these adjuvants? How about aluminum or formaldehyde. Or a variety of other substances. Mercury (labelled thimerosal in the vaccine) while used not as an adjuvant, is included as a preservative. Now consider injecting these substances year after year after year and how a build up of these toxins can affect your coton. More and more studies are showing a correlation between autoimmune disease in canines and the high rate of vaccination to which they are subject.
So let’s talk about when and how often we start giving these questionable substances to our cotons.
Puppy Vaccinations
You may think that the puppy vaccinations are administered every 3 to 4 weeks when they are young in order to “booster”, (to steadily increase their immunity) over time. WRONG!
Mother Nature has done quite a good job all by herself.
During the first 12 hours of nursing, immunity against disease is passed on by the mother through her milk in the colostrum. So much so, that when a 6 week old puppy is inoculated, the vaccines for your coton are rendered ineffective because the mother’s antibodies in the puppy neutralizes the injected virus before the puppy’s immune system can kick in.
You just wasted your time and your money. AND you just injected a bunch of foreign substances into your pup for no good reason.
When does this mother’s immunity actually wear off to the point that a puppy needs the dog vaccinations to create its own immunity? Long ago, no one was really sure, sooooo….
Let’s give them another shot in 3-4 weeks…..
And another…
And another….
At some point ONE of them is bound to be effective, right?
It’s the shotgun approach.
Studies have shown that maternal antibodies slowly decrease until about 16 weeks of age. At that point, it is about 98% certain the vaccines for your coton will be effective. What I know from buyers is that most don’t want to wait ‘til 16 weeks old to take their new puppy home.
Not to mention, those pups given a parvo vaccine can still get parvo.
For myself, I’m biting the bullet, taking the bull by the horns, or whatever other analogy is appropriate, to make the not-so-popular decision to do what I think is right for the cotons I keep for myself from any litter:
What Puppy Vaccinations I Give My Cotons
- parvo and distemper vaccination at 16 weeks.
- rabies at 6-12 months of age administered by the vet as required by law
That’s it.
Parvo and Distemper are “puppy killers” because they can dehydrate a puppy quickly from diarrhea and/or vomiting. The other diseases can usually be treated. That is why I reduced the vaccines I give to just those two.
Because not all owners will be on the same page as me, I offer options at the time they purchase an 8 week old pup so that they can feel comfortable with how the vaccination protocol will proceed for them.
New puppy owners can:
- Have me administer a combination parvo and distemper vaccine at 8 weeks and take the puppy home to have a follow up with their vet.
- Take the puppy home at 8 weeks and come back at 12-16 weeks to get a combination parvo and distemper vaccinations at no charge and have a follow up with their vet.
- Receive no vaccinations from me and take the pup to their vet for whatever vaccinations they think appropriate.
The Traditional Puppy Vaccines For Your Coton
The usual set of vaccinations given by vets for puppies can include:
A single combination vaccine given multiple times consisting of:
- Distemper
- Parvovirus
- CAV 1 & 2
- Parainfluenza
There are also combinations that contain additional viruses including the unnecessary Corona virus vaccine.
Then there are the separate vaccinations given multiple times of:
- Lyme
- Lepto
And finally:
- Rabies given usually around 6 months old when the dog will be getting its county license
These last 3 vaccines: Lyme, Lepto and Rabies should ideally be given separately from each other and any other vaccine. So figure you’ll be living in the vet’s office for a few months.
But it doesn’t end with the puppy vaccines for your coton, it continues through their lives.
Vaccines For Your Coton As An Adult
What about the adult cotons?
A routine part of vet visits has traditionally been about annual dog vaccinations. For a long time, thinking about vaccines made my head want to explode.
So, yearly just like everyone else in the world, all the dogs got marched in to the vet’s for shots without thinking twice. After all, I trusted my vet or I wouldn’t be taking my guys to him.
But the practice of yearly vaccinations has come under intense scrutiny for the past 10 years or so and I researched.
As with many things related to a canine’s health, we must weigh the risk of disease with the risk of harm from the drug. Drug companies have no data to back the need for yearly vaccines, yet that is what they print in their literature. That is only because they didn’t take the drug trial past a 1 year duration to see how long the vaccine is good for.
Don’t believe me? Ask your vet to show you the scientific studies (not opinions by “experts” but actual studies) showing the need for annual vaccinations in dogs. Nope. Nothing, zip, zero, nada.
Vets generally follow whatever the manufacturers listed protocol is even though it is not required by law. That’s because they are concerned about liability if they do something other than what is on the label. No one likes to get sued. But newer studies are now being performed which refute the need for vaccines for your coton, to the extent that they have always been given.
Time For A Change
So, I changed my procedure.
I’m not stupid,
I’m not careless,
I’m not uncaring,
I’m not cheap.
I’m just a breeder who is realizing we and our vets have been sold a bill of goods that is not in the best interests of the dogs.
So, as I tell my pack of dogs when they are getting out of control…. E-NOUGH! GRRR!
This is what I have my vet give my dogs
Adult Vaccinations:
- Rabies at 6-12 months of age
- Rabies one year after that
- Rabies every 3 years as required by law after that
Dog Vaccinations My Cotons DON’T Get
- Lymes Disease vaccine? Nope. It doesn’t prevent the disease but can make the symptoms less severe to the point you may not notice your dog is feeling ill, but the infection can still cause permanent kidney damage since it wasn’t treated.
- Lepto vaccine? Nope. Only a few of the strains that a dog can catch are in the vaccine, so like the flu shot for humans, it may not cover your dog for the right variation when the time comes.
- Bordetella? Nope. Dogs that come down with “kennel cough” have been infected with a variety of other germs, not just the bordetalla. Further, like the common cold in humans, it is a self limiting disease even without treatment and the vaccine is only effective for about 6 months. Do you really want to vaccinate a dog every 6 months for life?
- I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard dog owners say that they take their dog to a daycare that REQUIRES current bordetella vaccine, only to be told there is an outbreak and the daycare has to close for a few weeks. That literally proves how ineffective the vaccine is.
Risks And Side Effects Of Dog Vaccinations
Historically it’s been thought that vaccines for your coton could do no harm and actually do some good. So more is better, right? But like most medicine, human or canine, dog vaccination side effects that manufacturers don’t want to own up to are becoming evident.
There are significant risk factors. So much so, that even traditional vets are hedging their bets by vaccinating cats on the leg or tail because at least the limb can be amputated when it develops cancer.
“No vaccine is always safe, no vaccine is always protective and no vaccine is always indicated”
~ AAHA 2003
That doesn’t sound harmless to me.
Dogs are developing:
- seizures shortly after being vaccinated
- allergies
- behavioral problems
Being anecdotal, the supporters of vaccinations deny any relation of these issues to vaccines.
I had a puppy whose owner said both rabies and lepto vaccines were given on the same day. The owner told me that the pup was sick for 4 days after. He had diarrhea, lethargy, wouldn’t eat and developed a bout of demodectic mange (an illness triggered by stress in a pup with an immature immune system).
Luckily, he rebounded. Hopefully there will be no lasting effects.
What You Can Do
There is a better way.
- You can have your pup’s blood titered to see if there are enough antibodies 3 weeks after a vaccine to know it has take effect.
- You can vaccinate for only those diseases that are relevant to your area or required by law.
- You can give dog vaccinations for only those few untreatable diseases.
- You can reduce most vaccinations to at least once every 3 years instead of yearly.
- When you have your pup vaccinated for rabies ask for mercury free (thimerosal free)
We are finding that vaccines for your coton are effective for at least 3-7 years and sometimes for life.
Then there is the American Veterinary Medical Association’s position on vaccinations. They advise customizing the vaccination schedule rather than using the traditional “one size fits all” approach that is still the norm. This is a major change in philosphy for vet schools and finally heading in the right direction. But it’s like trying to turn the Titanic around. It will take time to get vets willing to rethink how they run their practices.
You can read what other well-known, respected vets such as Jean Dodd, DVM recommend, which is a little more than I recommend but better than a lot of vets.
More info from Jean Dodd, DVM HERE
It’s a subject that is a hot topic these days and one that takes time to figure out what is the best for your coton There is also no one protocol that all experts agree on, so become the expert for your dogs.
I plan on minimum vaccinations for all my cotons. What will you do?