I drove by a local vet clinic and they had a sign posted outside reminding people to get their pets vaccinated. And that got me wondering how anti-vaxxers respond to that.
Do anti-vaxxers extend their irrationality over vaccination to their dogs and cats? Do they figure autism is an issue for animals? Or are they scared of other supposed consequences? Or do they figure vaccination is okay for animals but not humans?
It just struck me as tragic that somebody might decide to not get their children vaccinated but still give their cat proper medical treatment.
Without knowing specific anti-vaxxer positions, for cat owners there’s a real and potentially deadly risk associated with some vaccines - feline injection site sarcomas. ISTR there’s been improvements in some of the vaccines with that problem since I last had a cat to make the decision for. Since he was mostly an indoor cat (with limited supervised outdoor “feral time”) I was generally an anti-vaxxer for vaccines with FISS problems where the potential exposure was related to outdoor time. Of course that was a decision based on scientifically verified risks using the best information available at the time.
Actually, I had a vet who would test for titers on non-legally required vaccines, because she noticed that after four of five vaccines for FeLeuk, the one most associated with the sarcomas, most cats had permanent immunity after four or five vaccines. She thought titer testing was better for indoor cats, but she still recommended regular boosters for outdoor cats. She kept track of where she gave the shot, and alternated among five locations, so a cat who lived a very long life might still get only three or four injections in each area.
But most anti-vaxxers, ironically, do protect their pets, because the law is less touchy about pets. It tiptoes around parenting issues, but isn’t afraid to say, “Vaccinate the dog, or lose it.”
Well, yes, they may not vaccinate. There are some in these boards.
Anyways, it is true, that years (and by now decades) ago, in many places in the US, yearly vaccines were required. With advances (and titers), many clinics have switched protocols for many vaccines to 3-4 years, with the exception of puppy series and regulated vaccines (rabies). But it all also depends on the vaccines, as those that protect against bacteria tend to require more frequent boosters than those that protect against viral.
The risk with feline-associated sarcoma was the reaction created against the adjuvant, so some cat vaccines have changed it or no longer use adjuvant. The downside is, of course, that no adjuvant means more frequent vaccination.
I don’t know how common it is, but it is definitely a thing. In my area, there are several homeopathic vets and “holistic” vets that I would bet attract clients that do not want to vaccinate. Heck, there’s even one place here that provides “holistic health for companion animals and their people.” That’s right - you and your dog can go to the same clinic, and both avoid vaccines!
My cat doesn’t get vaccinated (except the legally required rabies shot) because she did get a vaccine related sarcoma, probably from the Feline Leukemia shot. Poor kitten had the sarcoma removed, was spayed, and had abdominal surgery to remove an obstruction twice all in her first year. Eight years later she is fine and hasn’t had any issues since.
Well, you do. And with her history, she falls in the “can’t vaccinate formedical reasons” category.
One thing to keep in mind with the vaccine-associated sarcomas is that cats are… unique. They already can get ocular (eye) sarcomas post-traumatic injury (think claw meets eye), which indicates that there is already something about how their immune system responds that triggers a change from healing to neoplastic (cancerous).
Yep, indoor pampered cat unlikely to get traumatic injuries unless she scratches herself. Apparently (and you’d know better than I do) some cats are simply prone, so if you manage to catch one successfully (and we were really lucky - they move fast) - you then baby the cat.
Well when I came into this thread, I thought “well yeah, pets can’t get the autism.” But then I read on:
That link is wonderful! In a trainwreck sort of way. “My pet got vaccinated, 8 years later he got sick! Obviously it was the vaccine’s fault!” :eek: And you can prevent your pet from spreading rabies by telling them nicely to not bite, or get bitten.
yes they do. they don’t think vaccines cause autism, but they think they cause all kinds of weirdo diseases and conditions. So they risk the health of their dogs and everyone else’s dog, causing outbreaks of distemper and parvo. Rabies is mandated by law so it’s harder for people to be stupid about it.
It is possibly true, however, that the old mantra of vaccinate the pet every single year is completely unnecessary, and since a tiny minority of vaccine recipients suffer from severe allergic reactions, and cats can develop injection-site sarcomas from years of repeated shots, I think a rationale approach would be to study how long these vaccines are good for and make some decisions from there.
In people, once children are fully vaccinated, most vaccines don’t need to be repeated later in adulthood (with a few notable exceptions such as tetanus and whooping cough). So it is possible that if you fully vaccinate your puppy/kitten up through age 1 year you’re set for the life of the animal and don’t need any further vaccines other than rabies.
If you want to board your dog, any commercial kennel will require a bordatella shot within 12 months. Apparently, the science is pretty good there, it’s not just kennel owners being cautious. If it were, they’d insist on a rabies shot every year as well.
No, it’s not. The actual bordatella vaccine is sort of effective against bordatella, but kennel cough is caused by a number of different organisms so even if your dog gets a bordatella shot or intranasal vaccine he can quite easily acquire kennel cough if he frequents a doggy-infested place. The bordatella vaccine only marginally reduces the risk of acquiring kennel cough.
Again, as I mentioned before, it has been the case for a decade now or even more, that veterinarians have been taught and told that vaccines can be rotated every 3 years. In fact, there are many products that are marketed as 3-year vaccines (and even some for 4-years).
It is not “an old mantra”, it is something that the veterinary community has been moving away from in years. It is no longer taught, it is no longer the mainstream. Please stop spreading that it is “set”. It is not.
What can and DOES happen, is that while vaccines are not yearly, physical exams can be. And in some places, veterinary clinics got used to tying the yearly vaccines with the physical exams. And since you’re not necessarily doing anything to the animal in a physical exam (unless you run bloodwork/urinalysis), practices feared or saw that the owners wouldn’t come back for their annual wellness checkup. So they kept them together, which should not be (and in fact, it has been taught for years to would-be veterinarians NOT to do that). I can see old foggy has had a clinic for three decades vets still doing it, though.
Again, the current (in the US) veterinary teaching is that after puppy series, most vaccines are NOT yearly. Exceptions are for example those against Bordatella, but also those against Leptospirosis and possibly those against Lyme disease. There are also some equine vaccines that are also given yearly because they are not the most protective and they are serious diseases for horses.
Again, the science was strong in this one (possibly from various studies), and the rabies vaccine is three years in many states. There are some exceptions where the science hasn’t caught up to ordinances and laws, and if the books still say “yearly rabies vaccine”, then the legal requirement is yearly rabies even though everyone knows it can be every 3.
I’m not an anti-vaxxer, in fact I’ve probably been vaccinated for every disease known to man at some point. My cats are always jabbed on a regular basis, part of the reason is that when I go away, they are boarded out in the local cattery. Naturally since the cattery houses a lot of unrelated mogs, and also has pens avaialble to a local cat rescue charity, they insist that all cats coming to stay with them are fully vaccinated.