Dog vaccines

[isabel]

Has anyone discontinued vaccines with an older pet?

Our dog is 15 and she has a couple of vaccines coming up. We are now using a specialty vet because she has Cushing's disease and I think she told me that we didn't necessarily need to continue certain vaccines because of her age. I'll call next week to discuss, but I'm curious if anyone else has received this advice.

[zoomzoom]

Hmm. I think it would depend on city ordinances & how strictly they're enforced. Here, we're supposed to register our dogs (we don't) but it's not really enforced. Animal Control has even helped me look for my lost dogs & said nothing about them not being registered. We're only supposed to have 2 dogs unless we have permission from our neighbors. We don't and we have four. ANYWAY, if things are loose there, I probably wouldn't vaccinate. I have heard that advice before.

[mrhanky]

I haven't but with an older dog I would consider it. Most cities only care about rabies proof, so I'd keep up with that one (although there is a 3 year version) and phase out the rest (dependent on dog's health and vet recommendations).

[charlatti]

Our vet recommended skipping the distemper vax for our 15 year old dog. We will still do rabies (3 year).

[isabel]

I will always do rabies. No reason to take a risk with that one.

She doesn't go to a groomer and we always use a dog sitter in our home, so she's not really ever around other dogs aside from maybe a quick hello on a walk.

[lemoncupcake]

We always do rabies (county law) but skip bordatella (never boarded/groomed) and do titer testing for the distemper/parvo stuff. We started doing tigers when they were about 6 and they've always passed the test. If they didn't, we would give a booster.

[mich1]

I just had this discussion with my vet about the mutt earlier this week. He is due his rabies, and while the vet tech was adamant he should get the vaccine, the vet was ok with giving him a pass on it. The mutt is never around other dogs, and is inside 99% of the time.

[isabel]

Sept 1, 2017 20:46:59 GMT -5 mich1 said:

I just had this discussion with my vet about the mutt earlier this week. He is due his rabies, and while the vet tech was adamant he should get the vaccine, the vet was ok with giving him a pass on it. The mutt is never around other dogs, and is inside 99% of the time.

She got rabies in 2016 anyway, so unless she decides to live past 17, I think we're probably good on that one.

[m15]

We only did rabies as of about age 12. They never left the house so there was no need. Our vet was fully on board with that and said that rabies was really needed only because of the legality issue if there was a bite or something. She offered to do titers to see levels of all vaccines, but didn't really think it was necessary so we didn't.

[sapphireblue]

Yes, I brought my boxer mix who is 15 1/2 years old or so to the vet about 2 months ago and he gave her certain vaccinations, I believe the ones that were required, and told me about some others that because of her age there really wasn't a reason to continue them.

[krisandgrace]

When my dogs get over ten I keep their rabies up to date by law but we get titters for the other big ones. Most boarding places will except titers. My first dog was 15 when she died and her vaccine levels stayed the same for 5 years with no new shots.

[Crystal]

I have an almost 11 year old and a 2 year old. I used to board them both, but now they go to a private home, and the only other dog they're around is the boarding lady's dog, who mainly stays in the basement. He is an older (15) Husky in bad health, but gets all of his vaccines.

I get them all vaccs as well, except for Bordatella for the 11 year old, but do it for the little one because he has to be groomed.

I thought about skipping all others for the older one except Rabies but wasn't sure if it was safe and didn't ask the vet. Maybe next year - since he was just there!

[Jalapeñomel]

Miranda has never had bordatella, but the rest I gave her this year. She's almost 14.

[cmeon]

We only do rabies and the Parvo/Distemper/Adenovirus combo every three years (past puppy schedule)- and drop the p/d/a combo around 10y small dog/6y big dog. Both rabies and the distemper combo are very, very effective vaccines and studies have demonstrated that they have a much longer effectiveness range than 3y, there's no reason to do either annually unless law requires it.

We don't do Lepto (no need here) or any of the non-core vaccines unless the situation calls for it. Our little guy is getting neutered next week and will get the HIV vaccines while he's there, for instance, and we do Bordetella if we board the dogs.

[mrs.jacinthe]

When Dot got old, the vet went to only rabies. All the others were dropped because she didn't need them due to her restrictions. I'm glad she made those recommendations, because the distemper vac always made her super itchy for weeks and I felt bad doing that to an older dog.

[CrazyLucky]

Mine is 12. We still give him his vaccinations because it's required where we board him.
We went hiking this week and he couldn't go for more than about a mile He used to love hiking!

[Jermys]

I just stopped vaccinating my 15 year old dog this year with my vet's approval. We're also not getting her teeth cleaned anymore either.

[Jalapeñomel]

Sept 5, 2017 18:55:46 GMT -5 Jermys said:

I just stopped vaccinating my 15 year old dog this year with my vet's approval. We're also not getting her teeth cleaned anymore either.

We stopped the cleaning a couple years ago, because we were too concerned about anesthesia.

[candyland]

Our vet said the only vaccine our recently adopted dog would need to keep getting was for rabies. He said he had never seen a dog over 1 with parvo. We don't board, but if we did she would have to get the bordatella vaccine.

[Deleted]

We stopped when ours was around 10.

We run a yearly blood panel so we now have 4 years of baseline numbers. Then if something goes wrong we'll know what normal was.

[thedutchgirl]

Rabies is required by state law in Minnesota, so my dog gets that. She's a rescue but at least 11. She hasn't had anything else in 4 years, because she had an autoimmune reaction (not to vaccines, but just generally) several years ago. The vet recommended no more vaccines aside from rabies. The two places I board her accept the vet's letter that recommends she receive only rabies.

[mrsukyankee]

You can always ask for a titer test - it will let the vet know if a vaccine is actually needed.