Vaccine Protocol

[Mom2Shaman]

After reading another thread about puppy vaccination and the link posted there to current guidelines, what is your on-going vaccination protocol?

Puppy -- 3 puppy multi + rabies landing at just after 4 months (not meaning they are done the same day, of course).

Heartworm -- grr. Annually. I hate having this done (hostage situation to get the darned pills). Feel free to indicate which brand you prefer if you desire.

Rabies -- 1 yr. booster / every 3 years after (law/licensing dictates)

Multi-adult -- 1 yr. booster / every X years? I heard 2 or 3 as a good solid protection. What is everyone doing on these?

Bordatella -- situational depending on boarding and such?

Final vax except rabies (by law) at or around 10 as the cycle seems to fall.

Just wondering what everyone likes here. I think it would be good if this thread laid out a great chart for people. I am sure it has been done before, but there seem to be a lot of new puppies and first-time GSD owners around at this time.

[Jax08]

People follow different vaccine protocols. Some titer after the 1 year and follow Dr. Dodds protocol to titer after that and vaccinate only when necessary. Some vaccinate yearly and others follow the AAHA guidelines. There isn't one protocol that all people follow or that all vets follow. I had to fight with the vet techs at Jax's yearly exam over the vaccines.

As far as yearly exam and HW/Tick testing..that absolutely should be done. There is just a report showing that Heartguard is failing to protect 100%. In PA, I don't give the meds all year round due to our low probability and our winter. So in all cases, regardless of whether you give the meds year round or not, you should be testing your dogs yearly for HW/Tick disease.

[ChancetheGSD]

Personally, I've always done puppy shots (3 series), 1 year booster and then again at 5-6 years old. After that I don't get multi-vaccines. Rabies I wait till 6 months to give and then most vets require a 1 year booster after that (so 1.5 years old) and then from there I give it every 3 years by law.

Heartworm meds I've only ever given to Chance/any dogs who spend a lot of time outdoors. And that's only about 8-9 months out of the year. I don't give it to Zoey and I wont be giving it to Eevee since they're indoors most the day. I DO however HW test every 6 months for them since it takes 6 months for the worms to become adults and show up on a test. Therefore if by chance they DID get it, it'll be a very early case and very easy to treat. So far Zoey has survived through 157 months without prevention. That's 157 times I would have given her medications she didn't even need.

This is just what I do. I'm not advising anyone stop heartworm meds if they aren't willing to risk it and test EVERY 6 months. I have had a heartworm positive dog (He was found as a stray and came to me infected) and it's a hard situation to put a dog in, therefore if you don't use prevention you at least need to be on top of making sure if the dog DOES become infected, it's taken care of before it can become serious. Though just note, dogs ON prevention are covered by the company if they become infected (Very low risk when given properly) so you also wouldn't be dishing out $400+ all at once if your dog is on prevention.

[Mom2Shaman]

Oh yes, we are tickland 365 d/y. We have no winter to speak of (try 40s and 50s, rarely to freeze, I remember a couple of 26's in my recordable memory). My old one annually started to lick the area after the test so much so that I just routinely dreaded it. I began to forbid shaving to do the test. We went to novel sites not on the front leg. I do it, I just hate it. We are also parvo beyond parvo. KC is ridiculously common. We are a vaccinator's nightmare in Central CA. I have done every 2 years for quite some time and that always works out to when we get a new dog or put in extra travel or something unusual and out of routine. I am just wondering approximately how often everyone is giving the multi-shot more than anything.