RE: [RC] OT, vet question/heartworm meds - Kristen A Fisher
Amber -
I am not a vet, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last
night, and have spent a lot of money on vets :) BUT! I have been feeding my dogs
on raw food for 9 years and have seen all the health benefits you have and maybe
more - my girl that I switched at age 5 lived to be almost 14 - pretty good for
a GSD.
Anyway, you must vaccinate for rabies in the US - no
exceptions. And frankly why would you not want to when rabies is 100% fatal to
animals [yes your horses can get it too] and exposure to wild animals can put
your dogs at risk. Being healthy does not make rabies any less lethal.
The good news is the 3 year rabies vaccine is now good for 3 years [you
used to have to get it every year].
As for heartworm - with the rain we have had in TX lately
the mosquitoes are horrendous so this is not the time I'd think about going of
HW preventative. In the winter, I will stretch the doses to 45-60 days, but in
the summer I give it monthly. HW is a parasite, which can be fatal, and
treatment for HW is a dangerous protocol to dogs.
In terms of other vaccines: if you are really interested in
reducing the vaccine load, first, tell your vet you do not want the 5 in 1
vaccine [typically rabies, distemper, parvo, canine influenza and
leptospirosis]. Then ask your vet to run titers on distemper and parvo to
see where your dog's immunity stands. I titered once to determine they did not
need the vaccine every year, but agreed with my vet that we'd do boosters of
one every year [so we do distemper one year, then parvo the next - so they
are effectively getting 1/4 the vaccine per year]. I do not vaccinate at all any
more for lepto or canine influenza for a couple reasons: 1 - these are
non-lethal diseases [although left untreated can be fatal], 2 - my dogs'
exposure risk to them is low, and 3 - there are so many strains of lepto that
the vaccine may not be effective.
JMO - YMMV. Also, some of this info may be a little out of
date since I have been doing the so long - if so, I'd welcome any new
info!
Kristen in TX
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Amber
Roberts Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:05 AM To:
ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] OT, vet question/heartworm
meds
I'm having questions about shots and heartworm
meds for dogs and my husband suggested I write here to see if any of the vets
would have an impartial opinion. Since the kibble dog food poisoning
issue, I started feeding my dogs raw food April 1st. Since then, their
dirty brown 5 yr. old teeth are now puppy white and their coats are
shiny. They LOVE their meals now and are doing extremely well.
However, I've been reading that dogs fed like this get and remain very healthy
and do not need distemper, rabies shots or heartworm meds. As I'm about
to give the HW again on the 15th, I'm curious as to whether I need to continue
giving this poison to them every month. We live in hot Texas. Any
opinions here?
