Educating Vets On Vaccine Protocols

[stormie]

Almost weekly we get invitations from the local Specialist Centres, inviting vets to attend seminars to listen to Specialist Vets talk about different topics, keeping them up to date with the latest treatments, techniques, discoveries etc. Some recent talks have been Skin Disease with a Dermatologist, Dentistry, Nasal Disease, Joint Disease etc etc etc.

Not long ago, we received an invite to a talk regarding Vaccines, but the talk was being held down in Wollongong somewhere - unlikely many Sydney vets would travel down on a 'school night' for this.

Anyways, today we got another invite, to a talk named 'Vaccine Protocols in the 21st Century', being put on by a Specialist who on googling, seems to be pretty up date on Vaccination and has done some studies on Vacc reactions in Wei's etc.

I found a powerpoint presentation on the same titled talk by him that was held somewhere last year and it looks really promising in terms of discussion vaccine duration, providing data on duration, as well as reactions etc.

This is the first time I've seen an invite to a seminar from a Specialist Centre, regarding Vaccination.

So lets hope that with the new protocol 'out there' now, lots of vets will attend this talk and think about reconsidering their current annual protocols!

Edited August 4, 2010 by stormie

[oakway]

Almost weekly we get invitations from the local Specialist Centres, inviting vets to attend seminars to listen to Specialist Vets talk about different topics, keeping them up to date with the latest treatments, techniques, discoveries etc. Some recent talks have been Skin Disease with a Dermatologist, Dentistry, Nasal Disease, Joint Disease etc etc etc.

Not long ago, we received an invite to a talk regarding Vaccines, but the talk was being held down in Wollongong somewhere - unlikely many Sydney vets would travel down on a 'school night' for this.

Anyways, today we got another invite, to a talk named 'Vaccine Protocols in the 21st Century', being put on by a Specialist who on googling, seems to be pretty up date on Vaccination and has done some studies on Vacc reactions in Wei's etc.

I found a powerpoint presentation on the same titled talk by him that was held somewhere last year and it looks really promising in terms of discussion vaccine duration, providing data on duration, as well as reactions etc.

This is the first time I've seen an invite to a seminar from a Specialist Centre, regarding Vaccination.

So lets hope that with the new protocol 'out there' now, lots of vets will attend this talk and think about reconsidering their current annual protocols!

Well I most certainly hope the people putting on this seminar get a better reaction to this seminar than the one by held by Jean Dodds from the veterinary world.

[stormie]

Jean's talk can't have been advertised to vets very well because our clinic never heard anything about it. The only reason we went was from me hearing about it through DOL.

These talks are generally pretty highly regarded and the vet doing the talk is a well known Small Animal Medicine Specialist, so most likely to have a fair amount of respect from the Vet industry, as opposed to someone like Jean, who unfortunately most would never have heard of and a lot of what she had to say was just her opinion.

[oakway]

I am going to ignore that reply.

I would suggest that you google Hemolife.

[stormie]

I am going to ignore that reply.

I would suggest that you google Hemolife.

I'm sorry?

What was so wrong with my reply? I am well aware of Hemolife, Oakway. My Boss and I went to Jeans talk.

Why are you always so keen to turn what I say into a negative? I'm trying to post up something positive here, in that a Specialist Centre, who often holds seminars for vets on all different topics, by Specialists that the vets all know, respect and use, is finally holding a talk on Vaccination Protocols.

I'm sorry you're upset by what I wrote, but unfortunately, it's the truth that not many Vets across Australia would have heard of Jean unless they googled her, but they'd have to be told about her in the first place. There is no relationship that exists between her and the Australian Vet industry.

The Specialists who speak at these seminars I'm talking about, are regularly in contact with clinics. We refer cases to them and they regular speak about topics relevant to their chosen field.

So unfortunately, its the truth that a well known registered Specialist's words are probably going to have more meaning to the Australian Vets, than a woman they've never heard of before.

Edited July 21, 2010 by stormie

[stormie]

Just thought I'd give an update on this as the talk was last night. I wasn't there so can only go by the info my boss has passed onto me this morning.

Basically, it sounds like they still don't really know an awful lot about the whole issue and are still learning. The Specialist who did the talk has done a lot of work on the topic and overall, likes the 3 yearly concept.

Basically though, I believe a big focus was on trying to vaccinate more animals, but less often, rather than less animals, more often. Overall, they say we only vaccinate about 30% of the dog population which isn't really enough for herd immunity.

There was info from studies done by Jean Dodds discussed too.

He believed overall, vaccines to be quite safe and so far there is no evidence to suggest vaccines are the cause of immune mediated diseases. What they are considering, is that some dogs have highly over active immune systems, so a vaccine which in a normal dog would have no effect, is enough to trigger the abnormal dogs immune system into melt down. There was also a suggestion I believe, that dogs who continue to have a very high titre many years after vaccination, might have a more over active system than others and actually might be more prone to the IM issues. He said he titre tested the dogs with immune mediated disease rather than vacc'ing and more often than not, they seemed to have high titre levels.

He also talked about titre testing and again said that they don't know a whole lot about that either yet, in terms of the results we get back and how much immunity a dog really has with those results. We currently accept >1:80 as sufficient, however they have apparently seen a dog seroconvert to levels of >1:160, so this puts a bit of a question over what the levels actually mean.

There was talk about HOD and other issues in Dane and Wei puppies and he felt that avoiding vaccines around 12wk mark in Wei's is something he tries to avoid, and he prefers an early finish in their puppy shot regime.

It was good to hear that a bit more than half the attending vets were vaccinating dogs triennially, however we were the only clinic doing it triennially with cats. This might mean that those vaccinating triennially are using the registered vaccines and seeing there isn't one for cats, that's why they're still doing annuals.

In the end though, he mentioned that all he could really tell vets to do, was to follow the vaccine manufacturers guidelines because there won't be anyone to back them up should something go wrong, ie a dog gets parvo.

I believe the notes from the talk will be up on the ARH website soon. Obviously they won't detail all of what was discussed, but there will be information on studies etc.

I'm not wanting people to argue any of what I've just written - I'm mearly relaying information

[fiveplusone]

Stormie, so are some vets now recommending vaccinations only every 3 years? Are they different vaccines to the normal annual ones? is there a good website (for an average dog owner) that will give me good info as I suspect my vet will be the type that say vaccinate annually.

[Kavik]

Thank you for the detailed reply stormie

[stormie]

Stormie, so are some vets now recommending vaccinations only every 3 years? Are they different vaccines to the normal annual ones? is there a good website (for an average dog owner) that will give me good info as I suspect my vet will be the type that say vaccinate annually.

Well, the info given out to us by the AVA that suggests vaccines can be done 3 yearly, doesn't specify that this should be with the registered 3 year vaccine. We go on a case by case basis, but if a client goes 3 yearly, its with a standard, annual vaccine.

I think the best information to read is the AVA - it's not biased and just gives the facts.

I believe also, the subject is going to be heavily discussed and the ASAVA Conference coming up shortly, so we may see some more changes after that.

[Weibritty]

Thanks Stormie. Was an interesting read especially in regards to Wei's and vaccinations and HOD. Something which I am very familiar with. Could you please PM me the name of the specialist who did the talk, if that's OK.

[stormie]

His name is Dr John Angles - I believe he's done a lot of work with Wei's and breeders etc

[Weibritty]

His name is Dr John Angles - I believe he's done a lot of work with Wei's and breeders etc

Thanks stormie, appreciate it.