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Unvaccinated Pets


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Veterinary clinic chain says almost half of animals brought in for check-ups are unvaccinated

  • STAFF WRITER
  • FREE PRESS LEADER
  • APRIL 16, 2014 12:35PM

CUTE, cuddly and vaccinated – these fluffy friends are ready to be welcomed into a new home, but not all pets are so lucky.

Figures from Greencross Vet clinics across Australia show 44 per cent of domestic pets brought in for a check-up were at risk of life-­threatening diseases because their vaccinations were out of date.

>> Should pet owners be fined if they don't vaccinate their animals? Tell us below or on our Facebook page.

Greencross Vets Stud Park director Dr Prue Stanley said it was an alarming trend that could hurt pet owners' beloved animals, as well as their hip pockets.

The clinic vaccinates dogs, cats, rabbits and the occasional ferret for diseases including parvovirus, canine cough, cat flu and feline­ leukaemia.

But Dr Stanley said many pet owners did not ­realise they had to bring their beloved pooch or moggy in for an annual booster to stay protected.

"Their animal is only well because everyone around them is vaccinated, keeping the disease out of their immediate­ area," Dr Stanley said.

Treatment costs for ­parvovirus, which is ­common in dogs, could run into the thousands because it involved 7-14 days in hospital and blood transfusions.

Pets could easily share diseases – which could be prevented or eased with a vaccination – some of which could survive outside the body for several hours, Dr Stanley said.

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The vets idea of out of date is probably different to a good proportion of educated pet owners idea of out of date. I get a roasting from my vet because I choose to vaccinate triannually and my indoor cat is only vaccinated at a reduced schedule too as she doesn't associate with any other cats(outdoor cats in general are very unusual in this area due large numbers of paralysis ticks). I wouldn't consider them to be unvaccinated but the vet does!

Edited by kelpiecuddles
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I have very little knowledge about vaccinations and do annually when the reminder comes. What do others do? What vacs do you get and how frequently and why?

I know when my Stafford girl got quite old the vet said to stop bothering with annual vaccinations so she had none for the last two years. She said she would have enough residual in her system to protect her. I did worry that she would have reduced immunity from her other health issues and if she came into contact with something like parvo that she would not be able to fight it but it never became an issue.

I've never really understood how dogs vaccs work compared to say human vaccs that we only have to get once in our life.

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Little Gifts, most authorities now suggest that the core vaccines (parvo, distemper, hepatitis) should be given as a complete puppy course (with the last vaccine given after 12 or 16 weeks old) followed by a one year booster - after that, one year vaccines are generally neither beneficial nor necessary. I do my girl every 3 years now that she is an adult.

We see parvo all the time at work - we have seen 2 cases of parvo in the last month, including a whole litter of babies that were put down as they were on death's door and the owners couldn't afford any type of intensive care - and I am so sick of that disease. IMO our focus needs to be on getting every single damn dog owner in Australasia to get the puppy series and one year booster. Those are the really important ones.

Edited by Staranais
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  On 18/04/2014 at 3:10 AM, Staranais said:

IMO our focus needs to be on getting every single damn dog owner in Australasia to get the puppy series and one year booster. Those are the really important ones.

Yes to this.

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My dogs get their puppy vaccs (if acquired as puppies) and their first adult booster, and then never vaccinated again.

The dog I just adopted at 10 months old. I have no idea if he was ever vaccinated as a puppy, but he had a C5 prior to adoption and I have no intention of ever vaccinating him again.

Once it's in there, it's in there!

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  On 18/04/2014 at 2:42 AM, kelpiecuddles said:

The vets idea of out of date is probably different to a good proportion of educated pet owners idea of out of date. I get a roasting from my vet because I choose to vaccinate triannually and my indoor cat is only vaccinated at a reduced schedule too as she doesn't associate with any other cats(outdoor cats in general are very unusual in this area due large numbers of paralysis ticks). I wouldn't consider them to be unvaccinated but the vet does!

As far back as 13 years, I changed ideas on vaccinations.

Only ever had one Vet that disagreed.

Current Vet encourages my right to treat my dogs as I pick.

The 14 year old male only has age going against him.

Titre tests confirm he is OK.....

Benefit is no systems overload of chemicals.

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with my first dog, way back in 1979, vets in my country town and in Melbourne that my dog went to, advocated a C3 every 2nd year and parvo on it's own in the between years. It slowly evolved to as much as possible every single year along with mutlidose chemicals every month for all sorts of things even if your dogs doesn't have a problem with fleas for example. Pump those chemicals into them!

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Vets like Dr Prue Stanley are a worry. We rely on our vets to keep themselves informed and up to date with current practises when treating our animals. If Dr Prue Stanley and the Greencross vets knowledge regarding the frequency of vaccinations is so outdated we have to ask what else they don't know and haven't bothered to learn about.

edited to put the e in Prue.

Edited by cavNrott
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So, something I've wondered about for a while - is there any actual difference between the vaccines labelled as annual and those labelled for tri annual use?

Is there any issue with vaccinating "off label" with an annual vaccine, but only once every three years, instead of using a tri annual labelled vaccine?

Took Nova into the vet a few months ago with a manky ear, vet looked at her chart and said "oooh, she's overdue for her vaccination, I'll just go and get one"

Vet not impressed with me when I told her that I didn't want her to "just go and get one"!

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Have had a fair bit to do with Prue Stanley as she was one of our preferred vets for a few years.

I think she's an excellent vet, can't fault her, and can't imagine she is not keeping up with the latest info.

I'm guessing she has just been told to toe the company line.

ETA: I've had triennial vacc's done at Stud Park in the past so it's a bit puzzling!

Edited by Staff'n'Toller
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  On 18/04/2014 at 5:30 AM, Allerzeit said:

So, something I've wondered about for a while - is there any actual difference between the vaccines labelled as annual and those labelled for tri annual use?

Is there any issue with vaccinating "off label" with an annual vaccine, but only once every three years, instead of using a tri annual labelled vaccine?

Took Nova into the vet a few months ago with a manky ear, vet looked at her chart and said "oooh, she's overdue for her vaccination, I'll just go and get one"

Vet not impressed with me when I told her that I didn't want her to "just go and get one"!

My understanding is that they are the same vaccine and there is no difference. They call it "off label" because the manufacturer's instructions are for yearly use.

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  On 18/04/2014 at 5:57 AM, Staff said:

Have had a fair bit to do with Prue Stanley as she was one of our preferred vets for a few years.

I think she's an excellent vet, can't fault her, and can't imagine she is not keeping up with the latest info.

I'm guessing she has just been told to toe the company line.

ETA: I've had triennial vacc's done at Stud Park in the past so it's a bit puzzling!

It's unfortunate that she put her name to it S'n'T. She'll be remembered for stating 'her' view on vaccinating dogs.

If Greencross are so desperate for the vaccination dollar that they're spouting out of date information, they should have put it forward as their general view rather than having one of their vets put her name to it.

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