Vaccines, Titers, and Nomographs
An outstanding documentary on vaccines. Dr Ronald Schultz is an Professor of Immunology at the University of Wisconsin and he took the time to answer many questions about puppy vaccine schedules: when vaccines are actually effective for developing antibodies and so on. It's about an hour long, but it has a lot of very good information to keep your puppy healthy.
I never recommend giving the Leptospirosis shot due to the high rate of side effects, including death. Here's an article about the Lepto vaccine and it's associated risks. Lepto vaccine: Know the risks! (dogsnaturallymagazine.com).
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Your vet may recommend combo shots for your puppy. I personally try to find vaccines with fewer combinations.
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Rabies: Some vets may try to have you combine visits for rabies and another vaccine, but I never recommend giving a rabies at the same time. I think it is safer to give them separately. I wait to give rabies until the puppy is 6 months old or older, but you'll need to check your local laws to see what your options are.
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I titer test my dogs to see if annual boosters are needed and I recommend my puppy families do the same to prevent over-vaccination. Here is the University of Wisconsin's informational page on Titer testing. Dogs often do not need another booster shot for parvo or distemper for 5-7 years after their puppy shots.
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Nomograph tests estimate the amount of antibodies passed to a litter of puppies from the dam's colostrum. The intestinal tract of the puppies allow colostral antibody to be absorbed into the bloodstream which gives the puppies passive antibody for all infections the dam is protected from. As the puppies grow, the maternal antibody breaks down until it is no longer present in the puppies. While the antibodies are measurable at higher levels, it is able to neutralize viruses such as canine parvovirus and distemper. The first 1-2 set of puppy vaccines are often neutralized by the maternal antibodies, causing failure to immunize. The nomograph testing helps us by estimating best timing for the vaccines so the litter will hopefully develop antibodies to the vaccines.
I started having nomograph testing done in 2020 and I've been very pleased with the results. I follow the nomograph recommendations for vaccines given to the litters and I suggest that new puppy owners continue to follow the schedule laid out by the nomograph. The results from the nomograph testing is included in the puppy folders that I put together and send home with the puppies. You can find more information about nomograph testing and its effectiveness on the University of Wisconsin's Nomograph page.
From UW: "How well does the nomograph work? Results of a recent study (link below) of follow-up testing of 506 puppies which had a nomograph completed for their dam showed rates of immunity that did not differ significantly from a group of more than 5,000 adult vaccinates. A cohort of slightly older vaccinated dogs under one year of age which had not had a nomograph completed for their dam were significantly less likely to be protected against distemper and parvovirus than the adult group."