A little ball of fluff
Regular readers may recall my piece about the passing of our much loved little mate while we were away for our holiday by the beach, well after a respectful time we have made some effort to find a new family hound. Now it would have been easy to rescue some undoubtedly loveable mutt from the pound or just to have bought the first cute looking ball of fluff that came our way. I was even offered, gratis, a Labrador retriever who had developed a taste for domestic poultry. But that offer fell through when the dog’s owner decided to keep her out of the hen house rather than give her away.
After much thought we as a family decided that it would be better to stick with the breed that we know and love. This meant that I had to do the ringing around the small circle of people who do “our” breed. having been on the other end of this conversation so many times it was strange to be the one seeking a pup. In the first instance we had to decide which gender we wanted and I put the argument to my beloved wife that a dog tends to be more loyal to its master than a bitch. My wife and daughter won and we decided to get a bitch this time. Eventually I found a breeder who has some pups and we will be collecting ours on the 19th of February. Our little ball of fluff is costing more money than I want to talk about and everyone here is getting quite excited as each day passes and the special day approaches. The breeder has kept us updated and she was even happy to ensure that the name that we have picked will be the one that appears on the pedigree.When we collect our little ball of fluff she will be eight weeks old and she will have already had her first vaccination, the booster at twelve weeks should provide her with protection from the most common and deadly canine maladies. All of this stuff is running around my head so I of course noticed the piece that I quote below:
Research by pet industry lobby group the Australian Companion Animal Council has found that it costs $746 a year to keep the family pooch and $583 for a cat.
Australia has one of the world’s highest pet ownership rates, with almost two-thirds of people owning at least one pet.
Australian Veterinary Association president Mark Lawrie said his organisation updated its policy last year to recommend vaccinations be conducted every three years.
“It’s vital that people still get kittens and puppies done. As with people, vaccines save many lives,” Dr Lawrie said.
He said all vets were aware of the association’s policy.
It had always struck me as rather strange that vaccines that we use in humans generally impart a life long immunity to the disease that they target but that the vaccines for diseases in dogs had to be redone annually, now it seems that my suspicions may have been correct. It may now be policy to advocate vaccination every three years but I will be interetsed to see if that is the message that I get when I take our little girl in for her 12 week jabs.
Cheers Comrades
Iain – there’s no conspiracy here. Vaccines do not offer lifelong protection for every vaccinatable disease in every species. There are no firm rules here – respiratory disease in dogs needs more frequent vaccination, parvo needs less. Tetanus in humans is tailored depending on your risk profile. Some people never need Hep A vaccination, but people who travel to the third world should.
The reason this is being called “overvaccination” by the media is that the science has told us now that we can vaccinate dogs less often than we thought. And if we didn’t listen to the evidence and change our policies then we’d look like a right bunch of charlies, huh.
And the anti-vaccination lobby will have you believe that any amount of vaccination is bad. And that’s just complete garbage.
Thanks for your comment Tim and welcome to my blog.
I was not intending to suggest a conspiracy at all.
I have been using the services of the same veterinary practice for more than twenty years and they have never failed to give excellent service and good advice. I have bred dogs for many years and I am pretty well versed in the health issue that they face, well as much as any non professional can be any way.
I am just surprised that the recommendation has changed is all because I have never heard of this before.