shots

Question
I want some non biased info on how often getting my pets vaccinated.  We have 2 dogs and a cat.  All adult.  One dog about 10 years old and super healthy still acts like a puppy and even recently discovered he could hop my parents 6 foot fence no problems so I took him in our home since our fence it quite higher. We also believe he is wolf hybrid but have given him the yearly shots since we have had him for many years now.  The second dog I believe is britney spaniel mix maybe with some pit or american bull dog and he also very healthy.  Bout 5 or 6 and does get little bit of allergies and scratches his eye and it gets runny once in while.  Tried different dog foods and even medication and benadryl and nothing really changed it so I just let it be.  It doesnt seem to cause him any pain and he doesnt rub it enough to hurt himself.  Other then that he is very healthy and we have had him about 3 years and had his shots done twice I believe.  It has been almost 2 years since his last round and a year for the other dog.  The cat we have had about 2 years and not really sure how old she is.  Maybe 7 or 8 and she is pretty healthy except for what we thought was respitory infection and had her treated and it didn't help so we pretty sure it is asthma.  She will have difficulty breathing a couple times a day and will kind of cower close to the floor and breath heavy for a couple minutes and then she is ok.  It's not from hairballs either because she rarely does that.  But she is a happy cat and seems very content and comfortable.  I feed the cat science diet and I started the dogs on that but switched to nutro lamb and they seem well on that.  That is there backround.  My question is should I get them more vaccinations?  They rarely leave our house and the cat is inside only since she is declawed.  I have read so much info about how often to get them the shots but it's hard to know what to do and even when people say studies have been done, who knows who has financed those studies and lab tests and influenced the results.  I don't want to harm our pets and also would like to save that money if it's uneccessary.  But then on other hand I remember we had to put our black lab down when I was a child from parvo and how horrible that was.  I think he was still a puppy or very young adult and I don't know what vaccinations he had or not but it was a tramatic experience none the less.  Most likely he was up to date on shots because my mother was very responsible and loving with our pets.  What do you suggest?

Answer
Well, you gave me a lot of information but not a specific question. So I am just going to let you know that I have seen in the last 30 yrs. Pets that are vaccinated yearly (or every three according to the vaccine) live much longer, healthier lives free of preventable diseases.

Wolf hybrids, however, if your dog really is one- really needs to be confined and vaccinated yearly for rabies- not tri-yearly.Why? Because there is no quarantine for wolf-hybrids at all if they should happen to bite someone. They are immediately euthanized and beheaded to send their brains off to a lab to check for rabies. The reason for this is because there is no known efficacy trails with rabies vaccines. In other words, 'they' (meaning the CDC and the AVMA) have no idea whether or not rabies vaccines actually work on wolves or wolf-hybrids.

So just a little heads up on that one. It sounds like you are doing a good job on keeping him confined and vaccinated.

Your indoor cats still need to have yearly booster of leukemia, distemper etc because cats can get even leukemia through a screen door with a stray cat hissing at them. They have less chance of being exposed to rabies etc, but I cannot count how many client's 'indoor' cats have gotten out or actually caught a bat in the house. Without some sort of prior vaccination some states pull the same thing with cats that they do with wolf-hybrids. No quarantine, instant euthanasia. Surely you don't want that or the 6 months confinement (in a cage) that some will impose instead.

So yearly boosters for the transmissible feline diseases and 3 yrs for the rabies for cats.

Parvo is a terribly devastating disease that even vaccinated dogs can get. However, they usually survive it. Non-vaccinated dogs rarely do.

The bottom line is that other than food (and Science Diet is the best out there) you are saving hundreds of dollars a year by vaccinating your pets and feeding them the best food. Nutro Lamb is not the best and you will spend more money in the long haul buying food before you should because the dogs will not get the optimal nutrition from it.

You said yourself that your pets are healthy. They are because of what you feed and because you practice great pet ownership.
Thank you for doing so and keep up the good work.