Dog Boosters

[Sara]

I dont booster my lot anymore

Ive kept them up until last year, mainly because they go everywhere with me, And just incase i need to return to england indefintly as i would never be able leave my animals behind.... but i can no longer afford it, the 4 dogs and the cat makes for a quite a hefty bill as they are all due at the same time.

The oldies are both 12 now, Lilly is 7 and elliot is 5, and they are all otherwise healthy. Like Wendy i only flea and worm if i actually them, but i do chuck a garlic clove or 2 in with thier dinners every couple of weeks or so....

Cant say ive noticed much differance not boostering them, they seem as happy and healthy as ever.

[Mercedes]

We chose to not give Daisy her booster this year. She'd had her puppy vaccinations and her first booster and we booked her in for just a health check. At our surgery they do the health check for free, but only if you have the booster, so we had to pay what we thought was a lot of money for him to do very little.

I had read a lot about boosters and had been told to ask the vet if there had been any cases of Lepto in our area, if so how many and which strain. He wasn't able to answer my question, so we didn't let him her give her the booster. From what I understand Lepto is the vaccine which can have the worst reactions, more so to small dogs.

Like Wendy we also don't use flea or worm treatments either.

[Gwenoakes]

From what we have read about Lepto it does respond to AB's should they get it.
We are having a hard time finding a vet that will do in house blood testing for the teta test around here. We are still waiting for various vets to come back to us. The prices we have been quoted have been as high as £300 so far for taking blood and sending samples away.
I am sure that in a few years it will all be done 'in house' and be the 'norm' but for now...........
We look at the 'bottom line', that being that if you dont vaccinate then your dog could get all the various diseases, but also if you do vaccinate there is still a chance that your dog could get them too and possibly have a nasty reaction to them. If you can live with the 'bottom line' and accept it then go with your gut feeling after lots and lots and lots of research.
In the 60's we had a vet, that thinking about now, was years before his time. He said then that the vaccines lasted in his opinion for at least 15 to 18 months so technically you were double dosing for approx 6 months, which is quite frightening when you think about it.