Retriever Rescue

In our local paper this week, the Pendle council are urging all dog owners to check if their dogs are vaccinated against the potentially deadly Parovirus. Not too long ago, an article in the news suggested that vets are making too much money out of us, the caring owners, and that all these boosters are'nt necessary. There is no NHS for animals, and the vet can be expensive, but there are Pet Plans. When we were first married, we had a lovely little mongrel pup given to us. She seemed really healthy at first but within three weeks developed what they then called distemper. She was in so much distress that she was PTS. I would never want to see an animal in so much pain again, and would always go down the prevention road.

I wondered if anyone else had an opinion on this?

Now we could open a can of worms here, but this is just my opinion.

Recently there was an outbreak of Parvo in the Pendle area, because people were not vaccinating their dogs.
Vaccinations were brought in years ago so these deadly diseases were iradicated...then we get the stories about not vaccinating your pet as vets make too much money???

My dogs always have their annual boosters I will not put them at risk and until I see anything to the contrary they will continue to have them.
Parvo is deadly and if you have ever seen it or smelt it you would not put your dog at risk.
Some vets do say to only vaccinate every 3 yrs depending on the vaccinations they use and depending in the company that make them BUT you must vaccinate every year for Parvo & Lepto as the disease vaccination only lasts a year....so...what do we do...read the stories about not vaccinating, or vaccinate, of course it is a personal choice, so if you are unsure ask your vet....

The vaccines do not always protect. For us to know if an animal is totally protected we would have to have a blood test a little while after the vaccine which would be prohibitive by the expense. We just assume that every animal has taken the vaccine into it's system and it is working

If you give your dog the kennel cough vaccine it can only effect the one strain not all the others so your dog can still get kennel cough albeit one that it isn't vaccinated against.

We do not vaccinate our children every year as they do get their own immunity. Surely dogs will do the same.

Youre quite right Jan, I do know that some vets now offer a blood test before vaccinations to see which your dog has an immunity to, so if anyone is unsure best to ask your vet..

In March 1981 Mums dog Gemma had 10 pups, (Goldens) and at 7 weeks people were coming to view them, trays and buckets of disinfectant surrounded their property and she was so careful, even so Parvo Virus arrived, Mum and Dad nursed all the puppies and Gemma ( she was on a drip for 4 nights) back to health except one little boy puppy, the vet even called in after he had been to a dinner dance, to see them. A post mortem revealed what the vet had diagnosed, Parvo Virus, the vet said that they must have been such a strong litter as Parvo usually kills the pups within 48 hours, without going into graphic details of the disease, I can only say it was terrible. They had already decided to keep a female (Jade) and the vet said that she would never need a parvo virus jab throughout her life as she was now immune, she did have her annual jabs, and she lived to be almost 14. However as a result of cleaning up all that needed to be done, my Father then contracted a terrible illness which left him paralysed for 6 weeks in hospital (Guillane Barre Sydrome) only due to his sheer determination to get right with physio and hydrotherapy enabled him to return to work 12 months later the long term effects of this illness have resulted in circulation problems in his hands and feet. I CANNOT STRESS THIS STRONGLY ENOUGH, ALTHOUGH IT IS COMMON SENSE PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY, WHEN CLEANING UP AFTER YOUR DOGS.