May issue

May issue
May issue

Monday 11 June 2012

Titre check

Thanks to Dogs Today, we have been re-educated to the possible harm that yearly vaccination can cause our dogs. We have a three-year-old Labrador-Rottweiler cross who, because he is creched, has to be up to date with his vaccinations (we know the Leptospirosis vaccine has to be given once a year). We are pretty sure that if we could confirm by titre testing and only vaccinate for what is actually needed, that they would be fine to accept this (and hopefully so would the insurance company). We did have blood tests done prior to his last full vaccination to check his immunity, which came back fine, but we still weren't comfortable with doing the full vaccination. We want to do the best for our dog by making sure he is protected, but not over vaccinated.

Does anyone know a vet in the West Sussex that does titre testing, as our vet doesn't? We left it too late last year to look into other options, but hope to find a solution this year.

Cheers,

Sue, by email

2 comments:

  1. Hi
    I can't help with the vet recommendation but I just wanted to ask where did you have the blood tests done last time? Surely you can have them done there again? A titre test is just a blood test where the amount of antibodies against a certain antigen (disease) are "counted", giving you a titre value. If your dog had a blood test to check immunity last year then it is highly likely that this was a titre test, unless they just counted his white cells, which wouldn't really tell you anything about vaccination. Hope this helps a bit

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know that Idexx Laboratories (which is the external lab most vet practices use) will do vaccination titre testing to ascertain if a dog is vaccinated to an acceptable level. All your vet needs to do it take a blood sample and put it in the correct blood tubes, pack it up and send it off to the lab. I'm pretty sure every single vet practice should be well able to do this! It is not a specialist procedure. If your own vet won't do it try ringing other local practices, they should be well able to help you out.

    ReplyDelete