Vaccinating Dogs, Who Needs To Vaccinate?

Vaccinating controversy
Vaccinating dogs is such a controversial subject that it belongs—along with politics, sex, and money—on the list of topics we should avoid in polite company. Folks considered “polite company,” like Bertrand Russell’s “nice people” are unable to address gritty topics with honesty.

The claims and the truth
With vaccines, for example, nice, polite people, organizations (AVMA), and companies (vaccine manufacturers) proclaim that vaccine shots save pets’ lives and that vaccines are the accepted standard of care. The reality is that vaccine shots are usually administered to pets in ways that don’t kill outright but harm in the long run. Vaccines are used because we do not trust ourselves to provide the healthy food and environment that enables our pets’ immune systems to recognize and handle whatever they encounter. Instead, we want to feel assured that some force other than food and environment will make our pets safe. Vaccines have been promoted as a force that provides this safety. In healthy, well-fed, well-adjusted pets, vaccines are unnecessary. In genetically unhealthy, poorly fed, psychologically stressed pets, vaccines are better than nothing.

Which vaccines?
So, which vaccines should be given to dogs that aren’t healthy, well-fed, or well adjusted? All dogs that bite should receive a rabies vaccine. And, behavioral counseling. Dogs with genetically poor gastrointestinal (GI) systems, such as the Rotty, should receive parvo vaccine. Dogs that will walk where feces liters the soil, as it does in our dog parks, should receive parvo vaccines. Dogs that inhale the breath of sick dogs, as in our veterinary clinics, doggy day cares, kennels, and humane society shelters, should receive distemper vaccine. Families with farm dogs that live with leptospirosis-infected cattle, hogs, raccoons, and rats should use lepto vaccine. Families with dogs with collapsing tracheas, cardiac disease, and uncontrolled coughing who will be kenneled in a veterinary clinic, animal shelter, or unclean environment should use kennel cough vaccine. Families with veterinarians who promote grain-laden kibble rather than raw and whole foods, who sell supplements without understanding which are helpful and which are harmful, and who euthanize pets with liver disease, should use the adenovirus vaccine for hepatitis.

Vaccine decisions based on goals for health
If our goal for our pets is optimum health, we should focus on providing good, fresh foods and a clean, loving environment . This focus supports a fully functioning immune system so vaccines are unnecessary. If our goal for our pets is reasonable health, and we know we will not be providing good, fresh foods, the opportunity to exercise, and a healthy emotional environment, then we should vaccinate only for diseases our pets will encounter and we should vaccinate only once or twice in a lifetime. If our goal is not to think about our pets' health so that someone else must think of it, then we should vaccinate and run titers to determine when re-vaccination is necessary.