Vaccine Dose and Vaccine Boosters

My friend, Jan Rasmusen at www.Dogs4Dogs.com , asked these two questions, and I sense that many other pet families are also asking them:
1. Do puppies and adult dogs get the same dose of a vaccine?
2. Is a "booster" the same dose as the initial shot?

Let’s answer these questions below, and we’ll cover more vaccine topics through the week, If you’d like information on waiting to socialize your puppy until after it has been vaccinated, search the blog for “puppy safety and vaccines.” If you’re interested in cats, search the blog for “cat vaccines.”

Vaccine dosages
Vaccines are licensed so that the same dosage goes to all dogs. Vets who give vaccines according to accepted protocols are legally covered by the manufacturer and by the AVMA if anything goes awry. This practice may not be safe.

Holistic vets recognize that the same dosage is not appropriate for dogs of different sizes and many holistic vets will obtain owner consent to:
• use titer tests rather than vaccinate,
• give less than the standard 1 ml dosage,
• give the vaccine less often than recommended, or
• give the vaccine with a homeopathic that helps modulate immune response.

The holistic veterinarians' practices may be healthiest for your pet but these practices are not yet accepted by vaccine manufacturers, the FDA, EPA, AVMA, and many veterinarians.

Vaccines and boosters
Vaccines and boosters use the same product.
Whether we are giving an initial vaccine or are giving a booster, we use the same product. The vaccine is merely called a booster to indicate that a previous vaccine has been given. That being said, we may use one company product one week, and another company's product later so the initial vaccine and the booster are not in fact the same. The clinic record will indicate what product was used.

Switching vaccine products
There are several reasons for changing vaccines: price, availability, desire to avoid adjuvants, desire to use vaccines that protect against more or against fewer diseases in one injection, desire to give the vaccine by a different route (intramuscular (IM) versus intranasal (IN)).

Vets typically do not explain that vaccine manufacturers have been changed or that a pet is being vaccinated with another product than used previously. Instead, we say, "This vaccine protects your pet from X disease." Thus, a pet can receive an injected Lyme’s disease vaccine followed by an intranasal Lyme vaccine (or visa versa), and the family may only realize that the animal has had a Lyme vaccine, not that one is different than that used previously.

Switching vaccine manufacturers and using different products is considered by vaccine manufacturers, veterinarians, and the AVMA to be an acceptable practice. In theory, this is a safe practice because all vaccines are licensed as protecting against disease, but in truth some vaccines are probably better and safer for pets than other vaccines.

A holistic veterinarian's vaccine concerns
Although switching vaccine manufacturers should not be done lightly, I believe most holistic veterinarians are less concerned about this issue than they are concerned with the issues that Jan has raised. I believe our three biggest vaccine concerns are:
• how much vaccine volume is used,
• how many vaccines are given at the same time, and
• how often are the vaccines given.