Your Dog or Cat May Not Need to be Re-vaccinated: Titer Testing

Times are a changing in the world of vaccines for dogs and cats. We now recognize that vaccines not only prevent disease, too many vaccines are actually causing disease.

Titer testing can be used to see if vaccines are even necessary, avoiding adverse reactions.

Some of these reactions can include lethargy, fever, injection site lumps, cancer, severe allergic reactions, arthritis, anemia, auto-immune disease, thyroid disease ( to name a few…)

Titer testing is a where a small blood sample is taken from your dog or cat, and then checked for antibodies.

Antibodies at a certain level indicate that your pet has adequate immunity to a specific disease, and that a booster or re-vaccination is not needed.

Here are some key points to be aware of:

Dr Jones current vaccine guidelines are to give the last dose of core vaccines ( distemper and parvovirus in dogs), ( calicivirus, herpes virus and panleukopenia in cats) at 12 weeks, with the rabies vaccine at 6 months.

Dr Jones is then advising titer testing 1 year after the last boosters, as opposed to having the traditional 1 year boosters.

WASAVA( World Small Animal Veterinary Association) guidelines are to administer the last dose of core vaccines at 14 to 16 weeks of age in puppies and 16 weeks of age in kittens.

Antibody titers may be determined as early as 2 to 4 weeks following completion of initial vaccination series.

A puppy or kitten that is seronegative at 18 weeks of age should be re-vaccinated not less than 2 weeks following the last dose.

Antibody testing can then be performed as early as 2 weeks following administration of this last vaccine dose

In house testing

Two new in-practice titer-testing kits are now available which will allow your vet to do a titer test very quickly without sending the blood sample to a laboratory, saving you money and time.

One specific product I am familiar with is called Canine Vaccicheck.

VacciCheck® Antibody Test Kit is a simple and affordable in-clinic titer test designed to monitor serological status and vaccination failure to prevent overvaccination consequences. VacciCheck provides reliable and accurate results in just 21 minutes.

Vaccicheck is a single in-clinic test that accurately measures canine antibody titer to Infectious Hepatitis (ICH), Parvovirus (CPV) and Distemper (CDV

Heal Your Pet At Home!

Best Wishes,

Dr Andrew Jones, DVM