Knowing when it is time to let go an old pet

Dec 312008

Like just about everyone who has ever faced this question, I continually re-examine my view. Although we each desire never to misjudge this question, we cannot really know the “answer.” So we struggle to decide what is right, and spend hours sitting with our aging dogs, willing ourselves to know their feelings.

Of course, so fundamental a decision is supremely private: we each confront it with the necessary courage and integrity at the end of a lifetime of love. We try to balance emotion and reason and do what is best in our hearts and minds for our beloved friends who live too short a while. I do not criticize any other person’s viewpoint; rather, I offer my view, in the hope that people who are wrestling with the question will find it useful. My answer to this question even a few years ago was different than it is today…

Part of what makes this decision so difficult is that well-cared for pets generally live far beyond a point where they would die in nature. Inability to hunt, disease, dominance fighting, and other natural factors mean that true geriatrics is rare in nature. By the time we are wrestling with this question, our pets have already outlived their natural lifetime, and so every day we keep them alive is, in effect, a choice we are making. We cannot hide from this truth—we are profoundly responsible for this final decision.

Many people try to evaluate quality of life by comparing present life with youth and quickly discover that old age does not have the same quality. But life possesses quality, regardless of action, quality that cannot easily be understood, much less measured. Certainly there is joy in chasing balls, herding sheep, and running through the woods, and as such joy fades, the quality of life is changed. But there is joy in lying on a pillow while your friend strokes your ears. There is joy in memory, in imagination. There is quality in being alive. I remember my great-grandmother’s last days. She was 100, and I was 10. I did not really see the point of her last years-she was largely bedridden and needed help even to go to the bathroom. But in her final days I caught a glimmer of her wisdom: perhaps those days held value I could not see. As she spent those last days surrounded by family and friends, I found myself wondering what is the value of a day in a life? Surely it is not going to the bathroom by oneself, or even playing soccer, or walking on the beach, even though I love those things.

Without really knowing what gives a day, or a life, value, how can I decide when the days no longer contain “enough”?

Death, and dying, and even pain, have dignity and grace. They are a part of life, a part that we often fear and do not understand, but nonetheless a valuable and important component of the whole. Most of us know memories that are painful but are nonetheless cherished.

People often suggest that keeping an animal around “too long” is selfish. Certainly this is sometimes true. I believe that far more often the opposite is true: euthanasia is chosen because we cannot stand to see our beloved friends suffer. We cannot ourselves bear the emotion of protracted demise. We cannot comfortably watch an animal once so vibrant now unable to easily stand.

People talk about loss of dignity, suggesting that when their animal becomes incontinent, for example, they must euthanize it to avoid the sense of shame we imagine our friend might be feeling. I believe that dignity, for people and for animals, derives from elements more intrinsic then simple physicality.

There are circumstances in which euthanasia may be a true kindness because the owner knows that the animal is confronting a long period of pain with little or no chance of meaningful recovery.

People often talk about their dog “telling them when it is time.” I believe there is much truth in this. There comes a moment when, overwhelming though the grief may be, you know that the end has come. Their eyes no longer sparkle, the fight to live is gone, the will, the joy. I know each time this moment has come for one of our dogs, Lauren and I have felt it simultaneously. There may have been days or even weeks of wondering, but there comes a moment when we both know that our friend’s body has become a prison from which we can free them.

Most importantly, know that there is no wrong time so long as you are doing what you believe is best for your animal. Do not rush the decision—you can always wait another day to be sure. And do not delay—when you are sure your animal is no longer happy, it is time. And whatever decision you make, let it go immediately. There is no value in second guessing your decision.

As I write, my grand Anatolian Shepherd, Kolya, lies at my feet. Reluctantly I acknowledge that my friend has become old now, and stiff, tender sometimes, and slow. Only yesterday, it seems, I was sitting on the floor playing with his litter and trying to decide which squirmy pup should come home with me. For fourteen years Kolya has been my best friend, and I sometimes feel I cannot stand the grief of him leaving. He is the only living being who shared with me my adventures in Montana, who was with me as I lay wretched with food poisoning on the roadside near Barstow, who remembers Tillie as she truly, improbably was. How can I be without him? How can I bear the unimaginable loss? Each night I lie with him alongside and wonder what is right? Kolya no longer “does” much; he rarely runs or plays, and his demand for petting now comes more with his eyes then the rest of his body, but for me – and I believe for him – life is about “being,” not “doing.” And as long as he is comfortable, I will give Kolya the honor of being as he has always been – himself, independent, surrounded by love. I cannot know what awaits him as he departs this world; it will be my friend’s first journey ever without me. If possible, I will let Kolya decide when it is time. I will strive, as always, to make every moment of his life as excellent as I can, and to support him fully. When Kolya departs, I will be with him. I will love him. I will remember him always, and I will try to be the person he saw in me and to remember the lessons he taught me. That is the best I can do…

December 31, 2008 Posted by roland at 12:40 am Tagged with: dealing with death, death, dog, euthanasia, grief, mercy, when to let go

Environmental Enrichment

Dec 302008

One of our primary responsibilities as animal owners is to ensure their psychological welfare, and that means avoiding boredom, promoting exercise, developing confidence, etc. While each of these things should be addressed actively, there are also times when you are not available to entertain your animals, but you can enrich their environments…

Here are a few suggestions. General concepts to remember: safety, of course–observe anything you give and make sure it is safe and does not frighten or overly stress your animal. Anticipate any way he could ingest, get stuck, fall, etc. Remember that change is good– anything new and different is enriching. The single best thing your animal can learn from enrichment is that he can influence the environment to cause a desired outcome. This decreases stress and increases learning in new situations as well as decreasing boredom! Not all of these suggestions will be good for you, they are some ideas to start from–be creative!! Also remember that everything you do is teaching habits and reinforcing behaviors, so think about what you are training with any new activity.

Training, Training, Training!! You teaching new behaviors is the single greatest source of novelty! Not just obedience, try freestyle or teach a few tricks.

Play. Remember, play is a great stress reliever, so spend time each day consciously playing with your animal. Wrestle, play chase, etc.

Kong stuffed with cheese or peanut butter (Stick a Nylabone in the end to make it last longer)

A fountain that sprays for five minute after animal presses large button

Chicken broth giant ice cubes–these can be given to the animal, or hung so they drip all day

Buster cube or any object with food that comes out a hole

Large hard Plaque attacker (observe for the first few days make sure no large pieces are being removed and eaten)

Hanging tire

Tug toy from a rope attached up high to a rubber spring or you play tug with them yourself

Knuckle bones

Wobble board or large ball on which you teach the animal to balance. (Great for proprioception)

Treadmill or underwater treadmill

Loose crickets (assuming your stomach and ethics do not object)

Feeder fish in pool (assuming your stomach and ethics do not object)

Solid container with a screw on lid that has food inside

Different surfaces– bark, sand, rock, grass, astro-turf, metal, tile, etc.

Button to press that plays a song

An endless pool

A wind chime hung high

Some little mirrors or a disco-ball hung high that will make lights move around as they blow in the wind

Tunnel

A sprinkler or other water-spraying device, especially if the water moves.

Hang food where they cannot get to it, and give them a platform they can drag and climb on to get the food

Sounds– sometimes play stereo or TV, sometimes sounds of nature or dog shows

Smells– sometimes spray a new cologne at the base of a tree or other object in run. Place in their pen a blanket from another animal

Set up an aromatherapy infuser

Shallow water to play in

Visual barriers

Boomer balls

An animal in an adjacent enclosure

A slide

Hole to dig in

Nylabones slathered in cream cheese

Do not feed in the morning and hide food around run (bury some and put some up high, etc.)

New foods- broccoli, bananas, beef, whatever.

Big branches or old dead tree

Beam or plank to walk on

Device that blows bubbles

Massage or T-touch.

Big wooden box with various openings leading to food–some should have screw on lids, others sliding lids, others the food should be out of reach, etc.

Buy or build toys with sliding doors that have to be moved to get to food (Like tic tac toe)

Build device that requires several steps to get food– pull one lever than go to other side of run and pull another and get treat

Vertical levels– build platforms at different heights and with ramps and steps

CHANGE– move stuff around, add stuff, take things out, etc.

December 30, 2008 Posted by roland at 8:22 pm Tagged with: animal, boredom, dog, environmental enrichment, toys

Conditioning your dog

Dec 302008

Most dogs are under-conditioned and overweight. This is a huge problem in dogs as it is in people. It puts undue stress on their joints. It taxes their cardiovascular system. It reduces the quality and duration of their lives. This is ridiculous. Feed them less-exercise them more!

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In my experience each dog requires a different program. Some are ectomorphic and we focus on adding muscle, others are endomorphic and we prioritize fat burning. Some can run all day but are weak in speed so we focus on developing speed and acceleration. With each dog we try to strengthen their weaknesses and improve overall balance, while at the same time developing natural strengths. A theoretical conundrum, but in practice we tend to have a strong gut feeling for what each individual needs. If you are keenly observant and strive for maximal overall fitness, I think most of the details are subsumed by the body’s natural ability to accommodate and achieve optimal health.

Much of what we “know” from human exercise is not directly applicable—canine metabolism and energy utilization are significantly different from human, but many of the notions can be adapted.

Here are a few of the principles we tend to utilize:

1. Safety–Always warm your dogs up at the beginning of an exercise session, and warm-down at the end. Make increases gradual, be patient, and give the body time to adapt. Use common sense and avoid injury! Remember that energy pathways, and muscles, develop far more quickly than bones and connective tissues, so you need to progress, particularly at first, at a rate that does not outstrip the slowest developing parts. Dogs have evolved to have all four feet on the ground. This means leaping in the air can be very hard on them. Their stifles and cruciate ligaments can easily tear. If you play frisbee or throw balls, try to avoid leaping. Also, give careful thought to the age at which you begin any serious exercise with your dog. Young dogs need a wide variety of exercises to maximize neural and musculoskeletal development, but it is important to avoid excessive exercise, strenuous exercise, or too much twisting or jumping until their growth plates are closed and their systems are adequately developed to handle these stresses. If you are not sure, talk to a knowledgeable veterinary physical therapist who can evaluate your individual animal. In adult dogs, it is also important to strive for balance and not overdo any particular exercise, particularly exercises like jumping or weaving. This is a fine line–you want to do enough of an activity that the body adapts, strengthens, and grows, but not so much that the body is constantly stressed and breaks down over time. This is particularly true in sports like agility where people tend to believe that the dog is getting adequate exercise from doing the activity, but in truth the activity does very little to exercise the dog and is almost entirely physically harmful–you need to exercise your dog so they can safely do agility, not imagine that agility is exercising your dog…

2. Diversity—arguably the greatest path to overall fitness is a wide variety of exercise type and intensity. The vast majority of any dog’s exercise program consists of some form of running, so vary the speed, duration, and type of running as much as possible. Vary the substrate, use weights, have them pull, etc. Incorporate non-running as much as possible—swimming, tug of war, bitework, dock diving, wrestling with you or another dog, etc. Be creative.

3. Periodization—whatever exercise regime you utilize, your dog’s body will soon become accustomed, and progress will slow. By altering the primary mode and intensity, you can prevent this plateau. At least every six weeks make a significant change to the routine. This will also reduce boredom…

4. Fartlek—the body tends to respond very well to brief periods of varied intensity. In the middle of a CV workout include periods of near-maximal intensity. Then return to CV pace. This is also effective in decreasing fat—work the body at a steady load for around 20 minutes, then increase the workload and suddenly the body is required to metabolize lots of fat to meet the demand. Also, acceleration requires roughly triple the energy of sustaining top speed, so incorporate repeated acceleration.

5. Sport specific training—whatever sports you pursue, incorporate them in your program. If conformation, make sure that you spend time trotting. There is no better rehearsal for a particular activity than that activity. However, keep in mind the old adage, “We perform the way we train” and avoid sport specific training when your dog is tired or flat. Perform this aspect at the beginning of a workout so that your dog rehearses perfection and intensity.

6. Proprioception—every aspect of canine performance and injury resistance benefits from adequately exercising all the small supportive components of a dog’s body, and by simultaneously recruiting the neural processes to use these components. Do exercises that will engage balancing and supporting muscles. Run on awkward slopes, run over complex terrain, run in water of various depths, swim in current or waves, carry a backpack with an unbalanced load, leg weights, wobble board, log spin, etc. Stand on one bank of a creek, 30 feet uphill from the creek, throw a ball across the creek up the opposite side, and watch with awe how many different exercises your dog does on the way across–downhill sprint, jump over logs, run through shallow water over complex rocks, leap into deeper water, swim, pull out of water on other side, run uphill, turn around, repeat…

7. Shocking—similar to periodization, but on a smaller scale. Any time the body is asked to do something different, it tends to respond with adaptation, so if you can safely “shock” your dog’s body, growth will likely occur. Suddenly increase intensity or duration, pre-fatigue with a related activity, stop for a swim on your way home, etc. Of course, anything too shocking will result in injury, so exercise caution…

8. Resistance—the sine qua non of building muscle, but rather difficult to incorporate into a canine program. Sprinting up sand dunes, pulling weight, tugging a log, retrieving a heavy object, etc. The goal here is that muscle “failure” occurs fairly quickly and the muscles respond by growing. Be mindful of overworking. Lactic acid can cause soreness, and also real damage to muscle. In the most extreme cases, exertional rhabdomyolysis can be fatal. So increase workload gradually and observe carefully.

9. CV—3-4 times per week of thirty minutes of moderate intensity work. I use the same basic test as for humans—breathing hard enough that they could talk but not sing. For my dogs this is panting, but not too rapidly. Fetch is probably the most common CV training, either on land or in water. Leash walking is rarely brisk enough to accomplish this goal.

10. LSD—a huge portion of the exercise any dog gets is aerobic—their breathing is only slightly elevated and they are not in oxygen debt. However, it is very difficult for us to really stress a dog’s system at this workload. Most dogs can trot at around 6 mph for many, many hours. Anything you can do that is truly LSD for a dog will tend to be somewhat hard on joints, and generally requires a mountain bike, ATV, or horse in addition to a 30 mile dirt trail… The primary advantage of LSD is the creation of an aerobic “base”, and the fact that once excess food is depleted the canine body burns primarily fat at these low levels.

11. Observation—this is the cornerstone of any canine exercise program. They cannot tell us if they are sore, or if they are hardly winded, or if they are having an off day. It is up to us to watch every workout and gather all the data we need to plan the next session. We need to observe everything their bodies are telling us, and occasionally check pulse, pulse recovery, pulse oximetry, etc. Between exercising, we need to observe hydration, urine output and color, soreness, etc.

12. Over-exercising—I would avoid too many miles on hard surfaces, I would avoid too many hours of the same motion, I would avoid boredom, limit jumping, etc. Pay particular attention to this issue if you participate in a sport like agility, disc-dog, or flyball where the activity itself is hard on your dog’s body.

13. Nutrition—obviously optimal fitness cannot be achieved without optimal nutrition. Consider what you are feeding, and when you are feeding relative to muscle exercise.

14. Rest—many of the benefits of exercise occur in the period between exercise when the body is recovering. Any fitness program must include adequate rest. The ratio of rest to work depends on many variables, including overall fitness level and intensity of work. For most of my dogs, three to five days of high intensity exercise out of seven seems optimal, with the other days being “active rest” days with low intensity exercise. Then I usually give them a week off from all high intensity work every six weeks. I tend to vary the frequency of exercise to avoid mental or physical routine—sometimes they exercise 5 days in a row, other weeks they exercise every other day, etc. And usually one day out of every ten has no exercise. After periods of rest, avoid too large an increase in intensity when you resume training. Since your ‘fresh’ dog may tend to overwork.

Of course, all this should be fun! Have a blast exercising your dog, observe the results, and continually modify the program to achieve your goals…

December 30, 2008 Posted by roland at 8:05 pm Tagged with: canine, conditioning, dog, exercise, fitness, physical therapy

Optimal Nutrition for your Dog

Dec 302008

The cornerstone of good health is good nutrition. The “debate” concerning what represents optimum nutrition is passionate and ongoing. On the one hand are people who see huge risks to home prepared diets– primarily these risks are nutritional imbalance, and disease from uncooked meats. On the other hand are people who perceive a value in whole, live, raw foods, and believe these benefits are well worth the risks.

At Talented Animals we prepare fresh food for our dogs. We believe many of the big name dog food companies are making a profit at the expense of our dogs’ health. We have home cooked since 1990 and have seen wonderful health and vitality in our dogs during that time. In addition to many years and many dogs fed our diet, Lauren is currently pursuing an MS in canine immunology and physiology, so the information herein is very current.

Home preparing diets is not something we casually recommend. Unless you take the time to educate yourself it is very easy to overlook essential nutrients or to provide nutrients in an inappropriate ratio. We believe this diet can be far superior to a store bought feed, but it is extremely important to ensure balance. If you cannot do this, feed a quality dog food!

Unless you are genuinely interested in taking the time to learn about nutrition, we recommend a quality dog food with a few supplements. Reasonably good foods can be found such as California Natural, Pinnacle, Innova, Evo, FarMore, etc. Whole Dog Journal lists the best foods they could find each year, and generally their list is excellent.

If you are going to home prepare, please learn everything you can! There is lots of good information available on the subject! One thing to be careful of is that home preparing has recently become something of a fad and instant experts have popped up everywhere. Some of them have excellent information, but be sure to read a wide cross section of opinions and then REACH YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! There is no one right diet. Each dog in each situation has different requirements. Learn to look at your dog and read the telltale signs of health.

One of the challenges in pursuing a healthy lifestyle for your dogs lies in balancing their “natural” needs with the fact that they are no longer in a pristine environment. So merely mimicking a natural canid diet is not going to be ideal for a dog that rides around in your car, sits in front of the TV, drinks chlorinated water, etc. However, looking at the natural state of our dogs progenitors certainly provides essential clues to what their bodies are designed for.

What we Feed–

This is a question we are asked often, but are always a little nervous answering. What we feed may not be right for a particular dog. You need to read and learn and then watch your dog!

We generally feed our dogs twice a day. A morning meal of vegetable/fruit mix with one of the following likely added: egg, mackeral, kefir, honey, etc. The evening meal is predominately meat or meaty bones. Each meal has supplements.

We fast for 24 hours once a week. We perform a chem. screen on each dog at least once a year and compare the results to try and identify any problems. This also helps to establish baselines which will be very useful if diagnosis is ever necessary. Commonly, dogs fed a meat based diet have a different normal baseline than the references provided by the veterinarian or the diagnostic lab. The normal reference range provided by them have been developed using dogs on a cereal/grain based diet.

A typical diet consists of 65-80% meats, 10-15% fruits/veggies, 5-10% organ meats and a very small percentage of grains and supplements.

Staple Foods

Meats– canids are carnivores. Everything from their dentition to their gut is designed for an intake that is predominantly meat. Depending on the breed, and what was available where they originated, this may have meant cow, deer, mouse, lamb, bird, fish, etc. We try to feed a wide variety of many meats. Typically, we feed chicken wings/necks/backs, or whole turkey necks, beef and lamb. We feed whole chickens and sometimes beef tripe and fat. We avoid salmon because the rickettsial that causes salmon poisoning is very difficult to kill. We avoid pork due to trichinosis.
Vegetables– very wide variety. Lots of leafy greens. No onions or tomatoes. Generally, juiced, lightly steamed or ground. The canine digestive system does not have the enzymes required to break down cellulose, so unless some pre-digestion occurs, most vegetables pass through undigested.
Fruits– wide variety of fresh fruits. (Avoid grapes, raisins and use little citrus)
Eggs– whole raw/cooked eggs are an excellent source of protein. Fed in large amounts they can deplete biotin, so do not go overboard!
Soy– tofu, tempeh, soy milk, sparingly
Dairy– cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, raw goat milk, occasionally heavy cream if trying to add weight

Supplements added as needed–

Essential Fatty Acids– Omega 3 and Omega 6 are both required. They are essential for healthy skin and coat. Their ratio is important.
Fish oil
Enzymes
Borage oil
Evening primrose oil
Vitamin E
Cod liver oil
Flax seed oil
Kelp
Bee Pollen
Ginseng
Ginkgo
Molasses
Spirulina or SBGA
A multi-vitamin
Garlic
Bone Meal
Vitamin C
Glucosamine/Chondroitin
Vitamin B Complex
Fresh herbs that are in season
Honey
Aloe Vera
Kefir
Apple Cider Vinegar

Raw or Cooked? As a rule, we feed meat and bones raw, vegetable lightly cooked or juiced raw. This is not without risk! There are certainly diseases that can be present in raw meat that are killed by exposure to high temperatures.

The Bone Controversy– there are two passionate camps regarding bones for dogs. One camp says bones are very dangerous. They can splinter and tear the digestive tract. This certainly can happen and dogs have died of this. The other camp argues that bones are a natural dog food that provides calcium and keeps teeth clean. Our view is somewhere in between. We feed knuckle bones regularly– these are the large soft bones that tend to crumble rather than splinter. Even with knuckle bones there is some risk. They could splinter or carry disease since they are uncooked. This is a risk we are willing to accept because we believe our dogs are far healthier than they would be if we fed them no bones and no raw meat.

December 30, 2008 Posted by roland at 8:03 pm Tagged with: BARF, canine, diet, dog, feeding, nutrition, Raw feeding

Vaccinating Dogs for Optimal Health

Dec 302008

One of the first and most critical decisions that needs to be made by any dog owner is what vaccination protocol to utilize. There are many conflicting opinions on this matter, and I would encourage you to peruse them all. Whatever plan you select will have a significant impact on the lifelong health of your animal, and the decision should be based on rational thought and current available information, not fear, superstition, or unfounded assertion by companies or people with agendas other than your animal’s health. Of course you should discuss your vaccine thoughts with a trusted veterinarian before reaching any decisions, but do not assume that your vet knows the one right answer. In the page below I summarize our thoughts on the question…

Background Information

From 1796 to 1976, vaccination was one of the greatest areas of medical and veterinary advancement. During that time, hog cholera and smallpox were virtually eradicated, and a plethora of other diseases went from epidemic killers to infrequent curiosities. By 1980, there were vaccines available for most common canine diseases, and the veterinary community had developed an abiding sense that vaccines were a harmless panacea that could be used to prevent almost every infectious disease in dogs. Since there was no apparent downside, vaccines were given early and often. Since maternal antibodies might interfere with vaccination, repeated administration was recommended, and since duration was unknown, annual revaccination was universally endorsed.

The dog community embraced this revolution, and frequent vaccination became a hallmark of responsible care. “Up to date” on shots became a baseline expectation for care, and many pet owners happily vaccinated their dogs every year.

In the early eighties, several researchers independently observed a possible correlation between vaccination and several ailments and began studying this connection. Over the following 25 years, a huge number of vaccine related ailments were posited, and study after study suggested that vaccination was causing a real degradation in overall canine health as well as possibly inducing several acute ailments. It quickly became clear that for all their benefits, vaccines posed an overall health risk and a balance needed to be found. Vaccines were significantly implicated in:

Allergies

Autoimmune diseases

Leukemia

Thyroid disease

Addison’s disease

Grave’s disease

Injection site sarcoma

Diabetes

Lupus

Thrombocytopenia

Organ failure

Skin inflammation

Encephalitis

Lymphoma

Behavioral changes and phobias

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia

Arthritis

Epilepsy

At the same time, researchers began studying the duration of various vaccines and questioning the notion of annual revaccination. Time and again their studies suggested that vaccine duration was far longer than previously believed, and in many cases appeared to last for the animal’s lifetime.

Situation Today

At present, there is no absolute consensus concerning an ideal vaccination protocol for dogs. Each owner must make their best informed decision. However, in the past few years, virtually every veterinary university in North America and the AVMA have revised their policies and issued statements on vaccines to accommodate the evidence that they pose serious health risks which are not yet fully understood. This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that many veterinarians are not providing good advice–their schooling came before or during the current upheaval, and they have not been motivated or inclined to stay current. Unfortunately, many vets are simply repeating past beliefs and continuing to advocate for multiple puppy vaccinations with annual revaccination, ignoring the last few decades of research. This is habitual and comfortable for them, and allows them to hide behind the veil of “manufacturers recommendations” when they advise vaccination protocols which clearly are not supported by current research. It has several ancillary consequences:

· It ensures that dogs are brought in to the vet at least once a year. This is often a good thing. Many owners are unobservant and their dogs may have unnoticed problems that need medical attention.

· It allows veterinarians to earn a living. A substantial portion of most veterinarians income derives from these annual visits.

Unfortunately it is not what is best for most dogs.

As explained in Current Veterinary Therapy XI (Ron Schultz, Ph.D., and Tom Phillips, DVM):

“A practice that was started many years ago and that lacks scientific validity or verification is annual revaccinations. Almost without exception there is no immunologic requirement for annual revaccination. Immunity to viruses persists for years or for the life of the animal. Successful vaccination to most bacterial pathogens produces an immunologic memory that remains for years, allowing an animal to develop a protective anamnestic (secondary) response when exposed to virulent organisms. Only the immune response to toxins requires boosters (e.g. tetanus toxin booster, in humans, is recommended once every 7-10 years), and no toxin vaccines are currently used for dogs and cats. Furthermore, revaccination with most viral vaccines fails to stimulate an anamnestic (secondary) response as a result of interference by existing antibody (similar to maternal antibody interference). The practice of annual vaccination in our opinion should be considered of questionable efficacy unless it is used as a mechanism to provide an annual physical examination or is required by law (i.e., certain states require annual revaccination for rabies).”

or as stated by Christine Chambreau, DVM:

“Routine vaccinations are probably the worst thing we do for our animals. They cause all types of illnesses but not directly to where we would relate them definitely to be caused by the vaccine.”

There is still much to learn about canine immunology and vaccination, and I am confident that we will be doing a far better job in 20 years than we are today, but what we know today already allows us to do a far better job than simply reiterating the advice of 25 years ago…

What Should a Concerned Dog Owner Do?

There is no single correct answer to which vaccinations to give your dog and how often: make the best informed decision you can make given the current information and the details of your situation. Talk to trusted experts, read current research, consider your dog’s health and circumstances, and weigh the risks of not vaccinating against each disease against the benefits. Do not trust me, or your friend, or even your vet to have the right answer because there is no right answer. There is only the best answer for you.

Regardless of what you decide to do about vaccinations, we should all agree that the single best thing we can do to prevent disease in our dogs is to create healthy dogs with robust immune systems. Breeders need to be breeding with this in mind, but each of us can take monumental steps for our dogs:

Diet

Exercise

Weight

Lifestyle–it has been demonstrated time and again that happy, low stressed individuals are less likely to succumb to illness. So keep your dog’s life happy and low stress.

Environmental toxins–it is genuinely frightening to consider the nearly constant exposure our dogs face to environmental pesticides, herbicides, paints, vehicular poisons, chlorine, secondhand smoke, etc. All of these tax their immune systems. Do anything and everything you can to reduce exposure to toxins.

Enough Theory Already–what vaccines do you give?

As far as which vaccines to administer today, begin by understanding that you cannot protect your dog against all disease, and if you try, you will do genuine harm. No question–we should continue to use vaccines to avoid serious disease in our dogs. Also no question at this point that over using vaccines adds no value and significantly degrades health.

In my opinion, based on what we know today, there are three medically warranted inoculations in the lifetime of a dog:

successfully seroconverted rabies

successfully seroconverted distemper

successfully seroconverted parvovirus

To accomplish these three and ensure maximal health is relatively simple: Titer-test for maternal antibody depletion if desired, and administer a single vaccine for distemper or parvo. Wait ten days and titer test for seroconversion. If conversion has been achieved (a positive titer test), wait four more days, so a total of at least 14 days has elapsed and repeat the process for the other disease. Then repeat each of these 6 months later at the same 14 day interval (to stimulate a secondary immune response after the immune system was primed and thereby achieve maximal protection) and you have a dog with likely lifetime immunity against parvo and distemper. (There is a real question as to which disease you should do first. Parvo is the greater risk, but maternal antibodies for parvo tend to significantly outlast maternal antibodies for distemper. Personally I do distemper first because the window is open sooner.) Rabies is a particularly challenging disease to address. In my experience, it is one of the most harmful vaccines, and I have observed several cases in which behavioral changes after this vaccine were marked. This is purely anecdotal, but was absolutely unmistakable in my opinion–animals that had never before shown any aggression suddenly becoming markedly less tolerant and more pugnacious. On the other hand, rabies is a horrific disease that is virtually always lethal and is zoonotic. The rabies vaccine has saved millions of lives, and rabies is not a disease we should ever take lightly. Furthermore, rabies vaccinations are legally required on a fixed schedule in most places, so until the law changes there will be few legal options, despite the likelihood that rabies immunity is lifelong and the fact that rabies is a fairly rare disease in most areas. At present, those are the only three vaccines we give.

Depending on your environment, your risk tolerance, and your general world view, you might select to give fewer vaccines (distemper is rare, and parvo is usually treatable successfully these days) or you might decide to give more. I believe that ANY vaccinations beyond the above should be carefully examined and justified in a particular case. The “other” diseases commonly vaccinated against in the US are either so rare or so insignificant in terms of risk as to be irrelevant in my opinion. Vaccinating against them seems to risk a dogs health far more than it protects. These diseases include:

Hepatitis / Canine Adenovirus II–there have been few, if any, documented cases in the US in approximately 20 years.

Parainfluenza, Bordatella, CAV I–these three diseases are almost always trivial. Furthermore, in my experience, despite repeated exposure, none of my unvaccinated dogs have ever shown any symptoms, while many of the vaccinated dogs around them have coughed for weeks. These disease are similar to getting a cold, and in my opinion the risks far outweigh the benefits of these illnesses.

Leptospirosis–most common cause of immediate negative vaccine reactions, and is effective only against some strains (estimates range from 20%–70% efficacy). This vaccine does not last long, and can prevent symptoms while allowing the dog to transmit the disease. Leptospirosis is a serious disease, and can be deadly, although many cases can be treated successfully. Lepto is fairly common in wildlife populations, so this vaccination warrants consideration and discussion based on your lifestyle and locale.

Corona–even in a laboratory where dogs are intentionally exposed to corona, there are virtually never symptoms exhibited.

Lyme–vaccine causes the same symptoms it is supposed to prevent.

Giardia–is generally symptomatic only briefly if at all in otherwise healthy animals, and is easily cured.

Whatever vaccines you decide to administer, there is very little reason to give them simultaneously. Common multi-antigen vaccinations are unquestionably hard on an animals immune system. Try never to attack your dog’s immune system in more than one way at a time. If you have administered an antigen, do not administer another. And do not simultaneously administer topical or internal insecticides including flea or tick preventatives, wormers, heartworm preventatives, etc. Let your dog’s immune system focus on one thing at a time.

Social Pressure

Many people still believe that any dog who has not been annually vaccinated is being neglected. Humane societies, vets, pharmaceutical companies, obedience schools, and daycares all perpetuate this myth. They continue harming their dogs with excessive vaccinations and believe that anyone not doing the same is taking a needless risk. Furthermore, many of them have an incorrect understanding of immunology and believe that a less-vaccinated dog poses an environmental risk to other dogs. This is erroneous–even if your dog were unvaccinated, he is no likelier to be carrying the disease than any other dog, and in fact is less likely to be shedding disease or to be an asymptomatic carrier. However, many of these institutions will not allow your dog unless you have proof of numerous unnecessary vaccinations. I have no real solution to offer except to attempt to educate these people or take your business elsewhere.

Immune Memory

There seems to be considerable confusion among dog owners about how immune memory works, so here is a brief overview: At present very little science supports the notion that memory cells “forget,” and there is a huge and growing body of data indicating that they do not, so there is little rational justification for repeating shots throughout adulthood, and there is considerable evidence that doing so compromises overall health. Most people are simply scared, uninformed, willing to sacrifice canine health to possibly protect human health, and require “proof” that a dog could not lose immunity over time before they would significantly reduce the revaccination requirement. Alas, proving that something could not happen is virtually impossible, but try to find a vet who has seen a case of parvo in an adult dog that was ever successfully vaccinated, even among rural populations that tend to not do any adult veterinary care–it simply does not happen.

That immune memory is long lived has been empirically recognized since Ancient Greece when it was observed that once a person had a particular disease in childhood they would likely never have that particular disease again. However, the most commonly quoted seminal moment of truth came in 1847 when a measles epidemic on the Faroe Islands infected virtually every inhabitant of the island, except for those people who were old enough to have lived through the last measles outbreak 65 years earlier. This was extremely interesting because it was clear from the universality of infection that there had been absolutely no measles present on the island otherwise some of the inhabitants would have gotten ill and become immune. It was therefore demonstrative that the older residents had maintained immunity without any boosters, and without ANY external measles exposure for 65 years. This same “experiment” was repeated on several isolated islands and in numerous labs. From then on, it has been widely accepted by immunologists that immunity, once achieved, is in most cases extremely long lived and likely permanent.

While it is clear that immunity is generally long lived, it is less clear how… There are several ways in which the immune system maintains memory, and there remains some uncertainty how they work together to maintain immunity for such long periods. Furthermore, any discussion of immunity is complicated by the fact that some diseases behave differently then most others. For example, T-cell independent antigens do not yield immune memory at all. So there are many exceptions and plenty of room for confusion.

However, since canine immune memory for distempter, parvo, and rabies behaves similarly, we can avoid discussing the exceptions for practical purposes of canine vaccine decisions. Throughout most of a dog’s body there exists a network of specialized cells whose purpose is to capture and process antigens. These are called dendritic cells. A subset of these cells, follicular dendritic cells, store antigen/antibody complexes called iccosomes for each antigen the dog has previously encountered either through exposure or vaccination which they present to B-cells periodically. The B-cells then present peptides to T-cells to “refresh” their memory. (It is interesting to note that antigen that has been thus processed is extremely potent in stimulating T-cells, around 10,000 times more efficient than unprocessed antigen) It is not fully understood how often or why this refreshing occurs, but if you take the T or B cells out of one rat and put them in another rat who has been irradiated to ensure no immunity, the B and T-cells will confer immunity for less then a month, so we can be fairly certain it is the action of the follicular dendritic cells that prolongs immune memory to last for many decades. Furthermore, we are fairly certain that the antigen complexes can persist indefinitely in the dendritic cells, forming new external iccosomes as needed, so it is generally believed that this is the process which confers lifetime immunity to these diseases.

Titers

Many people have begun using titers as a tool for their dogs; unfortunately, there seems to be fairly widespread misunderstanding of what titers mean. Higher titer do not indicate superior immunity. A titer measures level of current antibodies, so a low titer does NOT mean low immunity because if the animal was previously immune but has not recently been challenged it could have a low or nonexistent titer, and any positive titer indicates the existence of antibodies from which you can deduce the presence of memory cells. I hate to imagine people revaccinating because of a low or nonexistent titer, but unfortunately when I hear of people annually or frequently re-titering I suspect that is precisely what they are erroneously thinking. Antibodies die in the absence of challenge. Immune memory generally does not. Titers go down when antibodies go down and say NOTHING about memory. If you have a dog that has been successfully vaccinated for parvo, next time he has a low titer for parvo, take him somewhere you know parvo has recently been, then re-titer him–titers will magically have gone way up because memory cells, as their name implies, exist to remember and will produce antibodies as needed.

More information

If you want to learn about the current status of vaccination knowledge, I strongly suggest reading the works of:

Ronald D. Schultz, Richard B. Ford, Jean Dodds, Duval, Glickman, Frick and Brooks, FW Scott, Dennis Macy, Leland Carmichael, Richard Pitcairn

A few good sites on vaccination:

www.caberfeidh.com/PuppyVax.htm

www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adobe/AdverseVaccReactions.pdf

www.caberfeidh.com/Revax.htm

AVMA Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents’ report on cat and dog vaccines

www.altvetmed.org/articles/vaccinations.html

www.wellpet.org/vaccines/dodds-schedule.htm

www.animalwellnessmagazine.com/m/m86/main.htm

Purdue Vaccine Study