I have a five and a half month old bernadoodle – My concern is about vaccines

[Guest]

She is up to date and needs her second Parvo booster.

When she got her last set of vaccines she was so sick. She was vomiting and had diarrhea.

She was so sick I took her to the vet. We'll $300 dollars, iv fluid, steroid shot benadryl and blood work later I discover she had a bad reaction.

She will have to get a steroid shot and benadryl shot before she gets her next dose which is due. I've had dogs my whole life, all sizes breeds and mixed. Now I'm debating if I should get her next round of vaccines. I'm worried she'll have a bad reaction again.

Has this happened to anyone else? Are they really necessary? She only stays in our yard.

We don't go to dog parks. We are planning on taking her in the woods.

I just have mixed feelings. I don't wanna make my baby sick again!

[Adrien]

Ask for them to give an additional injection to counteract any reactions, it is super important to finish out all those puppy boosters! In the future she may tolerate it better, or you can always split her vaccines (so she never gets more than one at a time).

[Oz Koller]

I would finish her round of puppy shots, and then in the future perhaps get titers to avoid vaccinating when unnecessary. I used to have clients that would do titers for their pups and vaccinate when the titers indicated it was needed, that way they were only doing it when absolutely needed if the dog has bad reactions.

[McKenzie]

You don’t mess with parvo. Her reaction is a lot better then parvo.

[Katie]

Same thing happened to my dog as a puppy. I've kept her up to date on all important vaccines but I don't have them give her more than one shot at a time. As it is, some shots have 3-4 vaccines in them so I think it's incredibly stupid and irresponsible that vets will give a puppy multiple shots at a time, sometimes totalling a dozen or more vaccines for their bodies to handle at once. Like, what?!

It's more trips to the vet but I'm ok with that.

[Jeannie]

I only vaccinate my dog for things he may be exposed to. For example, if he was to go to dog classes or daycare = parvo, distemper and rabies for sure.

When we go camping - heartworm and tick prevention.

As my dog is dog reactive and his only outside time is mainly at my warehouse with no other animals around in fenced off area with supervision.

Yes, it isn’t ideal and you should always get every preventative treatment you can - however - as your dog had really bad issues last time (which is emotionally and financially stressful) it may be an option you want to seek.

Talk to your vet about what is endemic to your area and what you plan on doing with your pup to work out the best care plan.

Someone else commented about 1 vaccine at a time... it may be more costly but it also may be better for the dog. Again, vet can determine if that is a good possibility also.

If money is no object, maybe even allergy testing to determine what your pup is allergic too. It may be useful for future treatments, baths, or food.

Please let us know an update and best of luck to you and your cute pup

[Holly]

Don't do it. I only did rabies on my dog. We live in a rural area and didn’t take my dog to any high dog traffic areas until he was older. Once a dog has a serious reaction, they are definitely susceptible to another one and it may be worse.

[Mindy]

It sounds like your vet has a plan in place. I’d just confirm it to be the one vaccine being given that day, and try it. I know it sounds scary, but that is a super important one. What a pup goes through if they get parvo is horrific.

[Nicole]

With the strand of parvo that is going around if another dog comes in your yard that dog could leave it - fighting parvo is not fun it cost me 20k last summer for 2 puppies that got it and one didn’t make it - so I would weight the pros and cons and if you didn’t keep the puppy vaccines 3-4 weeks apart for at least 3 rounds the first vaccine isn’t any good now and you would have to start over.