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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Parvo outbreak in Wyoming, Michigan
| Ok, I'm trying not to panic. I'm Stormie's Mom (lost Stormie to AIHA and annual vaccines) and Miss Tillie is current baby. Tillie is 9 1/2 years old and she had all her puppy shots, her annual booster...she's current on rabies...she had a year DHPP (?) in April of 2007. I have elected to not have another 3 yr. Dhpp...now I'm wondering if I have done her wrong? She's also scratching/biting with ragweed allergy so she's not in a good position for a vaccination...not that I really want to have her get one anyway. The Dodd chart says 7.5 year immunity possibly lifetime...so that's why I didn't have her get it in 2010. Just trying to keep her safe. It is scary out there...she never goes to dog parks, I don't let her interact with other dogs (happens by accident on occasion but briefly)...she walks on the paved trail and not in the weeds. Mrs. Gates |
| Mrs. Gates Michigan |
| They are saying they have seen 15 cases this summer in an area very close to where I live (only several miles away and then east of me)...mostly puppies and unvaccinated dogs...soooo, I'm having to figure out if I run to the vet for a vaccine... Thanks! |
| Mrs. Gates Michigan |
| Parvo is a very contagious virus usually prevalent in kennels where there are puppies. And a whole litter of puppies can die very quickly from parvo. In addition, if the dam has never been vaccinated she can actually contract parvo from the puppies and die quickly as well. It is usually passed via feces to puppies who do not have maternal antibodies or vaccination. There are two ways it can express, cardiac or intestinal. Young puppies can die from the cardiac/respiratory effects of parvo. Intestinal parvo leads to serious vomiting and diarrhea and subsequent death. I would, personally, not recommend another parvo vaccination. I had to do that for Chance several times because he was a registered therapy dog. I had him titered each year for TDI and only the parvo came in "low" each time. Since he had serious allergies, TDI accepted a waiver from the vet dermatologist so that he was not required to receive yearly boosters. But it was *my mistake* to keep re-boostering the parvo. Dr. Dodds finds the parvo booster problematic. But I didn't know about it at the time. I do live with some guilt about this. However, that doesn't take you off the hook. You are doing the right things by restricting her exposure to other dogs. Feces in the soil and on kennel surfaces is probably the highest risk for transmission. You can put your mind at ease by asking for your vet to do a parvo titer, or for that matter titer the whole vaccination series. Dr. Dodds does the distemper and parvo titer for $45 and the rabies titre for $75. http://www.hemopet.org/files/TEST_REQUEST_FORMandTESTING_DETAILS.pdf A titer is simply a measurement of the antibodies circulating in the blood at any given time. Somehow there has been a mistaken idea that this guarantees protection from getting any of these diseases and so owners go every year to titer their dogs and feel better when they are adequate. So did I. I now have a better understanding of this. Most vaccinations provide lifelong immunity. Once exposed, the memory of the immune system generally provides sufficient protection. The difficulty is that the titer does not translate into *how well* the human or dog's immune system can *respond* if challenged. Do you understand this? It may have the memory of parvo and thus the antibodies but can it react effectively enough to fight it off? In human medicine they have been pondering this with those of us who are old enough to have had a small pox vaccination. Anyone here have that little circular dimple in your upper arm? When the government was concerned about possible biological warfare they looked very carefully at the small pox protection in the US. It's dismal. There isn't enough vaccination available for everyone. Small pox was supposed to have been wiped off the face of the earth. But certain governments maintain small samples for research. If these samples were released by terrorists it would be very serious. So, the short story is that after studying older folks who had had small pox vaccinations when young, they were surprised to find that maybe we just might have enough protective memory after all to fight it off! So perhaps just vaccinating younger people would provide adequate coverage in this country and those of us who are vaccinated, older and healthy would have a good chance too. I am afraid that concerns about biological warfare have been diminished by concerns of our economic decline and I haven't heard a peep about small pox in several years. So my take on parvo is that there probably is a immune system memory of this vaccination throughout life. However, if there is a compromised immune system (for instance in serious canine allergies), there could be a small chance that it cannot muster enough fight to complete the job properly. Make sense? I am not a specialist in immunology, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt. But Dr. Dodds is and might be the best person to pose this question to. It would be helpful for all of us here to know that answer... my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
This thread was discussed on 20/08/2011
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