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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Titers? Please explain for Joey.
| Hi, Please can you explain what titers are as it's a term I've never heard from my vet?. Many thanks, Corrie & Joey. |
| Corrie Dagenham Essex UK. |
| It has to do, I believe, with what levels are still existing in the sytem? Could be wrong. I know that when someone gets the Hepatitis B vaccine, for example, you get can your "titers" checked after a few years to see what level of the vaccine is still in your system. Don't quote me on this though! |
| Mardi Northern Calif |
| Corrie, I could write a book on this, or I should say experts have written reams of material on this. It involved immunity and how that works. When you or your dog are exposed to something like a virus, (let's say the simple cold virus... ) our immune system sends out agents in the body to check out the "non self" item. It detects this item and "remembers" what this looks like. It tells the immune system "hey, bad thing here, this doesn't belong in this body, bad bad, alert alert, protect the body." This starts a complex process that allows the body to make a specific antigen that marks this virus. The the body develops antibodies to this antigen. So then the immune system elements can go out into the system, find the things that are "marked" as this virus and attack them. This process in you or me creates the symptoms of the cold. Running eyes, sneezing etc. In a more serious virus, like the flu, the body actually tried very hard to get rid of the flu by doing things like raising the body temperature, thus you get a fever. Now, the body has done a lot of work to tag this item and in fact, it will remember this virus for a lifetime. So, if you had your blood tested, they would find the markers for this specific virus. This is called a Titer. This is a pretty simplified description of a very complex process. The titer will indicate a ratio for the amount of markers in the body. Again, this is a pretty simplified explanation. But let's say you had the chicken pox when you were little. If they had titered your blood for this virus right after you recovered, they would find a very very high titer. So what happens years later when they titer you? Well, this is the big question. If they find a moderate or low titer, does this mean that you might get the chicken pox again? No. You will never get the chicken pox again. (However, the chicken pox virus continues to live in your nerves at your spinal cord level. The virus can become "active" again later in life and cause a condition called Shingles. It's the same virus, but this time it creates painful blisters along the path that nerve takes across the back and around the side. Researchers believe that using the new vaccination for children for chicken pox on the elderly will wake up the immune system and prevent the occurrence of shingles. We will see if this becomes an effective treatment. So this would be one exception to the titer explanation) How does this apply to your dog??? Well, when your dog is vaccinated as a puppy (in a series of shots) they are injecting dead elements (hopefully all vaccinations are now the killed form instead of modified live) into the body. The dog's immune system should properly react to this "non self" item and create these markers to the disease. In fact, titers became popular by breeders who wanted to make sure that the original vaccinations had actually been effective. At a young age, sometimes the immune system is too immature to respond properly. So this is where titers first were used in dogs. The mistaken idea that has developed is that instead of yearly boosters, dogs should be titered to see if they have immunity to something like distemper. And if the titer is "low", then the incorrect thought pattern is that the dog should be "re-vaccinated to boost the titer." The reality is, what the titer tells you is that at some point in the life of the dog, it was exposed to distemper and created immunity in the body. It cannot tell you whether the body, if exposed to distemper, will activate a *significant response* in order to successfully attack the distemper. But there is continuing research that is always ongoing to determine this. I *personally feel*, from what I have read, that this does mean that the dog is protected. So the mistaken idea is that owners should do yearly titers instead of boosters and then re-vaccinate the dog for "low" titers. The titers mean, to those people who understand it, that the dog has developed an immunity to this disease and if exposed, (and it is healthy) should be able to fight off the disease. If you read Dr. Dodd's papers on vaccinations, you will see that she believes in responsible vaccinations for puppies. From that point on she feels that titers can be used to determine if the vaccination had "taken." If this is the case, then the dog probably should not receive any boosters other than the legally required rabies. I recently rescued a Giant Schnauzer that was found wandering. They did require me to get a rabies vaccination before I could take him. But I decided I wanted to see if this dog had ever been vaccinated for anything at all so I had all the other titers done. Well, they came back and showed NO LEVELS OF IMMUNITY for all the regularly vaccinated items like distemper, parvo etc. This is an excellent use of a titer. I decided that instead of vaccinating this young dog blindly, I would make sure he really needed it. So he was brought in immediately for his series of vaccinations. When I first started taking dogs to training classes and enrolled Chance in Therapy Dogs International, they all required routine yearly boosters and proof of that. Now, it is known that this isn't required, and in fact many of these training classes and TDI now accept a titer as proof of vaccination. Veterinary colleges in the US have moved to a moderate recommendation of boosters every three years, but they also add that vets at a local level should be allowed to determine the best protocol for their clients depending on the locality and health of the dog. This is landmark. A first time titer is an excellent test, at whatever age you first do it. You can, if it makes you and your vet more comfortable, repeat that yearly or biyearly or every 5 years, whatever. But once you see immunity there, I feel there is a good chance that it will continue throughout life. As always, your vet, that you trust, is the best judge of anything I say! Meanwhile, Dr. Dodds is now assisting in The Rabies Challenge, a scientific study to determine if this vaccine is effective for AT LEAST 7 years. This is monumental and the lasting effects from this study will be so far reaching that it will impact veterinary science and treatment for years to come. The dogs that you and I own might not live long enough to benefit from this study, but dogs in the future will. I hope this lengthy post is not too confusing, but gives you an idea of the complexity of what a titer really means. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Hi Corrie My Riley recently had an ANA titre, an AntiNuclear Antibody titre, which was requested as a prognostic to determine whether Riley will have to stay on medication for the rest of his life, and it came back as positive 1:40, which is apparently low enough to say that he will be able to weaned off the medication, guess it works out how many antibodies are there that his system is attempting to destroy. I believe there are others such as Mardi talks about to determine whether vaccinations are still protecting your dog so that you dont have to keep doing it every year like they tell us to. Cheers Silka |
| Silka Melbourne Australia |
| Well, there ya go! Next time I'll let the experts answer these questions as I am a complete novice. I am glad Patrice got the info down for you and Silka responded also. Good luck. |
| Mardi Northern Calif |
This thread was discussed between 08/10/2009 and 09/10/2009
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