# Titers, vaccinations, distemper, and parvo question?



## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

So when I took Kody to the vet almost a week ago, I had them do his titers. Yesterday, one of the techs told me that his titers came back negative for distemper, and then another one told me that his titers came back negative for distemper and parvo. They said that that means I need to take him in sometime to get his distemper and parvo revaccination. 

However, lately I've been reading about overvaccination, and I don't want to revaccinate him if I really don't need to. He'll be 4 years old in June. He had 3 or 4 rounds of DHHP vaccines as a puppy between 6 to 16 weeks, but I don't think he's had any vaccines since then besides rabies. I'm pretty sure he's had titers done at least once or twice before, and I've never been told that he need revaccinating because of them. To be honest, knowing my clinic (I work there), there's a possibility that his titers came back low or zero, and not negative like the techs said. Should I check the computer and make sure they were actually negative beofre revaccinating him? Even if they were, do I still need to revaccinate him considering he's had titers come back normal in the past? Thank you!


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## Momto2GSDs (Mar 22, 2012)

Tulip said:


> So when I took Kody to the vet almost a week ago, I had them do his titers. Yesterday, one of the techs told me that his titers came back negative for distemper, and then another one told me that his titers came back negative for distemper and parvo. They said that that means I need to take him in sometime to get his distemper and parvo revaccination.
> 
> However, lately I've been reading about overvaccination, and I don't want to revaccinate him if I really don't need to. He'll be 4 years old in June. He had 3 or 4 rounds of DHHP vaccines as a puppy between 6 to 16 weeks, but I don't think he's had any vaccines since then besides rabies. I'm pretty sure he's had titers done at least once or twice before, and I've never been told that he need revaccinating because of them. To be honest, knowing my clinic (I work there), there's a possibility that his titers came back low or zero, and not negative like the techs said. Should I check the computer and make sure they were actually negative beofre revaccinating him? Even if they were, do I still need to revaccinate him considering he's had titers come back normal in the past? Thank you!


Hi Tulip!
Whether you work there or not.......a copy of test results (any kind) is YOUR property...YOU paid for testing! So ask for them!

Glad you are thinking about this and asking questions instead of getting the vacc's immediately. Maybe he needs them......maybe he doesn't! ALL dogs are different, that is why titer testing is important. Both of mine had ONE Parvo and ONE Distemper in their lifetime. They are now 9 and almost 8 years old and their titers just came back as STILL fully covered!

Dr. Jean Dodds: "Furthermore, protection as indicated by a positive titer result is not likely to suddenly drop-off unless an animal develops a medical problem such as cancer or receives high or prolonged doses of immunosuppressive drugs. Viral vaccines prompt an immune response that lasts much longer than that elicited by classic antigen. Lack of distinction between the two kinds of responses may be why practitioners think titers can suddenly disappear. But, not all vaccines produce sterilizing immunity. Those that do include: distemper virus, adenovirus, and parvovirus in the dog, and panleukopenia virus in the cat. Examples of vaccines that produced non-sterile immunity would be leptospirosis, bordetella, rabies virus, herpesvirus and calicivirus — the latter two being upper respiratory viruses of cats. While non-sterile immunity may not protect the animal from infection, it should keep the infection from progressing to severe clinical disease.
Therefore, interpreting titers correctly depends upon the disease in question. Some titers must reach a certain level to indicate immunity, but with other agents like those that produce sterile immunity, the presence of any measurable antibody shows protection. The positive titer test result is fairly straightforward, but a negative titer test result is more difficult to interpret, because a negative titer is not the same thing as a zero titer and it doesn’t necessarily mean that animal is unprotected. A negative result usually means the titer has failed to reach the threshold of providing sterile immunity. This is an important distinction, because for the clinically important distemper and parvovirus diseases of dogs, and panleukopenia of cats, a negative or zero antibody titer indicates that the animal is not protected against canine parvovirus and may not be protected against canine distemper virus or feline panleukopenia virus." Dr. Jean Dodds' Pet Health Resource Blog | More on Vaccine Titer Testing 



Moms


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

All three of my mom's fully vaccinated dogs (8-10 years old) just contracted parvo! Very scary, but thankfully all three are okay now, only one had to be hospitalized. I used to be suspicious of the yearly vaccination schedules...now I am not so sure. Perhaps, there is a particularly virulent strain of parvo in our area. The veterinarians were very surprised that vaccinated adult dogs came back positive. They think that the vaccinations may have kept the other two from getting sicker and needing to be hospitalized. Anyway, I'm interested in hearing what others have to say. What can happen if a dog is over-vaccinated?


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## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

Yeah I know haha, it'd just be easier for me to look it up in the computer myself rather than ask someone to do that for me lol. Unless the results are too hard to read (I've never looked at titers results before). Although, btw, the titers and revaccination (if I decide to do it), is free for me with my employee discount . 

So, according to that article, I should revaccinate him for distemper and parvo if the titers really were negative or even zero?


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## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

That reminded me, I had read something about finding out how prevalent distemper/parvo/lepto is in your particular area before deciding to vaccinate for it. Might be something I'll try to look up.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Yes, like Sebrench, I've seen parvo in adult vaccinated dogs too. There's a "vaccine resistant" strain of parvo, and while the vaccine doesn't keep them from getting it, it supposedly may have some cross-protection to keep it from getting as bad. The adults I knew who had it all survived, but it was a pretty gnarly week of puking and _bad _diarrhea. 

Unless there were an autoimmune or immuno-compromised reason to to revaccinate, if the titers are suggesting protection is gone, I'd revaccinate.

If you're worried, you can separate the vaccines by about 3 weeks each, to make it easier on the dog's immune system.


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## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

Thanks for the info! I didn't wanna overvaccinate, but I also want to make sure he's protected from those nasty diseases!


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## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

So I finally got to check the computer for Kody's results, and found that his distemper titer was negative but his Parvo titer was positive. However, my clinic only offers a vaccine containing both distemper and parvo, so I can't only vaccinate him for distemper here. I've heard of breeders vaccinating puppies themselves, could I do this with Kody so that I can vaccinate him only for distemper? If so, where could I find this vaccine? I live about 20-30 min north of dallas, if that helps.


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## DnP (Jul 10, 2008)

I too had to re-vaccinate Phoenix for distemper after titering low. My vet allowed me to order the single distemper vax on my own and administered it for me. If you are comfortable adminstering the vax yourself, then you don't need the vet to re-vax for you. Here is the link for the distemper vax I ordered:

Neovac D Canine Distemper Vaccine Single Dose

It came well packaged as it is temperature sensitive. I had ordered it in August and it arrived cold packed.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

The reason you titer is to find out about the antibodies. If a titer came back low or negative to me that would mean to re-vaccinate. Or you have them re-do it to be sure.


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## Tulip (Jul 31, 2012)

Thanks, DnP! Ordered it . I'm definitely comfortable vaccinating myself; I help the techs all the time, plus this is my own dog so I know who he acts.


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## DnP (Jul 10, 2008)

Glad you were able to order it and adminster the vax yourself!

I sucked at giving Phoenix his allergy shots, so in no way was I comfortable giving the vax myself without causing distress for both of us. :wild:


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