Immunisation question

I literally LOL'd

However ... Im not sure how its relevant, I mean, the dog probably sleeps outside too, but I doubt the children do.

Pets are easier - you can't kick the kids outside in the middle of the night when they wake you up cause they want attention!

What a strange question! LOL

May I ask why you are asking this? I am genuinely curious now too!

Edited by kellie

I don't think it is an odd question at all. I have looked into the animal vaccines quite a bit and after reading lots on it I couldn't find anything that was less than 15 years out of date, I then spoke to the vet, who was obviously pro vaccination and weighed up the pros and cons. I still doesn't sit quite right with me but I was taking my dogs to a national dog assembly so I had them redone (they had been done as pups) I will not be getting them done yearly though.

I don't think she is worried about the dogs passing something to kids more the damage vaccines could do to her pets. There is as much controversy around animal vaccines as there are around human ones.

Sorry, just remembered leptospirosis, which does transfer to humans from dogs (actually most mammals I think - I know someone who got it from a rat bite). But I thought that was more likely for rural animals e.g. farm dogs that would come into contact with children.

Leptospirosis

To answer the question:
I don't vaccinate as my son had a serious reaction. I don't own any animals anyway, but if I did I would vaccinate them. If they had a very bad reaction I wouldn't get them jabbed again

To be honest I've felt like this before. I don't hesitate to vaccinate my pets against diseases, so the same goes for my children.

kellie wrote: She has stated before that she is pro vax, so I took it to mean something else.

Ok I didn't know that.

To answer the question then, I have had all my pets longer than my children and they were all blindly vaccinated in the usual annual manner without even a second thought about it, the same as I have had myself vaccinated for things due to the nature of the industry I use to work in and I had those done without even thinking about it or asking any question. But once I did look into vaccines and had my eyes opened to it I questioned getting my pets done and until last October they had not had any annual jabs (but had all been done as younger animals). I got my dogs done because I couldn't find any up to date research, the research I did find was American and we don't use the same injections so it was mostly all irrelevant and I can't find a homeopathic vet in NZ (they do exist in other countries, I'm not making it up) and I was taking them to an extremely large gathering of animals where the likelihood that they could pick something up is higher. I have not had my cats redone though.

I'm not sure what I will do with any future pets, if it's a kitten then likelihood is that it would have been jabbed before it even gets sold so I will have no say and if it's a pup well then I guess I would have another go at finding some up to date research on it all and failing that I would mostly likely choose to do them as a pup but not again. (and that decision is based on the research I did find stating that the vaccines do not wear off and do not need to be done yearly, even the american association of vets are questioning why they are done yearly when they should provide cover for the lifespan of you average dog/cat).

I am undecided about vaccinations for my baby yet, but my dog and both my cats are vaccinated.

Unlike with my child when he/she is small, I have little control on who my cats socialise with in the early hours of the morning, and there are some areas nearly with a number of strays. Also, if my cat was to get sick, she isn't going to come and tell me, or be around the house for me to notice the same as my child will - much harder to be proactive with a sick cat!
My dog socialises with other dogs and goes to events where there are other dogs, that is why he gets vaccinated.

That's really interesting two_boys. How do you know that?

For the vet bills we've paid, a leaky urethra seems to make up a large proportion of our vet's revenue. LOL.