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UK Vaccination guidelines

Karlin

Karlin

Administrator
Staff member
UK and Irish board members might wish to bookmark this recently released (late Nov 2014) UK government document from the Veterinary Medicines Board, the official government oversight board for vets. The statement paper advises vets to follow WAVMA guidelines -- which indicate dogs (and cats) only need core boosters every THREE years at most, NOT annually. The VMB also offers a 5 page list of all licensed vaccinations on which you can clearly see period of duration and for core vaccines these are currently guaranteed at LEAST three years.

If asked by your vet to bring dogs in for an annual booster, I'd show them the documents and ask why they are still arguing for an annual vaccine when even the manufacturers indicate immunity of at least 3 years.

The link to both documents: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-of-dogs
 
Thank you Karlin; I am delighted to see yet more documented reasons why NOT to be summoned for the 'annual booster'. I do not live in the UK, but veterinary practices here follow closely UK protocols. In my own circumstances, I have just (again) had to go through the very stressful process of arguing the point (of no annual boosters just for the heck of it) with my otherwise excellent and talented vet........thank goodness for an enlightened kennel who will accept my titre test certificates....:)
 
Having 2 working Pets As Therapy Dogs, well Joe has passed his assessment and I am waiting for his paperwork to come through for him to start working!

PAT insist that dogs and cats have annual vaccinations, making it a condition of registration and renewal of registration. Homeopathic protection is allowed if administered by a registered homeopathic vet. I am wondering whether I should send in a copy of the recommendations to encourage the Trustees to reconsider their policy?
 
ByFloSin said:
Having 2 working Pets As Therapy Dogs, well Joe has passed his assessment and I am waiting for his paperwork to come through for him to start working!

PAT insist that dogs and cats have annual vaccinations, making it a condition of registration and renewal of registration. Homeopathic protection is allowed if administered by a registered homeopathic vet. I am wondering whether I should send in a copy of the recommendations to encourage the Trustees to reconsider their policy?
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I most certainly would be letting the Trustees have a copy of these recommendations! they only 'insist' because they don't know otherwise or understand the implications of over vaccination! at least that's my theory....if you are able to titre test would they accept this as proof of protection? I'm afraid I feel very strongly about this....and how long it has been allowed to continue virtually unchallenged....:D I really hope that you can come to some agreement as the job your companions do is so very important; but so is their health..
 
Flo, I seem to remember I queried this with Pets as Therapy several years ago and whoever I spoke to (Dinah Baynton-Dibley, I think) said that as long as the vaccinations were regular, whether annual or three-yearly, that was OK. With more dog owners knowing about the three-year ruling, Pets as Therapy are going to lose a lot of potential volunteers if they continue to insist on annual vaccinations.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
Kate H said:
Flo, I seem to remember I queried this with Pets as Therapy several years ago and whoever I spoke to (Dinah Baynton-Dibley, I think) said that as long as the vaccinations were regular, whether annual or three-yearly, that was OK. With more dog owners knowing about the three-year ruling, Pets as Therapy are going to lose a lot of potential volunteers if they continue to insist on annual vaccinations.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
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The more I thnk about it the more I think the policy should be altered.

I've checked Holly P's vaccination card, from which it seems that the vet is giving Lepto 2 annually but not the other components. I spoke to the vet who confirmed it. He said he is familiar with the guidelines and is also well aware of my feelings about over vaccination. He thinks that as long as the card is marked up for annual boosters there should be nothing to worry about with PAT abd ut's policies.

I try my best to recruit new teams and talk to many people. It's fairly simple to mention the vaccination policy and how it should be dealt with in a similar way to what my vet is doing.
 
I checked with the Pets as Therapy office and this was their reply:

We currently say that our dogs need to be protected by vaccination, according to the protocol advised by the volunteer’s vet. Most vets now use the 3 year protocol, which is the full booster every 3 years with the leptospirosis component annually. This is required every year as it does not last and is the disease that can be transmitted to humans which is the reason we still advise that vaccinations are required annually.

Hope that helps, Flo.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
 
Kate H said:
I checked with the Pets as Therapy office and this was their reply:

We currently say that our dogs need to be protected by vaccination, according to the protocol advised by the volunteer’s vet. Most vets now use the 3 year protocol, which is the full booster every 3 years with the leptospirosis component annually. This is required every year as it does not last and is the disease that can be transmitted to humans which is the reason we still advise that vaccinations are required annually.

Hope that helps, Flo.

Kate, Oliver and Aled
Click to expand...

I'm really grateful to you for checking the policy out Kate. Unfortunately, I've been caught up in some time consuming team placement problems and not been able to speak to Dinah about it, so you've saved me some time. My vet is well aware that if the question of over vaccination ever arose with my dogs I would show him no mercy :rolleyes:
 
It's great to see organisations like this altering policies to match the science! :D
 
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