I have just taken in a stray dog which, of course, I want to have vaccinated against all possible diseases. Will the vet be able to tell if it has already been vaccinated, and will it harm the dog to be vaccinated again?

First of all, a vet would not be able to tell from examining the dog whether or not it has been vaccinated against the usual infectious diseases; unless of course it is showing obvious signs of one of them which would strongly suggest that it has not been recently vaccinated.

It is possible to measure the level of antibody in the blood against a particular organism, although this will not tell you whether it is the result of vaccination or natural infection; not that this matters because the immunity would be the same. However, this type of test is not done routinely and would therefore be expensive and difficult to arrange, particularly since it would need to be done separately for each disease. More importantly, it would be unnecessary to go to this trouble and expense since routine vaccination would be cheaper and would not be harmful even if it was not required.

How long will vaccination protect my dog? Will its immunity ever need to be boosted by re-vaccination?

Unless the dog comes into natural contact with the infectious organisms responsible for the various diseases described, the level of antibodies in its blood will gradually decline. Whether or not this has happened, however, cannot readily be ascertained. Therefore, in order to boost the level of antibodies and keep them at an effective level to combat the infections, it is advisable for repeat vaccinations to be performed.

The plasma cells which produce antibodies can ‘remember’ a particular bacterium or virus, and if that organism reappears in the body they can rapidly produce large amounts of the specific antibody against it. For maximum protection it is recommended that vaccination is repeated annually as a general rule, though the persistence of immunity does vary with the disease. Immunity conferred by killed vaccines wanes more rapidly than from live; for this reason leptospiral vaccines are always given annually. Bordetella and parvovirus vaccines are repeated at intervals of between six months and a year. Rabies vaccination is repeated annually with killed vaccines, but with Jive vaccines, following re-vaccination at the end of the first year, it is necessary only every third year thereafter.

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Does vaccination ever cause the disease?

With modern vaccines this is extremely unlikely to occur and could only happen with live vaccines in which the viruses were not as weakened as was believed. Rare cases in which a dog develops the disease shortly after administration of a vaccine are almost always due to the animal having already been in the incubation stage of the disease (i.e. after infection but before signs appear) when vaccination was performed.
Occasionally a dog will show an allergic reaction to a vaccine, which requires treatment with adrenaline.

Does vaccination always work?

No, regrettably it does not. There is no vaccine which is capable of fully protecting 100 % of the animals inoculated with it. One important reason is that there is always a small proportion of animals whose immune systems do not respond in the normal manner to vaccines, or for that matter to natural infections. As a result, these individuals will not develop good immunity. This, however, is a fault of the animal’s body and not of the vaccine. Unfortunately, unless their antibody levels are measured, which is difficult to arrange, such animals cannot be distinguished.

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If puppies are orphaned and don’t get any natural protection from their mother’s first milk, can they be vaccinated at birth?

If the puppies haven’t received any substantial amount of maternal antibodies, because they never suckled after birth (for example in cases where the mother dies giving birth), then it would seem logical to vaccinate them as soon as possible. However, the value of vaccination depends upon the ability of the puppy’s immune mechanisms to be able to respond to the vaccine, and in the first two weeks of life the production of antibodies following the administration of a vaccine is usually poor. This is because the body temperature of puppies during that period is often less than the 100.5-102.5 OF (38-39°C) required to ensure the development of effective immunity. Indeed, giving a live vaccine during that time might even be harmful. Since there are hyperimmune sera available to give instant protection against distemper, ICH and leptospirosis, it is preferable at that age to give a dose of serum followed four weeks later by vaccination. Where vaccination is given at such an early age it is best to repeat it three or four weeks later.

You mentioned giving puppies a dose of measles vaccine? Surely dogs don’t get measles, do they?

No, dogs don’t get measles, but the viruses that cause canine distemper and measles in humans are very closely related. If a dog is given an injection of measles vaccine it will develop immunity to canine distemper – an example of ‘heterotypic vaccination’. The immunity is not as complete as that conferred by a live distemper vaccine, but the administration of measles vaccine to puppies has one special benefit. The advantage is that in general measles vaccine will not be neutralized to any appreciable extent by any maternal antibody to distemper which may still be present in the puppy. Consequently a dose of measles vaccine can be given to puppies which are at particular risk from distemper (e.g. in breeding and boarding kennels, or petshops) at an early age (five or six weeks onwards), with the almost total certainty of providing immunity. The usual distemper vaccine should then be given between twelve and fourteen weeks old to provide longer-lasting protection.

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I want to provide my dog with the best possible protection. What diseases should it be vaccinated against?

At present there are commercial vaccines specifically produced against eight important diseases of dogs. These are canine distemper, infectious canine hepatitis (ICH), canine parvovirus infection, rabies, leptospirosis (due to both of the common serotypes) and the three most important causes of kennel cough (or canine respiratory disease), namely the canine adenoviruses, canine parainfluenza virus and Bordetella bronchiseptica. Although this appears a formidable list two points should be borne in mind.

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