Vaccine Titers: Four Unfortunate Truths

Vaccine Titers Are Not Effective for All Diseases

The only vaccine titers available are for canine distemper, canine parvovirus, canine rabies, and feline panleukopenia. All the other diseases we vaccinate for such as leptospirosis, canine adenovirus, bordetella, feline calici and rhinotracheitis virus do not produce long-lasting or measurable antibody responses. Therefore, we don’t have any way to test for immunity.

Vaccine Titers Can Either Be Costly and Time Consuming, or Less Expensive and Unreliable

Remember, how I mentioned that false positives and false negatives are a reality? Most tests have some measures of sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity and specificity identify the amount of false positive and false negatives that a test can result in. Currently, the best available vaccine titers are serial dilutions performed through either the University of Kansas or University of Cornell, can take 4-6 weeks for a result, and they are expensive.

Vaccine Titers May Not Satisfy Legal Requirements

In the state of Texas, a positive Rabies titer is not considered proof of vaccination. Your pet will be considered “unvaccinated”, unless they have an actual, up to date, rabies vaccine administered by a veterinarian. The laws must be this strict due to potential zoonotic (spread from animal to human disease) and public health risks associate with rabies.

In addition, your pet’s “unvaccinated” status may prevent them from being accepted into boarding, grooming, veterinary facilities and prevent them from traveling.

Why We Recommend Vaccines

I understand that vaccinations come with some risk. The biggest question to ask is if the benefit outweighs the risk.

My dog, Bucky, (love of my life) is THAT dog that developed a life-threatening autoimmune disease at the age of 10 months. (BTW, he got his full puppy series vaccinations) Did a vaccine cause his disease? Probably not. Could a vaccine pull him out of remission? The risk is high that injectable vaccines could. Should we vaccinate? (I am discussing injectable vaccines only. Oral or intranasal vaccines are inherently without risk) I am not comfortable using any injectable vaccines such as DHPP, Lepto, or Rabies for Bucky. I recognize and acknowledge what limitations I am giving him, and what could happen (both medically and legally) if I do not vaccinate him. But my risk outweighs any benefit at this point in time.

Natural Immunity and Why Nature is Not Always Kind

Let’s put aside the cost. Let’s put aside the fact that vaccine titers may not measure actual immunity (or the lack of such). Let’s put aside legal requirements. Let’s look at natural immunity.

I get questioned frequently that isn’t it better to support immunity naturally? Isn’t it better to support the pet’s immune system and let a pet develop natural immunity on its own rather than risk a possible adverse event from a vaccine? The simple answer is no.

The infectious diseases we want to prevent are serious, life threatening and possibly zoonotic (can be transferred to humans) diseases. THESE DISEASES ARE NATURAL! Very natural. And they can cause severe illness or death in your pet. You must realize that just because your unvaccinated pet has not come down with a disease yet, does not mean they won’t, if unvaccinated. You are taking a risk. Just like I am with my dog. Only I don’t really have a choice.

A few years ago, in 2022, there were reports of a new mystery illness that was affecting and killing adult dogs and puppies in Michigan. It turned out to be just an outbreak of parvovirus. All dogs affected were improperly vaccinated or unvaccinated. Those deaths and illnesses were preventable. We should not throw out centuries of medicine and studies just because prevention isn’t “natural”. If that were so, you’d have to give up cars, stores, homes, telephones, and all the things that we use to prevent nature from making our lives miserable.

We can protect your pet safely and with minimal risks. A vaccine is the safest, most effective way of doing that in otherwise healthy pets. A titer is not, but may be the best way we have available, to a small subset of patients to whom the vaccine is a higher risk. I understand that there is conflicting information out there about vaccines and their safety. To be fair, I agree with some, and disagree with others. My goal as an integrative veterinarian is to keep your pet as safe as possible from all the things that can hurt or even kill them, and sometimes that means taking a risk. Personally, I think vaccines carry a very small risk with a very large benefit.

Our Promise to You…

Something my father told me years ago really stuck with me. As he gave me my first car, he said, “Please, buckle your seat belt. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you in something I gave you.” To this day, and far beyond the car he gave me, I still buckle my seat belt, because while a seat belt poses a small risk of injury when buckled, it may prevent a more serious injury or death in the case of a serious accident. As a veterinarian, I sometimes have to recommend taking a small risk of injury to prevent a more serious or life threatening disease if your pet is exposed to something life threatening. The most frustrating and heartbreaking cases I see are the ones that could have been prevented.

My promise to you is that we will carefully and thoughtfully educate you and make recommendations that are in the best interest of your pet. We will provide you with guidance and recommendations that are progressive and take into consideration every risk vs every benefit. (i.e. we have not been over vaccinating pets since we opened in 2002, long before 3-year intervals were considered standard).