BlacksheepCardigans
Songster
It's important to know WHY you should wait until 8 weeks for the first shot unless the mom is super low on her titers (which can happen with Dobermans sometimes, because the whole breed is borderline immunosuppressed - that's why they tend to get parvo so easily and it's worse in Dobies than almost any other breed).
When you give a parvo/distemper shot, it takes the puppy about three weeks to "process" it - for the immune system to see it, work on it, and rebound to normal. So giving another shot before the three weeks is up is not only ineffective but harmful to the puppy because you're asking the immune system to respond when its ability to do so is much lower than normal.
The reason shots are repeated is not because repeating does any good. It's because we're not sure when the puppy's immunity from the mom will be low enough that it's vulnerable to the disease. We're trying to catch the puppy with the vaccine right when the maternal immunity is failing. Most puppies are still covered by mom at 8 weeks, but a few will not be, so we do the shot at 8 weeks. The second shot, at 11-12 weeks, is actually the one that catches the majority of the puppies. If you're not using Recombitek, which is proven to cover 100% of them at 12 weeks, you should also do another one at 16 weeks just in case your puppy is one of the few who still had a lot of maternal immunity at 12 weeks.
When you give a shot at 6 weeks, you're vaccinating ALREADY IMMUNIZED puppies. The mom's antibodies should be at full strength at that age. That means her antibodies will attack the virus in the shot, killing most of them, but the puppy's own immune system will still be suppressed. The 8-week shot then won't work properly - since the puppy isn't ready for it - and has a higher chance of not protecting the puppy. A 6- and 8-week schedule actually leaves the puppy at greater risk than an 8-week alone.
If you have a puppy with an uncertain vaccine history and it's over 12 weeks, ONE shot is all that is necessary. You don't need to repeat 3-4 weeks after that, because repeating the shot doesn't do anything. If the dog is immune it's immune; boosters don't do anything if the response is already adequate.
NO viral shot should be given yearly. There's no need to do them three years apart either, unless it's legally required (rabies, for example). A properly immunized puppy has a lifetime duration of immunity.
Lepto is a completely different story. Lepto immunization only lasts a few months. It drives me crazy that vets push lepto shots if you live in a high-risk area but don't tell you that genuinely protecting the dog would require boosters every six to ten months. I don't do lepto vaccines because they're so hard on the dogs; I know the symptoms of lepto and am ready to insist on testing for it if I have a sick dog. Every owner should, because unless your dog was VERY freshly vaccinated for it your dog isn't actually protected.
When you give a parvo/distemper shot, it takes the puppy about three weeks to "process" it - for the immune system to see it, work on it, and rebound to normal. So giving another shot before the three weeks is up is not only ineffective but harmful to the puppy because you're asking the immune system to respond when its ability to do so is much lower than normal.
The reason shots are repeated is not because repeating does any good. It's because we're not sure when the puppy's immunity from the mom will be low enough that it's vulnerable to the disease. We're trying to catch the puppy with the vaccine right when the maternal immunity is failing. Most puppies are still covered by mom at 8 weeks, but a few will not be, so we do the shot at 8 weeks. The second shot, at 11-12 weeks, is actually the one that catches the majority of the puppies. If you're not using Recombitek, which is proven to cover 100% of them at 12 weeks, you should also do another one at 16 weeks just in case your puppy is one of the few who still had a lot of maternal immunity at 12 weeks.
When you give a shot at 6 weeks, you're vaccinating ALREADY IMMUNIZED puppies. The mom's antibodies should be at full strength at that age. That means her antibodies will attack the virus in the shot, killing most of them, but the puppy's own immune system will still be suppressed. The 8-week shot then won't work properly - since the puppy isn't ready for it - and has a higher chance of not protecting the puppy. A 6- and 8-week schedule actually leaves the puppy at greater risk than an 8-week alone.
If you have a puppy with an uncertain vaccine history and it's over 12 weeks, ONE shot is all that is necessary. You don't need to repeat 3-4 weeks after that, because repeating the shot doesn't do anything. If the dog is immune it's immune; boosters don't do anything if the response is already adequate.
NO viral shot should be given yearly. There's no need to do them three years apart either, unless it's legally required (rabies, for example). A properly immunized puppy has a lifetime duration of immunity.
Lepto is a completely different story. Lepto immunization only lasts a few months. It drives me crazy that vets push lepto shots if you live in a high-risk area but don't tell you that genuinely protecting the dog would require boosters every six to ten months. I don't do lepto vaccines because they're so hard on the dogs; I know the symptoms of lepto and am ready to insist on testing for it if I have a sick dog. Every owner should, because unless your dog was VERY freshly vaccinated for it your dog isn't actually protected.
