Pet owners: Do you vaccinate your dog/cat every year? Pet, dog, cat, year, every

kisstherain

Hi pet owners, have you been taking your dog/cat to the vet annually for check up and vaccines?  Time is up for my 1 year old cat for his annual vaccines but I am not sure if he really need it every year.  According to the reminder card from the vet, he needs:
- Palnleukopenia
- Rhinotracheitis
- Calicivirus
- Rabies
- Leukemia

When I did some googling, it seems a new idea is pets don't need to be vaccinated yearly. Think humans: We are immuned almost for life from the shots we got as babies. So why  our pets need the shots so frequently?

See these articles:
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/petvax/
Holisticat:  http://www.holisticat.com/vaccinations.html
Pet Center: http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/vacrec.html
and http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/annual_vacs.htm

The reason why I start to question the need for annual vaccinations is last year, my 9 year old cat devloped a lump at where she received her vaccine. It scared the heck out of me because the lump was hard and big.  Luckily the thing disappeared by itself and not a Vaccine-associated sarcoma (common in cats.. please see
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/VAS.HTM)

By reading more, it become apparent to me over vaccinating can make our pets sick.  So I think I am going to skip giving my pets shots every year but just annual check ups. I would like to see what are some  pet-owner LYKs' thoughts on this?

kisstherain

its_visa, so your baby (a Shih Tzu rite?) gets its distemper, bordetella, parvo... etc yearly? That's my concern... do they need those shots that regularly? (like yearly or every 3 years). I

Fabric Little Bear, can you pm me your vet's name? Seems like a vet I'd like to switch my cats to.   Thanks!!

kisstherain

嘉嘉 , is skipping Revolution okay? I thought that is one of the things I can't skip along with the rabies booster since  it's getting warm and fleas are active. So all my cats and dogs have started their flea programs already (Dogs eat Program; cats get Revolution). My younger cat hatesss Revolution though. I am not sure if it was the smell or the liquid burns his skin or what... he'd dart around the house for 30 mins every time I applied it on him. Poor thing.

It is hard to find a good vet We had one really good vet for the past 10 years but she passed away. Since then, my pets have been floating away with different vets and I don't like that. Terra Nova Village vet in Richmond is expensive and Lansodowne hospital has at least three different vets (but their website only has info on one).

Sigh, it seems I am bringing my cat back to Lansdowne for annual exam and tell the vet no shots please.

kisstherain

I want to know who is good too. What is your opinion on Dr Rana? (Lansdowne) Currently my cats see him for annual exams and my young one was neutered there. Everything is okay. Touch wood nothing major has happened so I don't know how good is he at diagnosing, prescribing medicine etc.  My coworker told me her new puppy had skin problem and Rana gave him steriods right away. We are a bit wary if giving steriods to a puppy that early is good or not. Anyway it cured the problem so.
BTW, I took my young cat for his annual exam and I told Rana I dont' want to give him all the shots (refer to the first post of this thread). So Rana took a look and gave him two that he said are boosters and is needed. One is rabies and the other I forgot.
Dr. Dear is still the vet we take our old dogs to though. He seems to be quite good at diagnosing and like daimo said, very detailed, but em, expensive.
I hate it when vets suggest me feed Science Diet or or whatever food they sell there. One of the ingredients list show corn meal and chicken by-product meal as the top 2 ingredients! What kind of junk is that? Yuck!
But why do vets still recommand them? Read this: http://www.4pawsu.com/vet_dogfood.htm

http://www.4pawsu.com/vet_dogfood.htm

kisstherain

My cats finished two large bags of Orijen 6 fish formula a while ago. The reason I stopped was reading there was a recall in Australia (http://www.dailykitten.com/chat/topic/11709) and even though that recall affects their food sold in Australia ONLY, upon some futher googlling, I read some feedback on their canned dog food... some people found pieces of metal in it so I am worried about the QA at their plant. I am sad about this because it is high quality, wonderful food, made in Canada, smells really "fishy" (hehe) and my cats loved it. Now they are on Evo but the vet said it is a very rich food and my cats are going to be overweight. So I am mixing Evo with the Innova Light now.

As for special diets, my dogs are hypoallergic and one suffers from pancretitis (so she is recommanded by get to eat Gastro Formulae from Medi Cal). I have been experimenting with better food lately. Need to read the ingredient list and the nutrition list... I can spend a full hour at Tisol or Super Pet examining  each bag of food. It's really a hit or miss thing. Luckily Tisol has this box to take food donation for dogs and cats so if it doesn't work you can donate it.
Has anyone read that you cannot feed your pet with the same food for too long otherwise it will develop allergies?