Comments on Rabies Titer Gone? Rabies Protection is Not!

We are planning on getting a puppy soon. I want to give the least vaccines legally possible in US. What is the safest age to give puppy rabies shot?

I recently took my 10 y.o. Dog to the vet with a suspicious growth. They had done a dental on her a year previously and pulled 2 teeth (slab fractures due to one antler chewing incident). At that visit she was current on rabies. This time her rabies had expired and they refused to treat her without a current rabies record. They said they will call the vaccinating vet to confirm vaccination prior to any treatment. I found rabies tags online but no certificate to go with them. If they call the vet to confirm or trace the rabies tag number, there’s little room for saying she’s current when she isn’t. Wish vets were more open to discussing senior animals no longer needing those vaccines vs the almighty dollar in their pockets…

Wow, great article, this one and the 7 myths article. Thanks. I had a rabies titer done a several years ago after my dog's one rabies shot. (We are in a rural area of south Texas so felt the shot was best. Thankful no major issues. He does scratch a lot but I think that was happening before the vaccine. Could have made it worse?) The titer was .4 but I had heard about the "protective level" being .5 and so the vet encouraged the booster vaccine. "No thanks!" I was planning to get another titer this week but reading more and re-processing some of this information after several years, I am encouraged that the protective factor is really more residual, if even unmeasurable.

Dr. Falconer,
I am just now seeing this article and I am so grateful for it. I have an Elnglish lab, Archer, who was diagnosed with IBD by our integrative vet at 9 months old. He had chronic diarrhoea and bile vomiting from the minute we brought him home from the breeder. Our vet at the time (traditional vet) kept going through dewormers, antibiotics, food trials, vaccines, etc. He is now a little more than 3 years and has eaten raw with veggies and fruit since his diagnosis. Recent blood work showed elevated TLI with no other issues and his c Reactive protein was "Optimum." He's on probiotics, Chinese herbs for "heat", turmeric, anchovy/sardine oil. Oh - his previous infants test last year was perfect, too. Since diagnosis he accidentally (long story) received a parvo booster (we detoxed afterward) and has not other vaccinations. I'm in Illinois and have a medical waiver for rabies. So he's only ever had his 1 year as a puppy. The issue is that, even after the parvo booster, his titers barely went up. His rabies titer measured less than WHOs acceptable level, but KS doesn't tell you the number only that it measured less than. So, given that we think he is a low responder (maybe because of autoimmune issues), is it possible the first rabies never "took"? Or is there a way to find out if there is a measure or if it's "0"? At this point, I'm more curious than anything because he will never get another vaccine as long as I'm alive. He is active and goes on hikes, swims, etc., but I absolutely refuse to knowingly give him something that could kill him (cancer at the site or more autoimmune issues). I've worked so hard to get him where he is today and he is such a trooper. I so appreciate your work and thank you for your time and consideration.
Best,
Kirsten (and Arch)

Thanks for another fantastic article Dr. Falconer. I am "flying under the radar" with my little poodle and her shots. I adopted her from the local shelter a little over 2 years ago and have been dealing with severe skin issues ever since. She didn't look too bad when I adopted her and they said she just needs a bath. Well, even though I switched her to a natural raw diet and some great supplements, she continued to get worse and worse. I tried to use you, but at the time you were not taking new patients. I found a great Homeopath in AZ and have been using her by phone and computer (I live in a different state) for over a year now. I found out that in her 3 weeks at the shelter, she was dewormed twice, given rabies, 6 way combo, bordatella, flea treatment, heartworm test and spayed! No wonder she continued to get worse. After one year I was sent a license renewal that required another rabies shot. They would not accept an exemption letter from an out of state Vet, so I had to lie and say I no longer have this dog! But I live in fear that they will find out and take my dog from me! I cannot board her, I don't take her to dog parks, and when we travel in our motor home, I have to lie to the RV parks and say that she is current on her rabies and we can't go into Mexico or Canada as they require proof of rabies to cross the border. But it's all worth it as she is finally starting to look and feel good and we love her to death. By the way, she also had 9 teeth pulled because of bone loss and she was 4 years old. Thank you and the homeopathic community for everything you do and all the support you provide to all of us struggling against the "traditional" methods. (Sorry this is so long!)

I think this statement is a little misleading " It’s the fact that one year rabies vaccines and three year rabies vaccines are identical." Yes, the adjuvanted 3-year Rabies vaccine is identical to an adjuvanted 1-year Rabies vaccine and this was the only vaccine available 20 years ago. But a 1-year Purevax isn't the same as a 3-year adjuvanted vaccine, and may be safer in terms of the risk of sarcoma. As far as the new 3-year Purevax is concerned (released in 2014), from what I read Merial added more antigen, so it's not the same formulation as 1-year Purevax. Regardless, because Merial spent so much on the clinical trials having to do them twice, they priced their new 3-year Purevax Rabies at about three times the cost of a one-year vaccine, and I heard many vets don't use it for this reason thinking they'd not find enough people who are willing to pay to sell all doses (it's sold in batches) before it expires. I cannot find a single vet in my area who'd carry 3-year Purevax.

Dr Falconer, in reading the article and the protocols for an animal who has had a potential exposure several questions come to mind. If an "out of date"'dog suffers a possible exposure, wouldn't the exposure to the rabies virus itself be enough to initiate the immune response of the animal to start producing antibodies? Would a "booster" shot be superfluous? Wouldn't it be better to avoid the booster shot as the adjuvants in the vaccine have an immunosuppressive effect and the animal would have a more effective immune response without the "help" of the vaccine. Your thoughts???

I love all this information because I do believe that vaccinations are not safe like everyone wants to believe they are. I haven't vaccinated any of my dogs in the past 3 years but I have to say that I am so nervous about getting "caught." I don't want to pay a fine for not having them up-to-date and not licensed but I think it's worth the risk.

Hi there-
I wrote an article about vaccines in my blog. I love what you have written though; it takes it up quite a few notches. Thank you for sharing.
I suppose that when a dog is vaccinated, his/her body is building antibodies. I suppose it takes a lot of work for the internal system of a dog to accommodate a vaccine in order to build immunity. As the expression goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix." Why take a dog who has sufficient immunity and pump more chemicals in and demand that the internal system do all that exhausting work for no reason? I think that if we look at it in that simplistic way, we can conclude that the body deals with the excess by breaking down (keratin cysts, cancer...). It just doesn't know what to do with that additional vaccine because the first vaccine had already doe its job. The new vaccine becomes a trouble-maker because its job was already done. Instead of sitting idle, it does damage to the immune system which leaves dogs susceptible to problems that require the immune system to work to protect against issues unrelated to rabies. That explanation is suitable for a 10 year old child to gather an understanding. Why is it that most vets can't catch on???
Please let me know if I am off base. I appreciate being corrected by someone whom I respect.
Thanks
Janie

Question--you mentioned that the shots given WHEN bitten by a rabid animal are antibodies, not vaccines...are these antibodies available for our canine friends...for rabies, parvo, should they contract the disease.

Dr. Falconer. Thanks so much for the wonderful article! I happened to read in Juliette de Bairacli Levy's book "The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat" that she (who was trained as a Veterinarian at Oxford, just a few credits shy of graduation) once treated Rabies in 3 dogs, not knowing that was what she was treating. Once was a small dog fed kibble and not healthy, 1 was some sort of wild dog that an Israeli soldier had adopted that bite the small dog and gave him Rabies and one was her own Afghan Hound. The exhibited signs of poisoning in her opinion, so she treated them as if they were posioned. Only the small, kibble fed dog succombed to Rabies, the other 2 dogs (both raw fed and completely unvaccinated) recovered. I wish she wewre still alive or I could find her out of print book, that describes her treatment in detail. Have you ever heard of an unvaccinated dog who does NOT receiver the Rabies shot after infection from rabid animal bite surviving? I find this fascinating. I know all treatments she did were herbal in nature and taught to her NOt at veterinary University but instead by the nomads of the world (Gypsies, Berbers, bedouins, etc.). I suppose it makes sense that nomad, who live among wildlife, would know how to treat rabies.

Now would be a good time to plug the Rabies Challenge fund. I think they still need $20-30K to finish their work
http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/
I never believed the 1 yr vs 3 yr labeling, and I haven't trusted the standard vet recommendations for a very long time.

Dr. Falconer, my entire family has been following you for well over a year now....I can remember when you just barely had 1,000 followers and now look how far you've come and that's just in a year. Yes, you do provide us all with "VITAL" information. For some of us it is lifesaving "vital" information for our so loved, furry family! I just would like to input here. We had a a beautiful Golden Retriever and I followed everything the White Coats told me, at the age of nine something happened that the White Coats could not figure out...he swelled in a certain spot of his body and every couple of days that swollen spot moved along his body. All his nodes were swollen, his tongue and eating was pureed food that I fed to him in an eye dropper. He died in my arms in the wee hours about two months after all this began. Six months to the day our wonderful chocolate lab died from bone cancer. We took her to Columbia veterinary school in Columbia, Missouri for help...praying for hope they could fix her. Although they could not help her...took blood samples to help their studies for future dogs with the same problem as hers. It was there that the professors told us that they have studies that are proving that the vaccinations given to our loved ones is causing not only the issue Bella, our lab had, but also the issues Sunny, our golden had. We now have a mix pit that we rescued from a cow pasture around two months old...near death we put her on raw and haven given her no shots and she is still intact. We live in the country and vaccinations are not required. She's healthy, bouncy and so very full of life. She doesn't have fear issues as our six year old rescue who had shots and neutered. Our hearts go out to all that are forced to vaccinate. Our daughter is having issues now because the apartments that she is currently looking at require up-to-date shot records. Perhaps these White Coats need a lesson from the studies that are coming in within the human world of what vaccines do to the living and breathing humans of this planet. Do all you can to fight NOT getting the vaccines...the animal is lost, passed away....anything....maybe even present the records on a nice white document that came from your printer...just anything. It took the painful death of both our loved ones for me to see the light and move away from "traditional". Remember most of our loved ones live with us, inside our homes, and exposure of anything they are vaccinating them from is almost zilch. We have fenced in yards or we ourselves walk them in a controlled environment...where is the harmful exposure? God Bless to all and thank you for all the time you spend teaching all of us, Dr. Falconer! RJ

My dogs are rescues and rescue dogs are filled with every vaccine known to man.
They have not had any since I got them. My holistic vet is very supportive of my decision not to vaccinate.
Anne

Thanks for the great info, Dr. Falconer. I haven't given my 1 1/2 year old Lab mix a rabies vaccine but I do live in an area with a lot of skunks. She's been sprayed a couple of times for getting too close. If she should get bitten or scratched by a skunk, how should I proceed? Take her to a vet and say she's "not current" and get a booster? Or just watch her and hope her immune system does its work? She started out her young life with a lot of itchiing, but she has gotten better. Although she still itches, she's very energetic with a shiny coat, so it seems her immune system has improved and I don't want to send her the other way by giving a rabies vaccine.

I have learned so much from your blog there are so many wonderful post and this is another wonderful one. Thank you very for much for the informative easy to understand post. It confirms what I suspected. Before I knew any better my dog recieved a 1 year and then a 3 year rabies vaccination. Then I said enough no more, it has been 7 years since his last rabies shot. I was able to find a vet who wrote a letter of medical exemption and is very supportive of no vaccines, feeding a raw diet and using homeopathy for treatment when needed. My vet was pushing to do a titer since it had been so long and of course I was curious myself. But I had no intention of giving a booster no matter what the results showed. Well to my vet's surprise the results were >15. We go to agility class weekly and do agility trials monthly, I don't know if the constant exposure to dogs that have been vaccinated accounts for the high number. The down side of this is my state does not except titers as proof so if he got bit or was to bite another dog the regulations states he would either be euthanized or quarantined for 6 months with no human contact in a specialized facility at my expense. So I have decided to accept the risk as I know first hand the damage that can be done. I have another dog with brain damage from a rabies vaccine, we were at the point of putting him down because of aggression toward me and my husband. Homeopathy has been a tremdous help with the symptoms and reversing some of the damage, he is 90% better, a very happy loveable dog and able to compete in agility and be around other dogs and people.

I recently met a guy with two wolf hybrids. They seemed nice enough animals but he could tell I was wary of them. Which I was - they are much closer to wild than my two lazy Great Danes. We started swapping stories about the crazy looks and questions we get about our dogs.
He told me that rabies vaccines don't actually "take" with a wolf hybrid. Something about their built in immunity. But he found it ironic he could still get a dog license with the city.
I have no idea if this is true but if it is - just goes to show how strange these " rabies regulations" are.

http://www.thedogplace.org/VACCINES/Rabies-exemption-form-states-2012.asp

We are not doing anymore vaccinations on our housecats. It's not very comforting when they give the shot in the hind leg just in case a problem develops and they need to amputate. We've done titers on our horses and skipped rabies on them as well.

BTW: Is it a Pembroke Welsh Corgi? I had one for 9+ years, the best dog ever.