Im going to be honest. Shoot me if you must :lol:
We dont vaccinate, its one of those contraversial subjects in the dog world. They get their initial ones and their first booster. And then, like a lot of other people, we stop.
If youve only missed one, I would think they would just give them a late booster, I dont think its anything like horses where your expected to start all over again. Id just ask the vet, (although you should find your report thing first so you know exactly how late you are)
Ive just spent about 15 minutes staring at this page ,trying to work out how to word this. I dont understand sciencey stuff so my description is very much primary school level :lol:
When a vaccine is given, some of the disease is injected in, and then the body builds antibodies to protect against that disease. The point being that they have memory, so if that disease comes, the body knows which antibodies are needed to protect against it. (see what I mean about my science knowledge :oops: )
So once the dog is protected against it, they dont need to keep having it, the body remembers.
mum says, humans dont need injecting every year, alot of things are just done as kids, and dogs are no different. If you google, Im sure there'll be websites explaining a LOT better then me Lol
It is contraversial though, not everyone will agree with me.
Virus' mutate, vaccines have to be altered to provide continued protection against strains of a virus that may not have been present when your dogs had their first vaccines.
In the same way the flu jabs that people have.....that will be a different strain each year depending on what is prevelant.
Also antibody memory is only so long, how long depends on what the antibody was fighting, and a lot of other things, but the reason horses/humans/dogs etc are given regular vaccines is to preserve this memory.
The other thing is a lot of vaccines aren't live, they will inject an antigen that has been de-activated, so the body will fight it in the same way, but its not able to producae any symptoms.
As I say...playing devils advocate there. I can't have flu vaccines, although im meant to, because I am worse after I have had them than I am without them.
. I'll send D2 in this direction
Id just ask the vet, (although you should find your report thing first so you know exactly how late you are)
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