Some info on vaccinations

There are different types of rabies vaccine. The ones most likely to cause a reaction have thimerosal in them. A friend's dog (not a Basenji) had an anaphylactic reaction to a rabies shot, and she would have lost him had the vet not still been present and able to counter it with epinephrine. In the future they made sure the shots he got did not have thimerosal. Usually reactions aren't quite so dramatic, but something to keep in mind. I also used blood titers to avoid unnecessary vaccinations with my dogs. More expensive, but worth it!

Called to talk to the owner of a vet practice and he wasn't in so they took a MSG and told me he'd call on Monday. Turns out he stopped in to check on the practice and called me Sunday but I didn't pick up. Totally blanked out today with the weather and at 6 I got a call, it was Dr. Seigel, we ended up talking for half an hour and he seems to be very open to my philosophies, working with me and most of all is excited to learn about the breed. It's nice to hear a vet say they learn so much from their patients…he agreed to take us on and I will see him in a month for Oakleys two year checkup. Im also having a full blood panel drawn as a baseline...should i have a full t4 thyroid panel done also? lastly, come january he will be getting his hips done for OFA since he will be two this November. The Dr. even remembered taking care of my first dog Petey for the last few yrs of his life...makes me happy!

@sinbaje: This "tender knot" is a localized reaction to the vaccine. It should go away on its own but can take a while; upwards of 8 weeks or more. Those of us in the vet field consider this "normal" but one has to wonder. I would certainly let your vet know for future references that he had a reaction to the vaccine as the next reaction (if he were to have one) could be more serious (ie hives, swelling, etc). Benadryl would no longer be effective. That said - you could ask your vet about pretreating with benadryl prior to injection to help minimize any possible future reactions. You could give orally an hour or two prior to exam. Talk to your doctor re: proper dosaging and exact timing. Best to just leave it alone and let his body deal with it. To add: Vaccines are given in different areas of the body. The most commonly known is that Rabies is given in the Right Rear. So that if a reaction such as a lump is formed due to the vaccine, the doctor will know which vaccine caused the reaction. It would be safe to give benadryl before each vaccine as to not take a chance but it should be known which vaccine will give a reaction to that animal.

The following link will take you to an informative vaccine article covering the 2010 Safer Pet Vaccination Seminar with Drs. Jean Dodds and Ronald Schultz entitled Shot in the Dark: What to Know about Pet Vaccination Programs by Kim Campbell Thornton http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2010/04/01/shot-in-the-dark-what-to-know-about-pet-vaccination-programs/ .

You're very welcome!

According to a study published in the January 2010 issue of Journal of Comparative Pathology entitled, Age and Long-term Protective Immunity in Dogs and Cats by Dr. Ronald Schultz, et als., "Old dogs and cats rarely die from vaccine-preventable infectious disease, especially when they have been vaccinated and immunized as young adults (i.e. between 16 weeks and 1 year of age). However, young animals do die, often because vaccines were either not given or not given at an appropriate age (e.g. too early in life in the presence of maternally derived antibody [MDA])….... The present study examines the DOI for core viral vaccines in dogs that had not been revaccinated for as long as 9 years. These animals had serum antibody to canine distemper virus (CDV), canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) and canine adenovirus type-1 (CAV-1) at levels considered protective and when challenged with these viruses, the dogs resisted infection and/or disease. Thus, even a single dose of modified live virus (MLV) canine core vaccines (against CDV, cav-2 and cpv-2) or MLV feline core vaccines (against feline parvovirus [FPV], feline calicivirus [FCV] and feline herpesvirus [FHV]), when administered at 16 weeks or older, could provide long-term immunity in a very high percentage of animals, while also increasing herd immunity." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WHW-4XVBB71-1&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=17&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236861%232010%23998579999.8998%231578454%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=6861&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=24&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=fb57fe5e84a086c6b1fa65abea55dbd8