Let the vet call the shots
Dear Doc Abbie: We just got a new puppy. He has stolen our hearts! We have rediscovered the moon! We are so excited to get to see it several times a night! Actually, my question is not about potty training because that part is going pretty well. I am wondering about shots. He has had his first shot from the rescue organization, but we are supposed to get him more. Why does he need so many? Our last dog cried when she had to get a shot. I don’t want him to get hurt. Does he really need so many shots? Sign me, Not shot happy
Dear Not happy: First of all, thanks for getting your puppy from a rescue. There are so many animals that need loving homes. So many puppies just waiting to show their new owners the moon. But, that is another topic.
I will go against my mother here, and answer a question with a question (sorry, Mom). How do we measure success when success is the absence of something? When success is that nothing happens. A successful vaccination program means no disease, right? So, if we vaccinate a population well, over time there should be no cases of that disease. If we vaccinate really hard, and throw Bill Gate’s fortune behind a vaccine campaign, we can even eliminate a human scourge like smallpox from the entire world. A successful vaccination program works so well that people forget what the disease looked like, and people wonder if the vaccination is really needed. But the disease is usually lurking somewhere in a population of unvaccinated animals. Viruses are very good at outsmarting us.
We have had a very effective vaccine for canine distemper since June Cleaver was the icon of the American female. Since there really were towns like Mayberry. That is, for over sixty years now. When the vaccine first came out, people went to the vet to get the vaccine. Why? Because they had seen what dogs with distemper looked like. They’d seen puppies sick with vomiting, coughing, and runny nosed. The dogs suffered with these, then seemed to get better for a few weeks or a month. Then the seizures started. Seizures that started with a small little twitch of the eyebrow. So subtle it’s almost endearing. Unless, you’ve seen it before and know it means soon the little dog will be on its side, unable to get up, all its muscles stiff and shaking. He will soon be drooling, and looking at nothing with staring eyes.
Over time, a successful vaccine campaign does two things. First, it lowers the number of new cases. Second, it makes people forget. Forget what the disease was like, forget the suffering it caused. This takes a generation or two, a few decades. That is where we are now. When I was in vet school in the 1990’s, I had never seen a case of distemper. I learned about it, but I must say I thought it was pretty much gone – nothing to worry about. Then, in the early part of this century I began working in shelters. Before long, I began to see cases of distemper. What? That disease is gone, I thought. How could this be?
Sadly, there are places in the central valley where people don’t vaccinate their dogs. So, distemper has gained a foothold. I have seen the puppies twitching and seizuring, and the devastated new puppy owners who just got their dog potty trained, and I have had to tell those people, newly in love with the moon, and their puppy, that there is nothing I can do. The disease is untreatable, it will get worse and their new dog will die. So, all I can do is implore people to vaccinate their dogs and cats.
Sometimes it is not this simple, sometimes the disease is more wily, more mutable, and the vaccine does not work as well. But this is not the case with distemper. It is nearly 100 percent preventable by a proper series of vaccinations.
I bet you never thought a puppy shot could allow you to foster an ongoing bond with the moon. You thought it was all about the dog. I’d advise you to get a full series of vaccinations for your puppy. So you can stay in love with that puppy – and the moon. – Doc. Abbie.
