Vaccine Reaction??

[YesJ]

I've been reading some of the previous post on the subject of vaccines and was wondering if anyone had any insight on my situation...

Zara is about 12 weeks old now, she had parvo when we got her (8 weeks) she's all cleared for that. Last week we went to the vet to get her second set of shots (3 in 1) and she had a minor reaction. About two hours later I noticed that she was really sleepy and her left shoulder (where she got the vaccine) was swollen. I called the Vet and asked her if this was an allergic reaction of sorts because on the paperwork that I was given they talked about swollen face and hives. They said that it was a reaction but that they weren't worried, to watch her and bring her in if she got worst. My husband came home and we decided to bring her in just so they could take a look at her (we're so paranoid) and the first vet (her normal vet, the one that handled the parvo and first set of shots) said that she wasn't worried and that it was a very mild reaction and sent me on my way. As I was about to leave the office she runs out with another vet (the one that gave her the vaccine earlier) and said that she had consulted the other vet and they thought it was a good idea to give her a shot for the allergy. So they give her the shot and they tell me to give her Benadryl for 3 days.

Talking to the vet that gave her the vaccine he explained that it would be a whole procedure to give her the next booster and her rabies. They have to give her medicine and then keep her for 24 hours. He was kind of freaking me out, because unlike her regular vet who didn't seem worried about her reaction he was painting it out to be a huge deal. I've read a lot of people say that they don't even vaccinate their dogs with vaccine allergies except for state requiered vaccines. I also read online that once they have ANY type of reaction the likely hood of them having a severe reaction (they stop breathing ect.) multiplies.

I don't know what to do, should I vaccinate? The 2 vets completely different reactions and all the stuff I'm reading online is confusing me. I don't know what is best for Zara, on one hand I don't want to put her in danger of having a worst reaction to the next set of vaccines but on the other I already went through her getting parvo and I wouldn't want to go through that again. Sorry about the long rant...anybody got any ideas??

 

[dropzone]

It's true that an allergic reaction has a high probability of being significantly worse the second time. The same thing happens to people who are allergic to bee stings. Frequently, the first time they are ever stung is just a bad reaction, but any time after that may actually send them into anaphylactic shock. It's good that the second vet wants to take the extra precautions of keeping her for 24 hours and so on. The good news is, if she has a severe reaction at the vets office they should have no problem counteracting it. She would almost certainly be just fine, where as having to drive her there from home could take too long and be much more dangerous. I can definitely see being on the fence about doing the vaccinations though, in the end I'm not really sure what I'd do. I'd be pretty comfortable that the dog will be okay if she remains with the vet for 24 hours, but I'd have my doubts about wanting to put my dog through that frightening experience to begin with. I've experienced anaphylactic shock personally and it sucks!

 

[djheitz]

Is there someone at the vet's office for the entire night? That's something I never really questioned before...just assumed if they said my dog had to stay that someone was there. That's not always true, though.

 

[Jan]

Why don't you have Titers done instead. That will tell if the vaccines took or not. You will still have to do rabies though.

 

[Gatorblu]

Both times Arabella has had her rabies shot she has has lump at the injection site. The last time she got it I was told they can give her an antihistimine shot before vaccinating her as a preventative measure. I am sorry your pup has gone thru this, but I am glad that it has reminded me to talk to our vet about it. Arabella is due in a couple of months, and we have switched vets since her last shot.

 

[mancin]

Tyson always had allergic reactions to his shots as a puppy. The first time I was unaware of this, and his entire face swelled up within an hour of getting his shot. I immediately took him to the vet and they gave him a shot of Benadryl. (I have a pic somewhere in my gallery of how swollen he still was AFTER I got him home).

Going forward, he always had to get a shot of Benadryl at the vet BEFORE his shots, and then I had to treat him with Benadryl later that night so that he didn't blow up like a balloon. I never had a problem after that.

However, the rabies did still leave a small lump for a few weeks every time he had that and I've heard that it's fairly common and not necessarily due to an allergy.

Hope this helps!

 

[Caney Creek]

At 11 weeks old, Caney had a BAD reaction to her second round of puppy shots, so bad that our vet recommended skipping the rest of her puppy series except for the rabies (when she was old enough). I am so glad we did that. I didn't take her to get her Rabies until she was 7 months old, and they treated her beforehand with benadryl and kept her the whole day to monitor her in case of a reaction. They did not keep her overnight. Since then Caney has not been vaccinated at all, and I believe that she's much better off this way. She is 4 years old now.

I would agree with the previous comments about not leaving your dog overnight at a vet that's not 24 hrs, where all the employees go home for the night. That goes for ANY procedure they might want to keep her for.

I also agree that it would be best to have titers done next time, that might tell you that you don't need to give any more vaccinations. The titers you want to test for are Parvo and Distemper; the others are not nearly as important (except Rabies, but your girl hasn't been vaccinated for that yet). My advice if you must vaccinate again, ONLY get Parvo and Distemper, and definitely DO NOT get Lepto. The lepto vaccine is known for causing the most adverse reactions.

Alot of pet owners these days are opting for a minimal vaccine schedule for their pets, as research pointing to vaccines as the cause for numerous health issues continues to grow. Dr. Jean Dodds has a good protocol to follow:
Vaccination Schedule Recommendations For Dogs

Also, you can request "safer" vaccines -- "Mercury-free" and "Recombinant" Vaccines
DogAware.com Health: Vaccinations for Dogs

And, here's some good info on puppy vaccinations, general adult vaccinations, and titer testing. I would highly recommend reading all 3 of these for a better understanding of canine vaccinations -- which ones are helpful and which ones aren't -- and how the immune system works.
Puppy Shots
Revaccination
Titers

 

[Kaybie's Mom]

My male boxer, Atreyu, had a pretty bad allergic reaction to his second set of vaccines as a puppy. He was fine for his first set that he got when he was still with the breeder. He got hives so bad he looked like he was made of bubble wrap. I called our emergency vet in town as my normal vet was closed when the reaction happened in the evening. They advised me to give him benedryl and keep an eye on him. They said as long as he was breathing normal and the hives weren't getting worse, that I should just keep an eye on him and to give him another dose of benedryl a certain amount of hours later. I pretty much stayed awake all night that night to make sure he was breathing normal. After the second dose of benedryl, the hives started to go away and by morning he was normal. I discussed all this with my vet when they opened in the morning. My boy is now 3 years old and he is now pretreated with benedryl before he gets his vaccinations. The vet offered a shot (for $28) or told me I can pretreat with 75mg of oral benedryl 1 hour before I bring him in for vaccines so I opt to pretreat at home and he's never had another reaction.

 

[YesJ]

Update!

Thanks for all the replies, really good info!!

I talked to the vet about titers, but they said the reaction was minor and they weren't that worried to do the test. So Zara got her third set of boosters two days ago. They have her a shot of benadryl before they have her the vaccines. She was fine, she stayed there for the rest of the day just in case. We went to pick her up and they told us to give her half a tablet of benadryl twice a day for 3 days.

But of course, its always something! The next morning she had a rash under her left armpit. They did a skin impression, it's a fungal skin infection. They said it has nothing to do with the vaccine but idk. She didn't have it the other day. They gave us some wipes, we'll see what happens. :(

 

[Gatorblu]

I'm glad the Benedryl worked. As for the fungal infection, vaccines can stress out the immune system. So If your dog was fighting a fungal infection and you weren't aware of it and then got vacinated, the antibodies fighting one infection are drawn away in reaction to the shot. This would allow the fungal infection more oppotunity to grow. So the vaccine would not have caused the fungal infection, but it didn't help it either. I hope the infection is all cleared up!