Great!
Obviously, you’ve been doing a little bit of research on vaccinating your pets and perhaps vaccine alternatives for pets.
You’ve discovered that there’s a blood test that measures antibody levels which can demonstrate to the world that your dog has antibodies to a given vaccine. Like rabies.
The idea is that if the body has antibodies, then that means that your pet is protected in case of exposure to the actual disease.
Here’s what you might not have realized.
The dog has to have the vaccine in order to develop antibodies to rabies vaccine!
So if your dog has never been given the rabies vaccine and you want run titers, the answer is going to be zero. Because no vaccine has ever been given.
Titers measures the body’s response to an injected/vaccinated product. Titers could also measure natural immunity. But in the case of rabies virus, there’s no way in the world that your dog has natural antibodies to rabies. Because if he did. He’d be dead.
Rabies kills.
Other pet owners looking to reduce side effects of vaccines on their pets like to use homeopathic nosodes. This discussion is NOT about whether the nosodes protect against disease; this is about whether nosodes stimulate vaccine-induced antibodies. Obviously not.
Because nosodes are not western medicine vaccines. Nosodes do different things in the body but do NOT cause the body to make an antibody against rabies (or any other disease) that can be measured in a titer test. The titer test is very specific: it measures antibodies produced against the rabies (or other) vaccine. There’s only one way to get that. Vaccinate.
Understand me: I’m not saying whether you should or shouldn’t vaccinate against rabies (you decide how you will deal with the law). All I’m telling you is that if you want a blood test to document protection, your pet must receive at least one dose of the rabies vaccine. Your choice.
In most animals, all it takes is one dose of vaccine to protect against the disease for life.
I say “in most cases” and “ in most animals” because there are events that change the body’s response to a vaccine.
.
For example, I have a client whose dog has an autoimmune disease. Her dog is on daily immune suppressant drugs. What that means is that the immune system is being turned off. Shut down. So if the immune system isn’t working, it’s not going to release into blood circulation the antibodies against the rabies vaccine. Because the system is on full shutdown. Even though this dog has been vaccinated multiple times against rabies. It would be illogical to expect any differently.
So for those who want to measure vaccine induced antibodies, titers, in their pets, fabulous! But if your local governing body does not accept titers, then the only point of running the test is to prove to yourself that your dog has been vaccinated. You already know that.
If you really want to make a change in the world: gather a bunch of like-minded pet owners and go to your local government and have them change the local rabies laws. Present the science, the research, and demonstrate to government that titers prove an animal has been vaccinated and are protective. And good luck. Because those who make money giving the vaccines will fight you – they want to fund that money making train.
Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.