August is National Immunization Awareness Month. For many, this is a reminder to get a flu shot and make sure the kids are up to date on all of their vaccines. But it’s a good idea to look into your pet’s immunization status as well.
Over the course of the last decade, veterinarians have undergone a major shift in their approach to canine and feline vaccination. They have evolved from a standard procedure of vaccinating dogs and cats for everything in each year to a more balanced approach of analyzing risks and benefits of vaccines for each individual animal.
“Protecting our animal companions from infectious diseases is paramount, but at the same time, we wish to avoid the unnecessary medical procedure of administering a vaccine to an already immune dog or cat,” says Ronald Schultz, professor and founding chair in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM).
Veterinarians Laurie Larson and Ronald Schultz are immunization experts at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine. (Photo: Nik Hawkins)
Schultz is one of the key authors of the canine vaccination guidelines issued by the American Animal Hospital Association and the canine and feline vaccination guidelines recommended by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.
“These guidelines are excellent tools for understanding more about core vaccines versus non-core vaccines and their recommended use for dogs and cats,” says Laurie Larson, a veterinarian and senior scientist in the Schultz Lab.
Schultz and Larson also recommend antibody testing. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that bind to and destroy foreign substances like bacteria and viruses. Testing can verify the presence of certain antibodies in an animal’s bloodstream to ensure that the core vaccines have provided protection against the targeted diseases.