Should I vaccinate or titre test?

What’s the big deal?

We are getting a lot of people ringing lately about titre testing instead of vaccinating, so we thought we should get some facts straight.

What are the vaccines available?

Vaccines in dogs and cats are divided up, in the academic veterinary world, into core and non-core vaccines.  Core vaccines in dogs are for Parvo virus, Hepatitis and Distemper.  In cats, they protect against the 2 types of cat flu and “cat parvo” or enteritis.

Non- core vaccines are the 2 types of kennel cough in dogs and, in cats, they are for cat AIDS and Leukaemia.

But, in the real world, we do kennel cough as a routine vaccine and would recommend cat AIDS as well if your cat goes out fighting or roaming.

So, for us kennel cough IS a core vaccine.  And we would love for cat AIDS to be one in Toowoomba as it is prevalent in the stray male cat population.

What is titre testing?

You can take a blood sample and check for the level of antibodies against Parvo, distemper and hepatitis.  This reduces the amout of vaccinations your dog needs.  This vaccine is given every 3 years but you can to a titre test annually to check if their immune status hs lasted longer than this.

You cannot titre test for kennel cough.

In cats, only panleukopaenia can be reliably tested.

Is it expensive?

The cost of titre testing is more expensive than the vaccination