Pet owners: Do you vaccinate your dog/cat every year? Pet, dog, cat, year, every

kisstherain

Hi pet owners, have you been taking your dog/cat to the vet annually for check up and vaccines?  Time is up for my 1 year old cat for his annual vaccines but I am not sure if he really need it every year.  According to the reminder card from the vet, he needs:
- Palnleukopenia
- Rhinotracheitis
- Calicivirus
- Rabies
- Leukemia

When I did some googling, it seems a new idea is pets don't need to be vaccinated yearly. Think humans: We are immuned almost for life from the shots we got as babies. So why  our pets need the shots so frequently?

See these articles:
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/petvax/
Holisticat:  http://www.holisticat.com/vaccinations.html
Pet Center: http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/vacrec.html
and http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/annual_vacs.htm

The reason why I start to question the need for annual vaccinations is last year, my 9 year old cat devloped a lump at where she received her vaccine. It scared the heck out of me because the lump was hard and big.  Luckily the thing disappeared by itself and not a Vaccine-associated sarcoma (common in cats.. please see
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/VAS.HTM)

By reading more, it become apparent to me over vaccinating can make our pets sick.  So I think I am going to skip giving my pets shots every year but just annual check ups. I would like to see what are some  pet-owner LYKs' thoughts on this?

嘉嘉

I want to know who is good too. What is your opinion on Dr Rana? (Lansdowne) Currently my cats see him for annual exams and my young one was neutered there. Everything is okay. Touch wood nothing majo ...
kisstherain 發表於 2009-5-27 12:31

ya, I don't like those food either (hills/purina/iams/eukanuba/pedigree)
sorry and no offense, they are made of mostly unwanted crap and chemicals......

right now my dogs are on wellness core and orijen 6 fish
stools are good, ears are always clean (I don't really need to wash their ears), and coat is shinny. I am quite happy about these.

I have been thinking about putting my dogs onto a raw diet
just that I am kinda lazy to go out and have some look....yet

布小熊

Has anyone read that you cannot feed your pet with the same food for too long otherwise it will develop allergies?kisstherain 發表於 2009-5-28 10:39 AM

May be that's why!! I had been feeding my cats with the same food for years. Until with the food recalls 2 years ago... I started giving them better brands of dry food. But around the same time Mike had a bladder blockage and was treated at the vet. After that.... he has been having dirreah or loose stool and that was "fixed" by Hill's hypoallergenic food. I will continue on the mission of finding the right food for him. We only tried the Natural Balance L.I.D. (Limited Ingredient Diets) Green Pea & Duck again. I read that I need to try it for 2 weeks for the cat to adjust to the new food. Then I will move on to other ones. The current med food he has has duck and potato so I may try to find one with that.

kisstherain

My cats finished two large bags of Orijen 6 fish formula a while ago. The reason I stopped was reading there was a recall in Australia (http://www.dailykitten.com/chat/topic/11709) and even though that recall affects their food sold in Australia ONLY, upon some futher googlling, I read some feedback on their canned dog food... some people found pieces of metal in it so I am worried about the QA at their plant. I am sad about this because it is high quality, wonderful food, made in Canada, smells really "fishy" (hehe) and my cats loved it. Now they are on Evo but the vet said it is a very rich food and my cats are going to be overweight. So I am mixing Evo with the Innova Light now.

As for special diets, my dogs are hypoallergic and one suffers from pancretitis (so she is recommanded by get to eat Gastro Formulae from Medi Cal). I have been experimenting with better food lately. Need to read the ingredient list and the nutrition list... I can spend a full hour at Tisol or Super Pet examining  each bag of food. It's really a hit or miss thing. Luckily Tisol has this box to take food donation for dogs and cats so if it doesn't work you can donate it.
Has anyone read that you cannot feed your pet with the same food for too long otherwise it will develop allergies?

Coleslaw

17# 布小熊

My dog used to be on Nutro and I've switched my dog on EVO for a while and her skin allergic reaction is mostly gone. However her stool had been a little bit on the softer side since before and still now... I am considering trying new ones for her.

I recently heard from a friend about this brand called Orijen, it is a canadian brand and available at Tisol. Their "Orijen 6 Fresh Fish" food which can apparently be better than EVO because it has less anti-oxidants. And the 6 Fish formula adds lots of Omega 3, which makes it better than the other formulas. This page is only about the dog food but Orijen also has 6 Fish for cats:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1284&cat=8

daimo

well, for supplies, definitely go to the East Indians (i.e. Atlas). Same stuff, but for sure much cheaper.

e.g. Advantage anti flea.  If you get it from a "white" doc it will be a lot more $ for sure.

布小熊

well, one of my cat has food allergy and the other one just discovered for hypothyroid.
They are on Hill's Hypoallergenic food. (contians duck)
I tried other hypoallergenic food (i.e. California Naturals Duck and peas formula) from pet store and it didn't work for him.
Are there any other brands I can try? They don't like canned food and only eat dry food. I had tried Evo and it didn't work either. (I am wondering if he is allergic to chicken)

Some lyk mentioned about West Boulevard Veterinary Clinic in another post. I wonder how expansive are they compare to Dr. Dear's.

kisstherain

I want to know who is good too. What is your opinion on Dr Rana? (Lansdowne) Currently my cats see him for annual exams and my young one was neutered there. Everything is okay. Touch wood nothing major has happened so I don't know how good is he at diagnosing, prescribing medicine etc.  My coworker told me her new puppy had skin problem and Rana gave him steriods right away. We are a bit wary if giving steriods to a puppy that early is good or not. Anyway it cured the problem so.
BTW, I took my young cat for his annual exam and I told Rana I dont' want to give him all the shots (refer to the first post of this thread). So Rana took a look and gave him two that he said are boosters and is needed. One is rabies and the other I forgot.
Dr. Dear is still the vet we take our old dogs to though. He seems to be quite good at diagnosing and like daimo said, very detailed, but em, expensive.
I hate it when vets suggest me feed Science Diet or or whatever food they sell there. One of the ingredients list show corn meal and chicken by-product meal as the top 2 ingredients! What kind of junk is that? Yuck!
But why do vets still recommand them? Read this: http://www.4pawsu.com/vet_dogfood.htm

http://www.4pawsu.com/vet_dogfood.htm

布小熊

Terra Nova ... Dr. Dear ... IMO he is detail oriented, but he is definitely also a businessman.

if you know what i mean ...
daimo 發表於 2009-5-27 09:55 AM

Yes I do.... so who else is good? I really need to find a good vet because my cats are getting older and probably need more attention from a good vet.

daimo

Terra Nova ... Dr. Dear ... IMO he is detail oriented, but he is definitely also a businessman.

if you know what i mean ...