We live in a flat

5 March 2017 Update: Separate Leptospirosis Vaccine is now available at some vet clinics! Find out more here!

The leptospirosis vaccine administered to Donna contained the Leptospira Canicola – Grippotyphosa – Icterohaemorrhagiae – Pomona Bacterin, also know as lcan lgrip lict lpom. More about them below in this article.

Original article written June 7

Preface Vaccination is a confusing subject. We read on US websites like this that we should not vaccinate annually. Yet our local neighbourhood vet sends us yearly reminders to schedule Donna for her annual vaccination. And I actually didn’t even know diseases Donna was being vaccinated for until I started researching for this article.

I finally got around to speaking with three different vet clinics to get a clearer picture of vaccination that I feel more comfortable and confident to write about and share with you here. This article has also been read by Dr Joanna Paul from Creature Clinic just to make sure that I have been accurate and you can trust this article.

This article was written just weeks before a suspected lepto outbreak occurred at a local doggy swimming pool. Thereafter, news articles carried vet advice to keep pets vaccinated. Vaccination is an important topic that we should know more about, and I hope you will find this post, written from the perspective of living in Singapore useful for you.

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For the past two years, Donna has undergone the titer test and missed her yearly vaccination.

The essential or Core Vaccines that used to be recommended to be administered yearly.

Core vaccines used to be recommended annually for dogs to protect them from diseases like parvovirus, distemper and adenovirus, which causes hepatitis. But the 2015 Global Veterinary Community (WSAVA) Owner/Breeder guidelines says, ‘for the core vaccines, the Vaccination Guidelines Group recommends re-vaccination at either 6 months or 1 year of age, then not more often than every 3 years’

This is because “dogs that have responded to vaccination with …core vaccines maintain a solid immunity … for many years in the absence of any repeat vaccination”. Since they can maintain immunity for 3 years or longer, our dogs don’t actually need annual vaccinations!

So if you wanted to check if your dog still has antibodies from her last vaccination booster shot to continue to give her immune protection against parvovirus, adenovirus and distemper, here are the vets where you can get it done. :)

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