Shawn Messonnier, DVM--

Limiting the amount and frequency of vaccinations your pet receives is the second of my five goals for treating your pet holistically. In place of many vaccines, a simple and inexpensive blood test called an antibody titer test can easily be done.

Unfortunately, city and state governments will not allow a titer test to be used in place of a rabies vaccine. This makes actually no sense for the following reasons.

First, since I received rabies vaccines in the past (many years ago when I was in veterinary school,) I would need to get a rabies titer done or I could not receive any future vaccines. Why? Because if my titer level is still adequate, another rabies vaccine would do no good and could possibly be harmful. Second, pets traveling internationally must either be currently vaccinated against rabies or have a blood titer test proving another rabies vaccine is not necessary. In light of this, why won’t cities and states allow owners to skip the rabies vaccine that is probably not necessary and instead show proof that the pet is currently immunized based upon titer test results?

The other screwy thing about the rabies vaccine is this: states and cities can allow rabies vaccines to be given every one or three years, depending upon the law in each city or state.

However, here’s something your veterinarian won’t tell you-ALL rabies vaccines are the same!

The one-year rabies vaccine is the exact same vaccine as a three-year rabies vaccine; only the labels on the bottles differ! This means if you get an annual rabies shot for your pet, your pet is actually receiving a three-year rabies vaccine. However, because our laws are so screwy, if your pet receives a vaccine from a bottle with a one-year label, according to the law your pet must continue to receive that vaccine annually.

This means that all pets which receive a one or three-year rabies vaccine are being over- vaccinated. You are paying for unnecessary vaccines and your pets are receiving unnecessary vaccines, possibly at great future harm to their immune systems.

Here are the only two solutions available to this problem.

First, insist that your veterinarian use a rabies vaccine with a three-year label.

Second, continue to ask your local representatives to look into the matter, encouraging them to pass laws that all veterinarians must administer rabies vaccines with a three-year label.

And one final thought. Support the rabies challenge fund (http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/,) which is currently attempting to prove that all rabies vaccines produce immunity of 5 to 10 years or more.