Having an Allergic Reaction to my Rabies Shot
Today our Town had it’s annual free rabies clinic, and since 3 years have gone by since my last shot, my owner took me to get mine. First, it was pouring rain, next we had to stand in a long line with a lot of other people and dogs, the one behind us barked the entire time, then we went into this big building and a man (actually he is my veterinarian…he does this clinic each year) stuck a needle into my upper back while my owner hugged me and covered my eyes…I would never bite, and didn’t need a muzzle or blanket over me like some of the other dogs.
But now we’re home and it’s been about 8 hours since my shot. I have a couple of big lumps where the shot was done in my upper back, my skin some red blotches in a lot of places on my body like I get if I get a flea bite (I’m very allergic to those, too) and I have been licking at my feet. My owner has been fussing over me, and has a bottle of chloratrimitron I think is how you spell it, an antihistamine that doesn’t cost much. Since I’m so tiny, she takes one of the already small pills, cuts it in quarters, and gives me a quarter hidden in a bit of my favorite canned food or a piece of chicken. If I seem bad before she goes to bed, she’ll give me some, but I am breathing fine, and tired right now.
I think I feel like curling up and going to sleep now, and will hope I don’t get worse during the night…because my owner won’t get any sleep if I do…and neither will I.
I have heard it is the LEPTID in the shot that they have an allergic reaction too. My breeder told me NOT to give my Yorkie the Leptid, but my vet says I should.
What do you think?
Deidre,
I hadn’t heard of this before so did a google search, and can’t find this word when I search it along with rabies shot, if they put it in the shot I would think something would come up. I will have to ask my vet about that. I only had a short reaction, lasted for a few hours, and it wasn’t bad, then the next day had loose stools. I did go to a rabies clinic, so got what everyone else did, I guess, but the man giving the free shots was my regular vet. I only get them every 3 years, so it’s done now for a while.
Wish I could be more helpful! Thanks for visiting.
Maybe it is called LEPTO,
I do know it is in the shot, but you can get the shot without it,
lepto is a desease you get from rats, so if you are a house dog, my breeder said there is no need for it, I just dont know!!!!!
Leptospirosis Vaccination
By Christie Keith
Lepto is, for a variety of reasons, a vaccine where the risk vs benefit analysis changes tremendously from case to case.
First, lepto vaccine causes more adverse reactions than any other canine vaccine.
Second, there are many, many strains of lepto, known as “serovars,” but there is no cross-protection among lepto serovars (as there is among parvo strains, for instance). A dog can be immune to one serovar of lepto and have no protection at all from another.
To make that worse, there are only four available vaccine serovars of leptospirosis: L. Canicola, L. Gripophytosa, L. Icterohemorrhagiae, and L.Pomona. However, there are two more that are causing disease in dogs, L.Autumnalis and L. Bratislava, for which we have no vaccines.
Fourth (and this is a problem that lepto immunity shares with all bacterial immunity, natural or from vaccines), immunity to bacteria is only temporary. This is why you can get strep throat (a bacteria) over and over, but only get measles (a virus) once. So the immunity will always wear off over time, sometimes in less than a year. This means that you have to repeatedly vaccinate for leptospirosis in order to maintain immunity. Repeated vaccination of course increases the chances there will be an adverse reaction.
Fifth, while vaccination can prevent clinical disease in a vaccinated dog, it does not prevent the dog from becoming a carrier.
Which brings me to my sixth and biggest problem with lepto vaccination. Since there is no cross-protection among serovars, and immunity is temporary, you always have to assume that a dog, vaccinated or not, might have lepto if the symptoms indicate it. It takes a couple of weeks to get the results of a lepto test, so you have to treat the dog based on symptoms and can’t just test first. So even if you vaccinate your dog, you may end up having to treat him or her for lepto anyway, and the dog may or may not have it. It kind of takes away the main reason that we vaccinate our dogs, ie, peace of mind and freedom from worry about a certain disease.
People need to be extremely aware of the symptoms of lepto and treat it aggressively from the very first suspicion that it’s lepto, regardless of the vaccination status of the dog, and long before the diagnostic test results are known – if you wait that long, it may well be too late. Caught early, nearly all lepto can be treated with antibiotics. Caught late, many dogs will die, or require costly and mostly unavailable dialysis to survive.
I don’t think that routinely vaccinating a dog for those four serovars of lepto annually or even more often makes a great deal of sense for most dogs. However, if there is a known outbreak, you know the serovar, and there’s a vaccine for it, then you may want to consider it. Lepto does infect humans, so it’s often a reportable disease, so your local public health department might be able to tell you if there is an outbreak. Beyond that, word of mouth among dog owners and at the vet’s office is your best early warning system.
There is more information on leptospirosis on VeterinaryPartner.com.
A friend got a yorkie puppy from a good breeder took in for 3rd vac, and it had lepto, dog immediately had reaction to shot………..I completly forgot to tell her not to let the vet give it with lepto……now her puppy is sick, I feel so bad……that was 8 hours ago though and puppy is doing ok, I just hope there are no long term affects of it for the little girl.