The number of cases of Leptospirosis may increase this summer. This is not directly due to more Lepto spriochetes in the environment, but by veterinary intervention. You can protect your dog this summer by NOT giving the Lepto vaccine.
Due to consumer education, pet owners are demanding fewer and fewer vaccinations for their dogs. Most of us are now aware of the fact that re-vaccination, and certainly yearly vaccination, is a dangerous practice and provides dogs with all of the risk of vaccines and none of the benefits. Unfortunately, fewer vaccines means less profit for vets and they will have to find other ways to get dog owners through the doors once a year. Enter the Lepto vaccine.
The Lepto vaccine is different than other vaccines because it is for a bacterial disease, not a viral disease. Unlike viral vaccines such as parvo and distemper which will protect an animal for life, the duration of immunity for Leptospirosis varies from no response to 12 months. This makes Lepto an ideal vaccine for vets to push to get dog owners through their doors every year.
The problem is that the Lepto vaccine may be the very thing causing Lepto in dogs. The May 2011 issue of the Veterinary Record has an interesting article entitled “Urinary shedding of spirochaetes in a dog with acute leptospirosis despite treatment”. This short communication documents ongoing urinary shedding of spirochetes in a Labrador Retriever with acute Leptospirosis, despite treatment with doxycycline for seven days, highlighting a significant zoonotic risk. What was most interesting is that the dog had been vaccinated for Lepto within the previous six months.
Cases like this are not unique. In the Canine Health Concern vaccine survey, 100% of dogs with Leptospirosis contracted it just after being vaccinated against it.
Patricia Jordan DVM states: ““Lepto is a very adverse event associated vaccine and the damndest thing is that lepto vaccines simply do not work. Dr Ron Schultz (the world’s foremost independent authority on canine vaccines) hates to see them in with anything else and, in puppies, advises that they are completely finished with the viral inoculations before getting a vaccine against Lepto, which he neither recommends nor advocates – even in Lepto endemic areas.
“I have seen older dogs go into kidney failure within two days of receiving a Lepto vaccine.”