Author Topic: Leptospirosis  (Read 15884 times)

Offline Pyr Heaven

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Leptospirosis
« on: September 24, 2007, 04:29:29 pm »
How many of you pups get vaccinated for this disease? Also, how prevalent is it in your area?
*~*~Samantha~*~*
Milwaukee, Wi

----Miles----
Great Pyrenees

Offline aggghgmom

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2007, 04:31:55 pm »
They are not really vacinating against it in Western NY unless you specifically ask for it - it isn't really showing up here yet.

That is what the infectious disease doctors thought my daughter had this summer when she was in the hospital but all the tests came back negative


Offline People Whisperer

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2007, 06:06:35 pm »
It is NOT recommended to vaccinate your dogs against this disease any longer. Check out new vaccine protocol.
Most of the "good" vets stopped suggesting it as well so it is a good sign  :D
"To once own a Great Pyrenees is to love and want one always."
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Offline Nina

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2007, 07:06:41 pm »
The only thing that Harley gets vaccinated for is rabies every 3 years as she is titer tested. This tests to see if she still has the antibodies in her system. We got her tested last year and she still had antibodies, so now in 7 years we will get her tested again. I am very cautious about vaccinations, as some have led to cancer because of over vacinating. If we don't get vaccines every year (with the exception of the flu vaccine) why should our dogs and cats? But this is just my personal preference. Sorry getting off topic  ;D

Nina
Nina and Tim
Calgary, AB, Canada
Harley(Lab mix)
Dilbert(Pyr mix)At the bridge
Jolene (cat)

Offline SadieA

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2007, 07:16:53 pm »
do you mean not recommended in the sense that I should actively try to avoid this vaccine? because they do encourage it in france, as it's evidently a problem here. But is there something bad about this vaccine?

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2007, 07:23:38 pm »
do you mean not recommended in the sense that I should actively try to avoid this vaccine? because they do encourage it in france, as it's evidently a problem here. But is there something bad about this vaccine?

I think that some dogs can have an allergic reaction to the vaccine, and that's why it isn't recommended,unless there is lepto in your area.

My neighbor's dog actually died from lepto, so we had Cabeza vaccinated against it.

Offline Pyr Heaven

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2007, 07:33:20 pm »
Yeah...I'm sort of on the fence with this vaccine. Just trying to see what others think of it.
*~*~Samantha~*~*
Milwaukee, Wi

----Miles----
Great Pyrenees

Offline Nina

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2007, 07:37:26 pm »
I think that if the disease is in your area then you should consider getting the vaccine. However I wouldn't get it every year as your dog should still have the antibodies it his/her system for the next 7-10 years.

Nina
Nina and Tim
Calgary, AB, Canada
Harley(Lab mix)
Dilbert(Pyr mix)At the bridge
Jolene (cat)

Offline patrick

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2007, 11:29:06 pm »
The current standard vaccine is for a strain of leptospirosis that pretty much no longer exists and there is no cross immunity to the 2 strains that do cause a problem.  I believe a new vaccine for the current disease causing strains just came on the market but most vets don't carry it unless there is a problem in your area.  Lepto vaccine can cause a violent reaction in up to 30% of dogs my vet reports and he does not recommend it.  I also have a breed of dog- PBGV -that the lepto vaccine can trigger a life threatening auto-immune disorder so none of my dogs get it

Nicole

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2007, 11:45:38 pm »
I think that if the disease is in your area then you should consider getting the vaccine. However I wouldn't get it every year as your dog should still have the antibodies it his/her system for the next 7-10 years.

Nina

So, actually, I've been reading about this today. (because of this thread)

It seems that the 7-10 year thing is the case with most vaccines, but lepto is different because its actually a bacterial thing. I read that the actual immunity may only last 7-8 MONTHS.

Here is one site that I found that on:
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/showarticle.cfm?id=57

Offline patrick

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2007, 09:37:18 am »
My vet (in Baltimore) says the routine vaccine does not cover the strain in Balto city- you have to get the newer vaccine.  He gives it ONLY to the dogs that live in East Baltimore city where the outbreak is.  I live in west Balto county and he did not recommend that I give it to my dogs as 'the vaccine reaction can be worse than the disease' I have had a couple of vaccine reactions in the past and it is not pretty. However if it spread to my area of town I would get the vaccine but only the newer version.  I still would not give it to the PBGVs though. Isn't lepto spread primarily by wildlife and in particular mice and rats?  I do diligently keep the rodent population down (I live on a farm)

Offline patrick

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2007, 09:51:53 am »
Canine Leptospirosis:

Current Issues on Infection and Vaccination

    Leptospirosis, a contagious disease affecting both animals and humans and spread by infection with a bacterial pathogen called Leptospira, may result in chronic liver and kidney disease and fatality in the dog. Over the past 30 years, preventative vaccination against two of the most common Leptospires, L. canicola and L. icterohaemorrh agiae, have nearly eradicated clinical disease associated with these strains among the inoculated population. Though not without potential side effects associated with allergic reactions to inoculant in a small number of dogs, the risks of not vaccinating for Leptospirosis once far outweighed risks of vaccine-reaction. In recent years, however, new outbreaks of Leptospirosis have been reported in the population of vaccinated dogs. Clinical evidence now suggests that these new cases are associated with the once, less-common Leptospires for which current vaccines do not protect against. In light of these findings, the process of vaccinating dogs with the current Leptospirosis vaccines is being seriously questioned.

Infectious Leptospirosis

The Leptospira Organism. Leptospires are known as "aquatic spirochetes": they thrive in water and appear long and helical with a characteristic hook on one or both ends. These organisms are divided into two species, Leptospira biflexa and Leptospira interogans, the latter of which is pathogenic in animals and humans. L. interogans is divided into strains, or serovars, based upon the types of antigens (cell-surface markers against which the infected host will make antibodies) on their surface. These cell surface antigens provide little cross-immunity against one serovar and the next; that is, a dog that has developed immunity to one strain by either previous infection or vaccination will not be able to immunologicall y fend-off an infection of a different, subsequent strain. 

Serovar prevalence. As recent as the 1980s, L. icterohaemorrh agiae and L. canicola were identified as the most prevalent serovars causing Leptospirosis in the canine. By the 1990s, however, an increased incidence of L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona was observed in conjunction with a resurgence of Leptospirosis disease suggesting a changing trend in the epidemiology of this disease. It is speculated that these changes in serovar prevalence are related to two primary factors that may strongly influence the epizootiology of Leptospira serovars. These factors are: 1) preventative vaccination has all but eradicated clinical disease in the domestic dog and 2) there has been an increased migration of wildlife, for which serovar infections with L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona are most prevalent, into suburban areas.

Modes of Disease Transmission. Leptospira thrive in spring and autumn when wet soil conditions and moderate temperatures support their otherwise poor environmental survivability. Infection by contact with infected urine or ingestion of urine-contaminated water is the most common means of transmission of the disease. Less common modes of infection include transmittance of the organisms during breeding, gestation, or through the membranes of the eyes, abrasions or bite wounds, or ingestion of the flesh from infected animals such as rats, raccoons, skunks or opossums. A serovar infects the dog as a maintenance host, using the dog to carry out most, if not all of the organism's life cycle. Under these conditions, the kidneys of the infected dog become the "breeding" grounds for the serovar, some of which will be shed in the urine where they may gain access to other dogs and continue the infectious cycle.

Prevention. Commercial vaccines are available and protect against clinical disease associated with the L. icterohaemorrh agiae and L. canicola serovars. Inoculation does not, however, prevent infection and development of a carrier state whereby the dog will be clinically asymptomatic for disease yet provide a source of contagion through the shedding of serovars in its urine. Additionally, vaccinating against these specific serovars does not afford protection against other serovars.

Annual Revaccination and Leptospirosis

    Current concerns in canine immunology have addressed issues related to overuse of vaccines in dogs and cats. General consensus among specialists in the field is that yearly vaccination against viral infections associated with canine distemper virus, canine parvovirus and canine adenovirus are generally unnecessary since active immunity induced by these vaccines provide at least several years of protection. This consensus, however, does not apply and should not be generalized to bacterin vaccines, which immunize against diseases associated with bacterial organisms. In fact, clinical evidence suggests that bacterin-derived vaccines including those which protect against Bordetella bronchiseptica (kennel cough), Leptospira (Leptospirosis), and Borrelia burgdoferi (Lyme disease) probably don't even provide protective immunity for 12 months suggesting that more frequent vaccination for these diseases are required. It is perhaps the common use of combination (all-in-one) vaccines containing bacterins, which immunize against bacterial infections such as Leptospirosis and/or kennel cough in addition to common viral infections, that gave rise to the practice of frequent vaccine administration . Indeed the incorrect generalization of long-term immunity, associated with vaccination against viral immunogens, to bacterin-based vaccines may lead to a decrease in annual vaccination for bacterial-based diseases and subsequently give rise to a resurgence of outbreaks of bacterial disease in the coming years. In light of this, annual re-boostering against bacterial diseases should continue despite discontinuatio n of yearly vaccination against viral diseases.

The Current Leptospirosis Vaccine

    Recent serological studies on wildlife and domestic dogs suggests that L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona have replaced L. icterohaemorrh agiae and L. canicola as the prevalent serovars responsible for Leptospirosis in the United States today. As such, current commercial vaccines, which protect against the formerly prevalent serovars, would not be effective at providing immunity against Leptospirosis caused by L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona. For this reason, there has been some conjecture that current commercial vaccines should be considered obsolete for protecting against Leptospirosis.  Leptospirosis vaccines, as mentioned above, protect against clinical disease but do not prevent subclinical infection to a "carrier" state.

When all the facts are considered, these findings do not necessarily suggest that L. icterohaemorrh agiae and L. canicola no longer pose a threat to dogs. Rather, this information should be taken into consideration when determining potential risk of infection in dogs that may be candidates for side effects associated with vaccine-reaction. Leptospirosis-containing vaccines are associated with a higher risk for side effects, particularly, anaphylactic reactions (see Canine Anaphylaxis). Taken together, benefits of vaccinating dogs, who live in areas where icterohaemorrh agiae and canicola incidence is low and who may have a higher predisposition for vaccine side effects with current Leptospirosis inoculants (see Vaccines, Infectious Diseases and the Canine Immune System), may not outweigh risks of vaccine reaction.

New Leptospirosis Vaccine Immunizes Against  L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona

Fort Dodge now offers the Duramune Leptospirosis vaccine that immunizes against L. grippotyphosa and L. pomona serovars as well as L. icterohaemorrh agiae and L. canicola . This vaccine has been formulated through the new subunit technology that uses only the antigen component of the organism (that will produce an immune response) instead of the entire organism. As such, subunit vaccines greatly reduce vaccine side-effects that occur with higher incidence with bacterin-based vaccines while providing durable protection from the disease.



Offline Pyr Heaven

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2007, 11:14:47 am »
It is my understanding the vaccine reaction usually occurs with smaller dogs and puppies under the age of 16 weeks. Therefore, I will not be allowing Miles to get the vaccine until he is at least 4 months old (if at all).

My vet has already been asking me if I want it. Not really pushing it, but said I probably should get it if we go to the dog park alot. I need to get more information on how prevalent it is here and when the last case was in an animal they have seen or heard of.

The vaccine is administered in a series of two shots, which leads me to believe they (they as in my vet) vaccinate against all four strains.

Even then, a dog can still get leptospirosis as there are 6 strains that a dog can be affected by. And they can contract the disease without your awareness if they are vaccinated, showing little to no signs of the disease, yet become a carrier of the disease. And once again, they could still contract a form of leptospirosis that the vaccine does not protect against.

So I'm leaning towards a no on this one. Plus...for it to actually be effective, like someone else said, a dog will have to be vaccinated for lepto every 6-8 months since it is a bacterial disease.

Ahhhh. ???
*~*~Samantha~*~*
Milwaukee, Wi

----Miles----
Great Pyrenees

Offline patrick

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2007, 01:14:25 pm »
Nope- reactions occur in big dogs too- I believe the vet listed Scottish deerhounds as one breed and I had a Pyrenees who had anaphalatic reaction to it.  The series of 2 shots is the same vaccine twice- standard vaccination protocol.  The new vaccine is sold as a separate stand alone shot I believe but maybe they have combined all 4 serovars by now- does anyone know? 

Offline Pyr Heaven

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Re: Leptospirosis
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2007, 02:15:50 pm »
Nope- reactions occur in big dogs too- I believe the vet listed Scottish deerhounds as one breed and I had a Pyrenees who had anaphalatic reaction to it.  The series of 2 shots is the same vaccine twice- standard vaccination protocol.  The new vaccine is sold as a separate stand alone shot I believe but maybe they have combined all 4 serovars by now- does anyone know? 

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering if it comes in a series like that to make sure it's in the system or because they were different. So basically..... if you want your dog to be vaccinated for lepto...and not even for all strains.....th ey would have to get at least 6 sticks with the needle a year!?? That's crazy.

I knew any dog COULD have a reaction to the vaccine, but now hearing a personal experience.... . ???

The cons are almost starting to outweigh the pros of this vaccine....jus t my opinion.
*~*~Samantha~*~*
Milwaukee, Wi

----Miles----
Great Pyrenees