Vaccinations???

As a student, my view on vaccinations is a bit of a mixed one... I've not had enough experience in general practice to be able to tell you about the amount of adverse reactions to vaccines I have seen, although many of the vets I have spoken too list the reactions to vaccines as rare. I've seen many puppies cheerfully coming through, alongside booster dogs, and whilst some of these can have skin issues (another commonplace thing in veterinary practice) we can't actually be sure that the skin issue is related to vaccines! Half the time I hear the cry that the itchy dog has been caused by overvaccination. Perhaps it has, but without proof, how can you say?? 

My view on vaccines at the moment. I'm not too sure on homeopathic vaccines and the use of them in normal practice isn't commonplace, neither is the view on them a great one. However, again, I've not had any experience of them to formulate an opinion.. perhaps this should be something I read into at some point. I find that hollistic medicine is often a minefield- many of the articles seem very biased and not very evidence research based. Hence I am hesitant with this sort of medicine at the moment, as well as the fact that it is hard to find solid scientific facts. 

Personally I would take two approaches to vaccination for my own dog at the moment, as it just isn't worth the risk of some of the horrendous disease we vaccinate against; 

I would get all the vaccinations for my puppy and the one year booster. You may/may not want to include the optional parvovirus top up vaccine. I believe this is reccomended in the larger breed dogs, and may be a good idea. My dog didn't have it and was fine but if I was in a parvo outbreak area I think it would be a good idea. After this I would go onto the three year vaccination schedule. 

This involves the DHP vaccine in the first year- distemper, hepatitis and parvo, and then the following two years you only vaccinate against strains of leptospirosis that are common to your area (or should be these strains, not just some random strains). Interestingly, there has just been a license for a four strain leptospirosis vaccine as newer strains are gaining more weight. Classically the lepto vaccines have canicola and icterohaemorrhagiae (I think). These are the guidelines by the WSAVA currently. I believe they also recommend the third parvo vaccine as a puppy. 

The world of vaccines is an interesting one and controversial. This is my current stance and as a student I'm not very versed in the world. I'm sure my view will change and be moulded as I gain more experience in my practice years. Chow for now :)