Leptosprirosis

[F, Calla & Luca]

I have my dogs vaccinated for leptospirosis. My vet had a dog die from it a year or two ago, so when I asked her about it a couple of years ago she agreed it was a good idea. A breeder just posed this on another forum. It's about a 16 week old puppy she had sold to a family at 8 weeks , who had been extremely ill recently.
"Contacted it right in this woman's back yard. She lives in the city, has a fenced in backyard, but has many squirrels and wildlife there too.
Louie is on two different antibiotics, has to have titers done now to
check his kidneys and is going to be a close watch for a few weeks
still. Something to consider whether or not having your puppies
vaccinated for Lepto..."

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack has to be watched for half an hour after his allergy shots, too.

[shelly]

Yes! My kids' doctor (allergist) does this also... I actually told the vet I was going to do that, and he said that he would 'pre-treat' her before the shot this time, but being that Tori had a fever I didn't know about when we went for her annual, they didn't give it....

[Liz Syring]

My vet suggested we vaccinate all our dogs for lepto. A side comment is that we've immunized all our dogs for Lyme disease and 2 dogs have died from Lyme Encephalitis!! It seems sometimes you just can't win! My vet is now recommending when we check the bloodwork for Heartworm we do the multitest that also detects Lyme disease. It 's just endemic in our part of the world

[F, Calla & Luca]

I do vaccinate for Lyme too. So sorry to hear about the two dogs.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think Pat and Tucker raise an important point about leptospirosis being zoonotic. People and animals can get and share these organisms.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Adina, According to this the flu vaccine can give you Guillain-Barre.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/guillain-barre-syndrome/DS00413/DS...ui

[Adina P]

I know....but so can flu. That is what got me to wondering if perhaps it's about the same rate from either flu or GBS. Is it the attenuated virus or something else about the vaccine itself? It seemed to me from my reading that it was a fluke immune response so that's why I thought it could be either. What do you know?

EDIT: Okay so that link did not say the flu could...but a couple viruses could. And getting it from the flu vaccine is indeed rare.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Nothing but I'll check.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Here you go but the source is Wikipedia. This states the incidence of G-B is much higher with the flu but still very low incidence.
Influenza vaccine

GBS may be a rare side-effect of influenza vaccines; a study of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) indicates that it is reported as an adverse event potentially associated with the vaccine at a rate of an excess of 1 per million vaccines (over the normal risk).[16] There were reports of GBS affecting an excess of 10 per million who had received swine flu immunizations in the 1976 U.S. outbreak of swine flu—25 of which resulted in death from severe pulmonary complications, leading the government to end that immunization campaign.[17] However, the role of the vaccine in these cases has remained unclear, partly because GBS had an unknown but very low incidence rate in the general population making it difficult to assess whether the vaccine was really increasing the risk for GBS. Later research has pointed to the absence of or only a very small increase in the GBS risk due to the 1976 swine flu vaccine.[18] Furthermore, the GBS may not have been directly due to the vaccine but to a bacterial contamination of the vaccine.[19]

Since 1976, no other influenza vaccines have been linked to GBS, though as a precautionary principle, caution is advised for certain individuals, particularly those with a history of GBS.[20][21] On the other hand, getting infected by the flu increases the risk of developing GBS to a much higher level (approx. 10 times higher by recent estimates[22]).R, Sharshar T, Durand MC, Enouf V, et al. Guillain-Barré syndrome and influenza virus infection. Clin Infect Dis 2009;48:48-56.

From October 6 to November 24, 2009, the U.S. CDC, through the VAERS reporting system, received ten reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases associated with the H1N1 vaccine and identified two additional probable cases from VAERS reports (46.2 million doses were distributed within the U.S. during this time). Only four cases, however, meet the Brighton Collaboration Criteria for Guillain–Barré syndrome, while four do not meet the criteria and four remain under review.[23] A preliminary report by the CDC's Emerging Infections Programs (EIP) calculates the rate of GBS observed in patients who previously received the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccination is an excess of 0.8 per million cases, which is on par with the rate seen with the seasonal trivalent influenze vaccine. [24]

[Pat & "Tucker"]

It's not know what viruses or bacteria may trigger GB. .A few are known - CMV and Camylobacter. One main problem for example, if someone get GB there may be a history of illness- what was the illnes? ?? There are no titers / testing for most bacteria/ viruses (there are for some- but very limited) weeks later when GB symptoms occur. Many people do not go to the doctors with a minor illness - respiratory or GI and even if they do- they are most often not tested. So there may be many viruses / bacteria but it's the immune response of the individual that may be affected- so may be any virus?? They don't really know. I nhave never heard of it directly linked with flu.
Adina- with your little one and vaccine interest try the CDC web site- http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/
Some good reading and reliable info. Also try Flu.gov.

[Susan]

It was recommended by my Vet. I haven't done it yet.

[Debbie & Cotton Clegg]

I just checked our records and my Vet gives it as part of the annual exam. Whew!