I did a search and I didn’t find any recent info on titers and how often they are needed, so I was wondering if anyone had any recent info on this. A bit of a background:
I had my girls puppy shots at a local clinic at her scheduled time (last one being when she was 4 months old), I did have the vet give lepto once at her 12 week shots and she had a bad reaction, so for her 16 week, I did not do lepto and no reaction - I have not done lepto since and don’t plan on adding it again. I also wanted to space out her rabies so had her first when she was 6 months old, then her booster when she was just over 1 year old (3 year). Her breed is susceptible to epilepsy, so I don’t like to over inoculate, but I do like her to be covered of course.
I took her to a different clinic for her laparoscopic spay and gastropexy (as my local vet does not do this type of surgery - lap spay or pexis) and they pulled blood to titer for DAPP, which came back positive for distemper and parvo (paperwork says Positive 1:5). They were also the ones that gave her rabies booster shot back in April 2023. She then had her spay/pexi in May 2023.
I just scheduled with my local vet clinic for her fecal, heartworm and 4DX and they wanted to give her DAPP shot again as they said she was due. I did mention that she had her titer in April 2023 (at the other clinic) and she was positive for both, but they do not have record of this (I asked the other clinic to send all report to my local clinic last year, and my local clinic does have the info on her rabies shot being done but for some reason did not have the titer results).
So my question is, how often are titers needed? I thought they were good for 3 years? I have read some articles that if they do test positive in a titer for DAPP, they are probably good for life, but there really isn’t a lot of info on this. Is there any more recent info anywhere? How often do you titer or how often does your vet ask for a titer? She will always have her rabies every 3 years as we cross the border and titers are not accepted.
As a side note - I do feed fresh, my local vet does not like this nor do they like titers. The clinic that performed her spay/pexi has 0 issues with fresh feeding, loved that I did titer for DAPP and wished more owners did (but understood why many stay away from it as the DAPP shot is $40 and the titer testing was $120 - rabies titer is $500!! But its no good for me as we horse show in the US and cross the border. I don’t want to be sent back home because of this). I wish the other clinic was closer to me, but they are over an hour away and I worry that if I ever have an emergency its a long distance to go. I like that my local clinic is 5 mins away from me.
