What is “titre testing”?
A titre test involves a taking a blood sample from your pet to assess the level of antibodies present to some of the diseases we routinely vaccinate against. The level of antibodies detected will help us gauge the level of immunity your pet currently has, thus guiding our decision for vaccination or not. Currently this is commercially available at an affordable price for dogs.
What diseases can we test for?
We can test for Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus, three of the diseases we routinely vaccinate for. We cannot test for Leptospirosis as this is a bacterial disease and harder to measure and we don’t routinely test for Parainfluenza virus as immunity to this disease is rarely thought to last longer than a year.
When would we titre test your dog?
Currently the vaccination program of every dog consists of two phases:
- The “primary vaccination” phase in puppies which covers 2 injections 4 weeks apart and then a third injection one year later at the first year booster.
- And then a “booster” phase that lasts the remainder of their life.
The “booster phase”:
At Mayne Vets, we rotate this booster phase on a three-year basis. We know that leptospirosis and parainfluenza immunity struggle to last longer than a year, so we continue the immunity to these diseases with a yearly booster, along with kennel cough if needed. However, we also know that immunity to Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus lasts at least three years in most dogs. As such we don’t need to boost the immunity to these dogs until three years after the first year booster, so 4 years old in most cases. Provided your dog has completed the ‘initial vaccination’ phase fully then the first titre test would not be needed until they are 4 years old.
An example of a time line for titre testing:
8 weeks old 1st vaccination (primary course, all diseases)
12 weeks old 2nd vaccination (primary course, all diseases)
1 year old 1 year booster (primary course, all diseases)
2 years old 2 year booster (mini booster, leptospirosis and parainfluenza)
3 years old 3 year booster (mini booster, leptospirosis and parainfluenza)
4 years old 1 year booster OR titre test
How would it work?
Your vet will perform the annual health check and vaccinate for leptospirosis and parainfluenza (plus kennel cough if required) as normal. We would then take a blood sample from your pet and send it to a laboratory to test the levels of antibodies (immunity) for Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvovirus.
You will then be contacted with the blood results and can book a follow up appointment with a registered veterinary nurse for further vaccinations if the immunity result was inadequate. If the blood sample showed the current immunity to be adequate, we would discuss the pros and cons of holding off the follow up vaccine and potentially repeat the titre test the following year until an inadequate test result appeared.
What are the benefits?
Although it has been proven to be clinically safe to follow the base vaccine protocol we run at Mayne Vets, some owners prefer to limit the vaccines used on their pet further by titre testing.
What are the drawbacks?
The main drawback of titre testing is that it can only tell us the level of immunity your pet has on the day of testing. Testing cannot tell us how long that immunity will last and we are therefore unable to guarantee immunity until the next annual booster date.
If your dog does have inadequate immunity to one of the diseases tested then you will need to return to the clinic for a booster vaccination. An additional issue is that we are unable to provide individual vaccines to individual viruses. For example, if your dog’s immunity has dropped for Hepatitis, but not to Parvovirus or Distemper, we can only vaccinate for all three viruses in one multi-dose injection.
If you would like to discuss titre testing you dog further, please feel free to contact us at the clinic.