Vital Animal Podcast - Dr. Robb: Vaccine dose MATTERS

Dr. Robb: Vaccine dose MATTERS

05/04/21 • 37 min

#030 We were taught in vet school that “one size fits all” when it comes to vaccination: a Great Dane and a Chihuahua both get a 1 cc dose of the vaccine. There was some vague explanation that the “antigenic load” was all the mattered, and big animals and small ones needed the same amount of challenging substance injected.

This is what a past client was told recently when he asked for a smaller dose of rabies vaccine to be given to his 9 lb dog. His reaction (like mine should have been as a vet student) was “What the H? How does that make any sense at all?”

I immediately knew who to interview on this: Dr. John Robb of Protect the Pets, who observed early on in his practice that the smaller the pet, the more likely they were to have a negative reaction to a vaccine. In his work at a Banfield clinic, he also had access to a very large study that showed, in well over a million dogs, that he was far from the only one to observe this.

Join me and Dr. Robb as we discuss this reality that most of our profession refuses to come to grips with. We discuss how titers clearly demonstrate that immunity happens in the small pets with a lessened dose. Dr. Robb had to endure the long, lonely torment of his veterinary board for refusing to adhere to a standard dose that he knew would cause harm to his smaller patients.

For more information and links, be sure to visit the show notes for this episode at https://VitalAnimal.com/30

Previous Episode

When Prevention CAUSES Disease

#029 Are you unknowingly causing illness in your animals in the name of prevention?

This week’s episode was inspired by Sarah, who commented that her young Golden Doodle had just gotten sick for the second month in a row and she’s now wondering if she unwittingly caused the bloody diarrhea and vomiting by giving her pup heartworm prevention.

Join me for an enlightening discussion on not only heartworm but prevention in general.

Could your good intentions be paving the road to a hellish state of health for your animals?
For valuable links and more help, please visit the show notes for this episode at https://VitalAnimal.com/29

Next Episode

Talking Poop with Dr. Odette Suter

#031 The more we learn about the microbiome, that vast collection of bacteria, yeast, viruses (and even small parasites) that make up our gut and that of our animals, the more important we see it is.
It affects our brains and behavior. It affects our hormones. It affects immunity, digestion and nutrition, and probably a whole lot more.

I invited Dr. Odette Suter, a holistic vet colleague who’s been doing FMT (poop “transplants” or fecal microbiota transplants) in many of her patients to good effect.

We go deep (pun intended) on this topic, which is far from new, and which recognizes that the flora of an animal or human can be beneficially modified by introducing fecal material from a healthy donor to the sick one.

Join us as we explore the possibilities for enhancing health, the long history of FMT, and the various ways a transplant can take place.

For additional links on this episode, be sure to visit the show notes at https://VitalAnimal.com/31