[ntrep]

I am at a bit of a loss right now. Last January I had Patch, almost 15 year old English Setter, in for his annual check up. at that time he had his rabies and parvo vaccinations. He was supposed to get the distemper the following week. We always separate them because he had a bad reaction to the distemper when he was a puppy. (No problems with it since then.) Anyway, in the week between the shots, we found that he is in renal failure plus he had his stroke/seizure. He is going for a recheck again tomorrow and I am sure that the vet will bring up the distemper shot again. I don't know if at this point it is really worth it to have him get this shot. Does distemper shot do anything to interfere with renal treatment or his blood pressure which is elevated due to the renal failure? I get so nervous about giving him anything for fear that it will make things worse for him. Currently he is doing very well, completely recovered from the stroke and his blood count numbers (BUN and Creat) have improved lately. They will be rechecked again tomorrow. Also wondering if at this stage in his life if I should go ahead with the heartworm medications? I will go ahead with the Lymes vaccine as we live right by the forest preserve and there are always deer in our yard. My son got Lymes dz from a deer tick and that was horrible. Fortunately we caught it early enough that there are no lasting effects. Any info about these vaccines would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Do discuss it with your vet; discussing alone won't hurt anything, but is very prudent. A competent vet will refuse to vaccinate any animal that is considered too sick to withstand it. For example, one year I took both my puppy and my elderly cat in for annual exams and shots. Upon examining my cat, the vet noticed he was jaundiced and perhaps anemic, and said he could not in good conscience vaccinate him. Instead, he ordered blood work. The blood work revealed my cat to be suffering from liver disease. So for the last two years of my cat's life, he was unable to be vaccinated.

So... discuss it with your vet, and together decide whether he and you both feel your dog is healthy enough to tolerate the vaccine and/or the heartworm treatments. In these types of cases, one must always weigh the benefits against the risks.... kind of like a pregnant woman taking medications for a life-threatening condition, versus the health of the unborn baby. One other possibility is to ask for a titer test on the distemper-- if his titer levels show sufficient immunity to the distemper, then the vaccine can definitely be safely omitted, in good conscience.