Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in need of some guidance and I am hoping that maybe you can offer some advice. In January of this year my now 11 ½ month old ESS came down with IMHA. With less then a month’s treatment of predisone his blood tests came back normal except of a high basophil absolute count, and he is 100% back to his old self. Now my vet wants to give him his vaccines the Distemper/Parvo will be without the Lepto. She feels this is safe to do because of the fact that before this episode the only vaccines he got was his 6 wk old puppy shots. It is her opinion the IMHA was not brought out by vaccines but she does not know what cause the IMHA to present itself (1 ½ months earlier he was diagnosed with a bacterial ear infection which I believe may have cause it to present itself.) The parents of my dog as well as its littermates have not had any bouts of IMHA but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen sometime in the future. My concern is that from what I have read dogs with IMHA should not receive their vaccines because of the risk of the IMHA presenting itself again and there is no guarantee that giving him his Distemper/Parvo vaccine will actually protect him from getting Parvo. On the other hand Parvo is a terrible disease that could kill him if caught and could also cause the IMHA to present itself again and I know that having both Parvo and IMHA would be too much for my poor boy to fight. I feel as though I am playing a game of Russian Roulette. I will be starting him in Agility, Flyball, Tracking and other sports so he will constantly be exposed to other dogs, as well as the expose to dogs in our neighborhood and our campground where we spend most of or weekends during the summer. Is there anything naturally or holistically I could give him to protect him against Parvo? Or should I take the gamble and give him his Distemper/Parvo and pray for the best?

Thank you for your time,
Dee Dee

Having been vaccinated once against parvo, he should have some protection against the disease. While the IMHA may or may not have been due to the vaccinations, additional vaccinations would be a terrible risk in this case. First, have a titer done for parvo to see if he is protected. If he is, there is no need to ever revaccinate him against parvo. If the titer is low, you can give him homeopathic nosodes against parvo to boost his cellular immunity, which will not increase his antibody level or his parvo titer, but will protect against the disease. As he grows older, he will be less susceptible to parvo in any case. Doing anything to put him at risk of IMHA is unacceptible, as a second case of IMHA will certainly be more severe than the first, and very likely will kill him.