Negative Result on Rabies Blood Test

[Miggimeggi]

We have just had the results of the blood test for Utopie, the Great Dane  we recently acquired from Dogue Rescue. The result was negative at 0.29IU/ml.  The minimum acceptable is 0.50 and as a comparison, the result for our male who has always been regularly vaccinated was 7.92IU/ml so the minimum can hardly be too difficult to achieve.  We received a certificate for her which was just a couple of weeks short of expiry when we got her and had the booster done the day it expired.  The vet suggested that we had the blood test done at the same time as she had been regularly vaccinated before and  based on the documentation supplied he did not think it necessary to wait for a month.

I am really surprised at the negative result as I have not heard of a properly vaccinated animal showing as negative before.  I am also a little worried as the blood test is not all that cheap and now, if we wait another month and have it done again are we risking paying yet another 70 euros for no gain and we still have about 200 euro to come to have her speyed.

We actually have no plans nor intentions of returning to the UK but neither do we want our animals to add to the statistics for pets left  homeless when unexpected circumstances force their owners to leave so we want to be prepared for the worst.

I would be most interested to know if anyone else has had a negative return.

Anne

[Robbie34]

When I had Charley vaccinated, some years ago,  the vet recommended having a double vaccination to ensure a positive result.  The second jab was given a few weeks after the first one and there was no problem.  Perhaps if your dog has a second one, at the appropriate interval, this will ensure success.  Of course, after seeking the vet's advice.

[Deimos]

When I had my first dog vaccinated/blood tested in the UK

quite a few years ago now the vet then advised that there was a 20% failure

rate after only one vaccination.  He did

caution that figure saying that the data had not been being collected for too

long (at that time) but it was on that basis that people vets were recommending

the two initial vaccinations a few weeks apart (as Robie34 says).  When my French pup went through the

procedures a year and a half ago ,y French vet also recommended a dual

vaccination ( a few weeks apart) – and actually gave me the 2^nd vaccination

free (but this could have related to an incident where I was noted as having

been particularly honest regarding their bills over a 6 months period).

 

I’m afraid I don’t know the “pass rate” after the 2^nd

vaccination.  May be worth a Google

search – and if you find anything do let us know here.

Ian

[Brilec]

[quote user="Deimos"]

When I had my first dog vaccinated/blood tested in the UK quite a few years ago now the vet then advised that there was a 20% failure rate after only one vaccination.  He did caution that figure saying that the data had not been being collected for too long (at that time) but it was on that basis that people vets were recommending the two initial vaccinations a few weeks apart (as Robie34 says).  When my French pup went through the procedures a year and a half ago ,y French vet also recommended a dual vaccination ( a few weeks apart) – and actually gave me the 2^nd vaccination free (but this could have related to an incident where I was noted as having been particularly honest regarding their bills over a 6 months period).

Ian[/quote]

But as I understood it, the original post was about a booster, not the initial vaccination.

Clearly it was a mistake to get the blood test done at the same time as the booster, as it will take some time to have an effect, which is why, with the initial vaccination, the blood test is always done a month later. In this case, though, one has to wonder if the certificate you had with the dog was legit. To have a reading so low, makes it sound as if the dog had never previously been vaccinated. Sadly, either way, you are in for more bills I think.

[Deimos]

It is possible for vaccines to be ineffective.  For example, if not kept adequately chilled

(e.g. during shipment), the vaccine can become ineffective.  My first rabies vaccine was put in the post

to me (so I could then visit a doctor to have it injected) – but the post

delayed the delivery for a few days – so it needed to be replaced (I collected

it next time form the manufacturer).

Some breeds don’t response to certain viruses in the same

way as others.  I don’t know about

rabies but an example is Rottweilers and parvovirus.  For some reason, Rotty’s seem more susceptible to parvo even

after having been correctly vaccinated.

Similarly, if the pet is a bit ill, the immune system can be

busy dealing with the other disease, to the response to the injected vaccine

will be lower.

 

The best time to have a blood sample taken is 30 days after

the last booster (for most vaccines anyway), not at the same time as the

vaccine.  Antibody level tend to peak 30

days after the primary vaccination/booster. 

Thing is you now have a choice – do you wait for the 30 days after the

vaccine (which I guess means you might have to move quickly now depending on

how long the blood test results took) or do you re-vaccinate, wait and blood

test.  No right answer.

 

Ian

[Miggimeggi]

Thanks everybody for the input.   I guess the only thing I can realistically  do is wait out the rest of the 30 days and then have another vaccination  and another blood test in due course.  I have to confess, I have wondered about the previous certificates.  The dog is just over two & a half  years old and the vaccinations appear on a booklet type document except for the last one which is on a separate document.  They do all seem to be up to date and begun in puppyhood, also, I have checked the microchip number and they all tally with the one read by my own vet when he did the latest vaccination so all would appear to be correct.  It just seems strange to me that after the puppy jabs followed by several up to date boosters she should show such a low reading.  Still, that's life and after it all, she is adorable and if ever we have to go, no way is she staying without us.

Regards

Anne

[Georgina]

[quote user="Miggimeggi"]

We have just had the results of the blood test for Utopie, the Great Dane  we recently acquired from Dogue Rescue. The result was negative at 0.29IU/ml.  The minimum acceptable is 0.50 and as a comparison, the result for our male who has always been regularly vaccinated was 7.92IU/ml so the minimum can hardly be too difficult to achieve.  We received a certificate for her which was just a couple of weeks short of expiry when we got her and had the booster done the day it expired.  The vet suggested that we had the blood test done at the same time as she had been regularly vaccinated before and  based on the documentation supplied he did not think it necessary to wait for a month.[/quote]

 

Join the club for the well brassed off, our reading came back at 0.13!!!  Six month old puppy.  Also have to have her speyed.  I was wondering what percentage of dogs on a whole have a negative result

Georgina

[Brilec]

Took our large dog to the vet yesterday for a rabies booster (in the UK though).

Firstly, there was no requirement for a blood test as it is a booster, the only requirement here is at the first vaccination.

Secondly, the vaccine has just been re-licenced in the UK and is now valid for three years.

For clarification, this only affects UK homed animals. If you take your dog/cat abroad for more than 3 months then it will come under local regulations, which in France is annual rabies vaccination. However, failure to do this will not affect a return to the UK provided that the UK pet passport is still within its dates.

 

[godwinsj]

The important thing is that the vet has a centrifuge and gets the blood to the lab within 12-24 hours.

Obviously different breeds tend to react to the vaccine in different ways but after much trial & error we have found a specialist vet who has had a 100% success rate with all our dogs so far. Indeed the majority of them are off the scale at 7.92+ !

Once the blood test is done (only a single vaccination is usually needed unless it is a very young puppy) do remember to do the booster within the 365 days. One day over & you will have to repeat the whole process.

Stephanie Godwin 53

[Christine Animal]

"The dog is just over two & a half  years old and the vaccinations appear on a booklet type document except for the last one which is on a separate document."

Anne, all the French vaccinations go in the booklet (chppil), but the Rabies is always on a separate sheet, pink or blue, depending if it is the first time or an annual booster.

 

[Miggimeggi]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

"The dog is just over two & a half  years old and the vaccinations appear on a booklet type document except for the last one which is on a separate document."

Anne, all the French vaccinations go in the booklet (chppil), but the Rabies is always on a separate sheet, pink or blue, depending if it is the first time or an annual booster.

[/quote]

Christine, interesting and thanks for the observation.  The boy we brought from SA gets pink certificates but Utopie's is blue, the expiring one that is, not the latest which is also pink, so it seems that I was mistaken when I said that she has been vaccinated since puppyhood, and she actually had her first Rabies shot end February 2005 at almost 2 years old.   All the vaccinations in the booklet were expired, they expired in November 2005, but I had thought that they had had the rabies shot done and not bothered to do the others.  Wonder what their thinking was - it is not as if it is so much more expensive to have all the shots done at the same time.  Oh well, just a few more days and it will be a month since her booster and I will take her back to the vet and ask him if I should have another blood test or perhaps another rabies booster and then have the next blood test a month after that.  As I keep saying,  we have no plans to go to the UK but we want to be prepared if circumstances force a return. I do hope she eventually shows a positive result.  I know I am rotten but I cannot help a sneaky feeling that not everything is as above board as it could be.  Silly thing is, once we saw her, we would have taken her under any circumstances 'though I do wish she had not welded herself to my right hip - makes normal living a bit difficult.

Anne

[Patf]

We just received the results of the blood test for our 2 dogs, both ok

but a big difference: 4yr old 0.87 , 3yr old 7.9. Both were injected

last July ( boosters). I wonder if the lab tests are reliable? Our vet

did the centrifuge but asked us to post the samples and enclose the

cheque so the lab received it well over 24 hours later. Pat.

[Miggimeggi]

[quote user="godwinsj"]

The important thing is that the vet has a centrifuge and gets the blood to the lab within 12-24 hours.

Obviously different breeds tend to react to the vaccine in different ways but after much trial & error we have found a specialist vet who has had a 100% success rate with all our dogs so far. Indeed the majority of them are off the scale at 7.92+ !

Once the blood test is done (only a single vaccination is usually needed unless it is a very young puppy) do remember to do the booster within the 365 days. One day over & you will have to repeat the whole process.

Stephanie Godwin 53

[/quote]

Yes, and also be sure to keep all the pink slips.  Our first two years after our male dog did the 7.92 result, we sat there happily as the vet filled in the little booklet, did a new pink slip and then scrunched up and chucked away the previous years slip. Now we need a new blood test for him as we have no proof that he has had regular and punctual vaccinations.  Funny how many things seem obvious in retrospect but in SA we have the little 'book of life' for them and everything goes  in there,  never occurred to us that we had to tell the vet who did the blood test that we therefore needed last years pink slip to prove that we were still covered.

Anne

[Maddie]

The fact that you have a pink certificate should be sufficient.  With the first vaccination for rabies the vet issues a blue certificate.  Therafter, providing the booster is given before the certificate expires you get a pink certificate.  Fortunately, all mine are also recorded on their carte de sante and on their pet passports.  Poor vet has a mountain of paperwork to do when we have to go for boosters!

[Miggimeggi]

And Bingo!  Utopie's latest blood test result just came back and with a 7.92.  So.......... she had her first vac.(blue certificate) Feb.2005.  2nd vac. (pink certificate)within the renewal date,  at Feb. 2006 when she also had a blood test based on the assumption that she should have sufficient immunity to show a positive result.  Wrong!!!!!!!!!  The result came back negative at .29.  We then waited for just over a month from the date of the annual booster and did a second blood test which, as said above, is now positive.  Thank you everyone who wrote to say that there is often a negative result on the first vaccination. 

Georgina,  I hope that yours also shows a good result after a second vaccination.

I wonder how many dogs (and cats) are going around with just their first year vacs., whose owners' believe them to be protected against the dreaded rage but who would also show a negative result if a blood test was done.

Anne