[bigpoodleperson]

Ok, so specialists/groups are recommending 3 year rabies vaccines. Most counties/cities are accecpting the 3 year rabies also. Most vets are still giving 1 year rabies though. Why, some ask. Mostly it is for cost. There are some reasons why though.

First, most practices "bread and butter" are the yearly comprehensive exams/vaccinations. What if some practices had to close because they didnt make enough money to stay open as noone came in every year for vaccines? What would happen to those sick dogs that needed help? Is that really the greater good?

Second, the most important part of the yearly visit is the exam, not the vaccinations. Trust me, if everyone got 3 year vaccines, we would not see most of those clients for another 3 years. Most people only come in every year so they dont get in trouble with the county for being overdue on vaccines. You wouldnt believe how many problems we catch every year when they were only in there for "shots". Just today we had a dog in for vaccinations that we found an abdominal tumor in. Yes, alot of owners are good enough with their dogs to say on top of things at home and know when something is wrong. Too many are not. Even good owners at home cant hear a heart murmer, or feel an abdominal mass.

Ok, just giving another side to the story! Thoughts?!

 

[Karma'sACat]

In NC, for rabies at least, I would argue it is the opposite. Most every vet does 3 year rabies after the initial 1 year puppy vacc. Many vets also offer the option of a rabies only (no exam) because it is required by state law and they also hold low cost rabies clinics which are essentially the same thing but cheaper. Very few days went by at the clinics I've worked at where we didn't have at least 1 rabies only and our rabies clinics were busy the entire day.
I will also point out that pet owners who care enough to research these things will likely go in to get a yearly exam even if they aren't getting vaccines. I compromise and get 3 year everything since we often have animals dumped on their property with unknown history/health and we have a couple immune compromised pets. However, we go in every year and most of them get yearly bloodwork (beyond the basic heartworm test). They are also the most likely to take their pets in if something is wrong (and take them in earlier too).
In states that have heartworm, a script is only good for a year, so you'd be getting them in yearly that way as well. Not to mention people are constantly getting new animals, so the vets will still have patients. Every animal won't be on the same schedule and come due on the same day or year.
And let's be realistic, as much as I and others wants these to become the norm, many vets will oppose it. They don't want to lose that profit and likely won't get on this until thousands upon thousands of studies have been done and everyone else is doing it.
(I hope none of that sounded mean or rude as I didn't intend it that way.)