Titer Tests For Rabies? Part II

Article posted with permission from the author, Suzanne Hamner

Disclaimer: This is for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding vaccinations and immunity against disease regarding your pets, please see your Whitecoat veterinarian or your holistic, naturopathic veterinarian.

In Part I of this series on titer testing for rabies, the immune system, appropriate vaccination and titer testing, types of titer testing and titer test results were covered. This part will cover dealing with authorities on titer tests proving immunity and how to protect your furry family member from possible harm suffered from further vaccination due to the law or possible euthanasia should a biting incident occur. A brief summary of this was covered in Part I, but more in-depth information will be provided here in Part II.

Since rabies is the only vaccine required by law for your furry family member, pet parents will be faced with vaccinating for rabies either yearly or every three years. As a wise-vaxxer, who has conducted your research on appropriate timing of vaccine, appropriate timing of titer tests and what the titer test results indicate, you have chosen to follow the recommendations on vaccine by Dr. Ronald Schultz and titer test appropriately. Based on all of this, your furry family member has been indicated as having an immune response to the vaccine, meaning your furry family member is now immune.

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But, you now have to contend with vets who practice over-vaccination and dealing with the local authorities and the law should any questionable biting incident occur. This can be daunting for pet parents and our furry family members. The key is to be educated and possess the appropriate “expert” to help your case.

Currently, there are only 18 states in the united States that have medical exemptions for vaccine for our furry family members. When you read this reference, the laws can sound scary if you choose to refrain from over-vaccination and have titer testing indicating immunity. All throughout that reference one can see citing of “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control” prepared by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV), The Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control, the NASPHV, and/or “the vaccine label”. As it turns out, the “expert” for rabies vaccination and control is this compendium.

In Part I, B, Prevention and Control Methods in Domestic and Confined Animals, Section 1 (a) states, “Following the initial vaccination, booster vaccinations should be given in a manner consistent with the manufacturer’s label.” As we have learned, the manufacturer’s label states to only use the product in healthy animals. This can help establish a “waiver” or medical exemption, even when the State does not allow one, to prevent your furry family member from over-vaccination if unhealthy.

Most practicing veterinarians are bound to follow the label on any drug or vaccine, unless he feels it is in the best interest of the patient to prescribe “off label.” The question then becomes what would make your furry family member “off label” or exempt from annual or semi-annual vaccinations? Some examples are provided.

• Hypothyroid dogs on a daily thyroid replacement drug.

• Allergic animals who scratch or chew themselves frequently.

• The same itchy animals above who are on meds like antihistamines, prednisone, cyclosporine (Atopica)​ or the latest in the wave of immune suppressants, Apoquel or Cytopoint.

• The same previously itchy animals who are being controlled with special diets that have unusual ingredients (duck, pea, venison, trout, “novel proteins,” etc).

• Any animal on a special diet for kidney disease, bladder crystals, liver disease, intestinal problems (like Inflammatory Bowel Disease), dental disease, or any other reason.

• The dog or cat who routinely needs ear medications to prevent infections or itchy, swollen, discharging ears.

• Any animal who is on a seizure medicine to control epilepsy (I still cringe when I hear these poor guys getting vaccinated. I can’t help it. This is so wrong).

• The dog with “dry eye” who is on drops (often of cyclosporine) to keep the eye moist because his tear ducts have autoimmune inflammation that prevent them from making tears.

• A hyperthyroid cat, on medicine or after radioactive iodine treatment, to treat another immune disorder, this one causing his thyroid to over produce thyroid hormone.

• Any animal on heart medications.

• Any animal on pain medications.

• Any diabetic animal, whether or not insulin is being used.

• Any animal on antibiotics.

• Any animal who you are bringing in to the vet because s/he has the “ADR Syndrome.”
  [That stands for “Ain’t Doin’ Right.”].

Medical exemption laws vary among the 18 states that currently allow those exemptions. For the medical exemption, the state requires proof your furry family members is immunocompromised, is receiving treatment that would be compromised by vaccination, has a condition such as cancer, or has had a documented adverse reaction to a previous vaccine. Your veterinarian is responsible for applying for the waiver on behalf of your furry family member. This exemption is then passed to the county or state veterinarian and the public health office for final approval.

When seeking a waiver, the Rabies Challenge Fund strongly advises that a rabies serum antibody titer test be performed. Adequate serum rabies titers in the USA are at least 0.1 IU/ml (formerly stated as a 1:5 dilution) by the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT) method. The standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 0.5 IU/ml.

A titer alone at the 0.1 IU/ml level or above is not justification to waive the required rabies vaccination boosters. A titer just indicates that an animal has mounted an immune response to vaccination & has the specified level of protection to the rabies virus. In other words, titer is simply an assurance to the medical exemption grantors that a dog has the specified protection against the virus.

For individuals residing in States that have no medical exemption or waiver, it will be up to pet parents to lobby State legislatures to allow for a medical exemption for unhealthy furry family members. To help with this, you can read the study, “Duration of Immunity after rabies vaccination in dogs: The Rabies Challenge Fund research study” available at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Library of Medicine website.

It is unlikely to get current rabies vaccination laws changed due to the complex nature of those laws that involve multiple state agencies and localities.

So, what can pet parents do who live in States without medical exemption in the meantime to keep their pets from running afoul with authorities. You have vaccinated your furry family member according to the recommendations by Dr. Ronald Schultz. Titer testing performed at the appropriate time indicate your furry family member has mounted an immune response, which means he is immune. There is no need to titer test yearly. It’s important to keep the proof of vaccination and the results of the titer test along with a copy of the compendium in case it is needed regarding a bite scenario.

Here’s what I’d do to keep your chances high of not losing your best friend in a dog bite scenario:

1. Keep a copy of your rabies vaccination certificate with you, even if it’s “out of date.” That lands your dog in the vaccinated vs unvaccinated group, a desirable status should a bite occur.

2. If your dog is a known aggressor, or has a cranky side, keep him in close control at all times in public. This is cheap dog bite prevention that costs only vigilance and a good leash on your part. A muzzle perhaps, if bites just come too easily.

3. If your dog is “out of date” by a few years, it could be worth investing in a rabies titer test. While not necessarily recognized by all governing bodies, if there’s a positive number (over 0.1 = “protective” to the CDC), you’ve got more proof to offer that rabies is highly unlikely to be the cause of the bite.

4. Roxanne gets the credit for this one: Print out and keep a copy of the Compendium with you, along with your rabies vaccination certificate and titer results. Don’t be surprised if you’re the only one in the room who knows this stuff! But knowing it and being able to produce a document from CDC are two different things. Keeping a cool head and confidently providing documents like this will get you far.

Remember, the Compendium is the “expert” as indicated by the Center for Disease Control. According to the Compendium, Part I, B, 6, “Regardless of rabies vaccination status, a healthy dog, cat, or ferret that potentially exposes a person through a bite should be confined and observed daily for 10 days from the time of the exposure.”

For this writer, knowing the choice has been made to refuse further vaccination of my furry family member, it is important to keep her safe. Even though she is not a biter, she has teeth, which means she can and will bite. Despite the fact she has never bitten anyone, strangers are not allowed to interact with her. She is only allowed to interact with people well-known to the family and with family members.

When traveling or outside in public, she remains harnessed and leashed with only a 6-foot leash in order to keep her well-controlled. Being this has been the normal since her adoption, she readily steps into her harness and waits for her leash. She is not allowed contact with any other animals while leashed and harnessed in public. When someone asks, “Can I pet your dog”, the response is usually, “I’d prefer you didn’t because she can get a little hyper from over-stimulation.”

When workmen come to the house for repairs or servicing appliances, she is securely crated in her oversized wire “den” until she needs to go outside or after the workmen leave. At home, she can venture outside in the yard on a retractable leash or she can go “freestyle” (without harness or leash) in the fenced area of the yard specifically built for her, but only with supervision and the presence of an adult at all times.

Rarely does she ever go outside at night. When she does, usually in the winter time due to the time change, again, she is harnessed and leashed. Her mommy wears a large head lamp similar to what you would see spelunkers use to watch for any stray animals, wild animals, or potential threats. She is only allowed out long enough to do her “business” then it is immediately back indoors until daylight, if in the morning, or for bedtime, when in the evening.

If these actions seem a little over the top, it may be to some. However, this has been the policy used for every furry family member who had been over-vaccinated as well as the current furry family member who will not receive further vaccinations.

At no point is this meant to encourage anyone to flout the law or violate the law. This is to educate pet parents whose furry family members have been victims of vaccine injury due to over-vaccination, suffer chronic health problems from receiving further vaccines, and to help those in States without medical exemptions to help prevent your furry family member from further harm at the hands of those intent on enforcing “law”. You are encouraged to read all provided sources in their entirety, do your own research, and come to your own decision regarding what is in the best interest of your furry family member.

Sources:

https://vitalanimal.com/titer-testing-mistakes/

https://vitalanimal.com/rabies-short-course/

https://vitalanimal.com/dog-bite-rabies/

https://breedingbusiness.com/titer-testing-for-dogs/

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/titers-avoiding-over-vaccination-in-dogs/

https://www.barkandwhiskers.com/vaccine-titer-testing/

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/titer-testing-dog/

https://www.nasphv.org/Documents/NASPHVRabiesCompendium.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/hcp/veterinarians/index.html

https://rabiesaware.org/rabies-titer-testing

http://powershotsmn.com/rabies_laws_by_state.html

https://vitalanimal.com/fallacy-of-titer-tests/

https://hemopet.org/rabies-vaccination-status-and-laws-their-potential-impact-on-your-companion-dogs-lifestyle/

https://www.carrymypet.com/how-do-you-read-your-pets-titer-results

https://vitalanimal.com/vaccinations-consider-carefully/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32255911/

Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media