Side Effects of Pet Vaccines: A Closer Look

For some reason my Red/ Blue Queensldand Heeler's face was swollen this morning after I took him out to go to the bathroom. My boyfriend and I gave him his 3rd distemper/ parvo shot yesterday around 5:30pm. This is the 2nd time that his face has swelled up like this. The 1st time we assumed that he had gotten stung or bit by something when I took him outside and it did not happen until exactly 1 week after he was given his 2nd distemper/ parvo shot. We gave him some Benedryl and that made the swelling go down. I did the same thing this morning. He is still extremely playful and is eating and drinking fine.

Could he be having a reaction to the shot that we gave him yesterday? If so then why did it take a week for the last reaction. Please help we are confused.

Thank You

I have a 5 year old shar-pei. A year ago he received his booster shots for DHLP and within a few days had severe pain in his back and hind legs. This transferred into a couple episodes of shar-pei fever which in total lasted over a month until he was back to normal.

The vet initially prescribed Tramadol for pain relief and then I migrated him to some homeopathic remedies.

My 6 yr old female lab received booster vaccines on 10/2/08 also. She has been digging and scratching at herself ever since. The original reason we took her in was because she was scratching herself a bit. They said she had fleas, which she did, but she wasn't scratching herself until she bled and she wasn't losing hair and weight. I took her back in and they gave her a steroid shot. Now her eyes are dialated and she is lethargic. How long before this shot wears off. Should I contact the vet again? Maybe there is a really bad batch of vaccine going around, like bad cat food from China?

I've got a 9 wk old male Australian Cattle Dog who received his 2nd set of puppy shots this morning. He'd been playful all day, then come dinner time he barely ate anything and seemed very out of it. He's since had diahrea for the past couple of hours and has thrown up twice. He's now sleeping but we're keeping a close eye on him.

Parvo: I got 2 boxer puppies on Wed took them in for their first shots on Thursday, one immediately got very sick, bloody stools and not eating. The puppy was not any better on Sat morning, so ran it to the emergency vet, all I heard was it has Parvo, even after the test came back negative on both puppies the vet still said it had Parvo. I ask several time could it be a reaction to the shot, they just looked at me dumbfounded like how dare i ask a stupid question. The vet wanted $400 up front to treat my puppy for Parvo, I did not have a good feeling about this, so I took the puppies home, started them on TechMix k9 Restart and Live Bac, on Sunday we saw a marked improvement and today the puppy looks and act like nothing happened.

2.5 yr. old Miniature Schnauzer rec'd annual shots for the first time since puppy shots as I know they are bad for them from being told that by several country veternarians. Within 1 week, he was lethargic, vomiting yellow foam uncontrollably, continuous panting, brick hard abdomen, low grade fever, bloody diarhea, his whole body seemed sore to the touch as he acted like an abused dog would when you would reach for him. He had pus pimples all over his neck and back that would pop easily and smell horrible with clear green liquid. I took him to emergency clinic and they left him on IV overnight. His blood counts told them nothing was wrong. Xrays showed only slightly inflammed intestines. They gave bland diet, antibiotics, steroids and panalog ointment for skin. He did require 2 rounds of antibiotics to completely cure the skin bumps. His skin color went from pink to almost black on his back. Doctors would not admit it was from shots. I talked to a holistic vet that sold me colostrum capsules and told me to also get probotics. My dog is now 5 yrs. old. He had to have shots again recently to get neutered and he has had no reactions. My dog since recovery has been functioning at 80-90% of his pre vaccine activity level and ability.

Trembling, Lethargic dog: Last week I took my 10 year Pom in for shots before we left the vets he fell down and had rapid heart beat. The vet immediately gave him a shot of benadryl, which seemed to help. However, he has been laying around, not eating, shivering. We have taken him back to the vet, who says he can't find anything. Does anyone have any advice??

My dog Bruiser is a pit bull Terrier mix (chow chow) He is the most gentle dog I had ever come in contact with. Bruiser had his three year vaccinations on September 18th. VX-Canine DP 3 year, Leptospirosis, and Lyme vaccaine. Two weeks later he is lethargic, very depressed, mopes around, is drooling from the right side of his mouth, seems spooked, yelps for reason unknown and when I push on parts of his back, his muscles begin to tremble. I don't want to take him back to the vet because they lied to me about Lyme's he supposedly had and said that the tests they charged me for showed he is negative. They charged me over $200 that day when they quoted me much much less. Has anyone else gone through similar symptoms with their dog after annual shots? Thanks, Lori

My dog had the DA2LP/ Parvo /Corona/ Bordetella shots yesterday and he seemed more like he wanted to be alone yesterday and after 24 hours his right eye is closing and is red and he can't hardly open the eye. We rub it and it won't help at all.

My 4 year old cocker spaniel, went in for his vaccinations..in 2005. He got the new 4 year booster shot. in less than 24 hours he began vomitting...then bloody diahrea, followed in days by severe tremors, fever, his eyes glazed over in a blue haze, and a few days after his mucus mebranes in his nose began to bleed. and he became lethargic. During these events we rushed him to the vet and animal hospital. where they claim it all just coincidental, and that he had an auto immune problem...and would send him home, with pain meds and diahrea meds. We went back several times, ended up with a huge vet bill and a dead dog! if you ask me the new extra strong booster may be what triggered it and the symptoms appeared to be hepatitis and he died of a stroke. They still denied the connection. what a horrible way for a dog to suffer.

DHLPPC Annual: My 2 year old Westie had one bout of severe diarrhea an severe shaking. Vet gave him 25mg Benadryl. He's fine now. He has never had a reaction to anything before, has never been sick.

I'm so sorry. I'm a primary care provider for humans. I have a little poodle who was getting seizures after being given a rabies vaccine. I believe the vaccine can cause swelling of the brain based on some articles I have read. Again.. I am terribly sorry for your loss. Make sure the vet reports this incident and they do not give anymore shots from the vial your dog was treated.

My cat developed cancer after his annual (not rabies) vaccines! He was diagnosed with Vaccine-associated Sarcoma (VAS), which is likely a byproduct of the suspension that is used to deliver the vaccine. Luckily, we noticed the lump on his haunch where he was vaccinnated within 2 months. We are very fortunate that we had the financial means and access to a pet cancer center for his care: $10,000 over 4 months. Our oncologist is still amazed at how well he's doing -- it's been almost 2 years now, and no reoccurance. Surviving VAS is very rare; it's very, very aggressive and most cats only live 1-2 years even with treatment. Needless to say, none of our 5 older, indoor-only kitties will be vaccinated ever again!! Yahoo has a great feline VAS support group forum for information and interaction with other affected families.

I took my healthy cat of 10 years to the vet today. After receiving the rabies and distemper vaccines--approximately 5 minutes after the shots. She growled 2 times and went limp. They took her back and intubated her and gave oxygen, gave her benadryl and epinephrine but she died anyway. Does this seem right to anyone?

Hi Kristen, I do hope your little dog is doing better now even though i dont know how. I am a strong believer in only getting my dogs i have 2 black pugs what the law requires for them. The others is only for vets to make money and your dog does not need them. lease dont keep letting them give your baby dog shots that it not nessary. Read up on the subject hun. Goodluck and i hope i was some help. I live in Cumberland County NC.

i took my 5 year old yorkie-poo who only weighs about 6lbs. he was given a rabies shot and parvovirus shot and a heart worm pill. he was fine that day but, the following day he could hardly raise his head, he would not eat or drink and was running a fever. a week later he lost the use of his back legs and just layed for one night. the next morning he was able to use his back legs and was jumping and playing like his old self. he still has blood in his stool and seems aloof. this is not like him at all.

I just had a kitten to the vet today. I have only had her since Thursday, She had fleas so I had them treated, and to the vet today, she received her shots both felovax IV and calicivax and rabies vaccine. She seemed fine when I got her home, then I had to work. Well I got home a little while ago went to pick her up and she was making horrible noises at me and just seemed like she was in a lot of pain. She wasn't walking correctly, and she just wanted to lay there. I am so very upset. My brother tragically passed away on the 13th, and this was his cat, I would really hate to loose her, i would be devastated. I have 3 dogs and never experienced this until now.