Vaccination Side Effects in Pets

I had 2 bichon friese/malteseX, 9 yo, bro/sis, both in perfect health. In Sep, 2007 I took them for their annual parvo vaccinations. Suddenly, 2 months later the female is totally blind & the male is blind in the left eye. She also lost weight & was diagnosed diabetic. He had a major seizure & was diagnosed epileptic. I will never have my beloved dogs or any dogs I may own in the future, vaccinated ever again.

I learned of the availability of a rattlensake vaccination, so I had my three-year-old labrador retriever vaccinated, with the recommended booster. It's been a couple of months now, and the dog's tear glands have ceased to produce tears, and he now salivates excessively. We now have to administer eye drops several times a day. He has always been a very healthy dog with regular vet checks, up to date rabies, heart worm, etc. Has anyone heard of any connection between these symptoms and this vaccination. We can't come up with any other idea what might have caused this.

Four Chihuahua puppies were taken at age 9 weeks for vaccination no 1 and a large lump developed on their shoulders which soon subsided. Six days after the vaccine one puppy seemed slow and under the weather and the the following morning was found semi conscious in her bed. We could not bring her round, her little body arched in a seizure. We gave honey and kept her hydrated. We rang our homeopath and we tried several remedies and she showed some improvement and then one more remedy and she came round after 4 hours on and off and was walking about. The following day she had another seizure in the morning and we knew which remedy helped and she came round in 30 mins. A week later she had another and the same pill brought her round in minutes. It is now about 10 days since the last episode. We feel the vaccination combined with mum's milk drying up may have been responsible. After the first episode she had lost her appetite and needed lots of care. She is full of life and eating well again. We will not go for the next vaccination in case she is too small and too young.

Three years ago, I took my 3-yr-old dachshund in for his vaccinations and grooming. He was actually going to be part of a TV commercial the next day. When I picked him up his eyes were watering and his face was swollen. They told me he had a reaction to his vaccines and they give him benadryl and a steroid shot. He was a little better by morning. The sad thing is after his vaccines he started to have monthly seisures! He had never had one before. And the look in his eyes changed.

Fast forward a few more years, when "Skipper" was six and he needed surgery to clean out his stomach after gettign into the trash and digesting too much junk. The vet said it was "not-uncommon" surgery and I would be find to take him home in the evening. He went on to say most dogs are back up walking around later that night. Well, that's not the case with "Skipper" - unfortunately, he had could barely move or keep his eyes opened. I let him rest and just stayed up with him. But by mid morning, he was gone. It was awful! I have had to say goodbye to pets before from old age and stayed with them when they were put to sleep, but I've not had to go through this. And I blame it all on the vaccines triggering the reaction, the seizures and thus, not having the strength he should have to go through a "routine" surgery!

I've since found out doxies are one of the breeds that has reactions to the vacccines. It's crazy we are insisting dogs get so many shots yearly - just to keep veterarians in business!

I have a boy puppy that was born Dec 27/10 and had his first set of vaccines Feb 18/11 and 9 days later had a seizure. I am going to take him for his second set of vaccines but only his distemper and parvo. I bought Thuga and Sulfer 30c tablets but unsure how much to give him and for how long. Thank you in advance for your help. Fern

September 13, 2008 I took my airedale, Teddy, for a Bordatella at Petco in order to board him the following week. He received this vaccine about 6:00 p.m. And by 8:00 p.m. he suffered what appeared to be a seizure and died. There was no time to get him to the emergency vet (this occurred on a Saturday evening. ) It was overwhelmingly sad. I phoned the emergency vet to see if the Bordatella vaccine could have caused his death and they emphatically told me no way. I wonder to this day, if it was the cause as he was fine before that.

I have another airedale who turned 10 in October. He and Ted were best buddies.

My heart goes out to Rusty's mom and dad for their loss. After reading your article on vaccines I will certainly heed your warning about a blood test before vaccinating. Thank you for the info.

My black lab Brandy used to have small reactions after her vaccinations. She would have facial tremors and what may have been small seizures. We never made the connection until later. She also had developed a thyroid problem when she was about 6 years old. I took her to the vet for her yearly vaccines (as I thought every good pet owner should). When she was 13, she was given her yearly booster as well as rabies vaccine. Within a few weeks she began having seizures that we could not get under control, even with seizure medication. We lost her that year.

A few years earlier we had a cat that was given yearly vaccines. She developed an over-active thyroid, and despite having lost a lot of weight and not seeming to be in good health, the vet gave her a full set of vaccinations, plus Feline Leukemia. At the time, I thought all those vaccines were in the name of good health. Within a few weeks of getting those vaccinations, she stopped eating and we lost her.

I now have 2 dogs, 4 horses, and 3 cats that have been given minimal vaccinations. My new vet doesn't fight with me or try to convince me to vaccinate. I am convinced that I lost both my beloved Brandy and cat Barney to vaccinations! I suggest every pet owner read "The Nature of Animal Healing" by Martin Goldstein, DVM. Despite 2 degrees in Animal Science, it is this book that began me on my journey towards true animal health. My animals have benefitted greatly from the limited vaccines and home prepared diets! I hold my breath after each state required rabies vaccination, but hope their overall good health will help them through its trauma to their system!

Our Rottweiler went in for his 2nd series of shots and by the time we walked out and to the desk to pay the bill my pup released urine all over my son. When my son put him down he dropped w/no movement, he went into Anaphylactic shock. He was critical for over forty minutes then hours til we could see him and bring him home.

Three days later he was licking the area where they injucted the needle and w/i hours it was flesh. We rushed him into another vet for a 2nd opinion and yes, it was due to the Lepto vaccine. Sad thing is they admit that at least one dog per yr per vet witnesses a dogs death due to this vaccine. So, why is it still out there, why aren't we warned til after the fact, and who the heck is responsible for the damage? His leg will be scarred for the rest of his life, we had to hold off on training, puppy classes, puppy daycare. I'm out of a job due to the stress of not wanting to leave him alone knowing that he could have future health issues, Seizures and now he's afraid of people and I can't even socialize him.

Our 7 week old Great Pyrenees has been having seizures every 2 to 4 hours after getting vaccinations.

I had a litter of pups get their first vaccinations. Exactly three weeks later all of them had back to back seizures for 48 hours straight. Horrible seizures where they ran across the floor and would slam into the wall. It was terrifying. I looked it up and found that lepto will cause seizures 21 days after vaccination. Just like my pups. They had seizures for several years until we found out that fish oil would stop them. Within a few weeks of giving them fish oil daily the seizures became so mild that the pups would just shake. Eventually they stopped completely. My pups lived to 14 and 15 years old. They never got another vaccination after they were one!

EC: Thank you so much Kay. Your feedback has been cross-posted to the Pets/Seizures page.

My chihuahua was given her puppy vaccinations at 6 weeks and then the next one weeks later. After the second one, she went into shock and then came down with epilepsy, allergies to everything and other problems. I actually got my vet to tell me (since he wasn't the one who administered the shot) that all of this was due to the vaccination. She lived for 8 years, with a ton of problems and then we finally lost her to a massive seizure that ultimately took her ability to use her legs and then pick up her head. Vaccinosis is very real and any shots should not be done without a titer to see if they even need the shot.

I cannot say the dose or the name of the vaccine, but when I bought my puppy, a mutt of blue heeler, australian shepherd origin, the seller immediately gave her an 6-way shot. I was told by vet those are very bad and dangerous. I have had issues with my dog, she began having seizures, yeast infections in ears, she has runny nose but its also not clear. For life of me I cannot keep her at a healthy weight, she holds fat, but overall I have a feeling that shot caused these problems

I brought my Sheltie, Toby, into the vet for his first or second round of vaccinations. They administered a shot and I asked them what that was. (at this time I was very trusting of vets). They told me it was an 8 in 1 shot. I was upset that they gave him so much in one shot (rabies was included). They reassured me that it would be ok. By the time I got home with him (about 20 minutes later), he developed a "bump" on the end of his nose. I immediately took him back to the vet because I knew he was having a reaction. By the time I got him back to the vet, his whole face was swollen. About 3 months later, he developed more bumps on his nose which went away. About 3 months after that, he developed epilepsy. We did everything we could do for our Toby. We went the regular route with phenobarbital and bromide and the side effects were horrible. He was so drugged, he would just sit there with his tongue hanging out (he was around 2 by now). And, he still had seizures about every 45 days. I took him off everything and consulted with a homeopathic vet -(this vet used to be a regular vet, but switched). I found that I could treat him with homeopathic medicines and achieve the same results without the horrible side effects. We also put him on a raw diet consisting of salmon, lamb, veggies, brown rice, etc. He ate better than we did. To make a very long story short; Toby lived to be 4. He had seizures about every two weeks - very severe seizures. The homeopathic vet said he was the worst he had ever seen. I believe that Toby would not have lived as "long" as he did if we had not had him on his raw food diet. On April 24, 2009, he did not come out of a seizure. It was heart wrenching for all of us. I do not vaccinate my animals and I feed my two cats raw food diets. I blame his seizures on the vaccinations he received as a puppy (and my ignorance). Toby was a great dog and we miss him very much.
On a side note - one of my cats is 16 years old and has been on a raw food diet for 5 years. I put her on this diet after she was given 2 weeks to live (cancer). She recently had blood work done (just to check her out) and the vet said that she was very impressed with the blood work. She said she would be impressed if this blood work was from an 8 year old cat. Bottom line - no vaccinations and feed raw food. Good luck to everyone.

My pekingese pup is just barely six months old and received her corona virus vaccine and her lime vaccine this past Saturday, 01/23/10. This evening at 5pm my pup went into a seizure. I think the timing is pretty weird that now that this has happened. Is there any side effects and/or reasoning that now the seizures have begun. A lot like autism in childrens vaccines,,,is there a possiblity this is now happening to my puppy?

EC: There are a few other reader posts in this section linking vaccinations to their dog's seizures, unfortunately.

Here is my story, I hope it helps another sweet animal.

I was given a 10 week old Rottweiler puppy for XMas.He was HEALTHY & HAPPY for the 11 days we had him. On his 12 week b-day, we took him to the vet for his check-up and the vet proceeded to give him: Rabies, Lymes and Bordatella shots (please note that the nurse questioned the doctor giving 3 shots and not 2 and his response was"he is a big boy, 3 is fine" - he was 15 pds!! Got home and puppy acting/eating fine until 10 hours AFTER the shots when he started having a seizure (foaming at mouth, VERY vocal, body out of control and thrashing, deficated and urinated). Called vet and took him in, only after 2nd seizure did we make it (same type seizure "violent". Vet did blood work and tested for parasite and gave me 0.7cc valium to bring home with me in the event he had another seizure (give him valium and go to vet ER hospital) PLEASE NOTE MY VET DID WRITE ON PAPERWORK: vx induced? (this tells me he knows it was!)

Went to ER on New Years Day at 2:20am in morning as puppy had 3rd seizure. Vet did more testing (ammonia levels etc) In the morning vet called at 8:00am to tell me puppy had 4th seizure and it was the worst he has seen (same as he had been having at home)- said "prognosis not good". Put puppy on anti-seizure meds and said to call later/ Went to visit puppy New Years Day around 4:00pm and he was great, happy to see me, walking, licking & kissing me and just looked normal (besides his cath in his arm).Came home and called hospital around 9:00pm to speak to vet who told me I should put puppy to sleep!!!!!! Devastated I headed to hospital and while in route - puppy had 5th seizure (while on seizure meds). Ended up putting puppy to sleep :0(

NOW...3 vets, the vaccinations companies and the breeder are ALL fighting to "clear" their names. Fighting over WHO should do autopsy (we did NOT requst autopsy but breeders vet said that my vet POISONED puppy with these shots). Puppy is on way to cornell university so they can autopsy and find out WHAT happend to this beautiful babay boy who never had a chance to live. My heart is broken into a million pieces as I feel I did not protect my friend from these shots. (I also have an autistic son who got MMR shot and days later was COVERED in Measles - 2 months later, all his words GONE and diagnosed Autistic shortly thereafter. I HATE vaccinations and although i now some are neccesary, I do not feel they are "one size fits all". There should be better vaccination schedules (for children and animals) and their health should be taken into consideration - not everyone can have the same shots at the same time! I am going to fight this terrible tragedy until SOMEONE takes the blame. the vaccinations company is VERY concerned, as well as the vets (only concerned they may get into trouble, of course). We are hiring a lawyer to help fight this battle (not for the money we spent - $2500.00 in 32 hours) but for this puppies life that was taken away from him, way to soon. Someone is going to be put to blame and fortunatly, the 3 vets have all mentioned "vx induced" as the cause of his downfall. The one vet is SURE he was poisend and so, having these vets AGAINST eachother, will only help me get the answer I need. WHO DID THIS to him?? The VET by giving him wasy to many shots at once? The vaccination company having a "bad bach"?? OR the Breeders vet who sold us a puppy who maybe had some underlying health issue? All I can say is that they told me "THIS PUPPY WILL NEVER AGAIN GET A VACCINATION - if he makes it, he will be EXEMPT" (what does that tell us?) I hope you all have great luck with your furry friends and again, if I could "re-do" this time of events, I would have more cautiously looked into the vaccinations and INSISTED he be put on a schedule that I thought safer for him. best of luck to you all!!

EC: Dear Sharonabath,

We are sorry to hear about your puppy. Thank you so much for taking the time to write us in depth about this.