Do Chihuahuas Need Lepto Vaccines?
Dr. Barchas,
My two one-year-old 5.5 lb.
Chihuauhuas are due for their distemper booster
soon. Do you feel the lepto vaccine added into the
distemper vaccine is necessary? Or do you think it
is too much of a risk for a Chihuahua to get this
vaccine?
Thank you,
Sherrie
Connecticut
Leptospira, also known as lepto, is a bacteria that infects the kidneys. The bacteria is present in the urine of infected animals. Pets and humans can become infected if they come in contact with the urine of an infected animal, or if they drink water that is contaminated with urine. Any pet or person that is infected with lepto may suffer kidney failure.
The vaccine for lepto is controversial. There are several different types of lepto, and the vaccine protects against only a few of them. As well, conventional wisdom in the veterinary community holds that the lepto vaccine causes a disproportionate number of adverse reactions in pets. I have yet to see any hard proof of this second issue. Nonetheless, many vets believe it.
My attorney recommends that I vaccinate all dogs against Leptospira. She fears that if I don´t, and a person contracts the disease from one of my unvaccinated patients, I will be sued.
However, the fact is that some dogs are at higher risk for the disease than others. Dogs that roam freely in rural areas and drink from ponds or puddles in which wild animals may have urinated are at high risk. They should definitely be vaccinated, for their safety as well as that of the people who live with them.
Dogs that live in urban areas, dogs that rarely go outside and dogs that never drink from puddles or ponds have a low risk of contracting lepto. Most Chihuahuas fall into one or more of these categories.
Ultimately, you must be the one to decide whether your dogs are vaccinated against lepto. If you elect to vaccinate them, you must be prepared to accept the risk of adverse reactions. If you choose to forego the vaccine, you must make that decision with the knowledge that lepto is a disease that could potentially spread to you.
You have questions. 
Here’s a new one: I went to a vet for a consult on mammary tumor removal on my Beligan Malinois last year and he REFUSES to give lepto vaccines because he says that veterinary science exists to protect people and the disease is easily cured in animals but very dangerous in humans. The idea being that you WANT the dog to show symptoms in case the person needs to be treated. My dogs are all frequently out in rural areas. I said, thank you very much for the information, that is very interesting and then proceeded to go ahead and give my dogs lepto boosters myself :-)
A number of agility dogs died from suspected lepto about five years ago and I have made certain that lepto is part of my dogs’ anual boosters since then.
My 17 mo old chi reacted very badly to the lepto vaccination. She whimpered and whined, yelped when she was touched even lightly, and even wet our bed because she didn’t feel like jumping down to her paper pan. The vet gave us no “heads up” that this could happen, and gave us rymadyl to give her the next day, which did help a bit. He explained that the shot makes their skin “sore” but it was more like her skin was on fire; she was in pain, not just sore. Since then, she has also had a bad reaction to the bordetalla vaccination. She is strictly confined to our home and back yard, and after a lot of research, I plan to never vaccinate her again for anything. Small breeds in particular tend to have more reactions since the same dose is given to every dog regardless of size. I believe every pet owner should do the research and decide for themselves which vaccinations are necessary, then weigh the benefit against the risk. Google adverse reactions to canine vaccinations and read some horror stories about indiscrimate vaccination.
My two Chihuahua’s were given the Lepto vaccine in their Distemper vaccines recently. One is 8 lbs and 1 1/2 years old. The other was 4 months and 5 lbs. Both were given Benedryl for possible reactions. Both still had nasty reactions to the point where they were sick for a few weeks afterwards. You couldn’t even touch them without them screaming.
My vet will no longer give my dogs the Lepto vaccine.
They are boarded occasionally so they get a lot of the extra vaccines and have never had a previous reaction to any.
My dog is a chihuaha and we just found out he has lepto. He not an outside dog and i wanna know is anybody has a dog that has survive lepto what happens next, Please answer me!!!!!
Add my golden to the long list of dogs who had severe reactions to the lepto vaccine. I’m not doing the follow up shot in two weeks because of this. My vet glossed over the serious side effects of this vaccine, scaring me into agreeing to it against my better judgment.
I wouldn’t let an attorney convince me to vaccinate my child, so I don’t understand letting one convince you to vaccinate a dog. From now on, I’m only giving my dog that vaccines that are legally required. We are too quick to medicate these days.
My dog is coming home from a 9 day stay in the emergency and a $6934.00 dollar bill. He is still not out of the woods. We have a long road ahead of us. And we caught it early. Any Vet that says Lepto is easy to cure in a dog is out of his mind.
As a Veterinary Technician, I have yet to see Lepto in my somewhat rural area. It is like Dr.Barchas said, you have to make an “informed” decision. It isn’t necessarily the Lepto the dogs always react to. In many cases we see just as severe reactions with a Rabies Vaccine that it required by law. Refer to his article on vaccinations, by not vaccinating at all, you are ignorant of the high probablility of contracting the deadliest Parvo and Distemper. If you don’t like what your Veterinarian has to say, go to another, if they say the same thing….there might be a good reason. If you use the internet, go to real medicine sites like Purdue’s Veterinary College or UC Davis or Cornell. There are so many misconceptions in all medicine, so don’t make your pet pay for your lack of understanding when the resources are out there.
My 4 month old chihuahua was vaccinated over the weekend and she had a horrible reaction to the vaccine. She was vomitting her face was swollen and had hives all night. She eventually fell asleep and woke up the next day 95% normal. But now she is all better.