Revisiting Adverse Dog Vaccine Reaction Incidence Rates

Recently, we shared what (little) scientific research we could find about the incidence of severe neurological adverse vaccine reactions similar to Lilly’s. The short story is that is rare … really rare. At our appointment last Friday, I chatted with our veterinary neurologist about the data I found. He made a good point — the reporting of such issues isn’t mandated, so it often isn’t done.

In other words, there could be a whole slew of cases that never show up in the data or in public discourse.

Of sad / interesting note, we received a blog comment last week from a family whose dog got very sick, in the same way Lilly did, recently. Here is snippet of that story …

From Jen:

“On February 20, my chocolate lab went in for her one year appt. She received her bortatella, rabies, and distemper. The next day she started having massive seizure. Emergency Vet, Neurologist, MRI, Spinal tap, and three months later, we are still having issues with our sweet baby girl.”

Sound familiar?

So, there is at least one other case so far in 2012.

Though, it’s complicated, I’m sure by the fact that this 1-year-old Lab received 3 vaccines at the same time.