Junior is a bichon frise, but suffers from dwarfism due to inbreeding from a puppymill (which has been suspended from the AKC).

I got Junior through Bichon Rescue when he was 4 months old. He could hardly walk and was very depressed. We gave him lots of TLC and water therapy when he was young and worked with his orthopaedic problems.

Junior apparently had no problems with his inoculations when he was a puppy. Last year when he turned 2, right after his annual inoculations, he developed HGE (hemorrhagic gastro enteritis) and almost died. At that time, the vet did not connect this to a reaction to his shots. This year when it was time for shots, I was hesitant to have them again due to fear of the "coincidence" of the HGE and the shots last year.

I asked that we forego the shots, but the vet told me basically that I was being ridiculous and that one thing had nothing to do with the other. SO, he had his rabies shot and then within 48 hours developed HGE again. Unfortunately, he didn't fight the HGE very well this year and almost died. The manufacturer of the vaccine was called by the vet and they did say that this was a "possible" reaction to the shot.

Junior ended up going to AVS (Affiliated Veterinarian Specialists in Maitland, FL) where he was in "grave" condition. He was given a blood transfusion, many medications and eventually, through a lot of prayer and good care, began to recover.

Junior is now doing pretty well but he will never be given vaccines again.

The manufacturer of the rabies shot is unknown to me. I have since changed vets and I don't have Junior's other records yet. BUT, I don't think that a particular manufacturer is really the problem. I believe that in Florida we over-vaccinate our pets and that we need to find vets who are willing to look at the well being of our individual pets rather than the $25.00 fee for the rabies shot vs. the 95 cents the vet pays for it.

There has been a lot of information on the Internet about the amount of money vets make each year on the "annual" rabies shot vs. the health implications for our pets. As we become more educated, we can become more vocal in the care we wish for our individual pets. The average in-door, household pet does not have very much exposure to rabies and the buildup of the rabies vaccine in our pets is more than one would realize.

The important thing for anyone to realize is that if your pet gets sick once a year, stop and determine if this sickness is in the same time frame as the annual shots. Also, if your pet does have an illness within 24-48 hours (although research states that the reaction to a rabies shot can be 3 - 6 months later), get immediate care for your pet.

Even with immediate care for Junior, he almost died.

Christine Zattolo

Ginger and Amber