My vet says... (re: combined vacc)

My vet, who I won't name, says she's undecided about the vaccine, and won't be getting it in in the forseeable future. She says that she is always reluctant to use stuff that has only been tested by the manufacturer. They are trying to sell a product, and although they have to declare side-effects etc, they can also decide something is minor when to an owner or to a bun it could be unacceptable. She said that they claim the myxo part gives cover for a year, but this has only been tried in a lab, not out in the field, and as such she wouldn't trust that aspect of it. She says that it's a no-brainer that it will obviously be worse to give anyone more than one vacc at once, to expose the immune system to more than on thing at once. She also says she would rather see bunnies the three times a year necessitated by the current scheme of things, rather than the once a year that the single vaccine would mean.

I'm not trying to start a debate, I know there are people on both sides, just wanted to share what she said, as she seems to genuinely care about bunnies (and bunny owners!)

Lib_n_bunny said:

My vet, who I won't name, says she's undecided about the vaccine, and won't be getting it in in the forseeable future. She says that she is always reluctant to use stuff that has only been tested by the manufacturer. They are trying to sell a product, and although they have to declare side-effects etc, they can also decide something is minor when to an owner or to a bun it could be unacceptable. She said that they claim the myxo part gives cover for a year, but this has only been tried in a lab, not out in the field, and as such she wouldn't trust that aspect of it. She says that it's a no-brainer that it will obviously be worse to give anyone more than one vacc at once, to expose the immune system to more than on thing at once. She also says she would rather see bunnies the three times a year necessitated by the current scheme of things, rather than the once a year that the single vaccine would mean.

I'm not trying to start a debate, I know there are people on both sides, just wanted to share what she said, as she seems to genuinely care about bunnies (and bunny owners!)

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It's designed so that there is just one immune response though - it isn't two separate vaccines thrown into one. I'm not clever enough to explain it but capable of understanding it It's engineered so that the immune system is only reacting to one threat so it isn't giving them more to cope with than a single vaccine. It's also real myxi too - which (according to theory) gives far, far better protection than the vaccine we've been using so far.

As for testing - who else is going to test it but the manufacturer? :? That's going to be true of everything on the market.

Lib_n_bunny said:

She also says she would rather see bunnies the three times a year necessitated by the current scheme of things, rather than the once a year that the single vaccine would mean.

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My vet says the same, however she also says that she has greater chance of persuading many bunny owners to get an annual vaccination where they might not come three times a year. Those who are the sort to come 3 times would probably come anyway if they noticed a problem, so having a 1xannual vaccine might mean that they also see lots of other bunnies that they don't see at all at the moment.

I think this one is going to play out for many months yet right up until they withdraw the old one!