By Samantha Bartlett
Vaccine hesitancy is beginning to affect pet owners’ attitude towards vaccination of their pets. An associate professor of public health at Texas A&M University, Simon F. Haeder, conducted surveys to determine the prevalence of non-vaccination among pet owners. He found that most pets among his survey respondents had received their core vaccines, including Rabies vaccination. He also found that three-quarters of pet owners trust their veterinarian to recommend vaccines and understand that many diseases prevented by vaccines are often severe and can lead to death. Additionally, more than 80% of dog and cat owners surveyed support vaccination requirements.
However, a significant minority hesitate to vaccinate their pets – 22% of dog owners and 26% of cat owners. About 12% of cats and 4% of dogs are not vaccinated against rabies. Vaccination rates for other core vaccines among this population are even lower. Many of these owners voice concerns about the safety and side effects associated with vaccines, believing it is safer to allow a pet to get natural immunity by contracting a disease than to be vaccinated. Overall, about 60% of the pet owners surveyed feel that their pets are vaccinated too much and prefer their pets to receive fewer vaccines at a time as opposed to all vaccines given in one visit.
These numbers are significant because these unvaccinated pets are at a higher risk of contracting a preventable disease and suffering severe illness and death. This will also subject their owners to severe financial and emotional investments. In addition, veterinarians may not initially think to diagnose a pet with a preventable disease as most are not commonly seen recently. Pets that are not vaccinated for rabies and potentially have contact with a rabid animal will be counted as an exposure risk for their owners forcing potentially unnecessary prophylactic post-exposure treatment as well as the stress and cost of quarantine imposed on their pet.
As veterinarians, our job is to help educate and address the concerns of pet owners so that we can come up with a satisfactory plan for all parties involved. Ultimately, we want our pet owners to feel they are making the best decisions for their pet’s health and preventing needless illness, financial and emotional stress, and needless fatality of their beloved pet.
