The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360
Aug 31, 2026 · 28 min · 13 segments
*This episode is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim.* In this episode, Natalie Marks, DVM, CVJ, CCFP, Elite FFCP-V, joins host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to talk through what clients are really worried…
Natalie MarksGuestAdam ChristmanHostI was just talking about this last week when we were saying that VIP, everybody is an important person or patient, but the I stands for now individualized care, just like you were talking about.
And along those lines, I see a lot of pet owners are looking at a risk assessment themselves.
So what does the evidence actually tell us about vaccine safety in pets? And how do you help owners who are looking those things up weigh perceived risks against real risks of infectious disease?
So the evidence tells us, which is no surprise, right, that vaccines aren't 100 percent risk free.
But they the evidence does tell us that they are overwhelmingly safe and that the risk of those serious vaccine associated adverse events that we think about is very low compared with the risk of the disease that we are trying to prevent.
Not every client, of course, is going to want you quoting and citing studies in the exam room, but there are some that will, or at least sending it to them.
It was led by George Moore and colleagues out of Purdue, and it evaluated more than 1.2 million million vaccinated dogs.
And they were looking at the amount of vaccine-associated adverse events diagnosed within three days of vaccination.
And they found that that absolute number was 38.2 per 10,000 dogs vaccinated, or less than half of 1%.
That is extremely small when we think about the grandiose nature of how many dogs are getting vaccinated.
This study also showed that risk increased in smaller dogs and when more vaccine doses were administered at the same visit.
So that does give us a really practical evidence-based way to think about how to individualize the plan rather than just dismiss the owner's concern, but also to give reason behind why we might be suggesting splitting vaccines.
There was a newer, though, JABMA study that was published in 2023, and this had 4.6 million dogs, so triple the size, and it reinforced that our smaller body weights and breeds and multiple injections can be associated with increased adverse event reporting.
It also showed that the adverse event rates for leptospirosis vaccines, and this is super cool because, as you know, I'm a huge lepto proponent as far as vaccination and prevention, that the rates for lepto were no greater than those for DHPP as well as rabies.
I was just talking about this last week when we were saying that VIP, everybody is an important person or patient, but the I stands for now individualized care, just like you were talking about.
And along those lines, I see a lot of pet owners are looking at a risk assessment themselves.
So what does the evidence actually tell us about vaccine safety in pets? And how do you help owners who are looking those things up weigh perceived risks against real risks of infectious disease?
So the evidence tells us, which is no surprise, right, that vaccines aren't 100 percent risk free.
But they the evidence does tell us that they are overwhelmingly safe and that the risk of those serious vaccine associated adverse events that we think about is very low compared with the risk of the disease that we are trying to prevent.
Not every client, of course, is going to want you quoting and citing studies in the exam room, but there are some that will, or at least sending it to them.
It was led by George Moore and colleagues out of Purdue, and it evaluated more than 1.2 million million vaccinated dogs.
And they were looking at the amount of vaccine-associated adverse events diagnosed within three days of vaccination.
And they found that that absolute number was 38.2 per 10,000 dogs vaccinated, or less than half of 1%.
That is extremely small when we think about the grandiose nature of how many dogs are getting vaccinated.
This study also showed that risk increased in smaller dogs and when more vaccine doses were administered at the same visit.
So that does give us a really practical evidence-based way to think about how to individualize the plan rather than just dismiss the owner's concern, but also to give reason behind why we might be suggesting splitting vaccines.
There was a newer, though, JABMA study that was published in 2023, and this had 4.6 million dogs, so triple the size, and it reinforced that our smaller body weights and breeds and multiple injections can be associated with increased adverse event reporting.
It also showed that the adverse event rates for leptospirosis vaccines, and this is super cool because, as you know, I'm a huge lepto proponent as far as vaccination and prevention, that the rates for lepto were no greater than those for DHPP as well as rabies.
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