I’ve been in practice for more than a decade, and I feel lucky to have never seen a case of canine distemper. It’s a mean virus, to be sure, killing more than half of its victims (most of which are puppies). It often starts innocently enough with a runny nose, but progresses to ravage the intestinal tract and the central nervous system, causing a great deal of suffering along the way. Veterinarians used to square off against this virus on a regular basis, and while it still exists, it is far less common than it once was.
These days, most dogs are vaccinated against distemper beginning in puppyhood. Those who can’t be vaccinated are relatively safe because of herd immunity (they can’t catch the disease from a dog who doesn’t have it, after all). But herd immunity has a flaw. It only works within the herd. If a disease can be spread within other unvaccinated populations—say wildlife—the barrier is weakened because the unprotected have a new avenue for infection. So when a distemper outbreak struck nearby fox populations last month, it presented a very real hazard to local dogs.
Although recent months have brought much-needed blowback to the anti-vaccination craze (only in response, sadly and predictably, to a mounting tally of sick children), there remains a stubborn belief among many that vaccines are dangerous and unnecessary. This notion has spilled over to veterinary medicine. Over the last decade, I’ve watched as a growing number of pet owners refuse vaccines, describing them as too strong, loaded with unspecified toxins, or otherwise unnatural. I often find myself helpless in these conversations, armed only with simple facts that are effortlessly deflected by the sheer mass of misinformation spread on blogs and Internet forums.
It’s easy to understand why these concerns—fictional as they may be—are able to gain such traction. The purported dangers of vaccines seem clear and present. The vet is about to walk into the room and inject something straight into your pet. The dangers of preventable disease, however, seem abstract and distant. The distemper vaccine? Do you really need that? Have you ever known anybody with a dog that had distemper?
You really do need it, and the fox outbreak demonstrates why. The outbreak couldn’t have been predicted or prevented, but there it was, delivering a nasty old adversary straight to our doorstep. Vaccines—much like door locks, seat belts and bicycle helmets—need to be in place before the emergency unfolds. You simply don’t have the chance to use them once the danger is upon you.
It’s not just about canine distemper, of course. Routine vaccination helps to shield our pets from a variety of infectious diseases. Some of them, like rabies and leptospirosis, are additionally transmissible to people, making animal vaccination a first-line defense for their human families. The importance of providing this protection cannot be overstated.
Vaccines, ultimately, are victims of their own success. They have so monumentally changed our world that we’ve grown complacent, skeptical of diseases that destroy real lives, and prone to fabricate new dangers in their stead. But the reality is simple. Without question, vaccines are one of the greatest achievements in medical history. They prevent disease by mobilizing the body’s natural defenses against it, and they do so with remarkable safety and efficacy.
Not every infection can be prevented with a vaccine. It is an outright tragedy to fall victim to one that can. I’ve made it through the first 12 years of my career without seeing a case of canine distemper, and I’d really like to keep that streak alive.
Dr. Mike Fietz is a small animal veterinarian at Georgetown Veterinary Hospital. He received his veterinary degree from Cornell University in 2003 and has lived in Charlottesville since.