12/28/2025
Puppy raisers, what's your go-to vaccine protocol? Do you use canine nomograph results to time vaccines for optimal effectiveness? If you're familiar with nomographs but don't use them, I'd appreciate your perspective as I aim to educate more people about their benefits.
The vaccination guidelines group (VGG) of WSAVA states "The VGG recognises that maternally derived antibodies (MDAs) interfere substantially with the efficacy of most currently available core vaccines that are administered to puppies and kittens early in life. As the level of maternally derived antibodies varies substantially within and between litters, VGG recommends the administration of multiple core vaccine doses to puppies..." It is so important to understand that the sole reason we give multiple rounds of puppy vaccines is not because puppies need so many. It's because there is so much variability in degradation of MDAs and the more frequently vaccinations are given, the shorter the “window of
susceptibility” will be. Nomographs give us that clarity for each litter so that we can base our vaccine timing on actual data for the individual litter rather than basing it off of averages.
If people are worried about cost, this obviously varies from place to place but it was under $50 for my vet to do a serum draw, the test itself is $66, and then I shipped the sample FedEx next day, which I believe at the time was $40. And these go to the University of Wisconsin School of Vet Med.
I'm going to put the link in my bio for anyone who is interested in learning more, and I'll be working on adding this information to my kennel website soon.
