What is titer testing and is it effective?

Titer testing tests the level of antibodies to a given disease in the body. I don't believe that a lot of the titers have been validated to show that titer levels prove that your dog is protected, so we still do recommend following the American Animal Hospital Association vaccine schedule for canines. However, there are certain dogs who aren't able to get vaccines, such as dogs undergoing chemotherapy or who have had serious vaccine reactions, and in those cases, we may think about doing titers just as a measure of knowing how well we think they might be protected.

Titer testing is a way of checking whether your dog has antibodies for distemper or parvovirus. As dogs age and they've been vaccinated thoroughly through puppyhood and at their one-year appointment, some dogs can mount a long-term immune response. Some dog owners don't want to vaccinate them in these cases, or there's occasionally a medical reason we don't want to. However, we want to make sure that those dogs have adequate titers, meaning that they can respond if they were exposed.

And that's the purpose of doing annual titers on dogs who are not being vaccinated, because if they do Diplo, then we're going to have another conversation about the importance of keeping them up on those vaccines because those diseases are terrible.

Titers are for dogs with owners who do not wish to have them vaccinated, as perhaps they have had an adverse reaction to a vaccine before. The owner may choose to do that instead of relying on the medications that we give them beforehand to do their job. Sometimes we don't want to trust that. Titers can be a way to test your dog's blood and determine if they have a good immune response with that vaccine that we had previously given them or if the levels are a little too low and they need to get a booster.

Titer testing involves drawing blood and sending it to a lab to look for antibodies against specific diseases. However, titer results are not always reflective of protection, so it is not the standard practice to measure a dog's titers. But we're open to discussing it with pet owners who are interested.

A titer test is a test for antibodies in the blood against a disease, for example, rabies. However, the titer does not infer immune feed. This means your dog may have a titer for Parvo, but yet might still be susceptible.

Titer testing measures the body's response to vaccines. For instance, if a dog is given a rabies vaccine and is going to be traveling overseas, they would have to get a vaccine titer. The titer tests the body's response. However, there is a limitation with titers. They only indicate that your body has responded to the vaccine, not if your body remains protected against the disease you vaccinated against.