The Chairman, 

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons 

An open letter to RCVS 

Veterinary training, and attitudes around dog vaccination 

Dear RCVS,

I write to you regarding the standard of education, training and attitude of veterinary staff around dog vaccinations.

We are told that The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) sets, upholds, and advances veterinary standards to enhance society through improved animal health and welfare, including regulating veterinary education, maintaining a register of qualified vets and nurses, and regulating professional conduct.

Key Functions:

• Setting and Upholding Standards:

• Setting the standards for veterinary education, ethical conduct, and clinical practice, ensuring the quality of veterinary services.

An FOI request to all the UK Veterinary Training establishments in 2024 showed just how serious the situation around vaccines and lack of basic knowledge by vets actually is. 

The FOI (attached at the end of this letter) shows that RCVS has failed to keep apace of vaccinations and ensuring that vets and vet staff are trained around the vaccination topic. 

The British Veterinary Association (BVA), British Small Animals Veterinary Association (BSAVA) and DEFRA’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) all openly encourage vets to report all possible cases of Adverse Reaction Events (ARE). And yet vets across the country go out of their way to dismiss claims of ARE as just a coincidence. 

Pet owners are now starting to feel that vaccinations, especially the L4 vaccine is being promoted to cause illnesses in dogs, with vets knowing that the dog owner will pay thousands of pounds in an attempt to get their dog back to full health. 

Social media now has too many stories of; 

1. Vets arguing and shouting at owners, whilst trying to force a Lepto vaccination on the dog, because the vet thinks it is the vet’s right to vaccinate the dog. 

2. Vets telling the owner that the owner is killing the dog by not having the L4 vaccine. 

3. Of taking dogs “out the back” to give it any vaccination instead of in front of the owner. 

4. Of vaccinating dogs who have underlying health issues, when all the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) clearly states that only healthy dogs should be vaccinated. 

5. Of advising owners that the ARE is usually just a lump at the site of injection, when it can lead to lifechanging conditions, and death. Appendix D 

6. Of advising owners that reports of death from vaccines is just social media hype. See appendix D 

7. Of charging owners for the treatment and cure of the ARE symptoms, which increases vet income. 

8. Of being adamant that DHP must be diluted with Lepto in order to be given, when Diluent is made by the pharmaceuticals for the sole purpose of reconstituting the DHP powder without using Lepto. 

9. Of giving DHP every year, when the SPC of most DHP vaccines states:- once at a young age, and then every three years. 

10. Of never discussing Titre testing, when DHP has been shown to provide 7 to 9 years of protection. 

11. Of Receptionists quoting Titre costs to IDEXX at some £250 to £300, when other laboratories such as Glasgow Uni and Dragon Laboratory in Wales do gold standard titre tests for around £45. 

12. Of Vet practices signing up with Vacci-check to be a registered Vacci-check centre, to draw the public in, and then quoting IDEXX prices to the registered client. 

13. Of vets wrongly believing that ARE can only happen within a couple of hours of vaccination. 

14. Of vets rejecting claims of ARE, and claiming “it’s just a coincidence” to avoid responsibility – which misleads VMD into how acceptable/suitable L4 vaccines are. 

15. Of complete lack of training around what an ARE can be. 

16. Of vets obstructing the progress and improvements of animal vaccines by refusing to report and accept an ARE to vaccines. The only way to improve vaccines is to be open, honest, accept, and report all potential AREs. 

17. Of vet Pathologists conducting autopsy, and using other excuses to dismiss any reported ARE as the cause of death. 

18. That vets falsely claim outbreaks of Leptospirosis in their area, without providing details of which strain, Serovar or Serogroup of lepto is causing the claimed outbreak. 

19. That vets claim that identifying the strain of lepto is exceedingly expensive, whilst Animal and Plant Health Agency charge £43 +vat for their 19 Serovar test. Appendix A. 

20. That vets claim that L4 will protect the client’s dog from lepto, when the Lepto vaccine does not prevent the dog from catching lepto. 

21. That vets claim that L4 will protect clients dogs from Lepto, when there are some 14 Sergroups clinically proven by APHA to be in Great Britain. Appendix B. 

22. That vets are claiming L2 vaccine is no longer made and people will have to use the L4 vaccine. 

23. That vets are claiming L2 vaccine is no longer made and will not be available to any vet in the country, when Virbac and Zoetis have both recently confirmed continued availability of their L2 vaccines. Appendix C. 

24. Of vet surgeries refusing to take on new dogs unless a vaccination record of up to date Lepto vaccines is provided. 

25. Of trained vets claiming that nosodes will protect the client’s dog from Lepto, when the nosode has not been submitted for clinical trials, or approved by any official body. 

26. Of trained, RCVS registered vets selling unapproved, untested nosodes to the public for dog health. 

But let me you give you some background on my reason for submitting those FOIs to the vet training establishments in the first place. 

In 2016, after receiving L2 vaccines for 8 years without issue, my cavalier with a 3/5 heart murmur wrongly received an L4 injection, due to his heart. 5 days later he collapsed whilst following me up the stairs. Three Vets claimed it was just a coincidence and, whilst placing him on heart meds due to his murmur now being a 5/5, strongly recommended the second vaccination at the 4 week point. He had the second L4 vaccine, the heart went to 6/6, and was put on diuretics. 5 days after the second L4, he drowned in his own fluids. Vets agreed it was caused by the L4, the manufacturer agreed to pay for the autopsy. The Pathologist at RVC Hatfield deemed that as the dog was a cavalier, then death by heart should be expected, and dismissed the Adverse Reaction Event (ARE). If the Pathologist had spoken to the owner, and watched the video placed on YouTube, then there is no doubt that the ARE would have been upheld. You can make your own minds up by watching the video. He was a happy, generally healthy and active cavalier before the L4. This video was filmed after I was told to “Just wait for the diuretics to do their job!” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg7hL8hsJq0 

or search Youtube for “After Lepto vaccination - Alfie now with water retention affecting breathing - MDV Cavalier” 

Whilst ARE to L4 are classed as Rare, data from VMD shows the risk of death officially results to some 100 dogs a year dying from the vaccination – and that’s after a number of ARE reports have been rejected. So the death rate could be double what is shown by VMD. The number of dogs having a life changing condition is not recorded. But of course, the issue remains of vets rejecting the claim of ARE. 

VMD’s official vaccine sales and reported ARE figures are displayed at Appendix D. They are updated by FOI every year, and displayed on the Lepto.co.uk website for ease of access. https://www.lepto.co.uk/sales-and-adverse-reactions 

Following Alfie’s death, I started to read up and learn about vaccinations, Summary Product Characteristics (SPCs), etc. Because I’d trusted my vets as being a source of informed, educated and experienced information, I was rather shocked to learn that my boy had been over vaccinated by receiving DHP every year, when the SPC states of every three years. 

I tried to submit a Parliamentary Petition about Lepto L4 vaccinations, and the ARE. Interesting that the Parliamentary Petitions team rejected my Alfie’s Lepto petition in 2016, because they think Lepto is a brand name and refused to accept that it is a bacterium. 

In 2017 I created www.Lepto.co.uk to promote my Alfie’s petition, mainly to separate the Lepto issue away from my Doretdog.com website, which is a general fun dog show advice, and dog ownership advice website. 

In 2017 I held a petition on Change.org, signed by some 2500 UK residents, submitted to VMD and EMA, calling to suspend L4 vaccinations until more trials are conducted. The joint response dismissed the concerns. Both the petition and response can be viewed on the Lepto.co.uk website at https://www.lepto.co.uk/vmd-ema-response-to-alfie-petition 

I now run and am a member of a number of dog vaccine discussion groups on Facebook. Whilst there is a real issue of invasion by the Anti-vax brigade, there are also the Nosode brigade calling for people to use an untested, unapproved product sold by trained vets to protect people’s dogs from Lepto. Cuba is frequently misquoted. 

On these Facebook groups, one group with some 42 thousand members, we are regularly seeing vets, vet nurses and animal care students asking for members to complete the student’s online surveys conducted for their university course studies. The questions asked includes questions like “What education do you need in order for you to vaccinate your dog with L4.” This question because of the growing number of owners rejecting the L4. 

One of the most worrying parts in all of this, is all the reports of vets rejecting claims of ARE to the vaccines. This is something I faced myself, when my boy went from a generally healthy, happy cavalier to a blue tongued, blue gummed dog within 5 days of the L4. All three vets who rejected the Adverse Reaction, all conceded that it was an ARE when his heart reacted again to the second jab. ARE do not just happen within hours of an injection, and the SPC really does need to state that ARE can include life changing conditions and death. VMD have officially stated that they are aware of under reporting of dog vaccine AREs, something that is carried over to the Government website on their Vaccination topics page.

 www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-of-dogs/vaccination-topics 

Perhaps Lepto vaccines should be given one month after any other vaccine has been given, to help identify the Lepto ARE rather than combined with DHPPi/L ARE? 

In 2024, becoming so concerned with the attitudes of young vets towards vaccinations, I submitted an FOI to every UK vet training school. The compiled responses to 12 questions is attached to the end of this letter. 

The issue is that people who want to put their dogs into kennels, or attend dog training classes are required to have their dogs vaccinated with Lepto. Whilst I’m not a vet, and not an Anti-vaccine person, I’m aware that reactions to L4 are much higher than reactions to L2. I’m aware that Boehringer Ingelheim and MSD have dropped the L2 vaccines. Many vets and vet receptionists are now wrongly saying that L2 has been discontinued and L4 is the only option. But Virbac and Zoetis have both recently confirmed in 2025 that they will be continuing to make L2 vaccines for the foreseeable future. So, dog owners have a choice to either find a practice that stocks L2, or to not vaccinate against Lepto at all. 

Perhaps one day we will have dog vaccines that do not have any adverse reactions that result in death and life changing conditions. 

So I ask RCVS as to what RCVS will do to address the numbered points at the start of this letter, and provide evidence of that course of action. 

Yours 

Mark Ellis 

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

The above letter can be viewed as a PDF at 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GT_BLjRhRTr2KT8zOfwm3TCM9nGnkPG0/view?usp=sharing