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Alternatives for
Animal Health | Vaccinations: Your Very Own Waiver!
Did you
know that, even if you get a postcard saying your animal’s rabies
vaccination is now due,
that many times, you have an automatic waiver in place that even your
veterinarian may overlook?
It’s true. It’s called the label on every drug and vaccine, including
rabies vaccines. If you read the label on a vaccine from any
manufacturer, it will inevitably say, “Only for use in healthy dogs,
cats, ferrets, etc” See that “healthy” word? It can be your
automatic waiver. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves all
drug labels, which include indications (what diseases it’s to be used
for), species, dosage, method of administration, etc. As a practicing
veterinarian, one is bound to follow the label on any drug or vaccine,
unless s/he feels it’s in the patient’s best interest to prescribe “offlabel.” The FDA has refused to regulate the practice of medicine, so you may not
have any legal recourse to fall back on, but that shouldn’t stop you
from questioning your veterinarian if you are called on to vaccinate an
animal who is clearly out of the realm of “healthy.” I still cringe when
people tell me of bringing their pet into their
conventional veterinarian for a complaint (fever, poor appetite, skin
disease, etc.) and the vet, noticing that the due date has arrived for
vaccinations, gives the vaccine to the suffering animal! Did that
veterinarian really, in his/her best judgement, feel that this ill
animal would benefit from a vaccination at this time? More often than not, the animal’s illness gets
worse from this point onwards. So,
what makes your animal an “off-label” or possibly exempt case for an
annual or semi-annual vaccination? Here are some common examples:
•
Hypothyroid dogs on a daily thyroid replacement drug.
• Allergic animals who scratch or chew themselves frequently.
• The same itchy animals above who are on meds like antihistamines,
prednisone, or the latest in the wave of immune suppressants,
cyclosporine (Atopica).
• The same previously itchy animals who are being controlled with
special diets that have unusual
ingredients (duck, pea, venison, trout, “novel proteins,” etc).
• Any animal on a special diet for kidney disease, bladder crystals,
liver disease, intestinal problems (like Inflammatory Bowel Disease),
dental disease, or any other reason.
• The dog or cat who routinely needs ear medications to prevent
infections or itchy, swollen, discharging ears.
• Any animal who is on a seizure medicine to control epilepsy (I still
cringe when I hear these poor guys getting vaccinated. I can’t help it.
This is so wrong).
• The dog with “dry eye” who is on drops (often of cyclosporine) to keep
the eye moist because his tear ducts have autoimmune inflammation that
prevent them from making tears.
• A hyperthyroid cat, on medicine or after radioactive iodine treatment,
to treat another immune disorder, this one causing his thyroid to over
produce thyroid hormone.
• Any animal on heart medications.• Any animal on pain medications.
• Any diabetic animal, whether or not insulin is being used.
• Any animal on antibiotics.
• Any animal who you are bringing in to the vet because s/he has the
“ADR Syndrome." That’s “Ain’t Doin’ Right.”
What is Parvo?????
Parvo is a
man-made virus mutation. Created by irresponsible people ina virus
lab experimenting with stuff that could have been an attempt to initiate
biological warfare in Vietnam - who knows. The patent on the
vaccine is now a billion-dollar income source!
The worst part of it is that there is no way the disease could have been
spread as fast as it did over 5 continents, if it would have been left
to expanding its territory on its own, by transfer from animal to
animal. The only possible way of achieving a world-wide spread in
a matter of the few months it took is by distributing the virus through
vaccines! (It is an interesting thought that, if we had not been
to
keen on vaccinating our dogs so much, then Parvo could not have
propagated as it did, but would possibly have been easy to isolate in a
few small regions…. Producing and distributing vaccine is not free of
liability and risk!) Parvo is a virus that primarily attacks
growing cells. That's what sometimes makes it fatal for young
puppies that still suckle. That's also what makes it totally
harmless for adults dogs....
However, it is rarely the virus itself that kills, if ever. It is
most often the side effects of its presence, vomiting and diarrhea, that
are
the primary death reasons - they can be so violent that the puppy dies
of dehydration.
The bad news is that this can go very fast: a matter of hours, not days.
In other words: you do not have "till tomorrow" if you want to
save your puppy...
The good news is that there are some fairly effective treatment options
available for you - if you have them on hand and do not need to wait for
shipping...
How does a
dog get Parvo?
The virus can survive for years in soil. It can attach itself to
almost anything, including dust that is blown with the wind, the soles
of your shoes, the skin of your hands. It resists heat and frost,
moisture and draught. It is everywhere. Even wolves in the wild get
it nowadays. Simply by your walking on some contaminated ground
can be enough to bring the virus home to your dog. It is virtually
impossible to protect your dog against the exposure. However, some
areas are worse than others, and some of the very worst are the
veterinary clinics! In other words: bringing your puppy to the
veterinary hospital in order to vaccinate it against Parvo is madness.
You can be certain of vastly increasing your risk of the puppy
contracting Parvo from that visit before it can generate any immunity
from the vaccination. ..
Exposure, however, is not enough for the puppy to contract Parvo.
It takes exposure plus a weakened immune system. As long as you
keep the immune system strong, your puppy is not in danger, no matter
the exposure! (More about this from http://k9joy.com/dogarticles/
immunesystem. php <http://k9joy. com/dogarticles/ immunesystem.
php> .)
I can add to this that I have seen about 150 dogs in my classes over a
10-year period come down with Parvo 2-4 weeks after they got vaccinated.
Of course, when those students went back to the vet that gave the
vaccine, "it simply could not be Parvo". But when I learned that
lesson and asked my students to let another vet take a look without
telling anything about the vaccination, the diagnosis came clean and
clear every single time: PARVO! Sure, 150 dogs out of about 3,000 is
only 6%... I never saw a case of Parvo among the dogs that were not
vaccinated - and they counted about 10% of all my students and they
never had any health problems from the exposure to the other dogs in the
classes...
This is
simply not compatible with the scaremonger.
What about
vaccination?
As you can understand, vaccination against Parvo is a farce. Or a
scam. Since the disease is no serious threat to adult dogs, but
primarily kills puppies at the age of 4-6 weeks when it kills,
vaccination is simply not a responsible option!
The reason is that puppies cannot generate immunity against any disease
until they are 10-12 weeks old. Till then, they rely 100% on
the protection they get through the mother milk, the so-called "maternal
antibodies". If the mother is healthy and has good protection
herself against Parvo, and the puppies suckle till they are about 8
weeks old (as they should...), they will remain well protected till they
are 12-16 weeks old. Any attempt to vaccinate before they have
developed the capability of responding with an counter-attack through
their own immune system, the maximum you can expect from a vaccination
is that the vaccine will destroy the maternal antibodies - and leave the
puppy even more vulnerable than it was before! On top of that, the
vaccine is not free of other side effects. It is actually very
poisonous, and it will weaken the entire immune system, at a time when
it is not even fully ready to defend itself...
A friend I know of had at least 5 other people who had the same
experience as I had when I brought home a new puppy some years ago from
what I thought was a responsible breeder: In accordance with our
contract, the breeder was not supposed to vaccinate the puppy. But
she did - on the very day I came to pick it up... 5 weeks later, this
little female almost died from Parvo; in 9 days, her weight went from 9
kg below 5 kg. She literally lived on IV and did not move at all for
over a week....
I cannot say if it would have been less bad if this puppy had not been
vaccinated. But I can certainly say that the vaccination did
absolutely nothing to prevent exactly what it was supposed to prevent.
And this experience fits into the picture...
Blood-letting would, seriously, be a less irresponsible alternative!
How do we
deal with it?
The good news is that the number of puppies that will die as a result of
Parvo attacks is not big enough to destroy the species. But it
will soon be, if we do not allow this natural immunity to propagate
throughout all breeds - and we can only make that happen when we stop
the vaccination madness against diseases that charge only a moderate
toll and are completely non-dangerous to adults.
I personally know of dozens of non-vaccinating breeders who have lost 1,
maybe 2 puppies to Parvo. But not at all this "swiping plague that
kills everything", except among breeders who vaccinated! It is
nothing but a money-making myth for veterinarians and vaccine
manufacturers. The sad truth most probably is that when we breed
dogs who are so completely destroyed by over-vaccination that their
immune system no longer can function, the transfer of immunity to
puppies through the mother milk is jeopardized. Over-vaccination
is a evil circle, and we need to break it before we destroy our dogs.
This is not a matter of saving every single puppy we possibly can breed.
It is a matter of saving enough healthy ones to carry on the
powers of an immune system that can handle the disease.
It has been my observation, through following the communications on many
bulletin boards and in numerous newsgroups on-line, plus thousands of
students and clients of mine, that people who feed their dogs a healthy
raw diet and do not vaccinate, rarely get Parvo - and when they do, the
attack is mild, with only minor losses, if any. It would be
interesting to quantify this in a dedicated study, and, some day, it
will hopefully be done. Till then, we have to make our decisions
based on our combined experience.
We need to remember that the virus is virtually everywhere. There
is no protection possible, other than breeding healthy dogs with a
strong immune system. When vaccination is no option either, we
need to look elsewhere for help.
The
strategy should be this:
1.
Make sure that the dam we breed is in good health and shows good
protection against the virus. A titer test would be a reasonable
thing to have done to be certain that this protection is in place - as
far as we can measure it. (Titers are no guarantee of protection,
and absence of titers do not indicate lack of protection - but presence
of titers in a healthy body does indicate an alert and potent immune
system; positive titers thus simply increase your odds of success).
2.
Pamper the pregnant and nursing bitch, just as a pack of wolves would
do: let her eat the food she likes the most, from natural sources, of
course (if you mix in also unnatural sources of food, like kibble, you
completely screw up the value of this - if you are not outright going to
make thing much worse...)
3.
Keep Parvaid on hand, just in case...(It is an herbal mix from Amber
Technology in California. It has shown to provide a great support
for puppies that get attacked by Parvo. If you have it available
for immediate use, you can expect the mortality among your puppies to be
lower than 10%. You can find a distributor here <http://k9joy.
com/healthsuppli es/parvaid. php> .)
4.
Do not wean the pups! Let the mother take care of their nursing for the
longest possible time!
5.
Feed the puppies a responsible, raw, natural diet from the day they no
longer suck.
6.
Provide moderate exposure to the environment, one step at a time, so the
immune system can handle the diseases it gets in contact with one by
one; reduce the risk for multiple exposures as much as you can.
7.
Watch for the symptoms - and get help immediately when/if you identify
the possibility of a Parvo attack! "Immediately" does not mean
"tomorrow, when the veterinary clinic opens". It means "now"....
If all breeders do this, in 10 years, Parvo will be nothing more than a
flu we won't even notice. But if we don't stop the ridiculous
vaccination madness, we will not have a single dog left with a healthy
immune system 30 years from now....
Sincerely,
Mogens Eliasen
------------ --------- --------- --------- ----
Mogens Eliasen holds a mag. scient. degree (comparable to a US Ph. D.)
in Chemistry from Århus University, Denmark, has a extensive education
also as military officer and in business management. He has been
working with dogs, dog owners, dog trainers, and veterinarians since
1970. A large part of his dog work has been in the area of
education and education planning, and as consultant for dog owners and
dog training associations. He is a strong advocate of treating the
dog with respect for its nature as domesticated wolf, and has published
several books and videos on topics related to dogs, dog training, dog
behavior, and responsible care of dogs. He publishes a newsletter
"The Peeing Post" <http://k9joy. com/peeingpost> containing lots of tips
and advice on all matters pertaining to dogs.
For more information about Mogens Eliasen, including links to other
articles he has published, please send this e-mail to send this e-mail
to contact@k9joy. com <mailto:contact@k9joy. com?Subject=Request%
20for%20informat ion> or visit
www.k9joy.com <http://k9joy. com/dogarticles/ k9joy.com> or
mogenseliasen. com <http://mogenseliase n.com/> . |
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