There is a lot of controversy surrounding the
vaccination issue. And if you've never had a vaccine reaction in a dog you
probably can't see what all the commotion is about. I first began researching
the issue in 1998, when I began feeding a raw diet. The two go hand in hand in
my opinion as you can't have an optimal immune system in a kibble fed dog. The
more I read, the more upset I became. To begin with, I highly recommend reading
Catherine O'Driscoll's book, "What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines". She
personally lost 2 dogs to vaccine reactions. Yes, they died. Her book is
thoroughly researched and documented. Vaccination reactions are much more common
than most people think. And just because your dog didn't have a reaction last
year doesn't mean he won't this year. That's the scary part.
Reactions can be as minor as the dog being sleepy and lethargic for a day or
two. Or they can include vomiting, diarrhea, staggering gate, loss of balance,
seizures, fever, change in behavior, (usually seen as aggression), autoimmune
diseases such as lupus, sarcomas, encephalitis, kidney and liver damage,
cardiomyopathy, colitis, allergies and even death. These reactions can occur
within minutes or hours of the vaccination. Of course, these are most likely to
be attributed to the vaccine. Or they can occur weeks or months or years later.
Most vets will not make the association in the latter cases. This means that
many, many cases are never reported.
The sad part is that annual boosters are not necessary. People don't need annual
boosters so why should our pets? Dr. Ron Schultz, a veterinary immunologist at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in his article in the 1992 edition of
Current Veterinary Therapy, along with his co-author, Dr. Phillips state;
"A practice that was started many years ago and that lacks scientific validity
or verification is annual vaccinations. Almost without exception there is no
immunologic requirement for annual revaccination. Immunity to viruses persists
for years or for the life of the animal. Successful vaccination to most
bacterial pathogens produces an immunologic memory that remains for years,
allowing an animal to develop a protective anamnestic (secondary) response when
exposed to virulent organisms. Only the immune response to toxins requires
boosters (e.g. tetanus toxin booster, in humans, is recommended once every 7 -
10 years) and no toxin vaccines are currently used for dogs and cats.
Furthermore, revaccination with most viral vaccines fails to stimulate an
anamnestic response as a result of interference by existing antibodies (similar
to maternal antibody interference). The practice of annual vaccination in our
opinion should be considered of questionable efficacy unless it is used as a
mechanism to provide an annual physical exam or is required by law (i.e. certain
state require annual revaccination for rabies)."
Dr. Chistina Chambreau, DVM feels; "Routine vaccinations are probably the worst
thing that we do for our animals. Repeating vaccinations on a yearly basis
undermines the whole energetic well-being of our animals. Animals do not seem to
be decimated by one or two vaccines when they are young, and veterinary
immunologists tell us that viral vaccines need only be given once or twice in an
animal's life. First, there is no need for annual vaccinations, and second, they
definitely cause chronic disease"
If you want to check the level of your pet's antibodies to a specific disease,
you can do titers. Most people find that their pets have adequate protection 3,
5 even 10 years after their last shot. However, keep in mind that titers simply
measure circulating antibodies. Which means if your animal was recently exposed
to the disease, the titer numbers will be high. If not, they will be low. But
any number over zero shows immunity. Low numbers simply mean there was no recent
exposure. Many vets feel that immunity lasts for a lifetime. Dr. Don Hamilton
has an excellent chapter on vaccines in his book, "Homeopathic Care for Cats and
Dogs, Small Doses for Small Animals". I highly recommend it. The chapter on
vaccines alone is worth the price of the book.
Parvo, distemper and rabies are the only diseases we need to be worried about.
All three can be fatal. There is no sense in vaccinating for things which are
not life threatening, such as kennel cough. A dog with kennel cough will recover
with good supportive care. And the vaccination for kennel cough covers only a
few strains of the virus. So chances are, the vaccination would not help prevent
the disease in your dog anyway. The same applies to lepto and coronavirus. They
are not worth vaccinating against as there is greater risk of the vaccine
causing damage than of your dog contracting the disease. Remember, vaccinations
are not 100% effective. Many dogs come down with the very disease they were
vaccinated against shortly after receiving their shots.
So how do you protect your dog? The best defense is a good offense in the form
of a good diet. Feeding a raw diet will build your dog's immune system so that
he can withstand most, if not all, diseases he will come in contact with. Stop
pumping him full of chemicals each month with heartworm and flea products. Get
him strong and healthy with diet and exercise. Then, stop vaccinating him. Every
time you vaccinate your dog you are lowering his resistance and weakening his
immune system. This is because the vaccines overwhelm the immune system. Then,
find a good holistic veterinarian. Homeopathy, herbs, acupuncture etc. can cure
many diseases thought "incurable" by conventional medicine.
Dr. Russell Swift, DVM states;
"Injected vaccines bypass normal defenses. They implant mutated microorganisms,
preservatives, foreign animal proteins and other compounds directly into the
system. This is done in the name of preventing a few syndromes. If an animal is
in an optimal state of health, he or she will produce the strongest immune
response possible. This response offers protection against all natural
challenges. The irony is that vaccine labels say they are to be given only to
healthy animals. If they were truly healthy, they would not need them. Those who
are not healthy are the most severely damaged."
Think of the body as a castle. The immune system consists of the moat
surrounding the castle, the walls of the castle, the secured entrances, and the
army of soldiers. In our body, it is the respiratory and digestive systems
primarily. The enemy is a foreign invader such as a bacteria or virus. Imagine,
the enemy, in this case, a virus, attacking the castle. Our immune system; the
moat, walls, barricaded gates, and soldiers all work together to stop the
invaders. In our bodies, the mouth, lungs, digestive system etc. would work to
prevent the virus from getting deeper into the body. If the virus would get into
the bloodstream, we would be in serious trouble. But if our defenses are strong,
the body is successful in fending off the disease.
Now imagine, if the enemy could bypass the moat, walls, secured entrances and
soldiers, via a secret passageway into the castle and go directly to our king.
If that happened the king would most likely be killed and the battle lost to the
enemy. Think about what we do when we vaccinate our dogs. We bypass the natural
defense mechanisms of the body, the respiratory and digestive tracts, and inject
the foreign invaders directly into the bloodstream. This is the last place the
virus or bacteria should be. This totally overwhelms the immune system. Now our
king is in big trouble. And if that isn't bad enough, we don't usually inject
just one foreign invader, we give combination shots, of 5, 6, 7 or even 8 way
vaccines! How can any dog NOT be adversely affected by this? It is just too much
for the immune system to handle. This is one of the reasons we are seeing a rise
in autoimmune diseases in our dogs.
Homeopathic veterinarian Charles F. Loops, DVM wrote;
"Homeopathic veterinarians and other holistic practitioners have maintained for
some time that vaccinations do more harm than they provide benefits.
Vaccinations represent a major assault on the body's immune system. Attentuated
organisms or chemically killed viruses or bacteria are injected directly into
the blood stream, an unnatural route of infection. This profound insult,
avoiding the body's first line of defenses, and flooding the system with
millions of organisms or viral particles, stresses the immune system in a way
not of nature's design. This insult causes irregularities and abnormalities in
the immune system which then manifests as chronic diseases in animals. These
chronic diseases range from life-threatening conditions such as auto-immune
crises to conditions destroying the quality of life of an animal as in chronic
skin allergies."
In addition to acute vaccine reactions, your dog may suffer from chronic
symptoms. Dr Dee Blanco DVM wrote this;
"Unfortunately, adverse reactions to vaccines have been considered to be the
immediate hypersensitivity reactions of anaphylaxis. This severely limits the
types of reactions that are ever even considered to be related to vaccines.
Other problems surface which make accurate tallying of adverse reactions
difficult. At present time there are no easy or effective reporting systems;
many vets are reluctant to report even those where an animal dies, and the
cause-effect relationship is not always clear. Even to those who believe that
many of the illnesses we see, both acute and chronic, are directly related to
over-vaccination, it is still at times difficult to show how this works. There
are many situations where the perfectly healthy puppy is taken at 6 weeks for
his first vaccines. Maybe he has a slight fever or lack of appetite and energy
for a day or so. Then he is returned 2 to 3 weeks later for more vaccines. Maybe
he will show another fever or maybe a day of diarrhea. Then he is returned in 2
or 3 weeks for more vaccines. Maybe he starts to itch a bit. Often by the time
the pup is 6 months old he has several problems going on. He often has loose
stools and he itches, but there are no fleas. Thus begins the first stages of
chronic illness brought on by the vaccines.
When a perfectly healthy individual is given viruses that cause illness, the
animal is going to manifest illness-related symptoms. This healthy individual is
asked to maintain a low-level stimulation of a state of distemper, a low level
state of parvo, a low level state of rabies, and so on. As long as you are in a
low level state of illness you are not in a high level state of health.
Therefore, the vaccines provide protection by keeping the body in a diseased
state of health. Often the animal will not manifest the illness it is vaccinated
for, at least not in its acute form, but it will manifest in other conditions.
Usually these conditions are inherited weaknesses.
Chronic symptoms look very much like the acute illnesses but they are often not
life-threatening unless allowed to continue for years and years.
For distemper we often see:
Watery fluid dripping from the nose
Conjunctivitis, eye discharge,
entropion
Chronic gastritis, hepatitis, pancreatitis,
appetite disorders
Recurrent diarrhea
Sensitivity to food with resultant diarrhea
Epilepsy, rear leg paralysis, spondylitis
Lip fold dermatitis
Excessive licking of feet, eruptions between the toes,
allergies
Kennel cough, chronic bronchitis
Chronic skin eruptions, especially lower half of body Failure to thrive,
abnormally thin
For rabies we often see:
Restless nature, suspicion of others,
aggression to animals and people
Changes in behavior: aloofness, unaffectionate, desire to roam, OR clingy,
separation anxiety, 'velcro dog'
Restraining can lead to violent behavior and self-injury
Self-mutilation, tail chewing
Voice changes, hoarseness, excessive barking
Chronic poor appetite, very finicky
Paralysis of throat or tongue, sloppy eaters, drooling
Dry eye, loss of sight, cataract
Eating wood, stones, earth, stool
Destructive behavior, shredding bedding
Seizures, epilepsy, twitching
Increased sexual desire, sexual aggression
Irregular pulse, heart failure
Reverse sneezing "
For more information see; Vaccines - Are They Safe for Your Dog?
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/froghollerfilas/VaccBlanco.html
As you can see, vaccines set your dog up for a life time of suffering. If you do
not feel comfortable with not vaccinating, at least consider going to a 3 year
schedule while you do more research. Please remember as Dr. Charles E Loops, DVM
has said; "The first thing that must change with routine vaccinations is the
myth that vaccines are not harmful… Veterinarians and animal guardians have to
come to realize that they are not protecting animals from disease by annual
vaccinations, but in fact, are destroying the health and immune systems of these
same animals they love and care for."
So please think carefully before you make that next vet appointment for those
booster shots. Do as much reading as you can. Some good books are;
"Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs, Small Doses for Small Animals" by Dr. Don
Hamilton DVM
"Keep Your Dog Healthy the Natural Way" by Pat Lazarus
"Nature of Animal Healing" by Dr. Martin Goldstein DVM
"What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines" by Catherine O'Driscoll
"Natural Immunity, Why You Should Not Vaccinate" by Pat McKay
"Vaccine Guide for Dogs & Cats, What Every Pet Lover Should Know" by Catherine
J. M. Diodati, MA
I also highly recommend joining the list "Truth About Vaccines". Information on
how to do so can be found at; www.truthaboutvaccines.org
