dndthompson, Author at

Taking the Risk Out of Puppy Shots

The following article is found on www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com:

“Pet owners are becoming increasingly aware of the long period of duration for vaccines and are vaccinating every three years, or not vaccinating their adult or senior dogs at all. Although it is becoming increasingly obvious that yearly boosters – or any boosters – are at best unnecessary and at worst harmful, the risks and benefits of puppy vaccination are much less clear. If you choose to vaccinate your puppy, you can limit (but not eliminate) the vaccine damage in your puppy by understanding a few things about vaccines and immunity.

As we know, puppies are given a series of several vaccinations, spaced two to four weeks apart. This practice might lead some people – and some vets – to believe that it takes more than one vaccination, or that vaccinations need to be boostered, for the puppy to be protected. This is simply not true: it takes only one vaccination for a puppy to be protected. So why are puppies vaccinated three or four times instead of just once?

Maternal Antibodies

When puppies are very young, they are protected from disease by ingesting their mother’s first milk, called colostrum. This rich milk contains maternal antibodies against disease which the mother passes down to her puppies. The puppy’s immune system is not fully mature, or active, until it is around six months of age, so the maternal antibodies provide passive immunity for each puppy.

When a puppy with a reasonable amount of maternal antibodies is vaccinated, the maternal antibodies will essentially inactivate the vaccine, just as it would a real virus. What they can not do however, is protect the puppy against the other toxins contained in vaccines such as the chemical adjuvants and preservatives which contain harmful chemicals including mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. The adjuvants are designed to stimulate an exaggerated immune response, to make certain that the body responds to the small amount of virus contained in the vaccine. Unfortunately, this heightened reaction can also cause autoimmune disorders which are affecting an alarming number of dogs and can include allergies, cancer, thyroid disease, digestive diseases, joint disease and a rather long laundry list of common afflictions.

Vets and pet owners used to believe that ‘more is better’ when applying vaccines, but we now know that there are very real dangers associated with vaccination. So, when designing a puppy vaccination schedule, the goal is to catch the small window in time when the maternal antibodies are low enough that they will not block the vaccine, but the puppy is young enough that he is not put in unnecessary danger from exposure to viruses in the environment.

Maternal antibodies weaken over time but the rate of weakening differs between different dogs and even different breeds. The maternal antibodies for Distemper are fairly predictable and are usually low enough for vaccination to be effective at 8 or 9 weeks of age. The maternal antibodies for Parvo however, are much less predictable in their decline, and can last as long as 26 weeks in some dogs.

This lack of predictability is why puppies are vaccinated every two to four weeks until 16 weeks of age: vets are trying to catch the window in time when the maternal antibodies are low enough for the vaccine to be accepted. If you are concerned about the risks of vaccination – and you should be – then this vaccine schedule really doesn’t make much sense as vaccinations may be given too soon or after the puppy is already protected.

Intelligent Vaccination

Noted immunologist Dr. Ronald Schultz has addressed this issue and recommends a minimal vaccine program that includes one vaccination for Parvo, Distemper and Adenovirus, given at 12 weeks of age. Twelve weeks is not an arbitrary number – it is the earliest age where a combination parvo/distemper vaccine will have the greatest chance of protecting puppies.

Pfizer performed an interesting field study in 1996. C. Hoare, P. DeBouck and A. Wiseman assessed vaccinated puppies and split them into two groups. Group A received a single vaccination at 12 weeks and Group B received a first vaccine between 8 to 10 weeks and a second at 12 weeks. When titers were measured, 100% of the puppies vaccinated once at 12 weeks seroconverted whereas only 94% of the puppies in Group B seroconverted – despite receiving two vaccines as opposed to one. It would appear that if the first vaccine is given too early it could, in some cases, block the the second vaccine. So vaccinating your puppy twice not only increases his risk for adverse reactions to the vaccine, it appears to make vaccination less effective overall.

Vanguard also tested the Parvovirus response in their combination vaccine. They vaccinated puppies at 6 weeks, 9 weeks and 12 weeks of age and then measured their response to the vaccine by measuring their titers to Parvovirus. At 6 weeks, only 52% of the puppies had seroconverted, meaning that the puppies vaccinated at 6 weeks of age would get all of the risk from the vaccine and none of the benefit because their maternal antibodies inactivated the vaccine. At 9 weeks, 88% of the puppies showed a response to the vaccine. At 12 weeks, 100% of the puppies were protected.

It appears that 12 to 16 weeks would be the magic number where vaccines have a nearly 100% chance of working, meaning that your puppy should only need one – for his entire life. Dr. Schultz has done similar research with the distemper vaccine.

In his study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, designed to mimic an animal shelter environment, Dr. Schultz vaccinated with one dose of Distemper vaccine just four hours prior to the puppies being placed in a room with Distemper-infected/diseased dogs. All of the puppies (which were vaccinated at 12 weeks), were protected against distemper in this challenge study.

Although two and even three doses of vaccine were the original recommendations made in the AAHA 2003 Canine Vaccine Guideline, the research shows that the series of vaccinations is unnecessary. Puppies vaccinated once at 12 to 16 weeks of age with a high titer vaccine, according to research done by Dr Schultz, have a virtually 100% chance of being protected. If you feel you must vaccinate your puppy but want to reduce the risk as much as possible, vaccinating once at 16 weeks is a safe and effective approach. If you are not comfortable with just one vaccine, have your vet run a titer test three weeks after the vaccination. If there is circulating antibody (any amount will do), it is highly likely he has seroconverted and he will be protected for life. If you are not sure of this fact, you might want to read this article.

It is important to note that if you wait until 12 weeks of age to vaccinate your puppy, you should keep him away from areas where there is a lot of dog traffic. One such area is the vet’s office! If you must bring your puppy under 12 weeks to the vet, it is important to carry him in and out as this is likely the most likely place for him to pick up viruses. Your best bet is to get the first appointment of the day when you know the floors and tables will be at their cleanest. Despite the heavy vaccination schedules, 28% of vaccinated puppies still get Parvovirus. Part of the reason is that they are exposed to the vet’s office where it is highly likely that he will come into contact with Parvovirus or shed virus from vaccinated dogs on the property.

Vaccination has the very real risk of creating chronic, debilitating disease. Most vets and dog owners do not see the connection because it can take weeks, months or years after vaccination for these diseases to develop. Many holistic vets and dog owners avoid vaccinations completely. If you are not comfortable with this approach, the next best thing you can do to protect your puppy is to vaccinate intelligently. Needlessly stressing your puppy’s immune system with vaccinations every two to four weeks is no longer a safe option for many dog owners. Find a vet who agrees with this approach and you will reduce the risk of autoimmune disease in your puppy – now and in the future.”

Our Purpose

Healthy Dogs, Holistic Standard Poodles, Optimum Dog Health

When you are going to special lengths to raise your family using a holistic health approach, you soon realize it makes sense to apply the same principals to your other loved ones, your animals. After all, they’re part of the family too!

We are passionate about raising healthy animals, naturally. Our purpose is to provide education and awareness to pet owners so that they can make more informed decisions in raising and caring for their animals. We specialize in education about raising healthy, holistic standard poodles.

We seek to provide answers to the following two questions:

1. Why is it so hard to raise a healthy dog these days? There was a time when raising a healthy dog was as easy as feeding them raw meat on a regular basis and letting them come in out of bad weather.

2. What are the Do’s and Don’ts of raising an animal using a holistic and natural approach? There are things that are safe and even very beneficial for animals and there are things that cause harm and disease.

How to Raise a Healthy Dog: Part 3

Healthy Dogs, Holistic Standard Poodles

When we got our Standard poodle, we quickly learned that most of our children thought having this breed of dog would be wonderful. Our children are all adults, married, and no longer live with us, which means they would each have to have their own dog. Well, since we had a female who still had all of her reproductive organs (I couldn’t bring myself to have them removed), maybe we could have puppies someday and provide a puppy for each of their families. Five in all.

Were we ever in for a surprise. I had no idea the Standard poodle population was so scarce. I guess I must be old, because I remember when getting a dog was never hard to do, whether purebred or not. We looked and looked for another poodle like ours. My daughter suggested we go online and check for breeders in the area. So I went online. This is when I entered a whole different world. The world of dog breeders.

These poodle breeders were exclusive, and they charged an enormous amount of money for their puppies (a fraction of what I had paid just a year before), you had to fill out forms, legal papers, make a deposit ahead of time, wait for the next litter, which may be another year, then either have the puppy flown to you, or travel across country to get the puppy. After weeks of reading websites, which I admit taught me a lot about poodles, as well as why these breeders felt they needed a legal contract with the purchasers of their puppies. Sheesh, who would have thought it would be so complicated.

“Mom, be careful when dealing with breeders, you know they can be a very dishonest group of people.” This was the advice I had gotten from one of my daughters who had at one time raised rabbits for 4-H. We, sadly, learned that you couldn’t trust what a number of the rabbit breeders told us about the rabbit we were buying from them. Before she was an experienced rabbit breeder herself, still buying stock from various breeders, she was lied to about everything from age of the rabbit (by several years), health, even the gender of the rabbit. Which we found can be a big problem when you put 2 males in the same cage together. Conversely, we learned one of our “females” was really a male when we put it in a cage with another female. But, we got some nice baby rabbits from that mistake. Even though we blamed it on rabbit breeders at the time, we both knew it was really nothing more than the sinful nature of man. People lying to sell their product for money. The product happened to be rabbits in this case.

I would like to believe these poodle breeders love their dogs and are doing what they believe to be the best for their dogs. Yet, being a dog “breeder” of any sort has become an ugly title in our country, and from what I have read, it looks like it is due primarily to two things, neither of which is the breeders themselves. The puppy mills and the animal shelters.

What is a puppy mill? It’s an ugly situation in which people keep their dogs in cages like rabbits, and use them for nothing more than breeding and selling of their puppies. They aren’t pets, they have no freedom to play or socialize with other dogs, and as you can imagine in such a situation, they are often sickly, diseased animals that don’t live very long. The animal shelters on the other hand, is where lost, wild, and unwanted dogs and cats in our country go to be cared for and adopted out. Or at least this is what we are supposed to think. However, when you do your research on these shelters, you will find that very few of them have a “no kill” policy, and instead, euthanize more animals (by the thousands) than they save.

Euthanize. What does this word mean exactly? Its a word the animal shelter people like to use rather than “kill” because it sounds friendlier, as though they are doing the animal a favor. Kind of like the title “Humane Society”. As though being killed is better than being allowed to live. How is this not ugly? But instead of stopping it, or working toward a better solution, the solution is to stop the breeding of all pets. I hear the slogan “Have your pets spayed or neutered” all of the time. It’s on signs, city buses, even game show hosts say it on television.

Okay, I get it, we want to reduce the puppy population like we want to reduce our people population. This is why our government has supported and used “anti-fertility vaccines” on women of childbearing age, and why in some hospitals across the U.S., we give new mom’s the HCg- Diphtheria vaccine before they leave the hospital with their new baby. To discourage the birth of any more babies. I get it, but at the same time, I am horrified!!

What about being a responsible breeder, or just a responsible pet owner? And why is it better to have your pet’s reproductive parts removed? How is that responsible? What does that do to our pets’ nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, moods, and what about its longevity. Do these dogs have a shorter life span? Are they more susceptible to cancer? I was talking with a friend last night who said she had a wonderful, sweet, golden retriever until she had it spayed. She described how this lovely animal, who was always sweet and friendly, long into adulthood, turned into a miserable, winey, moody animal after whe was spayed. She also developed skin problems, a weight problem, and didn’t have any energy. All of this right after being spayed. Of course, as always, the doctor assured her it couldn’t have anything to do with the spaying of the animal. They eventually had her “euthanized” because they felt, in this case, it was less miserable for her to die rather than live out her life this miserably.

Being in the people-alternative-healthcare field, I have seen the effects of reproductive surgery on people. Some of whom had radical surgery, like a hysterectomy. Others a more minor form of the surgery, affecting only part of the reproductive system. In nearly all cases, it affected how they lived their life. There are complaints of moods, fatigue, hormone imbalances, and even some with personality changes. For this same reason these surgeries are no longer the popular choice for women. In addition, the need for hormone replacement developed. Even with men who have had a vasectomy there are problems to expect. Some of them report chronic pain in the prostate for the rest of their lives and others erectile dysfunction when they get into their 50’s. I wonder what those surgeries do to their life-span? And what about the development of cancer to these areas?

Maybe its just me, but I can still remember back when veterinarians themselves wondered about the side-effects on our pets of being spayed or neutered. Now it has become the expected way, even though no long-term studies have been done to prove its a safe choice. Its also interesting to note that we are the only country that does this without questioning it anymore. In some of these other countries, like Europe, they encourage responsible pet owning. For instance, if your female is in heat, you either keep her in during those times so she isn’t bred, you put a pet diaper on her when she’s out, or walk her on a lead, to keep her out of the reach of a male who would breed her. Its just that simple. From years of experience I can say that this isn’t a hard practice and it’s what we are doing now with our own female.

“Aren’t you afraid of the stress that a pregnancy and birth will cause your pet if she becomes pregnant?” This was the question I was asked by a friend who is a volunteer at animal shelters. How is this stressful on a healthy, well-cared for female I asked. Lets not forget pregnancy is a normal, God-created function of the body, necessary for the continuation of the the species as well. How about asking “Aren’t you afraid of the stress that removing body parts will cause your pet if she’s spayed?” I think too much of the time we don’t allow ourselves to think about the nonsense of some of the things we are taught. We don’t use common sense in such situations. And sometimes I think we allow ourselves to accept and move on, rather than standing up to injustice or lies, because we are afraid of being the “odd person” who refuses to pretend that it’s okay.

When I finally decided I wanted a male standard poodle, I began my search for a puppy that was healthy and preferably without shots or given dangerous chemical dewormers. I searched the internet for hours and hours, week after week. Finally, I gave up and called the breeder we had originally gotten our first puppy from.

Sure enough, she not only had a puppy ready to sell, but it was also the deep brown color I wanted. Within the week we left to go pick him up.

In my haste, I will confess, I made a huge mistake. Well, several really. My first mistake was that I didn’t stop to pray about this decision. In my haste to get the puppy, I forgot to pray about God’s will for us to get him. Along with this, I forgot to ask the breeder not to vaccinate him or deworm him. I had forgotten to inquire about this very important topic. It was unfortunate that the majority of breeders I had found up to this time, with the exception of one, was even aware of the truth about puppy vaccines.

Why are you vaccinating your puppies? One lady I know, that I thought knew better about vaccine dangers, breeds a different type of dog and does the the puppy vaccines on them when they get to 8 weeks of age. I asked her why she was doing this, thinking maybe she knew something I didn’t. She said she was aware they were useless to the dog, but added, most people think puppy vaccines assure the health of the dog, and are willing to pay more for a vaccinated puppy. So for a few dollars she can vaccinate them, then add an extra $200 to their cost and make that much more on their sell. It made me wonder how many of the other breeders were doing the same thing.

Off to Texas we went to pick up our new brown standard poodle puppy. My husband and I both fell in love with him right away. As the breeder prepared his papers for me, she proudly told me he had had his puppy vaccines and the chemical dewormer. I caught my breath. She had just vaccinated him 2 days before we came to get him. To me this meant that not only was he sick, but he was contagious to both my husband and myself. But he was so adorable, a beautiful color, and afterall, we had just driven 10 hours to pick him up. How could I refuse him now. I quickly reassured myself (the “accept and move on” response mentioned earlier) that whatever damage he might have from the vaccines, I would work to fix it when he was older, and we left for home.

My puppy is sick. The next day the breeder of our new puppy called to inquire about him. How was the drive, how is he adjusting, is he eating alright? All seemed okay, except for the fact that he had green discharge coming from his eyes and his nose. An indication I knew meant he had an infection. Just put him on an antibiotic, he’ll be fine she said. This I would not do however, as I am aware of what antibiotics can do to the health of an individual, puppy or person. This puppy was already full of poison from vaccines and dewormer medicine, he didn’t need more poison in his system. We kept him quiet, let him sleep a lot, made sure he had organic food and good, well-mineralized water. There were other symptoms that would develop in the coming days, and I reported these to the breeder as well when she called again. And once again she assured me that he was okay, and suggested another type of antibiotic. I can’t say I expected any better advice then what she gave, but since she asked how he was doing, I volunteered the facts.

Just nine days after we picked up our new puppy my husband and I had to make another trip and leave him behind. We left him in the care of someone we trusted completely with his care. She had raised many types of animals herself, all without vaccines, all very healthy. We even nick-named her the dog whisperer. We were to be gone just 5 days. Without going into all of the details of his illness, I will sum it up by saying that all of his vaccines seemed to surface. First one, then another. This poor little guy was so very sick. By the time we got home he was no longer able to eat or drink anything. I then spent the next 2 days working to rehydrate him, as he had become so dehydrated.

Vet clinics are all full. After the two days of doing water enemas to rehydrate our new, beautiful puppy, I started calling veterinary clinics to see if any of them would be willing to do an I.V. on him for rehydration. Hoping against all odds that we could save him. I called 3 clinics that, much to my surprise, were so full they couldn’t see him for days. I was shocked. What is wrong with animals today that the veterinary clinics are so full? Why are they so sick? Before this time, I had raised german shepherds and collies and could count on one hand how many times we used the care of a veterinarian. We didn’t use vets on our dogs because it wasn’t necessary. If they ate something bad, they threw it up. If they had worms, they ate grass and expelled them. When they got heart worm we gave them the homeopathic remedy for it. They often ate whatever they could catch, in addition to what we provided them. Our male collie loved his road-kill cats, which my husband was constantly taking away from him before our kids saw him eating them. One day he drug home a dead turkey. A very large turkey that had obviously been run over by a car. I’m not sure how my husband disposed of that roadkill.

Once in a while our dogs would have a fight with skunks and get bit. One night our female collie got into a fight with some rats in one of our sheds and was bitten three times. After each of these episodes, we would give them homeopathic remedies to support their body in the recovery of their symptoms, and they recovered. Both collies eventually got heart-worm as well. It seemed like years before they finally got it. It reminded me of watching water boil. When you are watching and waiting, it seems to take much longer than you anticipated. When our dogs finally developed the symptoms of what we believed to be heart worm, we gave them the homeopathic remedy for their symptoms, and they recovered within hours. I want to say 24 hours, because that is what people expect – it should take at least 24 hours, right? But thats not true with homeopathy, and honestly, it was more like 3 hours before all symptoms were cleared up. Of course their stools were stinky and strange looking for sometimes as long as 24-32 hours as they passed the remains of the worms from their systems.

Our rottweiler has heart worm. Approximately two years after our dogs had had heartworm, a friend called to tell me her rottweiler had been diagnosed by their vet as having heart worm. They were devastated, knowing that the treatment would possibly kill their beloved pet. At best, they were told, it would shorten his lifespan by 60%. My friend decided to do the homeopathy we had done instead. After giving the remedy, they waited three days for his body to have time to get any remains of the worms out of his system and stools, then took him back to the vet for a re-check. The vet assured them that their dog still had the heart worm and if anything besides his drug would work on them, he would have known about it. He did the test, and it came back negative. There were no heart worms present. He pronounced the first test a “false-positive.” It was wrong he said, the dog never had the worms to begin with, and this is why they aren’t there in the second test. Had he ever had a “false-positive” heart worm test my friend asked? No, he responded, but there is always a first time he said.

Months went by and my friend was talking with a neighbor of hers who told her she had just learned her dog had heart worm. You can imagine what happened. This time however, the veterinarian she used, told her that if this “remedy” worked he would be the first to come knocking at her door wanting to learn more about homeopathy. She did the same thing my friend had done, gave the dog 3 doses of the right homeopathic remedy, waited 3 days for his system to clear out the worm remains, and took him back for a second test. The vet didn’t know what to make of it. At least he didn’t deny it had worked, or excuse the test results as a false-positive test. He also didn’t “come knocking at her door” as he had said he would.

The nice thing about homeopathy is that, it not only works well, but it also has no side-effects. It works by encouraging the animal’s immune system to do the work of repairing, whatever is needing repair, on its own. In doing so, the animal builds real, life-long antibodies. Not the fake, short-term, often ineffective “antibodies” (if you dare even call them that) that the vaccines do.

Our new puppy was only two months old when I was frantically seeking a veterinarian who would help me rehydrate him. I tried three clinics the first day with no luck. Day two I tried two more vet clinics. The first was full, the second, although full, was willing to make time in the afternoon for my puppy. The veterinarian I saw was a very nice man and his tech was wonderful. While I, on the other hand, was an exhausted, frustrated, crying-out-of-control woman. By this point I couldn’t contain the tears.

The vet asked me politely if this puppy had come from a breeder. When I said yes, he responded with “Yeah, I thought so. And, did the breeder also do puppy vaccines on this little guy?” Yes, I said. Then finally “What about the chemical dewormer?” Again I replied with “yes.” Naively, I thought he was asking because he was looking for reassurance this puppy was, in his eyes, well cared for. However, it was a different picture altogether. He was annoyed, and responded with “I see way too much of this from dogs that come from breeders. They do the vaccines way too early and all at once. This puppy doesn’t even have an immune system yet. Then they do the harsh chemical dewormer that damages the whole intestinal system of the puppy, and send them home with the new owner damaged and in danger of becoming sick like this.”

I learned that many of the new owners of sick puppies like this one, rush their puppies to the vet and check them for worms, assuming it must be worms that make them this sick. Of course the vet isn’t going to tell them how dangerous the vaccines are, and all dogs have some worms because, well, they’re dogs. So a simple worm test will often reveal some strain of worms. Deworming them with a chemical that has the potential of also killing the dog, will get rid of some of the worms in the gut for sure. However, the worms in his organs, glands, and brain are left unharmed. This vet checked our puppy’s liver and kidneys, because he knew these poisons (vaccines and dewormer) all have the potential to seriously harm these organs. Our puppy’s kidneys and his liver were failing. He died that evening. It was a tragic experience, and I can still cry when I think about how much this sweet, beautiful puppy suffered because of someone’s ignorance, and the pharmaceutical industry’s desire to push its products on naïve people, even if it costs a life.

How to Raise a Healthy Dog: Part 2

Healthy Dogs

The fun is just beginning…

Germs are the enemy. Or are they? A few weeks after we talked with the breeder of our puppy, we went to pick her up. We learned that although she was 9 weeks old, she had never been allowed to put her feet on dirt. The breeder felt it was unsanitary. I know I must have looked like a deer caught in headlights, because I just stared at her. I was stunned. My mind raced to figure out why in the world she would avoid dirt with a dog, and where was she going to the bathroom, if not on the ground? On a concrete patio of course, she told me, to avoid germs.

Okay, I get that if you have an indoor dog and you don’t want them tracking dirt and germs into the house. Afterall, we take our shoes off, for the same reason, when we come into the house. Later on, I learned from a very knowledgeable poodle breeder that the biggest concern isn’t just “germs” but worms they may pick up in the soil. Especially if you live on a farm where there are, or were, livestock present. Puppies (and people) who run around barefoot on worm-infected dirt will generally get some types of worms. This, of course, is normal, and you take herbs or homeopathy to support the body in naturally eliminating them. However, as this breeder informed me, new prespective puppy owners want to believe their pet is free of worms. Thus, the dangerous, potentially lethal, de-wormer is often given puppies. The problem is, besides damaging the puppy’s intestines, it cannot get all of its worms anyway.

Soon after we brought our puppy home, I started to test her for worms and other pathogens she may have inherited from her parents’ vaccines, and those of other vaccinated puppies she was exposed to. She had a number of them, including the rabies worm. The “rabies worm” isn’t an official name, but referred to as this because it is only acquired through a rabies vaccine. What does this mean? It means that every time you allow an injection of a rabies vaccine, you are allowing your dog to be injected with worm eggs. No wonder they develop tumors after they are vaccinated! Often times tumors are nothing more than a sack of worms.

How do you know if your dog has these? I would try giving your dog the Rabies Vax homeopathic for a few days and see what happens. It’s a remedy made to support your dog’s immune system with identifying the toxins from the vaccine so it can eliminate these from its system. From what I have learned, it only takes 3 days on the remedy and the worms, or in some cases, sack of them, are expelled.

We couldn’t do this remedy until our dog was 5 months old because dogs don’t have their own immune system until that age. Until that time, they work off their momma’s immune system. When our dog reached five months of age, I gave her one dose of the Rabies Vaccine remedy. Again, I didn’t do this to immunize her, but to support her body in cleaning out the toxins she inherited from her parent’s vaccines. We gave her one daily for 3 days, and on the third day she passed an 8 inch long sack of bright yellow worms. I will admit it was gross, but I was so relieved they were out of her. Our first step to purifying her from toxic vaccines was done. Now onto step two.

How to Raise a Healthy Dog – Part 1

Health Support, Healthy Dogs

Why is it so hard to raise a healthy dog these days? There was a time when raising a healthy dog was as easy as feeding them raw meat on a regular basis and letting them come in out of bad weather. Otherwise, our dogs ran the neighborhood, played with other neighbor dogs, ate small prey they managed to catch…and sometimes road kill they managed to find on the street, and they lived long, healthy lives.

It used to be common to know a number of people who had had their dogs 14-21 years. Now, 12 years is thought of as old and long-lived. At least for the bigger breeds. We also didn’t have, or know anyone who had, dogs with cancers, tumors, skin diseases, allergies, breathing problems, hip displacement, and seizures. Now these are a common occurrence in dogs.

A year ago I decided I wanted a Standard poodle. We had had collies for many years, and our last one was about to die, and I didn’t really want to be without a dog. At the same time, we were about to become empty-nesters, as our last child in the home was about to move away. I thought a new dog would be a good distraction for me. I’ve always been a stay-at-home mom, and loved having little ones around, but this would have to suffice.

My daughter found a poodle breeder in the Dallas area for me who had some Standard poodle puppies for sale, and she had a black female left that I could purchase. Perfect! That was simple, I would get this puppy and life would be good. Or so I thought.

I called and spoke with the breeder who would be selling us this new puppy. The breeder seemed nice enough. Someone had warned me though, that most breeders do “puppy vaccines” now, so I asked her if she had done these. This would be a deal-breaker for me, and I was going to have to decline the puppy if it had had these vaccines.

Instead of confirming that the vaccines had been given, she apologized for not having done them yet. The vaccines had come in late she said, but assured me they would be done that evening. Then she would be deworming the puppy with a chemical dewormer. At that point I almost told her I wasn’t interested in the puppy anymore. After all, who wants a sick, vaccine damaged puppy that also has chemical damage to its intestines from a chemical dewormer? What a way to start out with a new pet. No wonder some of the “breeders” have a bad reputation for selling sick puppies. Whats worse, most don’t even know its the vaccines and harsh chemical dewormer that is making their puppies sick, so they keep doing them litter after litter.

Before I could tell this sweet lady I didn’t want one of her puppies, guilt got the better of me. Not guilt for the puppy, although there was that too, but guilt for not sharing information with a nice lady who I felt was just misled. I quickly asked God for guidance with what I was about to say, then asked her if she would mind NOT doing the vaccines on the puppy, and just leave that up to me after I get her back home. I also asked that she please not do chemical deworming on the puppy. Now I’m not saying that puppies don’t have worms, or need some support to help their body get rid of worms, I’m all for that, but would prefer to do it with holistic supplements or homeopathics so they are more effective, and there aren’t any side-effects.

It was this experience with this particular breeder that led me to do more research into being a dog owner. It had never been so complicated before, and I had owned a number of pets, from dogs, to horses, ducks, geese, guinea pigs, rabbits, even a raccoon.

I was taken off guard by this new thought on dog raising that has become so common now. So much of what they do is because they think it is responsible, and a good practice. Shame on the pharmaceutical industry for pushing these practices on our veterinarians, who then pass them on to the breeders and pet owners. Thinking about all that I had learned from the various breeders I spoke with, things I felt defied common sense, it sickened me.
I work in the natural health care field with people and see so much deception every day when it comes to health care, along with an overall lack of common sense about health and disease. Twenty five years ago, when I was teaching natural childbirth education, the dietary information passed on to expectant mothers was so bad (not dissimilar to what it is today), that we would joke with our classes that it was safer and more accurate to get dietary advice from a veterinarian. After all, they were in the business of helping animals be healthy, rather than selling pharmaceuticals and pushing dangerous vaccines and medical tests. To say I was disappointed to learn this is no longer true, would be putting it mildly.

Here are just a few of the changes I found in my research on the new, albeit dangerous, way of raising dogs today:

The majority of breeders are encouraged to give their dogs a series of puppy vaccines early in life. This is done with the idea that it will prevent a variety of diseases that puppies rarely get. Sickly puppies, who are poorly fed, and come from sick parents, get these diseases. In addition, they are given at a young period in their life when they couldn’t possibly build antibodies even if the vaccines did work.

Many of them spay or neuter their puppies even before they are sold. Others have you sign a contract stating you will have this operation, removing your new puppy’s reproductive system before they are a set number of months old. It has nothing to do with the health of the dogs of course, this isn’t an issue for them. It is typically done to reduce the competition between dog breeders. How and when did removal of the reproductive system become “responsible.” Who’s idea was that, I have to wonder.

Newly bred female dogs are often scanned with ultrasound machines to confirm pregnancies and count of the number of puppies in the womb. Then again later on, closer to delivery time, to check for problems. Then the mother is sometimes exposed to it again after the puppies are born to check her uterus for dead puppies, or remains of afterbirth that weren’t expelled. Wait, what about the side effects of the ultrasound on the puppies and the womb of the mother dog? Did someone forget ultrasound machines use radiation? That they can cause abnormalities in the babies (human and animal) and cause sterility in the mother because of radiation damage to her reproductive system?! I am guessing that, like human doctors, the veterinarians aren’t aware of the side-effects either. So, who’s job is it to let us know there may be side-effects, and please, please stop telling us there aren’t any. www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasound.htm , www.healthybirthchoices.com/.../pregnancy/ultrasound/102-fetal–effects-…, www.chosenbirths.com/ultrasoundsafety.htm

Purebred dogs are often bred back with their own brother, sister, mother or father for a particular look that is desired by the breeder. Especially those dogs who are groomed for AKC shows. The health and genetic problems that inbreeding can cause aren’t a consideration, and I am told that doing this often produces a look preferred by judges at these shows.

Adult dogs are given vaccines on a regular basis, sometimes yearly, regardless of the fact that they aren’t necessary, proven safe or effective, and aren’t even state mandated. Shame on the veterinarians who do these to animals. Is this called “responsible veterinary medicine?”

In my research on dogs, I have come across a number of people who have shared stories with me of their dogs who suddenly develop tumors after vaccines are given, then die when the “tumor exploded.” Two of these stories were of Standard poodles. There have been eye disorders, cancers, leukemia, skin diseases, and seizures. One girl bought an English bulldog that suddenly died shortly after it turned a year. A year! She called her friend who bought a puppy from the same litter to find out how their dog was doing, only to find it had died a couple months before hers. Both had all of the puppy vaccines and were given the dangerous chemical dewormer. Another person had a boxer that had seizures and was encouraged to put it on an expensive anti-seizure medication. She couldn’t afford the drugs, so had it put down. It was under 2 years old. I know of many, many more who currently have dogs that are still living with diagnosed tumors, and their vets are telling them its common among dogs their age, or their breed.

This all reminds me of pediatric medicine in the U.S. All of the diseases that are common in our vaccinated children, diseases like eye disorders, cancers, leukemia, skin diseases, learning disabilities, personality disorders, and seizures. Makes one wonder about autism in dogs as well.

Then there is the issue of life-threatening chemicals we apply to our pets in the name of protecting them from bugs. They come in the form of poisonous pet collars, sprays, and shampoos. One woman I know breaks out when she holds her dog because of all of the chemicals applied to its coat by its groomer. And its not safe for small children to be within 10-12 feet of a dog with one of these products on its body. When this particular lady asked her dog’s groomer to use a “natural” shampoo instead of the one with the chemical pesticides in it, the groomer stated that she “couldn’t be responsible for something that might hurt or endanger the dog.” What?! When did something natural become dangerous, and something dangerous become the safe thing? Where is the common sense in that statement?

Back to my story – after asking the breeder of my puppy not to use the vaccines or chemical dewormer on her, I went a little further and asked that she not keep my unvaccinated puppy with the other vaccinated (now contagious), puppies. She was surprised, thinking that my puppy was the one to be concerned with carrying an illness, and she was the one who was going to develop a life-threatening illness if I didn’t let her shoot these toxins (vaccines) into her.

I assured her that not only would this puppy not get sick, but she will be very healthy and well taken care of. In as few words as possible I explained my concern about the vaccines and their relationship to the diseases that are so common in dogs now. Diseases that didn’t exist in dogs 40-50 years ago. She followed with, “I wondered if the vaccines caused these diseases, I’ve had more than one (adult) dog suddenly become sick and a couple even die within 6 months after having been given a vaccine.” She said she thought it was the vaccine, and instinctively didn’t like doing them. Although, when she voiced her concerns to her veterinarian, like any well trained pharmaceutical salesmen, he assured her it had nothing to do with the vaccines.