Dangerous Over-Vaccination

Originally Posted at Dogs Naturally Magazine

It seems that vets are being quite naughty when it comes to charging us for vaccines.

But first, a little context …The Veterinary Associations Don’t Want Vets To Vaccinate Every Year

Back in 2003, The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) created a task force to determine how often vets should revaccinate dogs; prior to this, there were no guidelines and vets were happy to vaccinate every year because that’s how long vaccine manufacturers would guarantee their products to last.

That wasn’t too big a deal before then as there were only a handful of vaccines available to vets …. but by 2003, there were over 100.

But veterinary immunologist Dr Ronald Schultz realized that when dogs were exposed to viruses naturally, they developed lifetime immunity. So he began testing the core vaccines (distemper, parvovirus, adenovirus and rabies) and found that they all lasted at least 7 years (which was the duration of this studies, not the duration of immunity for the vaccines).

So he brought this to the attention of the AAHA and that’s when they decided to advise vets to vaccinate every three years and not annually.

Then in 2011, because it was becoming clear that vaccines could cause cancer and other debilitating health issues (and because Dr Schultz continued to show that every major core vaccine on the market was likely to provide lifelong immunity in dogs vaccinated at 16 weeks or later), the AAHA updated their schedule once again.

Today, the AAHA has these official recommendations for vets when it comes to distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus:

Among healthy dogs, all commercially available [core] vaccines are expected to induce a sustained protective immune response lasting at least 5 yr.

So vaccines probably protect for life, but the associations are still allowing vets to vaccinate more often than that.

Vaccines for diseases like distemper and canine parvovirus, once administered to adult animals, provide lifetime immunity.

That’s a topic for another day, so lets focus on how vets are doing with these guidelines that have been in place for over a decade now.

Are Vets Following Their Association Recommendations?

Most aren’t.

In fact, a representative for one of the major vaccine manufacturers reports that 60% of vets are still vaccinating every single year … in direct violation of the AAHA recommendations (and a whole lot of research showing this is unnecessary and dangerous).

The other 39.5% (my educated guess) are still vaccinating every three years … which is still too often!

Why do vets continue to vaccinate so often?

So that brings me to our little conversation about what vets are doing these days …

This article is from Dogs Naturally Magazine. Below is the link to follow more. Do your homework before you take your 4 legged family member to the vet.

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/dangerous-over-vaccination-of-dogs-is-alive-and-well-in-the-us/

There are countless ways rabies vaccination can harm your dog – often permanently. I’m going to tell  you about just 65 of those ways below.

As a holistic veterinarian, our outdated rabies vaccination laws are one of the things that upset me the most. All over the US and in most of Canada, the law requires you to vaccinate your dog against rabies every three years. In most US states your dog’s first rabies vaccine must be a one year shot, with revaccination every three years after that.

None of these laws take into account the real duration of immunity of rabies vaccines, Studies by Ronald Schultz PhD show that rabies vaccines protects for a minimum of 7 years – and probably for the life of the animal.

And neither do the thousands of veterinarians in the US who are still vaccinating annually for rabies. They do this despite the fact that annual vaccination is neither required by law nor recommended by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Guidelines.

Every Vaccination Increases The Risk

Dog owners often accept the one-year rabies vaccine because it’s cheaper, and because they don’t know two important things:

• The one year rabies vaccine is identical to the three year rabies vaccine, just labeled differently.
• The rabies vaccine can harm your dog in many different ways. Every vaccination increases the risk of an adverse vaccine reaction happening to your dog.

And that’s what I want to tell you about.

In my years of practice I’ve witnessed all of the rabies vaccine reactions I’ve listed below.

Damage Can Be Immediate Or Months Later

Most conventional vets don’t recognize rabies vaccine damage unless your dog has an instant reaction while he’s still in the clinic.

But the fact is, one little vaccine can cause not only immediate illness, but long term, dangerous, chronic disease that can change your dog’s life forever.

Vaccine reactions are more likely to happen when your dog gets multiple vaccines at once; and small dogs are more likely to suffer from ill effects, because they receive the same dose as big dogs.

Rabies Vaccination Is Not Safe

I’ve listed 65 ways the rabies vaccine can harm your dog. It’s not an exhaustive list … but I’ve tried to give you a picture of the risks you take when you vaccinate your dog for rabies.

Most conventional vets will tell you that rabies vaccination is very safe and unlikely to cause any side effects. Holistic vets, myself included, will tell you a very different story. We’ve learned to recognize the shocking damage that rabies vaccination causes in so many pets.

I’ve divided common rabies vaccine reactions into three different categories.

Acute Problems

Acute reactions can happen immediately after the rabies vaccine or within a few days. Conventional vets are more likely to recognize acute (vs chronic) reactions as being linked to the rabies vaccine.

These acute reactions aren’t necessarily limited to the rabies vaccine but can happen with any shots.

1. Vomiting
2. Facial swelling
3. Injection site swelling or lump
4. Lethargy
5. Urticaria (hives)
6. Circulatory shock
7. Injection site pain
8. Pruritus (itching)
9. Injection site alopecia (hair loss)
10. 10.Death
11. Loss of consciousness
12. 12.Diarrhea
13. 13.Hypersensitivity
14. 14.Fever
15. 15.Anaphylaxis (which can kill your dog in minutes)
16. 16.Ataxia (loss of balance/coordination)
17. 17.Lameness
18. 18.General signs of pain
19. 19.Hyperactivity
20. 20.Injection site scab or crust
21. 21.Muscle tremor
22. 22.Seizures (these can be immediate upon vaccination but can also occur in 7 to 9 days which is when the rabies antibodies develop)
23. 23.Tumor at the injection site (this can happen within as little as 72 hours)
24. 24.Sudden behavior changes such as aggression, fear or anxiety can also happen acutely, within hours or days of rabies vaccination
25. 25.Immune mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA). This disease can also become chronic

Chronic Problems

Many chronic diseases in dogs can be triggered by the rabies vaccine’s damaging effect on your dog’s immune system and neurological system. The rabies virus itself is a carcinogen. The toxic ingredients in vaccines such as aluminum and mercury can also contribute to cancer and other chronic disease. Many of the chronic diseases I’ve listed here can be caused by any vaccine, not just rabies.