I'm not into over vaccinating, but I do minimally vaccinate. Dog can and do die naturally from getting these diseases. The death rate for parvo and distemper, if your dog gets it, is very high, and if your dog survives distemper, there will probably be long lasting damage depending on the age he got it. Also, if your dog gets rabies, he is going to die and could infect everyone around him.

Yuko,
there is no single 'remedy' that a homeopath would give your dog that I can name. It's a case by case thing. If a homeopath wanted to give my dog a blanket remedy for vaccine damage or for kennel cough I would run the other way.

This is where your research comes in, learn about what true homeopathy is and try to find someone who really understands it. I am constantly learning that just giving a remedy for affliction X is not that easy!


Elaine,

Several years ago I treated a whole litter that got parvo, and pulled 8 of the 10 through. This was 2 weeks of round the clock care here, I think I was spending 19 hours a day with these poor little sick ones. They were a litter of vaccinated pups. I am certain that had these pups gotten parvo through natural exposure instead of from vaccine exposure, I could have saved them all. Chances are they wouldn't have gotten so sick to begin with OR they may not have gotten sick at all.

Vaccines are not guaranteed protection from anything, but they are guaranteed to do some type of damage. It may be minor or it may be severe. It may show up immediately or it may be months later.

I would love to be convinced that there is a magic shot or pill that I can give my dogs so they don't get sick and are healthy. I guarantee that anyone who went through the 2 weeks I went through with these puppies would seriously question current medical practices. If I thought vaccines were safe and effective , I would give them. I don't believe that they are either.

there is risk no matter what path you choose. I prefer the risks of no vaccines for our dogs.

Anyway, Parvo would not exist as we know it if not for vaccines. A cat vaccine mutated into the virus we now know as parvo. Really pi$$es me off.

Distemper in it's natural state is rare, the cases of distemper that are documented these days are vaccine induced cases....

Rabies... well, I'll take my chances that my dog will not come into contact with a rabid animal of any kind and be bitten and be infected.. Even then, my dog could fight off the disease just like he could fight off any other disease he came into contact with.


This whole FEAR tactic is what fuels the medical(human and veterinary) community these days... let's talk about the flu vaccine. ARG.

I also believe we are permanently damaging our dogs, and passing along vaccine damage into the offspring. For this reason, we no longer vaccinate our own dogs or puppies. I will no longer buy dogs or pups to add to my breeding program that come from vaccinated stock. Look at all the "genetic" diseases that are considered normal in our dogs these days. Autoimmune disease was not even in existence until we started taking "such good care" of our dogs by feeding crap (kibble) food and vaccinating every year. Think about it.

I will again urge everyone to read, read, read on this subject.
Google is my best friend.

Cindy, I have to respectfully disagree with you that vaccinating a dog is a greater risk than not vaccinating. The fear factor, from my view, is coming from people that refuse to vaccinate saying just what you are saying. I have seen many dogs with distemper and they had never been vaccinated. This is a terrible disease and is easily prevented. Giving puppies parvo shots has done wonders for reducing the incidence of this very frequently fatal disease. Can they get parvo even if vaccinated? Yes, if they had been exposed before the shot and there wasn't enough time for them to build up antibodies. The idea of my dog would't have gotten as sick if they hadn't been vaccinated just doesn't even make sense. Not only that, but look how much time and effort you put in to save your litter. There are a lot of people that just can't afford that kind of care when a simple shot could have prevented it in the first place. What kind of life long damage is been done to the puppies that get parvo and distemper? It's just not worth it.

I do agree that parvo was started by a mutation in cats and that does really suck, but we are now stuck with it and I don't want my dogs to get it.

As far as rabies goes, the chance of your dog getten bit by a rabid animal is slim, as most rabid animals in our neck of the woods are cows, skunks, and bats. You would never know your dog had been bit by a bat though, and rabies is a fatal disease, no matter how you look at it.

Do I think over vaccinating can cause problems? Absolutely. I believe in vaccinating only for distemper, parvo, and rabies, as they are a very real danger, and lepto only if you live in an area where it's a prevalent problem. I also don't vaccinate for these after a year of age as it's not necessary to maintain their immunity. Rabies is still legally required every 3 years and I can't wait until that gets changed. Even though it probably provides a much longer immuniity than that, if someone accuses your dog of biting them and they don't have a current vaccination, many places will just kill the dog no questions asked so they can test for rabies. It's stupid, but there you have it.

Elaine,

I have to disagree with much of what you are saying.

1) you have seen MANY dogs with distemper? How many? I worked in the veterinary field for 15 years only saw a few cases. Like I stated before, distemper that is seen these days is vaccine induced (i.e. shed from vaccinated dogs) Maybe if we quit vaccinating for it, the disease would not have a vehicle in which to infect so easily. Distemper vaccinations also can (and do) cause inflammation and damage of the myelin sheath, which can cause severe neurological problems for dogs. (remember, vaccines reactions mimic the diseases they are intended to prevent)Interestingly enough, human measles and canine distemper appear identical when looked at under a microscope. They are now linking MS in humans to the measles vaccines!

2)Puppies can ABSOLUTEY become sick from a disease they have been vaccinated for and may not have gotten the diseasee if they had NOT been vaccinated.!!! You need to do some reading about how the vaccine supresses the immune system in puppies and how it can neutralize maternal antibodies. A vaccine can leave a puppy completely unprotected from the very disease he is vaccinated for AND then supresses the immune system so he is a sitting duck for viruses and illnesses that he would have been able to deal with otherwise. Your statements above show me that you don't have understanding of the danger of a vaccine at all!

3) Parvo was not from a mutation in cats, it was a mutation of a cat VACCINE. Big difference.

4) Rabies CAN be fatal, but not always. You or your animal can be exposed to it and not contract the disease at all or you can recover. One of the vets I worked for was exposed (ungloved hand in mouth)of a cow that died of rabies. He never had any problems even though he had wounds on his hand. He refused the treatment which at that time was a series of painful injections to the stomach.

The thing is I am not fearful of not vaccinating nor am I using scare tactics. I am trying to get people to use their own common sense for their situation and not blindly follow anyone whether it's me, a vet or a person with very limited medical or practical experience with health issues in dogs. (in this case I feel quite qualified to state my experiences, as I not only worked in the veterinary field, I am Leerburg's breeding manager and have raised LOTS of puppies.)

You have your opinions, and I have mine. That's never a problem for me.

I do ,however, have a problem with bad information getting posted on this board.

Cindy, I too have worked in the veterinary field for a long time. You have me on the raising lots of puppies, but I have seen a lot of unnecessarily sick dogs and puppies and so many of them died. I did misspeak when I said parvo came from a cat mutation, as it was from a cat vaccination.

I do believe people that don't believe in any vaccinating do use scare tactics in trying to convince people of the evils of vaccinating. My vet does it too when she keeps trying to convince me to vaccinate yearly.

As for stop vaccinating for distemper and it will go away, that's crazy. Distemper and other viruses have a chance of being transported around now way more than ever before. Distemper used to be a much more common disease then it is now because of vaccinations. People that don't vaccinate at all are playing roulette. They might get lucky and never get a sick dog, and that's probably because everyone else is vaccinating so there is a lower incidence of transmission, the dog lives in isolation, the dog has just never been exposed to the virus, or the dog just didn't contract the disease. Take for example chicken pox, it's a highly contagious disease. All my siblings got it as kids and I never did. Why? Who knows. It's not like I wasn't exposed, I just didn't contract the disease.

As for rabies, if your dog gets rabies, he will die. Just because your vet was exposed to the disease, doesn't mean that he had to contract it. Getting bit by a rabid animal doesn't guarantee disease transmission, but it is very likely.

I don't really care if people do or don't vaccinate their dogs, just so long as they understand the ramifications all the way around.

Elaine - people are welcome to have their own opinions on vaccinations. You have yours and we completely disagree with you.

I have no idea what your experience is but I will guarantee you that I probably have 10 to 50 times more experience than you. I will also guarantee you that Cindy has a ton more experience than you.

With that said in my opinion you are dead wrong and the other people who read this thread can choose to listen to whoever they want.

Unlike you I do care if people vaccinate their dogs. In fact here at Leerburg we stopped vaccinating a number of years ago. We feed an all-natural raw diet. We will not sell our puppies to people who don't agree to feed raw and not vaccinate. The reason for this is the dogs are healthier.

This is not a policy thats based on book learning - its based on the experience gained from breeding hundreds of litters over the past 30 years.

I used to vaccinate dogs and litters ( a lot) because I wanted to do the best for my animals. In the end I was wrong - DEAD wrong.

So we have heard your opinions here and thats enough. Within reason I have an open mind. That does not extend to issues of feeding and vaccinating dogs.

Elaine,

I would be interested in hearing about your experience, I am always open to hearing other people's points of view and how they got to them. You say you have been in the veterinary field for "a long time".

How many cases of distemper have you seen? (you didn't answer me before )

What is your experience in the veterinary field? how long? When and where? How many of these animals that died were already getting the short end of the stick with poor nutrition (i.e. kibble)?

I never said "distemper would go away if we stopped vaccinating"
READ what I wrote before you misquote me, please.

And to quote you "getting bit by a rabid animal doesn't guarantee transmission".... BINGO... My point exactly!!!!!!!!!!

Cindy,

I've seen 1 case of distemper in 4 years in an 8-9 week old Pom. I believe this pup had 1 DHPPC given by the breeder. The dog was extremely ill but is doing great now at 7 months. Time will tell what, if any, long-term damage she sustained but she looks and acts very healthy. Our docs were VERY surprised to see distemper.

OTOH, we've seen many cases of parvo and some very sick dogs. All recovered except one, who had never been vaccinated and was too far gone by the time he was brought in to save. The owner was a dingbat and waited too long. The recovered dogs are also doing great.

I don't fear these illnesses so much anymore. I've seen so many recover. I think, on the whole, people pay more and better attention to their pets than they did years ago and most owners are less likely to let serious symptoms go on for weeks before consulting a doctor. I also think the supportive care vets give now give animals with parvo and distemper a real fighting chance.