Seriously "disease is not caused by virus or bacteria"? No reason to "fear" rabies?

In my view only in a super-developed clean environment where no one has seen suffering caused by agents of disease can this idea possibly take hold. I bet Ram fears rabies. Forum members remember Natalya Zahn's Oscar, near death from tick borne illness, saved by doxycycline.

Folks who don't believe in drugs have never seen gangrene creeping up from an infected wound and saw it cured with penicillin.
They never had in their hand the power to "save" by drug and experienced the relief of grateful patients and owners that death was averted. They never had the absolute rush you feel when you really care, are 100% committed and empathetic about the suffering you are seeing and you become the partner in the battle and you give the drug and by God you win, and you, and the patient and the owner all know that with out that drug there would have been death.
Frankly, if people don't believe in the power of chemical medicine I think they should turn in their DVMs and become faith healers.
As an aside, there is no money in heartworm medicine anymore for veterinary offices. The mark-up is marginal and you have to purchase a ton of it to get any. So there is a financial advantage to selling some stuff you can make yourself.
Not saying people are doing this, but vitamins are cheap. Something to keep in mind.

Betty, How do you feel about older dogs who have been regularly vaccinated and their immunity status after a certain age? My last vet stopped vaccinating (other than rabies) my then 9 year old dog saying he should have full immunity to everything. Is that reasonable? Amber does get full vaccination every year. Just wondering. Jodi

Betty beat me to it, but I am glad that I am not the only one here who thinks this is dangerous twaddle. Of course a truly healthy dog (or human) with the best possible diet and a robust immune system is better equipped to fight off infection or tolerate parasites. But I am unimpressed by the claim in the link that Tammy posted that the heartworm-infected dogs treated with homeopathic remedies etc. "did not develop symptoms of heart failure". That's setting the bar pretty low. Were there other symptoms? Did they lose weight? Most important, were they as healthy and energetic as dogs without heartworms? This is anecdotal, not a controlled study, so of course we don't know.

In my younger days, I worked for two years in an impoverished rural area of highland Ecuador, where intestinal parasites were endemic. I had repeated infestations of roundworms and amoebas. I was pretty fit (ran 3-4 miles every day at 10,000 ft, went mountain climbing at weekends). After the first few months of acclimation I found that I could tolerate an intestinal parasite infestation with few or no symptoms, just as the local folk could. But I felt a whole lot brighter and more energetic when medication cleared the bugs out (as did my local co-workers).

Similarly, I want optimal health for my dogs, not just absence of symptoms. Ability to tolerate a parasite load is not the same as optimal health - this is also true for those heartworm-infested coyotes that studies reported were surviving, but with loss of condition and fertility. Trying to ensure optimal health for my dogs means that I make judicious and informed use of what allopathic medicine has to offer as well as focusing on diet (and yes, I use some herbal remedies too). But IMO to buy into this disease comes from within, lots of vitamins and everything will be peachy philosophy is as unwise (and as unfair to the dog) as feeding it nothing but processed kibble, shooting it up with a ton of unnecessary vaccines every year and then treating the resulting health problems with an ever-increasing array of drugs.

I don't mean to offend, but I have done a lot of thinking and research on this in recent years and I do feel strongly about it.

I'm not a vet, but I did major in Wildlife Biology, and am now working on an MS in Ecology. So, while I'm not a vet or a doctor, we did learn a bunch about virology and stuff.

Another factor to consider is herd immunity. I gave a cursory glance at this article, and it's not terrible, so I'll link it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

In addition, many of us live in areas that are NOT the middle of no where. Walking means encountering other dogs, feral cats, and raccoons. As a result, near me, rabies and other viral diseases are a constant threat. The newest (popularized) reservoir: feral cats.

http://joomla.wildlife.org/documents/cats_rabies.pdf


Is over vaccination a problem? Sure, in some cases. But are vaccines in general a scam? Absolutely not.

John, regarding the vaccination of older dogs---- I don't vaccinate after 3-4, unless my dog is going to be someplace where I know the exposure will be huge --- like if I start working at the pound, bringing home bugs, or I have to board the dog---or if I see a funky looking coon or skunk in my yard, and it's been
over the 3 yr rabies limit. Or if I have been handling a pup that has parvo, then I boost my dogs. But I'm retired so I don't handle sick dogs much anymore.

Oh, I absolutely agree with you- it depends on the dog.

Many of the people on this board would probably be able to make educated decisions about the risks their dog will encounter. However, and unfortunately, most dog owners are NOT like the people here, and the legislation is sadly needed.