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Vaccines
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Many of us are already aware that vaccines are dangerous and can trigger many types of reactions and cause chronic diseases - see the Vaccine Survey. Weimaraners seem to be especially sensitive to vaccines and suffer from such "adverse" reactions. The Weimaraner Club of America recognizes several immune-mediated diseases related to vaccines (see Canine Immunogenetics Project: Weimaraner Update) and, thus, has a specific Policy on Vaccines to help prevent such effects. As a homeopath I do not recommend to vaccinate conventionally at all, due to all these problems related to vaccines. However, our "vaccines" (called nosodes) are still not recognized by our governments. So, if you don't want to try this alternative, my personal recommendations are: for puppies only to give a killed vaccine of distemper and another of parvo, always single, never in a combo, and never before 2 months of age at least. Why only these two and no other vaccine, such as hepatitis, leptospirosis, parainfluenza, kennel cough, etc...? The benefit from these others is minimal compared to the risk they present. There's a general consensus in the veterinary world today (both conventional and holistic vets agree) that there's no need for annual boosters in adult dogs, although most conventional veterinarians prefer to ignore it same as they ignore the problems associated to vaccines and regard them as mere "accidents" and continue to follow vaccination protocols that make no sense from an immunologic point of view (see Vaccination). Rabies is a legal issue, so you'll have to follow your government requirements, but if your dog is sick in any way, you should ask your veterinarian to write an exemption letter, as sick dogs should never be vaccinated. Some other sites where you can read about these issues are:
http://www.asr-svcs.dircon.co.uk/wwwchc/vac_myth.htm
http://www.asr-svcs.dircon.co.uk/wwwchc/vaccine.htm
http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/article.asp?PageType=Article&ID=485
http://www.abap.org/nosodes.htm
http://www.natural-akita.com/naturalcanine/articles/nosodes.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc_chambreau.htm
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. Charles E Loops DVM
"Routine" vaccination has adverse side-effects, either short or long term. With vaccines that are repeated year after year, the frequency and severity of these side-effects in our pets has increased dramatically. Most of the problems involve the immune system. After all, the immune system is what vaccines are designed to stimulate. But they do so in a very unnatural way that can overwhelm and confuse the immune system. Donna Starita Mehan DVM
Holistic veterinarians are finding that vaccines are causing great harm to our animals (and ourselves). To cure an animal of any problem we have found through experience that we must use homeopathic remedies that are known to reverse vaccine related problems as well as fit this individual. Christina Chambreau DVM
Below are some real life stories of Weimaraners who suffered ill-effects of vaccines of one type or another.
- Jennifer's story
Last month our 3 1/2 year old male weimaraner, Jager, went in for his yearly booster shots. While I was still at the vets he crashed. Evidently Fort Dodge has added 2 new strains of Lepto. to it's vaccine. He gave him a shot and we ended up still haveing to take him to the emergency clinic at night. I have since heard of someone with a schnauzer that had a reaction also. From what I have been able to gather, Lepto. can be a very serious disease. Supposedly a lab recently died from it here. Unfortunately I have read that a once a year booster may not offer enough protection. Please speak to your vet before you get your dog vaccinated about it and try to stay at the office for at least 1/2 hour after the injection to make sure that your dog is not going to have a reaction. If I would have left, he would be dead. Thankfully he is back to himself now.
- Christopher's story
I acquired my first/only Weim about a year ago and had to have her put to sleep at about 6 mos. old. Within 24 hours of her first "set" of vaccinations, she developed painful swelling of the jaw. In a nutshell, she was treated with antibiotics/steroids for about three months, having recurring swelling episodes, each case more severe than the previous. The last episode resulted in her inability to use her hind legs (paralysis (?) or weakened state (?)). It was at this time I made the decision to put her down.
- Laurie's story
We have a 10 year old male weim who is healthy and not ill. Lives with a normal family so of course, eats dog food and when the vets sends the card out for its time for shots, he gets them. Very good owners. Wednesday night at 5:30 PM dog went to vet and vet gave him rabies shot, distemper shot and Lymes shot and sent him home. During the early morning hours owner heard him crying and went downstairs to see him laying on the kitchen floor and not in his dog bed. Took him outside to potty and put him back to bed. At 6 AM Thursday morning, dog has trouble getting up and can hardly walk on his back legs. Has to be held up to potty and when he comes back into the house, lays down right inside the door and stays there. Will not eat. Owner called doctor who says to give benedryl. He does. Thursday night, dog still laying in the same place when they come home from work. He is worse, cannot stand on back legs at all and front is starting to go. Calls vet again. Vet says give more benedryl. By Friday AM dog cannot move or walk, has not eaten or pottied and has had very little water. Owner calls me. Original vet has been contacted a total of 5 times. I take dog to my vet and tell her I think its a vaccine reaction and fill her in. Dog has to be carried to the car and carried into the vet. When I went to try to stand him up and put my arms under his belly, the pressure made him pee. Urine very strong and he has not had water. Did not cry in pain. At vets office. Has some muscle reactions, but alot of the skin and muscle pinching she did is getting no reactions. Does have good eyes and seems content and not in pain. Vet did not think it appeared to be neurological .Took back X-ray and rules out injury. Did blood panel and all is normal. Put him on IV to get some fluid in. Still won't eat. Gave Prednisone and he is still not up. Re checked X-ray and possibly see a cloudy area at the base of the neck. Possibly a tumor that was starting and the shots blew it up and thats laying on the wrong area and causing the parallysis. They will be doing spinal fluid stuff this morning. I am going up around noon to talk to vet and see where we're at.
Dr. sees improvement. Dog is eating normally and is alert and does not seem to be in pain. The info I got from the owner in regard to a spinal tumor was a bit off. Dr. thinks between the last neck vertibrae and the first spinal disc the cloudy area on the x-ray is a bad infection. This is why he is taking the fluid out of the spine to check He had a name for the condition but between here and there I lost it. Very big, long word and of course I was trying to ask questions and didn't write it down. He does not think this was caused that quickly by the vaccine but he does feel it could very well have exacerbated the condition and put it over the edge. My question at this point is if this is an infection and he wants to put him on antibiotics, can I give the Thuja at the same time without adverse affects? I realize the antibiotics are not the best thing, but please remember this is not my dog. I will try my best, but I'm not sure how far I can push here. Another thought might be to try either the antibiotice or the Thuja and see which one shows improvement in a certain period and switch if there is no improvement. If it were my dog I'd try the Thuja first but I also don't want the decision on my shoulders if something goes wrong. If both would work, that would be great. I am also going to see if I can locate a homeopathic clinic somewhere close to me for future. At my regular vet they ran blood, did a dozen x-rays, spinal tap, myo-something and probably anything else they could think of. Everything is normal. They have nothing to treat if there is nothing wrong. They are giving prednisone and antibiotics. He is eating and drinking.
Today I called Cass's Dr. Mark and he graciously snuck us in to see him between surgeries. I took all the paperwork, x-rays and info along. He went over everything again and Kody too and came to the same conclusion, there is nothing wrong. Kody will be staying over night and in the morning Dr. Mark will start him on Thuja and see what happens. Prednisone was stopped. He is going to treat for vaccine reaction. This guy is wonderful. He is soooo good with the dog. Kody's parents have a little more hope and went up to visit him tonight and take him a new blanket. They have not seen him since Friday. Hopefully by tomorrow at this time we will have very good news.
As of 5 PM tonight, Kody is semi-walking on his own. Dr. is taking him outside with a towel around his middle to help hold his back end up. He can work the front end real well, but the rear is still a bit tackie. He is trying to pee on his own so bladder control is coming back. His people will probably be able to pick him up tomorrow night and take him home and work with him there to get muscles back to functioning. Results of spinal tap came back showing inflamation something or other which means it was a vaccine reaction. These results are being sent in to Cornell who can pick out which vaccine it was, or if it was all of them. His owners can't wait for him to get home. I am relieved and overjoyed to have found Dr. Mark.
Just to bring you up to date on our Kody. I have to admit that up until today, this past week has been very hard. If his owners would have suggested putting him down I'm afraid I would have agreed with them. I go to his house every day at noon to let him out and clean him up so he doesn't have such a long day while his people are at work. I come into his room finding him with wet blankets as he has no bladder control and usually a poop accident because of no bowel control.. I help him up and put a towel under him to hold his back end up to walk him outside where he lays in the sun for a while as I clean up his room and put out new blankets for him. I cannot get him to eat no matter what I try. He is very thin. He is still drinking water. On Tuesday of this week we noticed a sore on the rear hip bone. I looked like a cut. By Wednesday, the cut was a hole big enough to put your thumb in to. It looked just like a bullet hole. It was gross, but clean and not infected. His people took him to see Dr. Mark that night to check on this. Dr. Mark was thrilled with Kody's walking progress and said the hole was a pressure sore from laying on his hip. Kind of like a bed sore. He said as long as its clean, leave it be, he may even get more. (We gave since added lots of egg shell foam under his bed for him to lay on) He said no more Thuja as there was still improvment and more might do more harm than good. Also sent home some canned dog food to try to make him eat. Dr. also stated he still felt the bladder and bowel control would come back. His people were happy with this. Kody did eat a can of food for supper that night and one again at breakfast. When I came on Thursday at noon, I find things the same, still wet blankets, even more of a poopy mess as he is now eating and I still have to help him outside and clean him up. I sat with him on the lawn in the sun for a while and cried. I look at his face and try to see him asking for it to be the end but I cannot see that. He still looks hopeful and happy to me, not complaining. I come home to my three healthy dogs and I thank the lord they are okay and I don't know what I would do without them. Today when I went to see Kody I came into his room to clean blankets. I pulled him up by his collar to go outside and before I could turn and grab the towel to put under him he was out of the room, out the door and down three steps to the yard. Kody, wait for me!! He walked in the yard, slow but never went down. I pushed on his bladder to get him started and he peed. I think he was able to hold on until I got to him. I also had him lay down for awhile and rest and when I got him up I noticed he had pooped. I think he hung on to that too! I never thought I would be so thrilled to see dog poop! I got him up again and around the yard he went. Not once did I have to help him, hold him up and anything. He got up the steps back into the house on his own and parked himself back in his bed. I also noticed a baby gate across the kitchen door so I assume he's been wandering around inside the house too!
There has been no improvement with bladder and bowel control for Kody. After speaking with Dr. Mark last night, he feels there is too much damage done to the nerves from the vaccine and it's as good as its going to get. His people do not feel this is the quality of life he should have. Kody does not understand why he is confined to one part of the house and why he is having accidents and is dirty. I agree with them. He has been way too good of a friend over the years to have to suffer this indignity. We said our good byes this morning and Kody will go to the rainbow bridge this afternoon with his people.
- Anne's story
I brought Riley home on a Saturday and took him to a vet that following Monday for his first check up. The breeder had given Riley a parvo shot a few days before he came home. That first exam on Monday, the vet wanted to give a parvo shot to Riley even though we told him that the breeders had already done it. He said Riley is "MY patient now" and told us that there had been a parvo outbreak at the local human soceity, so we agreed to let him give it to him. A few days later, Riley had his first ear infection, he started getting itchy all the time and would gnaw his tail and bite his back legs. His skin would flush bright red in the evenings. His ear infection was treated with Tresaderm and did not get better - in fact, his other ear became infected as well. All during his ear infection treatment, the vet continued Riley on the vaccination schedule. He was put on flea medication during this time as well. In the mean time, his ears did not improve. The vet in a subsequent visit told us that he couldn't scope his ears because he was "too fiesty" and suggested that we put him under so he could look in his ears at 11 weeks old! Everything else I had gone along with in my ignorance, but that was too much even for me. It really defied common sense. His ears were horrible at this time, not just red and with waxy discharge, but he had pimple like bumps in his ears and the poor puppy was pawing his face and shaking his head all the time. I took Riley to a different vet who was able to scope his ears, and he put panalog in his ears and told us that nothing was wrong with them and it would go away. I was really fed up at this point. I decided I had to try something else. Everything that was happenening just wasn't right.
I started researching and reading all I could. The first thing I started doing was improving Riley's diet. I changed from Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy to Innova. I stopped the Tresaderm just before I was supposed to as I didn't see it helping one bit. I started cleaning his ears with vinegar and water, and with tea tree oil, calendula, aloe vera and glycerine. His ears started getting better. A week or so later, he started having bad diarrhea. I had never once seen one good poop out of him, they were always soft, but this time he was crying in his crate to be let out (unusual since he started sleeping decently through most of the night by 9 weeks). This bout lasted a few hours, going in and out and in and out with lots of straining with nothing coming out. So I started him on a bland diet of chicken and rice. His poops were getting better, but they were green with lots of mucous and still very soft. We took him to the vet to have him wormed. Just for reference, he was about 12 weeks old at this time. He got a DHLP shot. The next day his right ear was getting waxy and I knew an ear infection was on its way. He was biting his tail and it was red and developed a small scab at the tip. His eyes were red around the rims, and he still had occasional loose stools. He had completely transitioned to Innova at this point. One week after that DHLP shot he had another ear infection. Another week after that he had his last distemper and parvo shots. He had diarrhea again and developed a bump at the site of the vaccine. His ears were bad again.
My appointment with a holistic vet hadn't come soon enough. She diagnosed vaccinosis, and gave him Thuja 200C. One week after that visit, I started supplementing his kibble following Pritcairn. The next few days he was very tired and lethargic and his ears got worse. His energy level came back in a couple of days but the ear scratching and itching in general continued. One month later, it only seemed slightly improved. His ears got really bad again after I gave him a brewer's yeast and garlic tablet. He got a hot spot on his leg. Then he started getting runny eyes. The holistic vet gave sulphur 30C. Approximately 1.5 months after his last vaccination (at about 5 months old), I went for it - he was off kibble 100%. The first thing I noticed was that the flushing at night started going away. Over the next month, he slowly started getting better. He was 6 months old at this time. I had delayed his rabies shot which was required at 4 months of age, by getting a note from my holistic vet. I took Riley to see her and though he was not completely healthy, she did determine that he was healthy enough to withstand a rabies shot, which I needed to have done for obedience class, etc. He got Lyssin after his rabies shot. The next day he had a ton of green mucous coming out of his right eye, and the day after that he woke up with his eye almost crusted shut. He continued to get beeter, but he was still shaking his head to the point of nicks appearing in his ears that would bleed. The redness of his skin hadn't appeared ever again, but he was still scratching. His ears would still get infected but each time they were infected, they started getting less and less severe, and they became less frequent. By 8 to 9 months of age, he was finally starting to get healthy. Since then, he has had only one ear infection, and it went away in a few days. He doesn't shake his head excessively anymore, and he hardly scratches. He is on a raw food diet with no grains plus a few supplements. I do not plan on giving him any more vaccinations, but rather do titer tests instead, unless I have to by law. I blame myself completely for not having researched the vaccination issue and trusting my vet without question. He got too many shots as a puppy, and he also got them when he was ill. It took a long time for his body to recover, and while his problems weren't life-threatening, it was sad to see a small puppy so uncomfortable all the time.
- Cass' story
Marge and Skyler are 100% natually reared, minimal vaccines to the point that the vet that gave them tried to get us kicked out of our obedience club! I paid $55 each shot per pup for single vaccines, I decided these dogs would be natural 100% after Bikku went DOWN after a rabies shot at age 12 mos.
I had ONE parvo shot at 6 weeks, ONE distemper shot at 8 weeks, and that was IT! NO MORE! At age 11 mos, we needed to go to wisconsin for a show, They have a mandatory rabies program there, so the vaccine's time had come.
Skyler, Marge and Bikku were taken in for vaccines. Due to Bik's reaction to Ft Dodge last time, he was given another vaccine with an "EASIER" adjuvanct. Half the vaccine was shot on the floor, and no one saw "anything". Bikku did fine, was given homeopathic sulphur 30C prior to vaccination, homeopathic Thuja 30 C after. As were Marge and Skyler. Both boys were fine, Marge developed a lump on her shoulders at the injection site. I dosed her again with thuja, no luck. Sit and wait.
In the mean time, Marge's personailty changed, from easy and outgoing to clinging , worrysome, and destructive. (kick some noise in there too) By age 14 mos, she could no longer be crated without a panic attack. Salivating, heart palapation, profuse sweating, nausea and vomiting, diarreah. I HAD to go back to work or we were all going to starve to death. What to do??? I put her on Lachesis 200C, nothing happened, then while reading some old books on homeopathy reached for a straw, (PLEASE NO ONE TRY THIS) I hit her with another dose of 200C a week later, then hit her with a daily dose of Lachesis 30 C for 3 days for a week, then 2, then one, then nothing. She showed improvement, quit the panic attacks, was less agressive with the others. About 6 weeks later, back to Marge from hell, (mind you, Im trying to show this flash point the whole time this is going on... ) hit her with another 200C dose. (as Emeril would say BAM!~) Shes on! Can pay attention, has picked up a BOB from match and finally her first point from Bred By class. She has also had a qualifying score in novice obedience.
Vaccinate again for anything other than Rabies??? NO! Vaccinate for rabies??? Only in a creative manor. I now know too that her mother also suffers from Rabies Maism, however, its been deep rooted for so long, I will consult with my homeopathic vet on her case.
- Karen's story
About 6-7 years ago I had a litter of puppies. When they were 4 weeks old, the mother jumped into the whelping box and landed on the leg of one of the puppies. It was obvious to me that the puppy's leg was broken. I took her immediately to my allopathic vet. He said he would need to put a pin in it, and I would have to leave her overnight. When I came back to pick her up the next day, the vet told me he had given her a 7-way vaccination because there had been some sick dogs in his care overnight. Not knowing any better at the time, I said "that's fine" and I took my puppy, cast and all, home with me.
About two weeks later, my puppy's front legs swelled up causing her great pain. Her temperature also spiked to 105. I ran her back to my vet who put her on antibiotics and calcium supplement. I had seen HOD on two Irish Setter puppies about 15 years ago, and asked him if my puppy had HOD. He told me "no, she is too young to have HOD". Again, I took her home, and on the antibiotics, her fever went down to normal and the pain subsided.
A couple of weeks later, the symptoms repeated themselves, and I went back to the vet and begged him to take x-rays and send them to Texas A&M for diagnosis. He did this, and we repeated the antibiotics. The results from Texas A&M came back - you guessed it - HOD.
At this point, the vet said to take her off of the calcium, and put her on steroids instead. To make a long story short, every time she was weaned from the steroids, the symptoms returned - always worse than before. At 5 months of age, she died.
The rest of the litter had their vaccinations the way I had always done them - they had DHL at 7 weeks, then two weeks later had MLV Parvo, then two more weeks another DHL, etc. up to 18 weeks. No other puppy in the litter had a problem (there were 8 in all). This bitch was bred a total of four times, and no other puppy had any adverse symptoms, and as far as I know, are all still living fine healthy lives. Coincidence? I think not.
- Vanesa's story
Romeo had his first annual shots when he was aprox 1 year old. I asked the vet that he separate them so that we could minimize the risks of vaccines. He gave the Parvo-Corona vaccine, and everything was normal. After 20 days I went again to give him the Distemper-Hepatitis-Kennel cough vaccine. After 10 hours of the vaccine, he started with a partial-seizure/chorea attack in the rear part of his body. This ataxia with tremors attack lasted aprox. 40 minutes, and when we arrived at the vet they had stopped, so the vet couldn't see what had happened. He couldn't find anything wrong on the exam and insisted that the vaccine was not the problem. Following the reccomendations of Dolores Sánchez-Peñalver, I started my reading on the subject and decided that we needed a homeopathic vet, because it was very probable that Romeo's problem was vaccinosis. I found another vet, one that was listed as a homeopath, and I told him all the story. I told him that the rabies shot was not already given, and he vaccinated Romeo against rabies. This was aprox. 20 days after the Distemper vaccine. After 10-11 hours of the vaccine, Romeo started having the same type of attack again, so I called the vet, who told me to give Thuja every 15 minutes. Romeo's attack continued for aprox. 2 hours and half, but the symproms were descreasing in intensity. 4 hours after the attack had started the vet told me he wanted to see him so we went to the vet's office, and he gave him a steroid, which made no sense since the attack was over. After this experience, I decided to change vets again, and look for a true homeopath. I discussed the whole issue with my new homeopathic vet, and she agreed with the reccomendations of Dolores, so I have decided that Romeo will not be vaccinated again. Also, she prescribed his constitutional remedy, which includes the vaccinosis problem, so luckily he is on the mend.
- Robin's story
I had a puppy that got the high fever swollen joints and painful neck but because it was not HOD, the vet diagnosed it as not having anything to do with the immune problem seen with the vaccine but as meningitis . We spent two futile days argueing with this quack at the emergency vet (he was so sick I was afraid to transport him the 100 miles to a vet that knew what it was in hind sight I should have checked him out and ran for it). It was just a very severe form of the vaccine reaction, but now talking to Dr. Angles is not uncommon in severely affected males. Unfortunely the puppy who developed this did not make it since he never received proper treatment. By the time I got him to a specialist 3 days of 106 fever did him in. This was my first and last litter that received conventional vaccine protocols.
- Greg's story
Jake was whelped on 3/26/01. He was giving his first vaccination (DA2PPC) by his breeders vet on 5/12/01 along with Nemex dewormer. From what we know there wasn't any reaction. We became Jake' guardians on 6/15/01. On 7/2/01 he received his second round of vaccinations (DA2PPC) this time by his breeder and again there was no reaction. On 7/31/00, our vet at the time gave Jake a physical exam and a fecal floatation exam. The fecal exam showed Jake had roundworm so he was given a dosage of Strongid to remove the worms. At the same appointment he was given his third round of vaccinations (DHLPP-C). Round three caused problems. Two days later he was not the same outgoing Weim. He refused food, playing with his toys etc. He had no energy and felt like he was running a fever. We took him to the vet where he was given an injection of a fever reducer. A CBC was done and the results were normal, so we were sent home. The next day he was getting worse in our opinion, fever was higher and he had less energy the day before. The vet said bring him in. This time a blood mini panel was done without CBC and again nothing was abnormal. He was given an antibiotic injection and we were sent home with 7 days worth of Clavamox 250mg. From e-mail discussions we learned about vaccinosis and that an ill animal shouldn't be vaccinated. We also assumed it must have been the lepto component of the last vaccination.