Why is it ok to admit that animal vaccines may cause issues? - Page 3

[an_domhan]

Originally Posted by mrsfru

as is now being proven--just look up Dr. Jean Dodds and her research).

ITA. She has been instrumental in allowing for the practical application of animal vaccines.

More than 30,000 animals are killed every year by adverse reactions to being over-vaccinated, and this is not in dispute as far as I know. Rabies vaccine challenges (we're talking 7 and 15 year challenges....crazy) have occurred nationwide, and I know of one vet in Texas who has caused quite a stir - including helping to initiate a class action lawsuit.

[LindsayK]

After the latest go-round with our pedi on vaccinations, it occurred to me that I might bring up the topic when taking our dog for his yearly physical. I asked the vet how common vaccine reactions were. She said that in their (medium sized) practice it "wasn't too common" - as in only 1 every month or two. (I thought that was high!)

She followed up by saying that they ARE concerned about vaccine reactions, and that is why they ask dog owners to bring in their puppies multiple times for vaccinations, because they want to spread them out, to lessen the likelihood of a vaccine reaction. So that makes me wonder about practices where they do several vaccines at once, how much higher their adverse reaction rate is.

I found that amazing to hear from a vet when so many pedis would never admit to being concerned about reactions and roll their eyes at spreading vaccines out!

[mrsfru]

Originally Posted by LindsayK

it occurred to me that I might bring up the topic when taking our dog for his yearly physical. I asked the vet how common vaccine reactions were. She said that in their (medium sized) practice it "wasn't too common" - as in only 1 every month or two. (I thought that was high!)

Obviously, it hasn't yet occurred to your vet that the high rate of cancer and autoimmune diseases (and epilepsy, which BTW, is also known as "idiopathic epilepsy", b/c epilepsy actually means "seizures of unknown origin") can be attributed to the high rate of vaccination in animals--most notably the rise in popularity of "annual" vaccinations in the last 20-30 yrs. Vets have trouble getting owners to bring their animals in for yearly well-visits and bloodwork, so they invented "yearly" vax as a means of coercing pet owners to bring their animals in. Two of the vets we've used through the years no longer agree with or recommend yearly vaccinations...and may not actually "recommend" many at all if pushed to give a set answer!

mrsfru

[cadydid]

I don't recommend annual vaccination either, but vets did not "invent" yearly vaccinations. The vaccines are labeled as such.

[***edgar]

Originally Posted by KLM99

This is what I'm wondering. I think I'll ask my pediatrician next time we go.

All animal vax (and drugs) go through very little testing. it is very easy to get them approved.

[cadydid]

Originally Posted by ***edgar

All animal vax (and drugs) go through very little testing. it is very easy to get them approved.

Can I ask on what you're basing this statement? I have a colleague trying to take something through approval and this really isn't her experience. The approval process looks a whole lot like the approval for human drugs, minus testing on humans. And she's just looking at approval for dogs. If she was attempting approval for a food animal, that's entirely different can of worms.

[cablevi]

Does anyone know anything about the flea medication Confortis? It's taken orally on a monthly basis. We stopped using Advanatage and Frontline b/c our dog was throwing up after we put it on his skin. He seems to do a lot better with Confortis and there's no chemical on his fur (which is great since we have two small children). I still worry about putting chemicals in his body but we tried holostic ways to avoid fleas and none of them worked.

[Fyrestorm]

Originally Posted by cablevi

Does anyone know anything about the flea medication Confortis? It's taken orally on a monthly basis. We stopped using Advanatage and Frontline b/c our dog was throwing up after we put it on his skin. He seems to do a lot better with Confortis and there's no chemical on his fur (which is great since we have two small children). I still worry about putting chemicals in his body but we tried holostic ways to avoid fleas and none of them worked.

You might want to post this in the pets forum...The mama's there would most likely have much more info on that topic.

[mrsfru]

I don't recommend annual vaccination either, but vets did not "invent" yearly vaccinations. The vaccines are labeled as such.

They might be, but many vax were available before vets started *pushing* a yearly visit for vax....and before that happened, folks didn't give their animals yearly vaccines b/c the vet pushed them to. So, vaccine manufacturers have encouraged this...and many vets (not all) have followed suit.

Sorry but it is my opinion that it is an invented reason to bring your animal to the vet--it's just another form of trying to push us...and it's not necessarily backed up by veterinary medical science.

mrsfru

[krisnic]

This is interesting. Our dogs both got shots at the beginning of their lives (one from a shelter that came with them already done). However, Duncan was abused in his previous home, before the shelter, and didn't do well with vaccinations - hiding from us for several days afterwards like we had hurt him, so he has never gotten another one after we took him to the vet the first time and discovered this. That isn't to say that we weren't/aren't pressured. I sent my husband with the dog once for a check-up on his dry skin issue and they pressured him to do a vax. My husband said no, that he reacts badly and we didn't want to jeopardize our trusting relationship with him. They said that they would take him in the other room and try it. My husband agreed (why - I don't know, I was beyond angry at him!). When I found this out, I called there and reamed them out. They were not apologetic. We still go to that practice, and have only gotten rabies for our dogs, and that was only so that we could take them to the groomers! Every time they bring up the vaccines that need to be done, and we blow them off. We only go when there is something wrong with the dogs however, and that's maybe once a year, if that. We really do need to switch, but I don't want to have another fight with another vet about the issue.

We are anti-vaccination even though we don't have children. However, we only recently realized that we should also be anti-vax for our dogs as well. This was after the realization that we had never really vaccinated them anyway. We just didn't correlate that since we felt it was bad for humans that we should also feel that it should be bad for animals.

[LeslieB]

One of my dogs has had 2 vaccine reactions. I absolutely hate getting them vaxed. I do the 3 year Rabies because I don't want to take a chance at having to put them down in the unlikely event of them biting someone. That's usually all I do, but we just had to do the full vax in order to get into military housing. I was so bummed, and sure enough, one of my dogs ended up with an infection at the injection site, and she couldn't even walk on her back leg. The vet ruled it out upon the initial evaluation, but when I went to pick my dog up a few hours later, she said she could no longer rule out the vaccination. Within 2 hours of taking her first antibiotic, my dog could walk again.
I didn't do the bordetella vaccine, but then 2 weeks ago, we had to leave town via plane for an emergency, and I had to board them last minute, so I had to get them that vax, too. UGH. I hate giving them vaccines SO much. Fortunately, it had been 2 years since their previous vaccinations so I don't follow the schedule. And if I can get away with not giving them more vaccines in a year without housing finding out, I will. I feel like such a hypocrite because I'm a non-vaxer for my son, and yet, my dogs are fully vaxed, and I hate it that I've done this to them.