What About Vaccines? Vaccinosis
by Betty Lewis, RVT, Dr. A.N.
When I started to write this article, I decided to see if there were
any trends I could discover by looking back in my own history as a
Registered Veterinary Technician. I quickly found that I could
characterize the various veterinary hospitals where I worked by half
decade, as well as by the reasons that it seemed to me most people
took their animals to the veterinarian. These are my recollections:
nothing "scientific" or etched in stone, but I found the trends to be
interesting.
I first started working in the veterinary profession in 1973. The
word "trauma" sums up my memory of those early years. Outside of
routine spays and neuters, the main reason that animals showed up at
this vet's included what we called "HBCs" or "hit by cars", also,
cats who got caught in car fan belts, dog fights, cuts and scratches
and broken limbs. In other words, there were a lot of otherwise
healthy animals who ended up needing veterinary attention because of
accidents. We did not see an overwhelming amount of chronically ill
animals.
I left that practice in 1976, so my memory of the next veterinary
hospital pertains to the late 1970s. In that hospital, the character
had changed a little and now we saw more allergies, bloats and growth
issues, like panosteitis.
The next hospital was in the early 1980s and by that time we were
seeing parvovirus cases, and more metabolic diseases like diabetes in
dogs, cancer and heart failure.
By the late 1980s, animals were showing severe signs of illnesses.
Even more diseases began to be commonplace such as dental diseases,
kidney failure, hypothyroid (dogs), hyperthyroid (cats), diabetes
continued in dogs, but now emerged in cats as well, cardiomyopathy,
cancers, and serious autoimmunities such as lupus, myasthenia gravis
and others.
From the late 1990s to the present, all of the above diseases
continue across breed lines, sometimes across species lines and there
are new problems being added all the time. IBD/IBS (inflammatory
bowel disease/syndrome) was unheard of when I left veterinary
practice in 1987 to open my holistic consulting business, but is now
nearly at epidemic proportions. Seizures and temperament problems are
common now and there are more cancers and autoimmune diseases.
I find this trend to be incredibly alarming. When charted in this cut
and dried fashion, it is obvious to me that animals are *much* sicker
now than they were a mere 30 years ago and the diseases are very
serious.
I have mulled this situation over, trying to decide why animals (and
probably humans) appear to be sicker than they used to be, and have
come to the conclusion that I can sum up the fundamental reason for
this trend in two words: "toxic exposure". Our focus has changed from
acute disease, leading to quick death, to chronic disease and long,
drawn-out, painful death. We really have gone from having animals who
weren't really sick much at all to animals who are always sick.
Toxic exposure takes many forms, from industrial waste in our water,
such as chlorine and fluoride, to toxic cleaning supplies, to so-
called preventive products for parasites such as the topical "spot-
on" products or heartworm "prevention" products. There are many other
environmental toxins that our animals are exposed to, but, in my
opinion, the two biggest husbandry or management mistakes that we
make in caretaking our animals represent two sides of the same coin.
One is species inappropriate diet and the other is the use of
vaccines.
The diet issue is a huge one, but not the focus of this article. For
more information on this topic, please read my "Nutrition" article at
http://home.earthlink.net/~pawsreflect/nutrition.html
The rest of this article will focus on vaccines and vaccinosis.
In the 1800's, a homeopathic physician named F. Compton Burnett,
coined the word to mean chronic disease induced by vaccination.
In 1993, a well-known American homeopathic veterinarian and
immunologist, Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, presented a paper to a
veterinary conference. The paper can be found by going to the link
below.
http://www.drpitcairn.com/talks/looking ... cines.html
In the paper, he showed the correlation between acute diseases, such
as canine and feline distemper, rabies and feline panleukopenia and
chronic symptoms we are commonly seeing in dogs and cats today. The
chart below is re-printed from his paper. You can see the frightening
implications when reading the chart and you can understand his
premise that it's very likely that the vaccinations we've been giving
our animals for several generations to combat acute infections from
the diseases, are now conferring lifelong chronic afflictions on
those same animals.
On the left side of the chart, you see the acute symptoms of canine
distemper and on the right side are the common chronic symptoms. To
see charts for the other diseases Pitcairn studied, please go to his
website and read the whole article.
Now, let's examine some myths concerning vaccines which have somehow
been elevated to the level of gospel truths in conventional medical
circles.
Myth #1: that the administration of vaccines is safe.
A British group, called Canine Health Concern (CHC) analyzed the post
vaccinal histories of 3800 dogs. The whole report can be viewed at
http://www.bogartsdaddy.com/bouvier/hea ... rns-uk.htm
The quotes below point out some of the pertinent points which I would
like to emphasize, however.
"We have been able to show a definite statistical correlation between
a vaccine event and the onset of a number of specific illnesses. Our
published conclusions have satisfied mathematical or inferential
statistical tests at a level of confidence of 99% or better.
"Overall, we found that 66% per cent of all sick dogs start being
sick within three months of vaccination, which is considerably more
than double the expected rate of illness. Worse, 49% of all illnesses
reported in the survey occurred within 30 days of vaccination. This
is over five times the expected percentage if vaccination had no
bearing on subsequent illness. More damning still, 29% of sick dogs
first became sick within seven days of their vaccine jab. This means
that a dog is 13 times more likely to become ill within seven days of
vaccination than at any other time.
In the study, 69.2% of allergic dogs first became allergic within
three months of being vaccinated - more than double the expected
number. 55.8% of dogs with autoimmune disease developed the condition
within three months of being vaccinated - again, more than twice the
expected figure. Of dogs with colitis, 65.9% developed the complaint
within three months of being vaccinated and, of dogs with dry
eye/conjunctivitis, 70.2% developed their conditions within three
months - both nearly three times higher than expected. 73.1% of dogs
with epilepsy first became epileptic within three months of
vaccination. As 2% of all dogs in the UK are epileptic, vaccines are
clearly causing horrendous damage. For statisticians, our Chi score
for epilepsy is 96: any Chi test statistic higher than twelve gives a
95% confidence about the conclusions. Without doubt, then, the
majority of epileptic dogs in our survey are vaccine damaged.
"But perhaps most astonishing is the fact that a majority of dogs
(64.9%) with behavioral problems appear to have developed their
difficulties within three months of vaccination. Similarly, 72.5% per
cent of dogs with nervous or worrying dispositions became nervous
within three months of their jabs (with a Chi score of 112), and
73.1% per cent of dogs with short attention spans lost their
attentiveness within three months of vaccination.
"Other diseases that were highly represented within three months post
vaccination included cancer (35.1%), chorea (81%), encephalitis
(78.6%), heart conditions (39.2%), kidney damage (53.7%), liver
damage/failure (61.5%), paralysis of the rear end (69.2%), and
pancreas problems (54.2%)."
Research conducted at Purdue University shows routinely vaccinated
dogs developing auto antibodies to a vast range of normal canine
biochemicals - which corroborates our findings. "
Myth #2: that dogs, once vaccinated, need to be "boosted"
This myth has been perpetuated by veterinarians for at least 50
years, but I am astonished when I think about this fact, because it
doesn't even make logical sense to me. I am extremely annoyed at
myself for ever allowing myself to have believed something so absurd.
Now, from two top immunologists, Ron Schultz, DVM and Tom Phillips,
DVM, here is a quote confirming that it just isn't so. The quote is
from Kirk' Current Veterinary Therapy 1992:
"A practice that was started many years ago and that lacks scientific
validity or verification is annual revaccination. Almost without
exception there is no immunologic requirement for annual
revaccination. Immunity to viruses persists for years or for the
life of the animal...... Furthermore, revaccination with most viral
vaccines fails to stimulate an anamnestic (secondary) response....
The practice of annual vaccination in our opinion should be
considered of questionable efficacy..."
Myth #3: that vaccines protect against the diseases as advertised
First, of all, the insert that accompanies all vaccines says that
only healthy animals should be vaccinated. Next, vaccines do not
confer immunity on individuals; instead, they sensitize the body to
produce antibodies. During the period after vaccination, the body is
particularly susceptible to adverse reactions. Again, quoting from
the CHC survey, they discovered the following information.
"Many contend that vaccines are a necessary evil; that we need them
to protect our dogs against certain deadly canine diseases. However,
our survey found that high percentages of dogs are developing the
diseases we vaccinate against, soon after vaccination.
"Of dogs with hepatitis, 64% contracted it within three months of
being vaccinated and, of those with parainfluenza, 50% developed it
within three months of their shots. Also, 69% of dogs with
parvovirus, 56% of dogs with distemper, and every single dog with
leptospirosis in the survey contracted the diseases within three
months of vaccination.
"Our figures support the view that vaccines don't confer guaranteed
immunity and may actually cause the diseases they're designed to
prevent. Our figures appear to demonstrate that vaccines cause
illness in one in every hundred dogs - and this is a conservative
estimate. "
There is so much information on this topic both on the Internet and
in books, that I have compiled a list of sources below for you to
investigate. You will find it at the end of this article.
In conclusion, then, I want to make some suggestions. Also, be aware,
that in the USA, almost every state requires the rabies vaccine.
Therefore, my recommendations cannot include that vaccination.
However, there are some pertinent articles about rabies vaccines in
the resources below.
Ronald Schultz, DVM, is a vaccine researcher and he does believe in
giving "core" vaccinations. I attended a day long seminar he gave on
this topic and he made this important point. He says that you must
vaccinate within the "window of opportunity." He calls
this "immunologic imprinting." If you vaccinate an immature immune
system, or one not capable of responding fully, he says you get only
a partial response and will never again have the opportunity to get a
complete response. That window, he points out, occurs after 12 weeks
of age in the dog. Therefore, it is his opinion, that routine
vaccinations given before 12 weeks are not indicated except under
very special circumstances.
One of the tremendous advantages of the Internet, is the ability
for "regular" people to communicate and for thousands of people to
compare notes. Through this route, I have discovered that when
unvaccinated puppies are exposed to recently vaccinated dogs (who
are therefore shedding the viral particles), the unvaccinated puppies
demonstrate a titer to the diseases. (A titer is a measure of
circulating antibodies.) In fact, I had a conversation with Harm
Hogenesch, another veterinary vaccine researcher on the Purdue Study.
He said, "The very best way to protect your dog is to make sure your
neighbor vaccinates *her* dog!"
So, if the veterinarians who are experts in vaccines say we should
wait until after 12 weeks to vaccinate, and the best way to
accomplish that is by allowing our puppies exposure to dogs shedding
vaccine particles into the environment, then it makes sense to me to
forgo the actual injection and simply take the puppy to puppy
kindergarten or the park. Is there a risk that our puppies could get
sick following this approach? Of course! Life isn't safe, but there
is also a risk that the puppies could get the diseases after being
vaccinated. It also appears to be true, from reading many case
histories on the Internet, that dogs who get parvovirus after being
vaccinated, are sicker and more likely to die than their unvaccinated
counterparts who also contract the disease.
Most of us, who are led to a study of vaccinosis, do so because one
or more of our dogs (or children) have been irreversibly damaged or
compromised by vaccines. With permission of Mimi Morrell, a Bernese
Mountain Dog owner, I would like to close this article with her words
regarding her dog, Izzy. In the quote, Mimi is answering a person on
an email mail list. She says;
"This may seem unthinkable, but there are some dogs for whom no
amount of medicine - holistic or otherwise - will help. They are in
extreme agony and can chew or scratch themselves to the point where
euthanasia seems to be a much kinder thing compared to the hell they
live in.
"Today I'm far from making this decision [euthanasia] with my rabies
vaccinosis girl but I often wonder how many more years I'll "put her
through" the suffering of her chronic bloody ear infections. As I
witness each day of her pain - steady again since last September -- I
find myself being able to conceive some day of
what may seem like an absolutely horrible thought. It's not - when
you consider the degree of pain some allergy dogs live with.
"Imagine you are a dog. Imagine your ears constantly bleeding from
open sores and always feeling like there's liquid in your ear canal.
Imagine scratching your chin so much it drips with blood. Imagine not
being able to walk because your paws are so raw from licking them.
Imagine not being able to go 10 minutes without contorting your body
to chew your anus because it itches that much. Imagine not getting
any sleep because you are so uncomfortable. This is what some of our
dogs live with at any given time.
"I'm really sorry for the graphic descriptions. Anyone considering
vaccinating needs to know that these are some of the living
consequences of any given vaccine. Is it worth the risk?
"Mimi"
Sources:
http://k9joy.com/dogarticles/doghealth01vaccine.pdf
http://www.bogartsdaddy.com/bouvier/hea ... rns-uk.htm
http://www.austinholistic.com/articles/ ... er001.html
http://www.drpitcairn.com/Talks/TalksSet.html
http://home.revealed.net/rohlfsen/Bubble.html What's in a vaccine?
http://www.caberfeidh.com/Revax.htm Christie Keith
http://www.caberfeidh.com/Titers.htm Christie Keith
http://www.caberfeidh.com/PuppyVax.htm Christie Keith
http://www.caberfeidh.com/Nosodes.htm Christie Keith
http://www.caberfeidh.com/VaxNone.htm Christie Keith
http://cyberpet.com/cyberdog/articles/health/vaccin.htm Richard
Pitcairn,DVM, PhD
http://www.drpitcairn.com/Talks/New%20l ... New%20Look%
20Vaccines.html- Richard Pitcairn,DVM, PhD A New Look at the Vaccine
Question
http://www.vth.colostate.edu/vth/savp2.html Colorado State protocol
http://www.thinktwice.com/ Think Twice
http://www.blakkatz.com/vaccination.html Blakkatz
http://members.aol.com/abywood/www/dbmay.htm Catherine O'Driscoll
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/animals.htm Shirley's Wellness
Cafe
http://vaccineinfo.net/ Vaccine Info (PROVE)
http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/article.asp?
PageType=Article&ID=485 Health World
http://www.naturalholistic.com/handouts/hpmaster.htm Larry Bernstein,
DVM
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc.htm Ron Schultz, DVM
quote at Shirley's Wellness
http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html Whale vaccine site
http://www.whale.to/vaccines/antibody.html Antibodies
http://www.austinholistic.com/articles/ ... er001.html Will
Falconer, DVM
http://www.austinholistic.com/articles/ ... er002.html Will
Falconer, DVM
http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/health ... tions.html Your
Purebred Puppy
http://www.critterfixer.com/pages/v1_ne ... tocols.asp Bob
Rogers, DVM
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/VACCINE1.HTM It's For the Animals
http://members.aol.com/abywood/www/vac_myth.htm Catherine O'Driscoll-
myths
http://www.adoredbeast.com/vaccines.shtml Adored Beast
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Ar ... horses.htm They
Shoot Horses...
http://www.vaccines.net/newpage114.htm Vaccine Safety
http://mercola.com/2002/apr/27/sv40.htm Joseph Mercola, MD
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals ... andals.htm Sandy Mintz
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm Making an informed choice,
tons of links
http://www.909shot.com/ National Vaccine Information Center
http://home.san.rr.com/via/ Pro & Con- Freedom to Choose
http://www.vaccine-info.com/ Childhood vaccination center
http://www.jabs.org.uk/ Vaccine damaged children support group
http://www.geocities.com/~kremersark/newhope.html Education before
vaccination
http://www.doglogic.com/vaccineinfo.htm Doglogic
http://www.labbies.com/immun.htm Vaccines, Infectious Diseases and
the Canine Immune System
http://www.listservice.net/wellpet/vaccines/rabies.htm Susan Beal,
DVM on rabies
http://www.naturalrearing.com/ARTICLES/ ... SSCAM.html
John Fudens, DVM
Books
O'DRISCOLL, Catherine, What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines,
Longor, Derbyshire, England : Abbeywood Publishing (Vaccines) Ltd,
1998, ISBN 0-9523048-3-X
DIODATI., Catherine J. M. "Vaccine Guide for Dogs and Cats, What
Every Pet Lover Should Know" ISBN: 1-881217-34-5
It is an excellent resource with loads of references at the back of
the book.. Catherine takes each canine and feline vaccine and the
conditions it can cause and what it does not do.
Canadian Cover price: $20.00 Postage: $2.10 GST: $1.55 Total $23.65
Email Catherine for the book in Canada: mailto:[email protected]
US or rest of the earth: http://www.thinktwice.com/ani.htm US price
$13.95
MCKAY, Pat, Natural Immunity Why You Should NOT Vaccinate,
Pasadena, California : Oscar Publications, 1997, ISBN 0-9632394-2-2
MILLER, Neil Z., Vaccines : are they really safe and effective?,
Santa Fe, New Mexico : New Atlantean Press, 2002, ISBN 1-881217-30-2,
http://www.thinktwice.com
COULTER, Harris, A Shot in the Dark : why the P in the DPT
vaccination may be hazardous to your child's health, New York, New
York : Penguin Putman Inc, 1991, ISBN 0-89529-463-X
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