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_at_vaccines.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/health/vaccination-concerns-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/health/vaccination-concerns-uk.htm
http://www.austinholistic.com/articles/WFalconer001.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%20look%20vaccines/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/WFalconer001.html
Will Falconer, DVM
http://www.austinholistic.com/articles/WFalconer002.html
Will Falconer, DVM
http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/health/common/vaccinations.html
Your Purebred Puppy
http://www.critterfixer.com/pages/v1_new_vacc_protocols.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/Articles/Animals/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/past_scandals.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/GuestAuthors/RABIESSCAM.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:diodati@mnsi.net
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