Vital Animal News: August 11, 2024
Hiding the truth on titers, Vacc under anesthesia, Guns on animal control, Antibiotics far reaching effects, Food no-no's and More
Titers Untrustworthy?
Vaccination Convenience? For who?
Rabid vet + Jackboots on the ground
Rabies Flash Sale
Antibiotics: New Revelations
Tasty Tips: Guard the Fire!
Along the Natural Path
Blowing Smoke on Titers
I am wanting to get my 3 year old rescue fixed, using an ovariansparing hysterectomy. The vet that rare surgery [sic] is wanting Patches to get another Rabies shot or a titer. Getting a titer is expensive and not sure how accurate it is. — recent email
Titers need not be costly, as we point out in this episode of Vital Animal Podcast.
The trick is getting your vet on board to open a free account with Kansas State Vet Diagnostic Lab.
And who says they’re not accurate?
I hear this from conventional veterinarians now and again, though usually second hand.
This view is either due to ignorance, greed, or both.
Titers are a very standardized test, well accepted by authorities to allow or deny access to a pet traveling internationally or to Hawaii, our only rabies free state.
But, I could understand why conventional vets might spin it as unreliable.
Reason with me for a moment.
Step into Dr. WhiteCoat’s Shoes…
What’s the easiest veterinary procedure with the highest markup in clinical practice?
Why, it’s vaccination, beyond the shadow of a doubt!
Cost of vaccine: a couple bucks.
Time involved to draw up the dose into a syringe, lift the skin, and send the contents in: about two minutes.
Mark up: you’ll know this better than I, so just take a gander at your past bills or call up your vet and inquire.
Often, the “combo wombo” shots with multiple viruses in one syringe are billed out separately, though the cost to the vet is still a tiny fraction of what you’ll see on your bill when you pull out your credit card.
Now, imagine you’re Dr. WhiteCoat and haven’t really bothered to learn about how to interpret titers.
Won’t that awkwardness be pretty uncomfortable when your client asks what those funny numbers (like ≤ 1:240) mean?
Way easier to just price yourself out of that discomfort and make a vaccination look like the best deal in the house.
“My vet says it’s better if we just vaccinate.”
Yeah. But better for who?
Easier, more convenient, and more profitable compared to a titer test.
For the vet…
Factor in Potential for Harm
A blood draw for a titer test doesn’t hurt your animal.
Maybe a bit of an ouch as the needle breaks the skin to slide into the vein.
But compared to a vaccine?
We’ve seen long term suffering from vaccines in all species for decades now.
Really, it goes way back to smallpox first appearing on the scene.
If you want to view the human suffering that vaccine engendered, look for a small, very affordable book written by English physician J. Compton Burnett titled “Vaccinosis and Its Cure by Thuja.”
And in dogs, we’ve got insurance data showing that The Itch (allergic skin disease and/or ear inflammation) has been the #1 reason dogs have seen vets for the past 20-30 years.
Ever live with that suffering in a dog?
Everyone involved suffers, and harmful drugs (like Apoquel) follow, at great expense and with side effects (often cancer!) that make The Itch look like a picnic.
And worse, autoimmune after effects could easily be life threatening.
So, get smart about titers and demand what you want: affordable ones.
Not more vaccines.
You don’t want this final score: Vet 1, Pet 0
p.s. If you just joined us in the Rabies: Knowledge is Power course, you’ll soon be getting a bonus course called Nosodes, Tautodes & Titers.
That’s going to give you info on all three that likely eclipses what your vet knows about any of these tools to minimize vaccine injury.
Vaccination “convenience?”
There’s a common practice in many conventional veterinary practices that’s probably age old.
It’s one you should be proactive to prevent, as it sets your pet up for vaccine injury.
It’s this: Vaccination while under anesthesia.
Pure convenience for vets, no way you’ll get bitten by even the baddest actor in the practice, right?
Anesthesia is perfect. They won’t feel the needle, you can give as many shots as you want, and Sadie just snoozes on.
The Risk of Convenience
I’ve spoken elsewhere (my Smart Vaccine Alternatives course for example) about how vaccination completely bypasses Nature’s defenses.
No chance for local tissues to fight with IgA antibodies.
No filtering through lymph nodes or tonsils that could alert the rest of the immune system to rush in and neutralize the threat.
Multiple viruses (in one syringe - never seen together in Nature)
Given basically right in the blood (if subcutaneous or in the muscle, the blood is right there to pick it up and circulate it everywhere in seconds).
Add to that now, depressed responsiveness from the drugs that induced that state of anesthesia and it’s the perfect storm for your pet to react badly to the foreigners that just reached the deepest level.
I am convinced also that it was a rabies vaccine given to our rescue dog while under anesthesia for his dental cleaning that led to him getting Thrombocytopenia [autoimmune attack on his own platelets - ed.] and we had to put him down. …noticed him laying out in the yard I late July, early August. Then he had black stools. We took him to the vet and he had very little platelets. We tried for 3 weeks to save him but we couldn't. Broke my heart. —Jana, dedicated pet store owner who’s been spreading the word for years.
So, forewarned is forearmed.
Don’t allow this “convenience” to take place on your pet, under any circumstances.
Insanity in Cali
I live in Orange County, California, and have been battling against the county vet for years, and they basically told me they don’t care if your dog is dying of cancer. It needs its rabies vaccine. I had animal control come to my door with guns on their hips, and told me that they could come take my dogs from me.
I am not sure any amount of knowledge would sway this vets reasoning for Rabies vaccine.
I was sent their notice that they are due in two weeks. I have a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old American Eskimo. They received no other vaccines and they are fed a raw and whole food diet.
My 19 year old was adopted 10 years ago having grandmal seizures, three years ago. I worked with a homeopathic vet to clear the vaccines and she has not had a seizure since. She is also a DCM dog.” — Chris S.
If you haven’t faced insanity like this, you probably don’t live in California.
You know that vaccines, every single one, rabies included, are all labeled “Only for Use in Healthy Dogs, Cats, Ferrets [species may vary, but Healthy does not].
So, vaccinating a dog (a senior at that) with a history of seizures?
And DCM (heart disease)?
Pure malpractice. Zero justification. Based entirely on greed and power play.
And you should have an automatic waiver from vaccines!
My response to Chris?
No way in hell should these two seniors be vac'd again. Your vet should be summarily FIRED for such an egregious stance.
There are people who are far more versed in denying entry w/o a warrant than I, but that’s a thing, too. I’ll let you research them if you feel the need.
I referred Chris to my sorting method for finding a qualified homeopathic vet, who’ll be able to address health challenges more effectively than any allopathic vet, even from a distance.
You can obviously do the same search if you’ve got bad actors in the vet field threatening your animals like this. (Or, if you just want better health outcomes…)
And remember: Vote With Your Wallet.
Thugs like these should be starved out of practice.
Last Chance: Open till midnight
We had some tech challenges with our deep dive rabies course enrollment last week, so we opened for a flash sale this weekend.
In case you missed the announcement email, this is your last chance to join the students already busily engaged in this world changing material and starting to engage their fellow students in our private discussion group.
I am loving this deeper dive into all rabies is…” —Jan E
Others are, at my urging, reporting how current their state/province rabies data is, since it seems the CDC has hidden their data to a great extent. Not helpful, CDC!
Rabies is one disease to be wise about:
Its lame “laws” that seem to compel over vaccination
The natural disease vs the disease of rabies vaccine injury (whose symptoms often mimic the disease itself in your vaccinated animal)
Strategies that have worked to avoid vaccines when warranted
If you missed joining us last week, please get further details before midnight tonight: Rabies: Knowledge is Power!
Antibiotics & Performance
Maybe you’ve heard this idea bandied about on social media:
Antibiotics are no biggie. Just give probiotics and you can fix any damage they might have done.
Here’s a way interesting research study showing the opposite, which I’ve long held to be reality. But this paper reveals antibiotics causing microbiome disruption in measurable ways I’d never have guessed.
Of course, in vet school, antibiotics, like vaccines, seemed like gold. No mention of downsides, but that was over 40 years ago. (We can only hope studies like this one on foals will be widely cited to impressionable students…)
This study looked at Thoroughbred foals over a three year period.
These foals were bred to race. Race outcomes are a measurable data point.
Two things were looked at through the lens of science:
How did the microbiome diversity at one month old correlate with race performance as adults?
What effects did antibiotics in the first month of life have on adult performance?
Our data show that gut bacterial community structure in the first months of life predicts the risk of specific diseases and athletic performance up to three years old. Foals with lower faecal bacterial diversity at one month old had a significantly increased risk of respiratory disease in later life…
Surprisingly, athletic performance up to three years old, measured by three different metrics, was positively associated with higher faecal bacterial diversity at one month old and with the relative abundance of specific bacterial families.”
More gut bug diversity = better health, for years into the future!
We also present data on the impact of antibiotic exposure of foals during the first month of life. This resulted in significantly lower faecal bacterial diversity at 28 days old, a significantly increased risk of respiratory disease in later life and a significant reduction in average prize money earnings, a proxy for athletic performance.
Wow.
You likely know antibiotics are the most over-prescribed drug class on the planet, regardless of species.
Whether used in cats with bladder inflammation (most cases, when cultured, have zero bacteria in their urine), dogs with ADR Syndrome (Ain’t Doin’ Right), or kids with ear aches, they are handed out like candy.
And commonly used in CAFOs of all kinds, which is probably a large reason so many bacteria are antibiotic resistant now.
Jam a whole bunch of chickens into tight quarters (or beef cattle or pigs) and the constant feeding of low level antibiotics keeps those animals alive amid the filth and stress.
Your Take Away
Ask questions and start your inner logic engine going if you see the wheels turning to get antibiotics into your animal.
Is this a serious infection?
Can we boost immunity instead of carpet bombing my animal’s gut? (my go-to for this is called Motherboard)
My animal’s titer is high (for ex: against Lyme), but he’s not acting sick. At all. I’m going to interpret that as a healthy response, and say No to antibiotics (often given for a month in such cases!)
Just because pus is present doesn’t mean there’s a runaway infection… [Oooo, this will get its own post, as it’s such a common mistake!]
You could even share this research with your vet, if you think he or she would be interested.
You’ve got this. Carry on.
Tasty Tips
Frozen Food? Nooooo…
Here’s another convenience I’d like to see stopped.
You made the jump to raw food for your dog. Yay!
And you’ve perhaps left the prep to a company who ships it to you, frozen. Good option, especially for busy families.
But, even if you make that lovely food yourself, odds are the freezer comes into play at some point, right? Big batches, broken down into serving sized portions, all good.
Enter the problem:
Crazy busy today!
Toss Sadie her dinner as a “frozen popsicle,” right from the freezer
Sadie doesn’t seem to mind. She digs in and powers through it!
Why is that a concern?
It comes down to the fire.
In this case, the fire of digestion.
In Ayurveda, that’s called Agni. In TCM, it probably goes by another name.
Both ancient sciences recognize that this fire is important to health.
Both state clearly: disease begins in the gut.
So, your animal is going to be far healthier when that digestive process is fully working as it’s evolved to.
The fix
To keep digestion happy (“If digestion ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy…”)…
Thaw that food to room temp before feeding.
Quick method: put that frozen chunk in a baggie, drop into a sink full of warm water. Nothing lost but the chill.
Feed mid-day when the digestive fires are strongest. Or morning, when they are rising.
Intermittent fasting stokes those fires, too: one meal a day.
Digestion is one of the biggest work horses in every body. More work load than that constantly beating heart, those lungs that keep pace with pulling in oxygen and shoving out carbon dioxide.
A rest (fasting) is a gift to that busybody, and a big benefit.
Bonus points: A day off a week, no food, but all the fresh water and joyful exercise you can dish out.
Along the Natural Path
We’ve caught a lovely break this week, albeit a muddy one. Overcast skies ruled, often in stark contrast to the emerald green rice fields below.
That’s meant greater comfort and less heat stress. At the cost of an occasional drenching, but I’ll take it.
In the tropics, a standing joke is, “You could stick a pencil in the ground and it’ll sprout in a few days!” It’s like that now.
Bamboo flourishes, humidity is often 80-90%, and both tails and fly swatters get a work out.
And, in India, you never know who’ll suddenly enter the road with you.
My left over containers from last year’s garden are at it again, volunteers happy to start on their own with the monsoon rains.
I had to look this one up, to be sure it was edible. Black pigweed, and yep, it’ll be part of a tasty stir fry in the near future.
Where ever you call home, do get out with your animals in tow, get your hands dirty and appreciate what Nature’s got on display for you.
And, as always, keeping making those wise decisions for the innocents in your care.
Till next time,
Will Falconer, DVM
p.s. If you haven’t yet joined our free Vital Animal Pack, there’s a course or two and some helpful reports waiting for you. You’re welcome.
Another great reason to get out of California.
I learn an incredible amount from your writing. Thank you.