Old news repurposed to SCARE YA
Turning guilt into redemption
Revaccinate a reactor? Get out the Vitamin N!
Intuition saves a life
Tasty Tip: Titer = Immunity (= Done Deal!)
Along the Natural Path
Rabid Bat Kills a Boy. Hold Up.
I have to say, I’m really enjoying the level of honest sharing that goes on in Substack.
If you have yet to be part of this platform, I’d encourage you to try it out.
I’ve chosen to send my fortnightly newsletter from here, and unlike my earlier email platform, this one allows comments, simple sharing (called “reStacking”), and keeps back issues available for your review.
My Substack “site” is below, complementary to my home website, Vital Animal. Subscriptions can be free or paid, your choice.
In a recent example of a useful share, Luc found a newly broadcast story on a Florida station with this click bait headline:
“Boy dies from rabies after waking up with bat on his mouth.”
Wow, right? A human death from rabies! From a bat!
Now, that’s news, eh?
Except it really isn’t. It happened in 2024.
CNN copyrighted the story 2026, and shared it widely.
Buried way at the bottom was the reality behind the attempt at inducing fear in readers and viewers:
…according to the CVMA (Canadian Vet Med Association), rabies is very rare in humans in Canada, with just 28 human cases reported in the country since 1924.
This patient was the first reported case of locally acquired rabies in Ontario since 1967, the doctors said.”
Take Aways
Fear brings clicks. And fear causes behavior changes.
There were two other “related stories” linked in the middle of this old news article, more click bait to entice you, neither one current:
“Hundreds of Grand Teton National Park visitors may have been exposed to rabies.”
And “Organ recipient dies after donor’s rabies infection went undetected.”
Did you see this, Mabel? Sounds like the rabies is getting serious and all over the place!
Though there was no call to “be sure your pets are up to date on their shots!” rabies is now at the forefront of many viewers’ consciousness.
And you’ll have been served ads after you click, which keeps the money rolling into the station or tabloid.
And even though the majority of bats are innocent (and test negative for rabies when submitted), articles like CNN’s promulgate fearing the species.
Let’s Get Real on Bats
Here’s a worthy read if you’re interested in bat rabies reality: Bat Rabies Risk in Perspective.
A brief excerpt:
If public health warnings were based on actual risk, rabies from bats would be near the bottom of the list. On a global scale 99 percent of human rabies comes from dogs, killing more than 60,000 humans annually.1
In contrast, transmission from bats is exceedingly rare. Colonial species, the ones typically found in buildings, rarely become aggressive even when rabid 2 and normally bite only in self-defense if handled. 3”
And:
The 1.5 million Brazilian free-tailed bats living in the center of Austin, Texas provide an excellent example how bats and humans can safely coexist at great mutual benefit when conservationists and public health officials cooperate in providing a balanced message.
By simply posting small signs warning visitors not to handle bats, millions have observed the spectacular bat emergences close-up over the past 35 years without a single individual being attacked or contracting any disease. The bats consume tons of insects nightly and attract millions of tourist dollars each summer. 8”
If your pet has been rabies vaccinated already, immunity likely still exists.
If you rush out in fear to get more vaccine, the risk of another shot likely far outweighs the risk of your animal getting rabies.
Sooo… Handle bats with care (Don’t touch!)
A practical take away: if you are walking your dog and come across a bat helplessly flopping on the ground, it’s important to disallow your dog to explore it, or worse, to mouth it.
As our bat expert above cites, rabid bats, unlike skunk, raccoons, and dogs, are not typically aggressive. They become paralyzed before they finally die of the disease.
Finally: If a bat bite in a human is even mildly suspected, it’s best to report it to local health authorities. And to capture the bat, if at all possible, so rabies can be tested for.
In the CNN historical case above, the bat contact wasn’t reported until well after the disease had progressed, and still was ignored. The misdiagnosis of Herpes likely caused this 11 year old’s death.
The boys symptoms, in light of a full history, would have lead to proper PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), and the boy’s life could have been saved.
So, yet another example of our “news media” interested more in fear than balanced reporting.
Readers and viewers beware. Recognize click bait links and fear in the “news,” and consciously choose how you’ll react.
Transmuting Guilt
A recent email exchange brought this philosophical piece to light.
We all lose animals, many way sooner than we’d like or expect to.
That seems truer as the years go by, and I’ll wager it’s likely due to greater intervention in the name of “prevention” from most veterinary practices.
Vito lost two dogs.
I have had to say goodbye to both of my Dogs under the age of 7 in the past six years due to aggressive cancer.”
I was taken aback.
Under 7 means they’d barely made it to middle age, even if they were large breed dogs, right?
Unacceptable.
But also, accompanied with guilt:
I feel like they were let down by me, but I did my best.”
Didn’t We All Do Our Best?
When we first came to animal care, depending on when and where, we likely made many mistakes, unknowingly.
When I grew up with dogs, it was one at a time through the 60’s and 70’s until I moved away to vet school in ’76.
At the time, we had a vet not too far from us, but there was zero pressure to make appointments, get “up to date” on shots, etc. He was simply there if we needed his help. And we rarely did.
In vet school, we were indoctrinated into 2-3 areas that I’ve learned since are wildly flawed and are causing the majority of illness, chronic illness, to which conventional medicine has zero cures:
1. Vaccinations: I initially saw these as brilliant! Tricking the immune system by injecting a bit of disease agent into the animal to help them ward off the bad viruses out there that could kill them.
Only years later, after injecting untold numbers of dairy cows (annually), horses, and a handful of pets (my senior partner handled that), did I learn how vaccines set up a chronic state of illness in those who got the shots.
The most striking? Behavior problems like aggression in dogs vaccinated against rabies. Never misbehaved before the shots.
And other behaviors that spookily resembled those that actual rabid animals exhibited, like eating indigestibles, running away, choking on eating or drinking, and paralysis of the larynx so their voices changed and exercise tolerance slumped.
But it went deeper. Rabies shots also caused seizures and laryngeal paralysis often traveled to the rear end, and was then called DM, degenerative myelopathy.
We learned in homeopathic training that the most careful work would fail to cure chronic disease conditions unless and until “vaccinosis” was addressed along the way.
Huge wake up call for this vet, circa 1992!
2. “Complete and Balanced” Diets: which you could presumably only get from a manufacturer like Hill’s (maybe because it was their reps who trained us in nutrition for a total of two afternoons in our 4 years of vet school…).
And then, the awakening, as I moved into holistic medicine. These kibbles, even the high end “prescription” and “premium” brands had problems:
Byproducts included all manner of meat that was unfit for human consumption
4-D meats were common ingredients: Dead, diseased, dying, or disabled animals
Intense temperature and pressure transformed rendered byproducts into food-like particles
Chemicals preserved these “complete” and ultra-processed foods, stored in bags at room temp for months on the store shelves
Anything resembling the “life” inherent in prey was destroyed. These foods were dead. And the “wolf within” every dog calls out, “Where’s the prey?”
3. “Medications” to control heartworm, fleas, and ticks: were nothing but pesticides, most of them neurotoxins, that acted by paralyzing parasites (while often having neurotoxicity effects on your dog or cat).
When “spot ons” were popular, the labels cautioned not to get the chemical on you!
As industry moved to chewable pesticides, the brag was they started killing within a couple hours and continued for months after one dose!
Hello? In what world would anyone imagine using pesticides would enhance the health of your loved ones?
Forgive Yourself. Just Don’t Forget.
So, we all went through a phase of accepting the party line of “prevention” before realizing at some point that the standard of care was extremely flawed.
And we damaged patients (me) or loved ones (you) for not knowing better.
If you carry guilt about that, or like Vito, lost animals to cancer way too soon, it’s time to forgive your former not knowingness.
You did the best you could at that point. And no amount of guilt will change it or inspire you to do better next time.
Here’s what I’d suggest:
Honor Those Lost
When you’re ready to try again and feel the urge to add a furry family member back into your life, you can use the power of your prior loss as a living tribute to the next addition.
In other words, you can choose to transform regret into wisdom, in honor of the one you lost.
Grief and guilt can be shifted into determination that you WILL do better this time, now that you’ve learned safer ways of stewardship.
Sound good?
When you apply the principles of the Natural Path I’ve outlined over the years, your next animal will be shining example of what’s possible.
One of those head turning, magnetic Vital Animals that spur conversations:
Wow! How did you get her coat to gleam like that?!”
She’s so well balanced, charming, and attractive. Tell me your secrets, please!”
And out go more ripples…
Well, we chose alternatives to vaccines, feed her like her ancestors and wild cousins still eat, and you know, the pests and parasites just don’t bother her!”
Now that’s a transformation I love to hear about.
Been through one? Let us know in the comments!
Revacc after an Adverse Vaccine Event? Nooo!!
Here’s a scenario Dr. WhiteCoat seems to partake in regularly, sad to say.
Tiffany writes,
“I have a 1 year old female indoor only, longhair cat. She was given her 6 months vaccinations and had a terrible reaction immediately. She started vomiting and going to the bathroom at the same time, then she couldn’t breathe and nearly died. Her vet gave her Benadryl and oxygen and said he didn’t think she would survive the ride from the office to the animal hospital. By some miracle she survived. She stayed overnight for observation then was able to come home. I am devastated my girl went through this. The vaccine company accepted responsibility and paid for her medical bills.
I thought that after this my girl would be exempt from future vaccines but my vet and the hospital will not sign off. They said she should be fine if given Benadryl before each vaccine. I am not willing to take this chance. I can’t risk her life again.
…she is now of age to be spayed and I don’t think anyone will spay her because she is due for the vaccinations. I don’t know what to do. Is there any way to receive a letter of exemption since my vet won’t comply? It’s literally her life at risk!
When Hubris Erases Common Sense
Imagine having nearly lost your loved one to a vaccine reaction and now being expected to put her through another round.
It’s the height of ignorance to suggest another vaccination.
Her tiny body shrieked, “This is so not good for me! I’m going into extreme emergency mode!”
When even the vaccine company admits the vaccine was the problem, and paid the medical bills, what is this vet thinking?
Such a dangerous medical assumption: “This animal has over reacted to a vaccine, we’ll just dampen down that response to the insult and insult her again and again.”
Dude, this animal nearly DIED from your last shot!
Any vet suggesting such an egregious, profit centered procedure should flat out be fired.
And told why.
Explaining the situation to any newly hired vet should, if that vet is a thinking, caring individual, open the door to future services, including a spay.
And what risk is an indoor only cat to anyone?
Infectious disease is why vaccination was proposed as a preventative.
How likely is this cat to bring infectious disease to another?!
Solutions
After opining to Tiffany that this was outrageous veterinary behavior, I suggested that she could, if she wanted to stay with this practice, propose that she’ll get the vaccination at some later date, well after the spay.
And then never let that event take place. That’s also known as using a key preventative called “Vitamin N:” NO! Nope, nada, no way!
Option #2: Find a new vet, one with a more holistic understanding, who recognizes the risk/benefit ratio of another shot favors just doing the spay surgery without demanding more vaccines.
If you’re ever in a similar situation, and your animal has “spoken to you” by reacting strongly to a vaccine, you can share in my closing advice to Tiffany:
“I’d personally never allow another vaccination in this animal. Period.”
Life Saving Intuition (and homeopathy)
From our unofficial In the Nick of Time Dept comes this remarkable story, from a comment on my YT video on how to find a qualified homeopathic vet:
Jennifer writes:
“I became a believer in October 2022 when my 18 year old cat became jaundiced. I took her to an ER vet. They did labs and US. Mildly elevated liver enzymes and non specific liver lessons. Coming from a background of conventional medicine (although slowly transitioning over the years,) I opted for euthanasia. She was 18 after all. The staff placed a catheter and the vet came in to administer the lethal injection. Something made me stop her.
Thinking back, I saw results when I started raw diets, I saw results when I stopped altering, I saw results when I stopped vaccinating. I have never delved into homeopathy, so it was time.
I went home with her and searched and searched many remedies. I first decided on crotalus horridus. After a few days her appetite improved. But, she was getting more jaundiced. I searched more and added chelidonim majus. It was a rollercoaster for 2 months. She was acting great but still yellow. I thought am I doing the right thing? I took pictures and compared them day to day, week to week. I couldn’t decide if she was improving, or it was the lighting or was it wishful thinking.
Then I decided to stop examining so hard and let things be. The patient was improving by every other measure. Finally, weeks later, I examined her sclera, pinnae and gums. I could confidently report zero trace of jaundice. She will be 19 in April and is on track to 29 in my opinion.”
Whoa! A close shave with death, eh?
The catheter in place, the euthanasia solution likely drawn up into the syringe, and all of a sudden, the light went on in Jennifer’s head.
And while this would have been less of a rollercoaster with professional help, in the end, this cat obviously turned the corner.
A Few Take Aways from a Homeopathic Vet
There’s a time and place for euthanasia.
It may not be age or condition or diagnosis, but all those factors can weigh in.
Euthanasia is final; if your intuition says STOP… well, Jennifer was brave to follow it
The liver is probably the MOST resilient organ, capable of healing and regeneration. Kidneys are the opposite: what lost is lost for good.
Homeopathy for chronic conditions need not be a wild ride. It’s best left to professional help (the aim of my video, after all).
When you look from the “30K foot” level, and see improvement, that counts more than numbers on a lab sheet or a lighter shade of yellow.
Look at how your animal is doing, broadly.
More attentive? More grooming? Appetite and activity picking up, even a little at a time?
All signs that the vital force is getting ahead of the disease.
When you see those happy flags waving, you can ease off the remedies and applaud the efforts of your loved one.
Tasty Titer Tip: Positive = DONE
With several Vital Animal Podcast episodes and many articles on titers on my website and elsewhere, this tip will drive home an important understanding that many are missing.
Once your animal has a positive titer (any number greater than zero on the test report) you know she’s got established immunity.
You don’t need to keep checking that titer yearly (or likely ever again).
Why?
The short answer is this:
Once established, immunity lasts a long time. Probably a lifetime.
That’s what the immunologists tell us. And they don’t sell vaccines, so you know they’re shooting straight.
And think about it: when was the last time you were called in to boost your smallpox status?
But what about a titer that falls after some years go by?
That can and does happen.
A titer only measures one part of the immune response your Sadie mounted, whether from natural exposure or vaccination.
That one part, the antibody levels, will eventually fall off. It’d be useless to keep pumping forth antibodies once the risk is gone. Nature is wise and conserves resources.
What smart folks (like YOU!) need to remember is the less visible part of Sadie’s immune response, “memory cells,” still quietly lurking inside.
And will remain so, likely for life, far as we can tell.
Those memory cells are not easily measured in routine testing, but immunologists have studied them and know they are present once immunity is gained.
And they know, if challenged by a return of the germ, your Sadie’s memory cells will leap into action.
The net result of such a leap?
A swash buckling, hard fought immune response, ready to deal a death blow to any invaders!
And, BONUS: a rapid return of a nice stout titer!
So, this tip is very practical, saving you money and possible vaccine injury to your loved ones.
Save your animal from unnecessary vaccination.
Save your wallet from unnecessary emptying.
Once you have a positive titer, the testing can stop. Immunity is there.
Okay? Okay.
Along the Natural Path
“It’s raining, it’s pouring… ♫”
Well, the monsoons have hit, right on time for India. As we’re preparing to leave the Himalaya and return to our home base in the Uttar Pradesh plains, we’ve had daily rains. Initially, they came nightly, but for the past few days, it’s been nearly all day rain.
And sometimes, it appeared like breaking surf coming across the high ridges:
The snow on the upper ranges is starting to melt, so scenes like this one will have to remain only memories:
But on to the animals!
When I first got up here, hike after hike in the mornings, and I’d see no langur. I started worrying a bit. Surely, they weren’t being hunted…
This past couple weeks I came across two troupes, on two different days, along my favorite high road.
As they were moving across a few human dwellings, the dogs took notice and set up a-hollering:
The older langur knew they were only a leap away from being completely out of reach, so they didn’t budge until the last possible moment…
There was less hiking and more photo snapping for a good 15’. All ages seemed present in what was a troupe of 25+ individuals, not counting the babies clinging to moms.
Gotta be impressed with these tails, strictly for balance on leaps, not prehensile like some monkeys:
C’mere, Junior, you’re still learning…
This close encounter was a bit hair raising, but I talked myself out of it, knowing these guys were super passive, mellow leaf eaters…
The vegetation loves monsoon season. This wall until recently was only moss on stacked and mortared stones.
I’ll sign off with a mellow mix morning shot of a valley I relish…
I’ll miss this until next year, God willing, if I’m still around and able to escape the heat of the plains once again. I’m far healthier up here, find it easier to extend my intermittent fasting, get more vigorous exercise, and lose my carb induced belly fat.
But the monsoons will have mellowed temps back home as well. We’ll be ducking some showers and it’ll be touch and go on line drying for a spell, but not the blistering heat we left to get here.
Let me know what struck for you in the comments, and carry on, making your wise choices for the innocents in your care.
And don’t forget to get out into the healing balm Nature offers us all. She’s got the fix for too much screen time and the worries of the world.
Till next time,
Will Falconer, DVM
I’m forever grateful to Will Falconer for his education, not only about vaccines, but how to observe your dog for any changes with regard to homeopathic remedies. His website Vital Animal has a plethora of information for pet owners.
I saw him in Austin back in the early 2,000s for my sweet pup with mange. I’d been to a “holistic” vet who dipped my baby in lighter fluid to rid her of the mange 😳 but it was unsuccessful. I finagled my way into an appointment with Will (not an easy feat) and his remedies did the trick.
I thank him deeply for sharing about injecting toxins into the body and how they get past all the “guards” that would normally mobilize against them and neutralize them. I used that knowledge during the plandemic to stay far away from those experimental MRNA shots that have killed and destroyed the health of so many people in my life that acted out of fear and accepted those shots.
I don’t believe in any vaccines. I believe my body and my dogs’ bodies were created in perfection and that they all self-heal if given a healthy lifestyle on all fronts.
And lastly, the folks who are in the mountainous area I live in…their dogs never see vets. They don’t have the money. These dogs eat table scraps and hunt for food, they drink clean water and are mostly outside in the sunshine doing what they love to do. They live into their late teens, early 20s. That says everything!
Thank you Will for all you to do help these beautiful companion animals by educating their pet parents. 🙏🏻❤️
As always, thank you Will. I am so grateful for your knowledge. I’m so very sad knowing I might have avoided having our 11 year old cat euthanized (3 years ago) when she presented with jaundice and plummeted in one week. We did try alternatives, but probably not the right ones. 😢
May God bless you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻