Vital Animal News: September 28, 2025

Get Practical: saRNA Rabies Shot Avoidance / Bird Flu and FDA Data Obfuscation / Bees Trying to Be / Green Space as Medicine / Vets: Learn Homeopathy!

If you’ve got a rabies vaccination staring you in the face, here are some tactics to avoid what’s “NXT:” Self-amplifying RNA; Cats dying of bird flu? Why is FDA hiding the data on the food connection? Bees, mites, and colony collapse reaches new heights; College de-stress: Get some greenery! and: Big news for Vets: Professional Homeopathy training coming in October! Let’s dig in…

---

saRNA Rabies Shot Avoidance

Oh oh. More RNA injectable tech? What could possibly go wrong?

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new rabies vaccine on the block.

And, rabies is the only vaccine with a “law” wrapped around it (did you know? True. Not distemper, parvo, feline anything, etc, only rabies).

As such, this new “vaccine” from Merck is likely to impact you at some point, so let’s get really practical as to how to think about it.

And, based on careful thinking, how to decide about it for safety’s sake.

[Wondering why I often put rabies “law” in quotes? Here’s where that dirty history lives.]

The New Wonder Jab: NXT

In this earlier issue, I posted about the underpinnings of this “NXT” vaccine:

Here’s a quick review of concerns:

• Safety first: Only studies done by Merck, no third party research

• Short term safety studies only

• There are no built in “brakes” to stop the injected “self-amplifying” RNA from endlessly creating rabies proteins

• And where will these rabies proteins end up? In the brain? No answers…

• Shedding?

That last one is still theoretical, but we were clearly lied to on the Covid mRNA “staying put” in the body, when its lipid nanoparticle carriers clearly reached even the brain of those who rolled up their sleeves and got a free donut.

The current consensus is that viruses can shed but not particles.

The bird flu virus shedding in cow milk is established.

The spread of RNA from exosomes is still theoretical and not measured. We’ll see as more work is done in this area.

How It’s Being Sold

It’s fair to say most vets are hearing about this through sales reps.

Based on my first 7 years in conventional practice, that “detailing” of a new product by a rep was typically all we had time for. They’d tell the high points, focus on perceived benefits, and ask how much we wanted.

We had zero time for research (pre-internet in the early ‘80’s, to be fair, but I doubt that’s changed much; vets are busy).

Here’s what Dr. WhiteCoat is being detailed about with NXT:

• Only a 1/2 ml dose! (other vaccines are usually 1 ml)

• No mercury! Thimerosal-free!

• No aluminum adjuvants!

So, does that mean it’s guaranteed safe?

Or will stop producing rabies virus proteins at some point?

No, we simply don’t have long term, independent safety studies to tell us that.

And <cough> it comes with the same labels of 1 year or 3 year “need” to repeat.

What Can You Do?

I suggest the following to make sure you’re not putting your animal at risk until safety is verified in long term, third party research.

If you can’t avoid another rabies shot… (and you’ve evaluated your risk to get rabies to be remote or nil, or your animal is already vaccinated and you’ve studied DOI - duration of immunity), I’d at least avoid this Merck Nobivac NXT rabies vaccine (and its cousins, for canine flu and FeLV in cats).

Practical steps to avoid this:

• Ask ahead of your appointment if NXT is in the clinic. It’s likely thought to be brag worthy, so you should get a quick answer if it’s in stock.

• If it is, next question: “Do you still carry the older thimerosal-free version?”

• If so, and again, you’re seeing no way to avoid yet another rabies vaccine, make the appointment but ask to see the label AND the mixing of the vaccine before it’s injected.

That last one is a small but significant ask. No telling what can happen in the “back room,” and all you’ll see is the filled syringe.

But: Is TF (thimerosal-free) Really Zero Mercury?

Please be clear on this. It’s a question I hear often, and safety cannot be assumed when you learn this part.

The answer, for decades has been: No.

TF means there’s probably less mercury, but no guarantee there’s none of this toxic metal present.

Why? Excipients. Or “inactive ingredients.”

These are “proprietary” ingredients added to vaccines that need not be listed. It’s “intellectual property,” so FDA rules these need not appear on labels.

Aluminum can be part of those ingredients as well, and not show on the label or insert.

And we’ve learned that toxic metal can accumulate in the brain…

So, would I still recommend seeking out TF vaccines when you have no choice but to vaccinate?

I would. I’d presume it’ll have less of that toxic heavy metal at least.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve run into NXT vaccines at your vet visit.

Or if you’ve navigated TF hurdles yet. It’s early, but these new vaccines rolled out in Canada and the US in 2024.

---

FDA Tight-lipped on Cats, H5N1, and Raw Food

We might know more, but we’re not telling YOU!

Wondering where Bird Flu went?

Well, absent over zealous Gain of Function research (which, hopefully has ceased, now that RFK Jr. has pulled the plug on its funding), the expectation is every infectious disease will cycle downwards.

And HPAI/Bird Flu used to do that cyclical dance.

Kill a bunch of wild birds, then wane out, then mutate and start a new cycle.

This particularly long round of years of bird flu deaths in multiple species is well at odds with the past history of epidemics with this virus.

Cats and Bird Flu Data

From the handful of cases we’ve seen in the press, it appeared this was a rapid and uniformly fatal disease for our feline friends.

And, if you followed it at all, you probably became fearful of feeding raw food to those same obligate carnivores posing as pets in your household.

Susan Thixton recently revealed that, out of the 145 domestic feline cases diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu, only 4% of those were attributed to raw food feeding.

Wait. That’s a vanishingly small proportion!

But to read the news, you’d think it was ALL raw food responsible for cats dying, and rapidly dying at that.

What killed the rest of them, then?

FDA Ain’t Talking

I’ll let Susan’s article fill you in, but the short version:

We filed Freedom of Information Act requests with multiple states that experienced a diagnosed cat, we asked for records regarding the diagnosed cat (in search of information to style of food consumed and if the pet food was tested); Washington, Colorado, South Dakota, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, and New York.

But of the records we received, not one piece of information was provided as to what style or brand of pet food the sick cat consumed. Not one record indicated if the unknown pet food was tested. We do not know if those records do not exist or if they were withheld in our FOIA.

Hmmm. So, small pet food manufacturers are still under the uneven spot light for anything raw that might be associated with illness, while Big Pet Food and their kibble far outstrip the little guys in pounds pulled from the shelves for contamination (see those numbers here)

And, as I’ve recommended before, if you want to buy commercial food (raw to cooked) and want the most thorough info possible before you plunk down your payola, Ms. Thixton has a yearly The List that’s well worth the small price she asks for her research.

If you continued to feed your cats raw (REAL food for REAL carnivores), let us know in the comments that the “news” couldn’t sway you otherwise.

---

The Bees Had a Horrible Year

Don’t mind me, Mr. Bee, just gonna suck a bit of your blood…

Bee raisers, given to moving their colonies cross country in the U.S. for years due to loss of bee populations, experienced extraordinary losses this year:

…called “the worst bee die-off in U.S. history” by honey bee research organization Project Apis m., (it) was caused by virus-infected, miticide-resistant parasitic mites.

The colony collapses culminated in a loss of 1.7 million colonies, representing over 60% of commercial beekeeping colonies since the prior summer, and an estimated financial impact of $600 million, according to the USDA.

That was the highest loss ever recorded in the industry, said veterinarian Dr. Britteny Kyle.

Like Food? You Better Like Bees…

Bees don’t only produce honey. They are a major pollinating army for many crops, including almonds, pistachios, apples, stone fruits, berries, melons and squash family crops.

Grains don’t need the bees, wind does their pollinating.

Resistance Rears its Ugly Head

While the Varroa destructor mite (great name, eh?) is old news (as a virus carrier that’s the ultimate killer of the bees), the news here is “pesticide resistance.”

The mites used to die off when hives were sprayed with pesticides, but no longer.

We’ve spoken of that phenomenon earlier, so this is just a slightly different wrinkle.

Like antibiotics, weed killers, and insecticides, resistance builds in the pest (mite, bacteria, weed, parasite) and the usual poisons no longer work to control it.

Simple genetic selection, really.

The few with mutations that allow them to live through the onslaught of poisons are able to reproduce. And their offspring then breed, giving rise to ever increasing populations of resistant pests.

Even the Wild Bees…

Now, never having raised bees, I can’t really speak to management, but my initial guess that bees in the wild live less crowded lives and must deal with mites and their virus hitchhikers without catastrophic losses was wrong.

The wild bee populations are in decline as well, I’m afraid.

And while domestic bee keepers can split hives and add new queens (and even select for genetic resilience in them), the wild ones are more at the mercy of stressors like pesticides, especially “neonic” pesticides (made from a nicotine base, for those singing nicotine’s praises), habitat loss, and even spill over of pathogens from the commercial honeybees.

Bottom line: the more intensive the ag practices, the more at risk the bees become.

Regenerative Ag: A Ray of Hope

One of the tenets of regen ag is cover crops, several of which flower (buckwheat, vetch, and clovers, for example). If their flowering coincides with crop blooms, this could help bees.

Similarly, low- or no-till practices help the ground nesting wild bees survive.

And, pesticide use is far less to none on good regenerative farms, so that’s good for all bees (and of course humans, pets, etc., etc.).

Here’s but one shining example where this has been working: Greece.

Adding meadows, shrub corridors, and hedgerows around orchards produced 8–12% larger fruit and 30–50% higher yields, with on‑farm hives benefiting from diversified habitat.

Cool, eh?

For more inspiration on regenerative ag, check Kiss the Ground, a film about people making it work, day in and day out.

---

Tasty Tips: Get You Some Green!

Photo by Martin Dalsgaard on Unsplash

The headline: Adding more green space to a campus is a simple, cheap and healthy way to help millions of stressed and depressed college students

Long known to be a stress reliever, natural greenery has recently been a fix for those troubled college students, according to a recent article from Texas A&M.

Now, we’ll leave aside the fact that college students today were likely heavily vaccinated as kids and quite possibly put on mind altering drugs from an early age…

No one was talking ADHD when I was a kid in the 50’s and 60’s, nor did I ever see autism or peanut butter bans due to life threatening allergies.

And truthfully, college for me wasn’t very “stressed and depressed,” but then I likely had a tiny portion of the shots today’s youngsters have had.

Hard work? Yeah, realizing after the first couple years of intro courses that I wanted to be a vet found me buckling down and pushing my GPA as high as possible.

And yet, I will absolutely concur that get aways to forests and lakes (and horses at camp) were a great balm to my urban soul.

But suicides and suicidal ideation?

Unheard of.

But then again, so were SSRI meds known (by Pharma) for 20+ years for causing such mental perturbations.

So, bravo to TAMU for setting aside 20 acres of greenery and water for the students to catch a breath in.

Greener AND Smaller Works

The authors also noted that smaller colleges offer less stress.

It’s critical to note that enhancing your surroundings isn’t just about green space. Other factors play a role. After analyzing data from 13 U.S. universities, our research shows that school size, locale, region and religious affiliation all make a difference and are significant predictors of mental health.”

Certainly true in my case.

U. of Wisconsin-Parkside was a half hour drive from my parent’s home, but I gave UW-Madison a chance in my third year.

Wow, cool living in my own apartment and all, but class sizes mushroomed from 30-50 students to amphitheater classrooms. Gaa!

And more students in a class meant not only not having much relationship with the prof (well: none!) but much more competition to make the grades needed for vet school, so nope! I was back to my parents’ digs the very next semester.

And it was there that I rejoined one of my most influential profs, teaching biology (and his elective in organic gardening). Dr. Esser and my experience with horses were key in my decision to pursue vet medicine.

Scientists baffled?

It’s still unclear exactly why green spaces are good places to go when experiencing stress and anxiety; nevertheless, it is clear that spending time in nature is beneficial for mental well-being.”

Damn the deeper understanding “the science” too often feels is necessary (“more research needed” often wraps up the conclusion of most published papers)!

Take it simply:

—> Get out in Nature, as often as you can!

Doesn’t matter how old you are, if you’re in college or kindergarten or long past schooling, greenery will always be good for you.

Even, as that article mentions, having it just outside your window when you’re taking a test results in better scores.

But far better: Get Out There. Draw deep breaths, feel the moss, get your bare feet on the dirt or in the brook.

All good for prevention as well as healing what ails you.

---

Special: For Vets, Vet Techs, and Vet Students!

Photo by Nana Fuzimi on Unsplash

Attention to my colleagues!

If you’ve ever had an inkling to study homeopathy, a great opportunity has come your way.

The Pitcairn Institute of Veterinary Homeopathy is about to offer Module One of their larger Professional Master Course in Veterinary Homeopathy in October.

This part will get you up and running on treating acute diseases, and is a great place to begin both understanding the underpinnings of how homeopathy works and, perhaps more importantly, seeing it actually work wonders in your acute cases!

This is the training that changed my entire trajectory in practice.

It helped me see disease and healing in an entirely different light than my training in vet school and my early years in practice ever afforded me.

While I was glad to have vet school for all I learned there, adding professional homeopathy training changed every thing for the better:

• My fundamental understanding of disease.

• My ability to see my cases as individuals, and treat them as such, rather than the “one size fits all” approach we were schooled in.

• Treatment of disease shifting from making symptoms subside to actually spurring the patient to heal herself.

I know the faculty teaching this, and can recommend this course highly.

Especially if you’ve ever wanted a more holistic approach to restoring health safely and surely. Homeopathy will only work when you think holistically.

This training, as well as the larger course it’s part of, is for veterinarians, vet students, and vet techs, and there while there’s no requirement to take the entire course, completion of this module will get you a nice discount towards the entire course.

And, it’s all live, interactive online teaching, so no travel, hotels, etc. will get in the way of your current practice.

You’ll also receive 50 hours of CE through the AHVMA, an AVMA affiliate organization.

Here’s your link to learn more.

The world needs more homeopathic vets, so you’ll never have to worry about filling your practice again if you take this knowledge and put it into practice.

---

Along the Natural Path

Photo by Yogesh Pedamkar on Unsplash

I had to change my route most of this past week due to street music.

Oh, not like this, above. More like this times 10:

Serious, level 11 noise pollution. The kind that makes eardrums burst.

In good spirit, no doubt, as there’s a celebration of Durga coming soon, and I expect some weddings were about to happen as well.

And, on my bike, I can only hold one ear shut without crashing, so I’ve been making circuits within the ashram instead of venturing out. Because, well, I’d like to have my hearing right on through till I shuffle off this mortal coil.

As a result, no pictures from the countryside this time. Sorry.

Let me just share a slice of India with you, though.

In India, hot lunch delivery systems in big cities don’t depend on tech. At all.

A group of “dabbawalas” has been efficiently picking up lunches from individual homes and bringing them, on time, by train and bicycle, to their intended recipients at work for years. In Mumbai, that history spans well over 100 years!

Here’s a cool video of how this works:

Sabbatical Nears

My annual month long sabbatical is starting soon, as our Fall sadhana program is about to begin. Devotees from all over the globe will swell our ranks in the ashram from our usual 400 or so to probably 10-12,000 over the next week.

We’ll have extended chanting sessions, singing what someone once called “love songs to God” led by amazing chanters, accompanied by a drum or two, cymbals, and clapping in time. All this in a beautiful stadium-sized dome with perfect acoustics.

Deepened devotion is the goal, and grace always flows in extra measure during these special programs.

All this means I’ll be focused, best I can, on why I moved to India (hint: not US current events or the latest drugs!) and I’ll suspend my newsletter for several weeks. I’ll be back to it sometime after the full moon in November.

That said, you’re never more than a few clicks away from a lot of useful info I’ve posted over the years on my website, Vital Animal. We’ve recently made the search engine easier to find (upper right corner of every page) and it’ll accept words or phrases.

And, of course, thanks to Substack, many past issues of this newsletter can be read any time you want to dig in.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below and I’ll see you in November!

Will Falconer, DVM