Vaccination

[Rottyfan]

today a vet told me as long you feed your dog on raw diet, then there is no need for vacc, in fact, he said vacc is causing healthy problem to adult dogs. And I also checked some infor on web,,seems like a lot of breeder, trainers are against vacc.

[sophie's-mom]

Originally posted by Rottyfan
seems like a lot of breeder, trainers are against vacc.

A lot of breeders and trainers are against OVER vaccination. But you HAVE to protect your dog from certain diseases and most cities REQUIRE an annual rabies vac.

Feeding raw is NOT going to prevent certain ailments in your dog.

You couldn't avoid CHICKEN POX with a good diet, RIGHT?

[Gdoane]

Most of the people that I know who have died early are the ones who are into "holistic" medicine, health nutty types. My parents are smokers (second hand smoke) they let me eat dirt and play in ditches and be a kid. I was never really sick as a child except for a few mild flue's, colds etcetra! My cousin's Mom was a vegan, no dairy all organic type, all those kids looked like walking corpses and they where almost always sick! The Mom died early thirties from cancer.

O.K. I'm talking about humans in my rant but the same principles to me anyway apply to our dogs. A little healthy is o.k. and advised but to totally toss out "tradition" is a little far.

[moondog]

Are you sure you understood the vet correctly? To say that a dog fed raw has no need to be vaccinated is ridiculous!

How about having titers done FIRST that will give you an indication of your dog's level of immunity against the killer diseases and THEN evaluating whether your dog is protected?

[Rott-Wiley]

Maybe what your vet actually said was "some vaccines." I personally feel that most vets tend to over vaccinate -- always have. But some vaccines are to protect a healthy dog no matter what their diet is.

[Shelloaz]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be VERY careful if your feeding a raw diet !! Do some more research on it too, just type in BARF diet for dogs and read what comes up. I recently lost my 3 month old Rottie :( My breeder reccommended a modified BARF. I gave her a raw chicken wing in the morning. Well, she choked on the bone, it tore her trachea and we had to have her put to sleep. Don't rely on what the breeder tells you about raw.

[camphappy]

{{{Shelloaz}}}, I'm so sorry to hear about your little puppy:( !
That must have been a very sad thing to witness and deal with.

[Rockwilda]

sorry about your loss ... i will never feed my dog pork or chicken bones...as for vacines...when i bought my rotten girl the breeder could not stress enough about parvo ... DONT TAKE HER WALKING IN PUBLIC CLEAN YOUR SHOES etc .. i ended up giving my dog 5 parvo shots ...i was told 3 would do the trick ...i had her checked after the 3rd shot and she needed a 4th...and same with the 4th shot she needed a 5th ....i havent heard of many people talking about parvo on here i am just kinda curious...my humble opinion is that for me i will always vaccinate ...no matter what i feed my dog(s) but a few people have told me about over vaccinating ...which i would stay away from as well all i know is my girl is vaccinated and i feel more secure about her health and welfare

[Carina43]

Shelloaz, I'm really sorry...how awful.

Some people who feed raw also have the mind set that allopathic veterinary medicine is terrible and dangerous ...but while it's true that proper nutrition (no matter what type of diet you feed) will help a dog maintain a healthy immune system, NO diet is a magic bullet!

There definitely can be dangers to over-vaccinating...you could do a search on vacs in the vet forum, there's been some really good discussions there recently.

[JBCB]

I feel the need to reply to Gdoane's apparent (in my interpretation) comment on holistic veterinary care not being useful. Our girl, Kaeleigh, has a compressed disk in her lower back (athletic injury) that we give her acupuncture for, on the recomendation of the orthopedic vet that examined her. Until surgery was necessary he said that acupuncture would probably give her some relief from the obvious pain she was experiencing, manifested by a limp and favouring her left hind leg. It did wonders! She obviously feels much better -- she moves and plays with more "gusto", and experiences less stiffness afterwards. Now where if it were me getting the acupuncture I might think that it was the "placebo effect": where I think it should work, so it does; but with Kaeleigh all she knows is that she gets needles poked in her back every couple of months, yet she has shown a great deal of improvement.

Kaeleigh also has an intestinal disease, lymphangectasia, that causes her to leak protein out through her bowel, one symptom being terrible diahrrea. Traditional vet care was to modify her diet, and put her on prednizone for the rest of her life at a dosage that would keep the diahrrea under control, and her blood protein levels stable. Our "holistic" vet (we have a traditonal one too) gave her some "potions" that have enabled us to lower Kaeleigh's prednizone dose to a very low one, given alternate days, AND have not only stablized her blood proteins, but have helped them move back into the "normal" range from the less than half of low normal on her higher prednizone dosage. moondog can support this because her girl, Luna, who has the same disease, recently went to a holistic vet and under a similar treatment as Kaeleigh, had her blood proteins move into the normal range for the first time in 2.5 years!

So to say holistic medicine is "crap" is wrong. I believe that holistic veterinary medicine, coupled with traditional care, can go far to improving the quality of life for those whom we love. The key is to find a reputable holistic vet, and that can be achieved by referrals. In this way our pets might be able to eliminate the need for prescription drugs, or maybe enhance the effect of said drugs to the point where the dosage can be lowered, helping to reduce harmful side effects. What it cannot do is replace traditional veternary care totally. Vaccinations are necessary to help enhance the body's natural defences against disease, and should not be replaced or avoided. Just make sure that they are not given unnecessarily, something that a titre can determine, as moondog has said.

My 2 cents. After all that "holistic vet care" has done for Kaeleigh, I didn't want people to get the idea that it was to be avoided.

[moondog]

I sure can support what Jay is saying! :D I think to confuse the intent of holistic healthcare with people who take a little bit of it and then use it in a very dysfunctional way is not only selling it short but is also completely missing the "holistic" point. My dog has done great on a restricted diet and conventional medicine, but incorporating appropriate holistic care along with it has indeed brought her to a state of health I personally never really thought she could reach. :)

Signed,

Moondog, who rarely gets sick and ate her share of dirt as a kid. A little dirt IS a good thing and does help build a strong immune system. It also assembles nicely with the "holistic" point! :D

[chivas]

I agree with Moondog and Jay.
When my Chivas was diagnosed with osteo, the traditional treatments werent working well on her and the traditional procedure (amputation w/ chemo) wasnt an option.
I treated her holitically and she out lived her prognosis by 5 months and NEVER lost condition, which is a HUGE concern with a dog battling cancer.
A good balance of holistic and traditional medicine is the best way to go!!
Kim