5 things your vet should never say to you (great read)

[DainBramaged]

http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/dog-health-tips-5-things-vet-never-say-to-you

[jtuck004]

1. Some decent advice there, though not everyone can afford titers, and with

3 year vaccines we haven't had much of an issue. Though I am told it's much the same thing, just they realize the protection lasts longer now.


Thank you for posting that.

[Rincewind]

2. I don't have a dog,

I have cats. And they get vaccinated every year, If I had a dog, like my younger brother, it would get vaccinated every year. Because where we live, it's the law. $400 to $500 in fines if your pet is not up to date on it's shots, and not wearing a rabies tag.

[newfie11]

3. Are you doing yearly rabies vaccination?

[newfie11]

4. All my 66 years I have had pets

Dogs, cats, horses, and various other critters.
For years I trusted vets word without questioning.
That changed when on of my Newfies was given the rattle snake vaccine by red rocks company. Below is her story:

http://www.dogsadversereactions.com/vaccinesurvivors9.html

The vet that gave her that vaccine lost his Golden after giving her the same vaccine AND the rabies vaccine the same day. A Doby died of liver failure after the rattlesnake vaccine. I get emails constantly from folks across the country with dead or dying dogs after receiving the rattlesnake vaccine. The sad thing is that once a dog is bitten he still must undergo the same treatment as a dog without the vaccine.

Now I follow Jean Dodds vaccine protocol on all vaccines. If I have a vet that doesn't approve I will find one that does. Mine does.

After the recalls in dog food I switched to RAW and make my own. My dogs love it and are very healthy. It is not rocket science and it works for me.

[Walk away]

5. Jean Dodd is brilliant. My Robbie had an extreme reaction to his vaccination when I adopted him...

and now I follow her protocol as well. The problem is, not everyone cares enough to find the right Vet and do the right thing. Discouraging the general public from routine vaccinations could result in many horrible deaths and out of control diseases.

[Phentex]

7. I'd swear mine had a reaction to the lepto vaccine because

that's the only one he didn't have as a puppy. For some reason they were not able to isolate which one caused his immune system to shut down so now he doesn't get anything. I do heartworm, flea & tick stuff but I am concerned about anything else.

And I was later told they can go longer than a year without the rabies vaccine.

I don't blame the vet but I do wish I had been better informed about each vaccine before just agreeing to go with the recommendations.

[mopinko]

6. always been pretty suspicious of vax recommendations.

not anti-vax AT ALL. but i do think that they are a honey pot for most vets, and are given waaaaaay more often than need be. what human vax only lasts a year? none. at all. none.
just saw my own doc and talked about this. she has a few vax sensitive patients, and does titers for them. she says she routinely see good levels 20 years out for tetanus, tho the rec is 10 years.

i am wondering about vaccinating my very allergic dog. he is 1 1/2 years old, and allergic to a bunch of things. i am thinking we are going with rabies shot and that's it. he had all the required first year shots, and if his allergies get any worse i am going to have to keep him in a bubble.

[DainBramaged]

9. Our cats are all indoors, except for distemper (important since I work around shelter animals)

my vet has repeatedly told me annual vaccinations are unnecessary, especially for my now 16 year old cat. They could do more harm than good at her age. And even though we get a great discount because we are shelter volunteers, incidences of rabies in the northeast are so rare as he hasn't had a case in over a decade. Most rabies incidents come from wild animals, skunks, raccoons, possums. Wild/roaming dogs are rounded up quickly around my area. Where I live we have a spay/neuter/vaccination program for the ferals cats and dumps that has been hugely successful for over five years with the cooperation of the town and the apartment complex.


We are lucky.

[grntuscarora]

8. "Why didn't you bring him in sooner?"

That's a question that I've overheard in our rural vet's office, usually said to a pet owner that is obviously struggling financially and to whom the vet's bill is quite likely an issue. My family is fortunate that, if our pet needs the vet, we can go without having to worry too much about paying for it. Many in our area aren't so fortunate, and I think it's insensitive of vets to assume their fees aren't a factor in how frequently some families are able to bring in their pets.

This is in no way meant to absolve pet-owning idiots that can afford the vet but are just too lazy to go.

[IrishAyes]

11. But it is a wise caution

to everyone to learn what they can about emergency care. I'm sometimes a little piqued at the local town council who tend to be very dismissive towards me as a damnYankee city girl who don't know nuthin 'bout nuthin. They don't know that I raised horses for almost 20 years with one - count 'em, ONE - vet visit for a blood transfusion. I've done more animal doctoring of all kinds than most of them ever thought about. That includes a ceasarian on a neighbor's dead ewe and midwifery on my own broodmares. I don't expect everyone to have shared that background, but still we're all well advised to learn everything we can. Prevention's the main key anyway.

The high point of my surgery career came when my big toe got split open almost stem to stern when I was out in the boonies. Being alone with no close neighbors available, I had to cleanse the wound, then triple butterfly the digit and stitch up in between. Years later I was in a doctor's office and got asked what happened to my toe. Doc could hardly believe it, but there was no record of professional medical care for the event, and he eventually said I'd done just as well as the emergency room people could have, maybe even better.

And that was w/o antibiotics or any modern pharmaceuticals.

[IrishAyes]

10. Great read!

It's fortunate that I'm happy with my vet because he's the only one in 50 miles. But he is great and beloved by all. He treats all the farmers' cattle, too, and is widely said to calm even the orneriest ones. Reminds me of Herriott. Only thing that bothers me is his age, about the same as mine, which means he could have to retire while I still need him. What would the next one (if any) be like? Nowhere near as good - impossible. And he knows and respects the fact that I have always taken care of my dogs so far as possible with proven home remedies. As he said, anybody who can raise 16-yr-old chows gotta be doing somethin' right.