Re: New Puppy - Flea, Heartworm and Vaccine Alternatives

Hi Anja,

This is Luella.  By the way, I made the above post but I am sharing Don Quixote's computer and somehow posted under his name.  oops.

There are online communities that do not vaccinate their pets and I will get back to you with some information.

I understand your apprehension with regard to vaccination proof being required in certain circumstances, but you can get around that, and one of the ways is with titers.

Keeping your puppy healthy and making sure her immune system is strong, will prevent these diseases.  Giving him/her colloidal silver every day guarantees a healthy and happy dog, with a strong immune system.  Diet is also very important and you have that covered.

Let me leave you with the following article with regard to the dangers of vaccines:

Science of Vaccine Damage

by Catherine O'Driscoll

(posted with permission)

A team at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine conducted
several studies (1,2) to determine if vaccines can cause changes in
the immune system of dogs that might lead to life-threatening
immune-mediated diseases. They obviously conducted this research
because concern already existed. It was sponsored by the Haywood
Foundation which itself was looking for evidence that such changes in
the human immune system might also be vaccine induced. It found the
evidence.

The vaccinated, but not the non-vaccinated, dogs in the Purdue
studies developed autoantibodies to many of their own biochemicals,
including fibronectin, laminin, DNA, albumin, cytochrome C,
cardiolipin and collagen.

This means that the vaccinated dogs -- "but not the non-vaccinated
dogs"-- were attacking their own fibronectin, which is involved in
tissue repair, cell multiplication and growth, and differentiation
between tissues and organs in a living organism.

The vaccinated Purdue dogs also developed autoantibodies to laminin,
which is involved in many cellular activities including the adhesion,
spreading, differentiation, proliferation and movement of cells.
Vaccines thus appear to be capable of removing the natural
intelligence of cells.

Autoantibodies to cardiolipin are frequently found in patients with
the serious disease systemic lupus erythematosus and also in
individuals with other autoimmune diseases. The presence of elevated
anti-cardiolipin antibodies is significantly associated with clots
within the heart or blood vessels, in poor blood clotting,
haemorrhage, bleeding into the skin, foetal loss and neurological
conditions.

The Purdue studies also found that vaccinated dogs were developing
autoantibodies to their own collagen. About one quarter of all the
protein in the body is collagen. Collagen provides structure to our
bodies, protecting and supporting the softer tissues and connecting
them with the skeleton. It is no wonder that Canine Health Concern's
1997 study of 4,000 dogs showed a high number of dogs developing
mobility problems shortly after they were vaccinated (noted in my 1997
book, What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines).

Perhaps most worryingly, the Purdue studies found that the vaccinated
dogs had developed autoantibodies to their own DNA. Did the alarm
bells sound? Did the scientific community call a halt to the
vaccination program? No. Instead, they stuck their fingers in the air,
saying more research is needed to ascertain whether vaccines can cause
genetic damage. Meanwhile, the study dogs were found good homes, but
no long-term follow-up has been conducted. At around the same time,
the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Vaccine-Associated
Feline Sarcoma Task Force initiated several studies to find out why
160,000 cats each year in the USA develop terminal cancer at their
vaccine injection sites.(3) The fact that cats can get vaccine-induced
cancer has been acknowledged by veterinary bodies around the world,
and even the British Government acknowledged it through its Working
Group charged with the task of looking into canine and feline
vaccines(4) following pressure from Canine Health Concern. What do you
imagine was the advice of the AVMA Task Force, veterinary bodies and
governments? "Carry on vaccinating until

we find out why vaccines are killing cats, and which cats are most
likely to die."

In America, in an attempt to mitigate the problem, they're
vaccinating cats in the tail or leg so they can amputate when cancer
appears. Great advice if it's not your cat amongst the hundreds of
thousands on the "oops" list.

But other species are okay - right? Wrong. In August 2003, the
Journal of Veterinary Medicine carried an Italian study which showed
that dogs also develop vaccine-induced cancers at their injection
sites.(5) We already know that vaccine-site cancer is a possible
sequel to human vaccines, too, since the Salk polio vaccine was said
to carry a monkey retrovirus (from cultivating the vaccine on monkey
organs) that produces inheritable cancer. The monkey retrovirus SV40
keeps turning up in human cancer sites.

It is also widely acknowledged that vaccines can cause a fast-acting,
usually fatal, disease called autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA).
Without treatment, and frequently with treatment, individuals can die
in agony within a matter of days. Merck, itself a multinational
vaccine manufacturer, states in The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and
Therapy that autoimmune haemolytic anaemia may be caused by modified
live-virus vaccines, as do Tizard's Veterinary Immunology (4th
edition) and the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.(6) The
British Government's Working Group, despite being staffed by
vaccine-industry consultants who say they are independent, also
acknowledged this fact. However, no one warns the pet owners before
their animals are subjected to an unnecessary booster, and very few
owners are told why after their pets die of AIHA.

A Wide Range of Vaccine-induced Diseases

We also found some worrying correlations between vaccine events and
the onset of arthritis in our 1997 survey. Our concerns were
compounded by research in the human field.

The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, reported that it is
possible to isolate the rubella virus from affected joints in children
vaccinated against rubella. It also told of the isolation of viruses
from the peripheral blood of women with prolonged arthritis following
vaccination.(7)

Then, in 2000, CHC's findings were confirmed by research which showed
that polyarthritis and other diseases like amyloidosis, which affects
organs in dogs, were linked to the combined vaccine given to dogs.(8)
There is a huge body of research, despite the paucity of funding from
the vaccine industry, to confirm that vaccines can cause a wide range
of brain and central nervous system damage. Merck itself states in its
Manual that vaccines (i.e., its own products) can cause encephalitis:
brain inflammation/damage. In some cases, encephalitis involves
lesions in the brain and throughout the central nervous system. Merck
states that "examples are the encephalitides following measles,
chickenpox, rubella, smallpox vaccination, vaccinia, and many other
less well defined viral infections".

When the dog owners who took part in the CHC survey reported that
their dogs developed short attention spans, 73.1% of the dogs did so
within three months of a vaccine event. The same percentage of dogs
was diagnosed with epilepsy within three months of a shot (but usually
within days). We also found that 72.5% of dogs that were considered by
their owners to be nervous and of a worrying disposition, first
exhibited these traits within the three-month post-vaccination period.


I would like to add for the sake of Oliver, my friend who suffered
from paralysed rear legs and death shortly after a vaccine shot, that
"paresis" is listed in Merck's Manual as a symptom of encephalitis.
This is defined as muscular weakness of a neural (brain) origin which
involves partial or incomplete paralysis, resulting from lesions at
any level of the descending pathway from the brain. Hind limb
paralysis is one of the potential consequences. Encephalitis,
incidentally, is a disease that can manifest across the scale from
mild to severe and can also cause sudden death.

Organ failure must also be suspected when it occurs shortly after a
vaccine event. Dr Larry Glickman, who spearheaded the Purdue research
into post-vaccination biochemical changes in dogs, wrote in a letter
to Cavalier Spaniel breeder Bet Hargreaves:

"Our ongoing studies of dogs show that following routine vaccination,
there is a significant rise in the level of antibodies dogs produce
against their own tissues. Some of these antibodies have been shown to
target the thyroid gland, connective tissue such as that found in the
valves of the heart, red blood cells, DNA, etc. I do believe that the
heart conditions in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels could be the end
result of repeated immunisations by vaccines containing tissue culture
contaminants that cause a progressive immune response directed at
connective tissue in the heart valves. The clinical manifestations
would be more pronounced in dogs that have a genetic predisposition
the findings should be generally applicable to all dogs regardless of
their breed."

I must mention here that Dr Glickman believes that vaccines are a
necessary evil, but that safer vaccines need to be developed.

Meanwhile, please join the queue to place your dog, cat, horse and
child on the Russian roulette wheel because a scientist says you
should.

Vaccines Stimulate an Inflammatory Response

The word "allergy" is synonymous with "sensitivity" and
"inflammation". It should, by rights, also be synonymous with the word
"vaccination". This is what vaccines do: they sensitise (render
allergic)an individual in the process of forcing them to develop
antibodies to fight a disease threat. In other words, as is
acknowledged and accepted, as part of the vaccine process the body
will respond with inflammation. This may be apparently temporary or it
may be longstanding.

Holistic doctors and veterinarians have known this for at least 100
years.

They talk about a wide range of inflammatory or "-itis" diseases
which arise shortly after a vaccine event. Vaccines, in fact, plunge
many individuals into an allergic state. Again, this is a disorder
that ranges from mild all the way through to the suddenly fatal.
Anaphylactic shock is the culmination: it's where an individual has a
massive allergic reaction to a vaccine and will die within minutes if
adrenaline or its equivalent is not administered.

There are some individuals who are genetically not well placed to
withstand the vaccine challenge. These are the people (and animals are
"people", too) who have inherited faulty B and T cell function. B and
T cells are components within the immune system which identify foreign
invaders and destroy them, and hold the invader in memory so that they
cannot cause future harm. However, where inflammatory responses are
concerned, the immune system overreacts and causes unwanted effects
such as allergies and other

inflammatory conditions.

Merck warns in its Manual that patients with, or from families with,
B and/or T cell immunodeficiencies should not receive live-virus
vaccines due to the risk of severe or fatal infection. Elsewhere, it
lists features of B and T cell immunodeficiencies as food allergies,
inhalant allergies, eczema, dermatitis, neurological deterioration and
heart disease. To translate, people with these conditions can die if
they receive live-virus vaccines. Their immune systems are simply not
competent enough to guarantee a healthy reaction to the viral assault
from modified live-virus vaccines.

Modified live-virus (MLV) vaccines replicate in the patient until an
immune response is provoked. If a defence isn't stimulated, then the
vaccine continues to replicate until it gives the patient the very
disease it was intending to prevent.

Alternatively, a deranged immune response will lead to inflammatory
conditions such as arthritis, pancreatitis, colitis, encephalitis and
any number of autoimmune diseases such as cancer and leukaemia, where
the body attacks its own cells.

A new theory, stumbled upon by Open University student Gary Smith,
explains what holistic practitioners have been saying for a very long
time. Here is what a few of the holistic vets have said in relation to
their patients:

Dr Jean Dodds: "Many veterinarians trace the present problems with
allergic and immunologic diseases to the introduction of MLV
vaccines..." (9)

Christina Chambreau, DVM: "Routine vaccinations are probably the
worst thing that we do for our animals. They cause all types of
illnesses, but not directly to where we would relate them definitely
to be caused by the vaccine." (10)

Martin Goldstein, DVM: "I think that vaccines...are leading killers
of dogs and cats in America today."

Dr Charles E. Loops, DVM: "Homoeopathic veterinarians and other
holistic practitioners have maintained for some time that vaccinations
do more harm than they provide benefits." (12)

Mike Kohn, DVM: "In response to this violation, there have been
increased autoimmune diseases (allergies being one component),
epilepsy, neoplasia , as well as behavioural problems in small
animals." (13)

A Theory on Inflammation

Gary Smith explains what observant healthcare practitioners have been
saying for a very long time, but perhaps they've not understood why
their observations led them to say it. His theory, incidentally, is
causing a huge stir within the inner scientific sanctum. Some believe
that his theory could lead to a cure for many diseases including
cancer. For me, it explains why the vaccine process is inherently
questionable.

Gary was learning about inflammation as part of his studies when he
struck upon a theory so extraordinary that it could have implications
for the treatment of almost every inflammatory disease -- including
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis and even HIV and AIDS.

Gary's theory questions the received wisdom that when a person gets
ill, the inflammation that occurs around the infected area helps it to
heal. He claims that, in reality, inflammation prevents the body from
recognising a foreign substance and therefore serves as a hiding place
for invaders. The inflammation occurs when at-risk cells produce
receptors called All (known as angiotensin II type I receptors). He
says that while At1 has a balancing receptor, At2, which is supposed
to switch off the inflammation, in most diseases this does not happen.


"Cancer has been described as the wound that never heals," he says.
"All successful cancers are surrounded by inflammation. Commonly this
is thought to be the body's reaction to try to fight the cancer, but
this is not the case.

"The inflammation is not the body trying to fight the infection. It
is actually the virus or bacteria deliberately causing inflammation in
order to hide from the immune system [author's emphasis]." (14)

If Gary is right, then the inflammatory process so commonly
stimulated by vaccines is not, as hitherto assumed, a necessarily
acceptable sign. Instead, it could be a sign that the viral or
bacterial component, or the adjuvant (which, containing foreign
protein, is seen as an invader by the immune system), in the vaccine
is winning by stealth.

If Gary is correct in believing that the inflammatory response is not
protective but a sign that invasion is taking place under cover of
darkness, vaccines are certainly not the friends we thought they were.
They are undercover assassins working on behalf of the enemy, and vets
and medical doctors are unwittingly acting as collaborators. Worse, we
animal guardians and parents are actually paying doctors and vets to
unwittingly betray our loved ones.

Potentially, vaccines are the stealth bomb of the medical world. They
are used to catapult invaders inside the castle walls where they can
wreak havoc, with none of us any the wiser. So rather than
experiencing frank viral diseases such as the 'flu, measles, mumps and
rubella (and, in the case of dogs, parvovirus and distemper), we are
allowing the viruses to win anyway - but with cancer, leukaemia and
other inflammatory or autoimmune (self-attacking) diseases taking
their place.

The Final Insult

All 27 veterinary schools in North America have changed their
protocols for vaccinating dogs and cats along the following lines;
(15) however, vets in practice are reluctant to listen to these
changed protocols and official veterinary bodies in the UK and other
countries are ignoring the following facts.

Dogs' and cats' immune systems mature fully at six months. If
modified live-virus vaccine is giver after six months of age, it
produces immunity, which is good for the life of the pet. If another
MLV vaccine is given a year later, the antibodies from the first
vaccine neutralise the antigens of the second vaccine and there is
little or no effect. The litre is no "boosted", nor are more memory
cells induced.

Not only are annual boosters unnecessary, but they subject the pet to
potential risks such as allergic reactions and immune-mediated
haemolytic anaemia.

In plain language, veterinary schools in America, plus the American
Veterinary Medical Association, have looked at studies to show how
long vaccines last and they have concluded and announced that annual
vaccination is unnecessary.(16-19)

Further, they have acknowledged that vaccines are not without harm.
Dr Ron Schultz, head of pathobiology at Wisconsin University and a
leading light in this field, has been saying this politely to his
veterinary colleagues since the 1980s. I've been saying it for the
past 12 years. But change is so long in coming and, in the meantime,
hundreds of thousands of animals are dying every year - unnecessarily.


The good news is that thousands of animal lovers (but not enough)
have heard what we've been saying. Canine Health Concern members
around the world use real food as Nature's supreme disease
preventative, eschewing processed pet food, and minimise the vaccine
risk. Some of us, myself included, have chosen not to vaccinate our
pets at all. Our reward is healthy and long-lived dogs.

It has taken but one paragraph to tell you the good and simple news.
The gratitude I feel each day, when I embrace my healthy dogs,
stretches from the centre of the Earth to the Universe and beyond.

About the Author:

Catherine O'Driscoll runs Canine Health Concern which campaigns and
also delivers an educational program, the Foundation in Canine
Healthcare. She is author of Shock to the System (2005; see review
this issue), the best-selling book What Vets Don't Tell You About
Vaccines (1997, 1998), and Who Killed the Darling Buds of May? (1997;
reviewed in NEXUS 4/04).  She lives in Scotland with her partner, Rob Ellis, and three Golden
Retrievers, named Edward, Daniel and Gwinnie, and she lectures on
canine health around the world.