Comments on Vaccines and Vets: Is Your Holistic Vet Really Holistic?

Hi everyone,
This my first time reading on this website. It won't be my last! It's obviously something I've been hoping to find for a long time. Congratulations to you, Dr. Falconer.
My dog was accidentally vaccinated twice within three weeks about eight years ago. Within two years, he developed kidney failure and died a year and two months later. I was able to connect with a wonderful holistic vet who treated him with low level current equipment and other homeopathic treatments and kept him very comfortable until the end.
More recently, we adopted our min pin from a shelter. I refused to vaccinate her until I knew her titer levels. I am so grateful to have chosen the titers. Most of her levels were three times the acceptable levels! I do not understand why these vets insist that a 6-7 pound dog be given the same amount of vaccine as a 150 lb. plus giant dog. It seems criminal to me.
We feed our dogs Taste of the Wild food and supplement with digestive enzymes, probiotics, and a few others. They seem to be doing well. They have lots of energy, shiny coats, never bothered by fleas, and still get playful with each other. We never need the vet except to check the vaccine levels. We wouldn't do that except we occasionally board them to visit far away relatives.
Thank you for all you do!

Of my 3 cats, 1 has been diagnosed as diabetic recently and we are treating him with insulin. We have started a raw food diet (for all our cats) in hopes of getting him off the insulin. I can't Thank You enough !!!!

My daughter was just 'made' to get her dog re-vaccinated for Rabies. There is active rabies present in our rural county of No. California. It is a requirement to have your dog licensed and in order to get the annual dog license, you have to have a yearly rabies shot for your dog! Crazy! And my daughter really has not wanted to get the rabies shot for her beloved dog; she actually goes longer between the re-licensing and has to pay a fine for doing so. Her dog almost always has an allergic reaction (intense wheezing, swelling of face and itching) to the shot. She has to pay for a shot to counteract the vaccine and then has to take Benadryl for a few days as well. How to get around the County ordinance? Thanks so much for your articles.

Our puppy did a lot of scratching in her first summer of life (2012) as we had battled fleas and struggled with which flea products did any good? However, I didn't know if her scratching was entirely from that, or if she might have had some allergies; the pup's mom is in our family, and in asking about it, it was confirmed the mom-dog did have some allergies herself. I also didn't know which puppy shots our pup had received before we adopted her, but i was pretty sure they had given her some. (Btw, she is a small dog.) I needed to get her spayed somewhere around the end of summer/early fall, and when I called to book the appointment with my vet, the receptionist stated she would need to get her rabies shot at that time. Well, I didn't want her to get a rabies shot at this point, because I really didn't know if her season of scratching had been flea-related, or allergy-related. And I knew that more vax would exacerbate an allergy problem. I simply wanted to wait and get through a winter---see if the scratching died down when the fleas did, so I could rule that out. Anyway, I went to the vet's office a week prior to the appointment and paid for the spay early, so at the same time I could "clear" it with them in advance that she would be able to delay getting a rabies shot. Well, the staff worker had no problem with that and I paid in advance for the appointment. The next week, when I brought the dog in, however, a different receptionist was working. She was most definitely NOT ok with us asking to skip the rabies shot. There was eye-rolling, and guilt-tripping, and she was adamant about the rabies shot being given. I tried explaining my side of things and even offered to PAY NOW for the rabies shot---just don't give it yet, until I could rule out allergies. The best I could get out of her was that she would let the vet take a look and decide. I walked out of there with tears welling up in my eyes--it was so frustrating. Of course, when I picked her up later, they had given her the shot. I later brought back some printed out articles about vaccinations, from my understanding of them. The truth was the vet himself didn't have a problem if an owner wanted to skip the vax--he literally said "It's your dog." But it had been the receptionist's rude handling of the matter. Although this vet's office is only 5 mins. from our house, we now drive 25 mins. to another vet. Lastly, within about 2 weeks we did notice a slight behavioral change with our dog. Nothing else in the house had changed except she was spayed and rabies-vaccinated. Once she recovered from the spay, she was noticeably more "barky" at the cats. We had never heard her do that kind of barking toward them previously.....it was the same cats we always had, etc. Now, she had this annoying yappy-growl at them.... that was new. But we had to wonder about it....

What about rabies shots? Thanks, Mac

Hi, thank you for all your doing to educate us on vaccines for our pets. Do you think puppies need any vaccinations ? If so, at what age, what vaccines, and how many repeats ? The schedule now is a 5way with corona vaccine at 6 to 8 wks old and then another same three weeks later, then two more of the same with Lepto added also. I decided to just get
the first two 5 way with corona puppy shots and that's it. What do you advise ?
Thanks !

It's good to see a vet who's turned from the dark side speak up on this issue.
We've been helping people treat Canine and Feline Parvo at home using natural products for years, and we are always seeing cases of dogs either getting Parvo immediately after being vaccinated, or dogs who are fully-vaccinated still getting the virus (even adults), and occasionally even dogs dying as a result of the vaccinations (mainly because some vets insist on vaccinating dogs who already have the virus or who they know have been exposed to the virus).

I find that often it's the older veterinarians who are more open as far as not vaccinating. I have 3 wonderful holistic veterinarians, Dr. Swift, Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Fudens,all of whom are against vaccinating but unfortunately, none of them has a clinic for surgeries or other emergency care. My conventional vet, Dr. George, who must be almost 80 never says a word about vaccinations to me, although his office is filled with reminders. He accepts that I don't vaccinate (& don't use allopathic treatments at all) and cheerfully confers with the other vets. If there's an emergency with one of my animals I don't have to worry about fighting the vaccine battle as well.

it is impossible to find a truly educated holistic vet who also has the practice to perform surgical procedures and bloodwork. i live in a large city where we are forced to take our sweet dogs to a conventional vet for any of these necessary services. where is the continuity?

In following the workings of Dr. Ronald Shultz I will no longer if bother running Titers as he has said, and I believe it to be true, that the dog's memory cells will create anitibodies in the event of disease exposure so no measurable Titer makes no difference in the dog's ability to mount a defense to a disease.

Well, I'm blessed to say that the veterinary care of my dogs is in the gifted hands of Dr. Will Falconer.
I couldn't ask for a more knowledgable, caring, and intelligent soul to consult with on the care of my beloved furry companions.
Thanks again!

Dear Dr. Falconer,
Thank you for writing such a great article on vaccinating your beloved pet. After I lost my dear doberman to cancer at 8 years old, 15 years ago. I have done extensive research on the subject and long ago stopped vaccinating my dogs and cats. Unfortunately back then you just stopped bringing them in. The vets would not listen at all and they definitely did not educate you about titer testing.
I have a wonderful 14 month old Golden Retriever pup now and the breeder is adamant about only doing puppy shots and after that doing titer testing, no more vaccinations, plus feeding your pup healthy, raw foods and no grain foods and lots of Vitimin C.
Ann Chase, of Honer Golden's, put me int touch with Dr Dodd when I adopted my Golden Quinn, who is 14 moths old. Ann, is wonderful, and is doing everything she can to educated people about the harm they are doing to there beloved pet when they over vaccinate. She has a release form for anyone's vet to sign that states the vet is not responsible if the owner decides to not vaccinate their dog. It helps when you are having that push back from a vet who does not agree with you.
I forward all of your information to as many people as I can to help educate them about this subject. Thank you for standing up to all the white coats that don't agree, and are greedy enough to continue to do what they are doing and making our beloved pets sick.
Pleas keep up the fight! I have attached below the release form for vaccinations. I will understand if you can not use it on this blog. I does help to let your vet know where you stand.
Sincerely
Pam Blaco
Hollywood Fl
VACCINATION RELEASE FORM
I, the undersigned owner/guardian of the companion dog or cat named ___________________,
understand that veterinarians have traditionally recommended that cats and dogs receive annual
vaccinations for many diseases. Recent research and publications indicate that the yearly
administration of vaccines for all diseases may not be necessary and may pose a health risk.
However, the government, veterinary community, immunologists at veterinary schools,
manufacturers of vaccines, and leaders of the American Veterinary Medical Association are in a
state of flux as to the frequency with which such vaccines should be administered.
I am aware that one year in the life of a dog or cat is equal to five to seven years in the life of a
human. Because of that rapid aging process and new knowledge indicating that the immunity
provided by today's vaccines may last longer than originally expected, it is essential that my
companion animal receive a yearly physical examination. I understand that until the scientific
community clarifies these issues, vaccination protocols may vary from those previously
recommended, thus requiring me to make an informed decision on behalf of my animal
companion.
I have been advised of the risks associated with not vaccinating. However, I request that yearly
antibody titers be performed and sent to HEMOPET / W. Jean Dodds, DVM, 11330 Markon
Drive, Garden Grove, CA 92841, Phone: 714/ 891-2022, instead of my animal receiving “annual
vaccine boosters”. I agree to hold the veterinarian harmless should my companion animal
contract a disease for which my dog or cat was not vaccinated.
I CHOOSE NOT TO VACCINATE MY DOG OR CAT WITH "YEARLY BOOSTERS"
UNLESS THE TITER TESTS RESULTS INDICATE OTHERWISE.
_______________________________________ _______________
Signature of Owner/Guardian Date
______________________________________________________________
Address
______________________________________ _______________
Signature of Veterinarian Date
One copy to be placed in the client's file
One copy to be retained by the animal's owner/guardian.
 Copyright 2003 Helen L. McKinnon, www.ItsForTheAnimals.com All Rights Reserved
Permission is hereby granted to print-out this form for personal use

Thanks for a wonderful article. For the last several years I have been learning more and more about the harm of vaccinations. My epiphany came when I realized that as a child I wasn't vaccinated every year so why should my pets. Duh! One of my furbabies is a little Chihuahua named Ricco who has an enormous amount of skin issues and allergies. When I discovered he had been to about 4 different households in his life before me, I realized that his issues are more than likely due to vaccinosis. He is now slowly on the mend and all my furbabies now get yearly titers. It might initially cost more than a vaccination but in the long run their health is better and their overall healthcare costs are much less. Thanks to vets like you Dr. Falconer I am continuing to learn and apply more holistic avenues for keeping my babies vital animals.

Thank you so much Dr. Falconer. This article is outstanding and very timely to the needs of so many. When I first saw your website, etc., and I read your banner, I was convinced you were the doctor I wanted to consult. I think it alluded to something like healthy animals are vital animals. Change can be very hard for people sometimes, and they seem to hate to think that something they've done forever could have been so very wrong. It is very important for people who are aware of these facts to get the ball rolling in a different direction so that more animals will not have to suffer as before. The whole nation has been so brainwashed that we totally buy into "a pill" or "an injection" will be the cure. You have to look at the "whole" animal or person. And first, do no harm, as you said. Great work Doctor Falconer, and I thank you from the very bottom of my heart!

I only work with veterinarians who will agree not to bug me about vaccinations. When I first meet a new veterinarian I state my case very clearly and politely...nothing adversarial. Usually they just think I'm silly and move on. But after they work with me and my animals for a while they understand that I care deeply and am well educated about what I am doing. I read a lot and offer to share it with them...so far, no takers. But they also see the great health of my animals, so even if they don't believe me, they know that I am making good decisions, despite them. Seeing is believing.
One of our older dogs needed some surgery, and I knew he was going to hurt. As soon as I saw him, I gave him a dose of 200C Arnica. He came home and went about his life like nothing had happened to him. Now that is a result that I can live with!