Terry
I'm not trying to diminish what you write or give you a hard time, just offer a different opinion with additional information.
I am in complete agreement about not vaccinating as frequently as the vets suggest as well as minimizing flea/tick products and such.
However, I believe the issue is more related to poor breeding, and way too many "backyard breeders" who don't know what they are doing and don't care.
We were breeders of champion show dogs for 20 years and sometimes we had to stop or refuse to breed a certain dog because of health issues or temperment. A good breeder knows you never breed dogs with a health issue, they get removed from the breeding program.
But poor breeders don't do that. I believe poor breeding practices are more likely the culprit of all the itchy dogs with health issues because these dogs are being bred with each other and the health issues get transferred along. These puppies are born with a damaged immune system that will not tolerate the vaccinations, flea meds, etc that invade their immune system.
And then these dogs are bred and pass the problem along to the next generation, some of whom will be bred and the cycle continues..
Most puppy buyers don't know enough about breeding to ask the right questions when getting a pup to determine the likelihood of future problems arising.
Also, many of the rescue dogs so many people like to help are likely to be dogs with health and immune system issues.
A dog with a healthy immune system should not be experiencing allergic reactions of this nature.
Millions of dogs who get vaccinated every year of their life, take a heartworm med, use flea and tick control products each month, eat cheap dry kibble food and yet never have a problem with itching or bad skin or other health issues and live to a ripe old age.
I see these dogs every day.
I work with dogs, about 100-200 different dogs of every breed every week for the past 15 years. Yes, I do see a fair amount of itchy dogs on Apoquel or with skin issues but they are the minority not the majority and many of them are rescues with an unknown background.
I just think there is more to the story than just vaccinations being the cause of all these issues. A healthy dog has a robust immune system that should be able to tolerate this.
It is the dogs that are already unhealthy with a damaged immune system that are harmed most of the time.
I do agree that too many vaccinations, too many flea products and meds like Apoquel are not good for the immune system.