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Protecting Our Show Dogs This month’s topic is not necessarily about showing your dogs, but rather the care of your dogs before they are ready to show, and even before they are born. This topic is a very individual one for each of us, of course, as none of us is going to raise our dogs exactly like the next person. Each of us approaches the sport of dogs with our own set of priorities. Some of us want champions, some want performance dogs, some want to breed better dogs, some want to have a great pet that they can do things with. But I think we all agree that we want healthy dogs that live a long time with little, if any, health problems. Over the last decade or so, much information has come out about how we raise and keep our dogs and the impact this has on overall health of both these dogs and generations to follow. With the internet, this information is more widely available. But unfortunately, for every carefully researched and written article we find on these topics, there are many more based purely on the opinion of someone, usually with great passion, often based on some perception they have based on an experience they’ve had. These websites contain many claims with no factual basis. Often times, someone will have a dog or puppy become ill and want to assign blame, but their hypotheses on why the dog got sick lack anything more substantial than an emotional gut response, laying blame where it shouldn’t be laid. The sensible person may read these account with interest, perhaps use logic and give them no heed, or they choose to research further for any credible sources that might give credence to these seemingly bizarre claims, then draw their own conclusions on their validity. However, there are factions of fanciers that want to find fraud, lies, misrepresentation, and whatever support they can to support their own far fetched theories. By banding together, they lend support and a sort of ‘proof’ they are right, because they have found others who are willing to agree with them, so it MUST be so. And here in lies the danger, it seems. Recently I had someone contact me privately who appears to be just this type. She was on a discussion list I also belong to and privately emailed me to challenge something I said concerning vaccinations. As it turned out, she was a member of an email list that advocates using NOTHING ‘artificial’ on dogs at all. This includes vaccinations, dog food, flea control, heartworm meds or wormers, and antibiotics or drugs of any kind. I am not a member of this group but reportedly, it is very exclusive, booting any member with a different idea who dares express it, and the listmembers spend time discussing what is said on other groups. These people make claims that viruses don’t really exist as we know them and that vaccinations don’t prevent them, but rather cause the diseases! One person said that people believe that rabies doesn’t really exist because (they think!) the test for it is not reliable. Huh? Another person suggested that parvo was created from bad parvo vaccine! Now how much sense does that make? Why would there even be a parvo vaccination if we didn’t have parvo virus already? In reality, parvo came about as a mutation of the feline panluekopenia virus. The rebuttal from this group is that this is propaganda and “big pharma” is lying to us. Additionally, the people on this list reportedly subscribe to “survival of the fittest” and proudly brag about their litter of pups that survived parvo, losing only one pup or some such. They suggest that viruses were disappearing before vaccinations came out and that sanitation and such were the reasons the viruses disappeared (like smallpox and polio), not vaccinations. Some The general belief, as stated on some websites, for these “naturalists” on worms is that healthy dogs who are few raw foods and not vaccinated nor exposed to chemicals will not get parasites, or will be able to clear themselves of these parasites naturally because of their superior immune systems as a result of diet and no vaccinations or chemicals used on them. Yet, I know some who did tell of getting worms and treated with diatomaceous earth for three weeks to clear worms. Heartworms? They claim their healthy dogs don’t get them, or maybe just one or two adults that will naturally die off. They also claim that wild canids do not get heartworms and other parasites yet a quick internet search brings up many many claims of the exact opposite conclusion, and none I could find to support their claims. If you try to supply these people with peer reviewed articles about diseases and prevention, they will claim it is all propaganda driven by money hungry veterinarians and pharmacy companies who KNOW that their practices are killing pets but they don’t care because they make money. So they suggest the studies are fabricated. Furthermore, their website is riddled with anecdotal claims and misquoted statements from the experts. Dr. Jean Dodds, who has been one of the pioneers in getting changes in the frequency of vaccinations, issued a vaccination protocol that someone decided to alter and distribute. If I remember correctly, they changed what she said to saying that dogs had permanent protection from puppy shots and never needed another shot for their lifetime. It wasn’t until the AVMA was made aware of it and contacted her that Dr. Dodds learned of this alteration. In response, she distributed a letter to correct this denying that was what she advocated. My point is that we all need to be very cautious of some of these groups of people and the information on websites we read. While I think we would all love to find the magic formula to keep our dogs healthy and long lived, the internet is packed with really bad information based on paranoia and little more than support of others in a somewhat cult-like group of people. Do some dogs react badly to
vaccinations or other treatments? Yes, unfortunately, they do. I suggested to
the person who contacted me that if they really wanted to build a healthier line
of dogs, “survival of the fittest” is a hard and cruel way to do it. Nature
isn’t so kind in this area. Wolves and coyotes do die of the same diseases our
domestic dogs die from, including parvo and parasites. The difference is that we
can vaccinate and treat for parasites whereas the wild canid does not have this
option. These people say no, that wild animals do not get heartworms and mange,
etc. How do they know this? I’ve seen coyotes with severe mange. I’ve seen
documentaries on If you have fallen into this mentality as well, I urge you to think long and hard about your choices. I see way too many unvaccinated puppies die from parvo. Many of the survivors have permanent damage to their organs (the heart is one that can be effected). I agree that some dogs do have reactions to vaccinations and I also agree with the newer recommendations not to vaccinate annually. But I draw the line when it comes to leaving my puppies susceptible to preventable diseases that can kill them or effect their longevity and quality of life. Some things are not perfect, but the alternative is worse. Please be very careful, when doing internet research, that the sources are valid as well as if the quotes they assign to the experts are really what the experts say. Unfortunately, there is probably more misinformation than truth on the world wide web. The health and well being of your dogs could be at stake should you believe the wrong people. As always, I encourage anyone with ideas on issues I’ve discussed, or issues they would like to see addressed, to please share their thoughts with me. I can be reached at shilogr@yahoo.com Thanks so much! |
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