Alison_Leighfield said:
....I know a while back Judy posted alot of information about nosodes, seemed like pages of it!
I think it was Donna who posted that. Someone posted a long detailed essay or letter on the subject from their homeopathic vet, with his permission.
I wasn't at all familiar with nosodes until it came up here and there was a long discussion about it. I'm interested in these discussions. I've had such good results with homeopathy, but i've never tried nosodes. Zack was already vaccinated by the time i heard of them as an alternative.
here's the thread with a lot of discussion of nosodes (i'm sure there are some others too)
click
While there is a question of there being any possiblity of brain swelling as a reaction/trigger of any vaccine, especially with Cavaliers and the SM health issues, I in my own opinion will not take that risk, however small.
This is my main concern about vaccinations and Cavaliers. I vaccinate my Shelties without any worries at all. I am not against vaccinations, please do not think this.
Jean Dodds is a respected influential vaccine researcher (currently leading efforts to have an independent controlled study of the duration of immunity for rabies vaccination, in the interest of changing laws that require unnecessarily frequent exposures to this vaccine). She is knowledgeable and experienced in holistic health and has holistic values. I took Zack to her for titer tests and a consult. At that time, we talked about SM and i asked her if there was any sign that vaccinations played a role. She shook her head and said there was no evidence of any environmental cause. She noted hereditary evidence. She was well informed about SM, has written an article on it consistent with information reported by experts in the field specializing in SM and by SM researchers, and she clearly said there is no sign of vaccination causing SM, nor any other environmental factors. I respect her opinions a lot and i thought if anyone would have information about any associations with vaccination, it would be her, she must be as in tune as anyone with vaccination related problems.
Still, from reading SM discussion lists, i know that many people remain open to the possibility of environmental factors, including causal factors, and they have made some good arguments for staying open to this.
i hadn't thought of the possibility of a vaccination causing swelling of the brain. I can understand why you would not want to risk this. Not to say that the vaccination would cause SM but that for an SM dog, it would seem to be the last thing you'd want to risk happening.
Again I'm sure the info Judy posted contained a piece about this?
The thing i've been posting a lot about, related to vaccinations, is the evidence of the very long duration of immunity for parvo and distemper vaccinations, which raises doubts about the long embraced common practice of frequent and regular boosters, and the related subject of the efficacy of titer testing to assess immunity following vaccination. If there is considerable evidence that the duration of immunity from one vaccination is many years, and likely lifelong, and if seriologic testing (titer measures) are reasonable reliable tests of immunity as claimed by leading veterinarians and vaccine researchers, then if a dog shows an adequate titer following vaccination, not only would a booster be unnecessary--it would have no positive effect. The immune system would simply prevent it from affecting the animal. But there would be the risk of negative effects such as allergic reactions and long term undermining of normal immune function.
Reportedly, there is a big difference between the kinds of conditions vets frequently treat in their practices today compared to 30 years ago. In the old days, they mostly treated broken bones, ingested foreign bodies, and old age. Now, there are so many cases of severe chronic allergy, cancers, autoimmune disorders, that were rarely seen before. Over-vaccination is suspected as being related to this change, since the increase in vaccine use has parallelled it. So, the facts about duration of immunity and the role of titers in testing immunity is of great importance.
If there is any clear clinical evidence with statistics that this is nothing to be worried about regarding Cavaliers and SM I would most welcome it.
At least if the duration of immunity research findings are credible, there might not be a reason to repeatedly vaccinate, given adequate properly measured titers, and even your shelties might be spared the risk of swelling of the brain!