AN EPILOG

     If there is any question about how I feel about vaccinations, let me say that my first choice for my book title was Vaccinations: Deceit, Debility, Disease, & Death. I changed it only because I prefer to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

     We can eliminate the negative by each of us doing our part in seeing that our own animals are kept healthy through nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, exercise, and good common sense when it comes to health care.

     Find a holistic or, preferably, a classical homeopathic veterinarian. Too often I see and hear about veterinarians who have a sign out front, a business card, brochure or other advertising stating they are holistic or that they practice homeopathy, and in actuality, they don't. As soon as you are in the office they say, "Well, in this particular case we have to use (name a drug, any drug.)" That is not a holistic or a homeopathic practice.

     And just because a veterinarian tells you which one of the canned or dried foods is "best," that does not make him/her a nutritionist. An honest veterinarian will tell you they did not have one class in basic nutrition in medical school. They may have had a class taught by a veterinarian who works for one of the commercial pet food companies who tells the veterinary students why their pet food is the best.

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      If you have a truly holistic/homeopathic veterinarian, s/he will tell you that RAW food is the best, because that's what carnivores are meant to eat. The digestive and eliminative systems of  carnivores has not changed. Domestic or wild, their systems still need RAW food.

     If a surgeon opens up a coyote or wolf on the surgical table and opens up a dog of similar size, they will see exactly the same organs, glands, tissue, and make-up of the anatomy. The wild animal may have healthier looking tissue because s/he has been eating raw food in the wild, but the anatomy of the companion dog and cat has NOT changed over the past centuries because of domesticity.

     Now, if they tell you RAW is best and sell you canned or dried, what does that tell you? Right. They don't walk the talk!

     It is not easy to find a truly holistic veterinarian. A CLASSICAL homeopath is your best bet. Classical means they use one remedy at a time and NO drugs. (Yes, there are always exceptions.) If the practitioner is using blends, several homeopathic remedies mixed in one solution, or they tell you to give several tablets or pills, each of which is a different remedy--that is not classical homeopathy. Anyone using homeopathic blends would be analogous to using several antibiotics at one time because s/he is not sure which one will work, so throw them all in and see what happens. That is not even good allopathic medicine, and it is definitely not homeopathy. You can do better than that yourself

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by reading a few books and using ONE remedy that is closest to the symptoms, which is called a simillimum.

     If you have to use a traditional or allopathic veterinarian, then that is what you have to do. At least you know what that veterinarian professes. I am more concerned about the veterinarian who claims to be holistic--and the client feels secure in that belief--and then the veterinarian continues to vaccinate, sells or prescribes canned and dried foods, prescribes homeopathic blends, uses antibiotics and steroids and does unconscionable surgeries like declawing cats, docking tails, cropping ears, et al.

     Now, if after reading all this YOU choose allopathic medicine, that is your choice. You are the GUARDIAN of your animal--we are definitely not their owners--and it is your responsibility and duty to choose the best health care for her or him.

     The calls and complaints I receive have to do with asking for and expecting holistic care and getting allopathic.

     For those of us who want holistic care, the only way we are going to turn this around and get what we want is to ask for, expect and, if necessary, demand natural health care, resulting in having happy, healthy animals.

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