#39: Fire Your Vet!
When your vet pushes you into procedures you don’t want that are more risk than benefit, it’s time to FIRE him!
Join me as I share a real life story (one of far too many I have) about a woman being held hostage by her vet. She was being told she had to revaccinate her already vaccinated dog in order to get insulin for this same dog. Scout’s had diabetes for 4 years…
Learn why I recommend firing this vet, why more vaccines for this dog would be malpractice, and what you can do to get your needs met.
Are you paying a vet who’s more interested in his bottom line than doing the conscientious thing for your animal? If so, it’s time to make a powerful statement: You’re FIRED!
Links for this episode
Itchy Skin Update: Still #1 Dog Disease
Cruciate Cruciate Rupture: Missing The Big Picture
Vaccination as a Cause of Illness Has the link to Duval and Giger research on autoimmune disease in dogs post-vaccination
Recommended Resources (including how to search for a qualified homeopathic vet)
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Let us know in the comments below if if you've either fired a vet or have just cause but haven't yet.
I have fired 13 vets in the last 25 years , each one deserved a boot …THEY DO NOT LISTEN ! Just like the people quacks , only know what pigpHARMa $$$$ donates
Very useful information! I so wished the evil in big pharma could be stopped. Thank you for all you do! Your work is helpful to all of us trying to make the right choices for our pets.
Thank you so much Dr. Falconer for providing information on various subjects. I enjoy your articles and I love that you do the podcasts because I can listen while I work at home. I think my 4 dogs and 1 kitty enjoy hearing you, too! The funny thing is that the bluetooth speaker I use was given to me when I worked temporarily as a tech to fill in for a tech on maternity leave at our local vet. We were all given a bluetooth speaker and earbuds from a drug rep. Their Nexgard and Heartguard logos are on them. If they only knew what awesome things (these podcasts and Dogs Naturally webinars) are heard through those “gifts”!!
Love your “repurposing” of the Big Pharma gifts, Ann! LOL!
Thank you Dr Falconer!!😊😉
Dr. Falconer, BRAVO !! BRAVO !! What an amazing podcast AGAIN. I am an all natural breeder of french bulldogs and a few of your podcasts are required listening for potential pup owners, time to add another. Through your podcasts I have also established a relationship with Dr Todd Cooney who helps me prepare my pups with Nosodes instead of vaccinations. I raw feed my mama dogs and they also use Canine Immune Complete and your detox product. My pups are weaned from mama onto a raw diet. The education I have received from your podcasts alone is immeasurable and invaluable!!!! The sad truth is if I had not seen the damage over vaccination, apoquel, metronidizole, and other drugs can do to a dog I may not have sought this information. My first pup Lulu was “shot” up with so much that her immune sysytem and her body almost didn’t make it. She is almost 4 now and on a manageable path (thanks to you). Please, please never stop making these amazing podcasts. I can never thank you enough for what you have instilled in me. For myself, my crew of 9 frenchies, and future frenchies to be born Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!
Lulu was your main teacher, Carrie. I’m so glad you were able to turn her around and she’s been the impetus to change life for your pack, present and future! Yours is an inspirational tale I hope many choose to follow.
(It’s ultimately always a choice, right? Do we consume whatever is shoved our way or think critically and decide what we want and definitely do NOT want.)
Dr falconer
Thank you for this great podcast. I did in fact fire my vet . I almost lost my little dog during surgery. She was getting a cracked tooth removed. She crashed during surgery and just about didn’t make it. We found out she does have a leaky heart valve that many small dogs have. He went so far as to blame me because I feed her a well balanced homemade diet. This diet was given to me by a homeopathic specialist vet who encourages homemade diets. She does recieve all the supplements she needs as directed by the specialist. I have since found a wonderful vet who is well informed on a homemade diet and she encourages titers instead of pushing vaccines. Unlike the other vet who guilt trips you into things. You gave me the courage to stand up and say enough, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Love your podcasts. Sandy. Canada
Bravo, Sandy! (So your homemade food caused her to crash in surgery? Or caused her heart to leak? Or her tooth to crack?? or all of the above…?).
I’m so glad you left him and found a vet willing to work with you for the good of your dog. Isn’t that what we all joined the profession for? It seems many have gone astray…
I hope this inspires many others to stand up and get the help they deserve. Thanks for posting this, Sandy.
Dr. Falconer, my dogs and I have you to thank for the change in perspective as well as the courage to stand up and say NO! Thank you for that! I read an article of yours a few years back about when it’s time to fire your vet. I had never thought of it that way before, I had always trusted that they knew what they were doing! What a joke! I had been a client of a fairly rotten large practice for many years and I fired them and walked out. I now treat any vet I go to as an employee, I even told the current one he was being interviewed for a job when I first met him! Happily he is a great guy, a conventional vet but also sympathetic and accepting of my view points. I don’t re-vaccinate my already vaccinated pets and I don’t feed commercial pet food, he is ok with this and more. We are in much better hands now and it’s because of your enlightenment. I hope more and more people will take this approach.
Hi Sherri, 🙂
I’m wondering how many vaccines your dog was given for him to not require more.
Just curious, I am trying to determine the correct number for my kitten.
Hi AnJanette!
My currrent two dogs, ages 4 and 5, received a set of puppy shots plus a rabies shot at 6 months, I’ve given nothing more and don’t plan too. Both of these dogs reacted to the vaccines, the younger one developed the dreaded, chronic itch during the course of her puppy shots. The other dog had a more acute but short lived reaction to the rabies vaccine. It’s taken a long time to get improvement in the itchy dog, work in progress. I have no plans to set her back by injection her with any more vaccines! Same with my 11 year old cat. She had her kitten shots then a rabies shot. She also had a reaction to the rabies shot, developing a high fever and tremors that night. She is doing fine all these years later, the tremors have lessened but not gone away completely. She has never had another vaccine and never will.
My two dogs, ages 1 and 3, have had their puppy shots and NO rabies (there is very little to no rabies incidents here in WI).
The one dog was very itchy after the puppy shots, so much so that I was kept up at night from the scratching. The vet gave him a sample pill of Cytopoint – which did stop the itching, though now I realize there was very little testing of this drug at all!
So I do NOT want him to get any more shots of anything at all… so far I’ve been able to ‘bluff’ my way through the rabies requirement in the state, and the city, and by our dog club, and by the vets themselves… Photoshop and MSPublisher do wonders!
Sherri, you just made my day! I’m over the moon that you’ve shifted and found a great vet who listens to and respects your desires for your animals.
“Interviewed for a job” is an entirely logical platform to begin a relationship with someone you’re entrusting your animals’ well being to! Nothing unreasonable about stating that clearly at the outset, and look what you got as a result.
Bravo!
Hi,
This story reminds me of the horrible experience that I had last year when I too was held hostage by a vet, (not vaccines this time but bones). I will never get another dog because I never again want to deal with vets. I brought my dog to the vet because he was standing staring into corners, walking around aimlessly and walking into walls etc. Just before I brought him in he had a meal. They scanned and x-rayed him and then I got the bad news – there was a tumour on his liver. However that was not the thing bothering them the most. They were most concerned that they saw an object in his stomach. I was asked if he could have swallowed anything. I did not think so and asked them what it looked like. I was told that it looked like a bone so I replied that that was his breakfast, he had just had a chicken wing before bringing him in. This was when all hell broke loose. I got a terrible dressing down on the dangers of bones. I was told that it could puncture his heart, that in veterinary college they are told that bones are not food, they are referred to as foreign bodies. They wanted to operate immediately to remove it. I refused and told them that he eats one every day. In a snooty condescending voice I was informed that they were putting a note on record that I had refused the recommended veterinary advice. They kept him there for another two days and every time I rang to enquire how he was and what could they do about the tumour they always turned the conversation to the bone saying “but first we must remove the dangerous foreign body”. Three different vets there all gave me a dressing down about the chicken wing. They told me nothing about the liver tumour, nothing about treatment options, nothing about what to expect, never mentioned hepatic encephalopathy or seizures. They didn’t even try to sell me a bag of Hill’s prescription junk food. They did nothing for him. After spending two distressing days there during which time he refused to eat they told me he had deteriorated “due to the bone” and euthanasia was recommended. The appointment was made. I brought him home to say goodbye. He ran in the door wagging his tail and ate a big meal. I didn’t bring him back. The biopsy came back negative so I lived in hope that it was not cancerous even though they said that maybe they had missed the tumour (incompetence!). He lived another happy three months and seemed fine all that time apart from one episode of staring into corners and walls and then one evening while asleep in front of the fire he had a seizure and died. Could he have lived longer with treatment, I will never know because they never offered any. I feel they wanted to make an example of him for the danger of bones (to promote sales of kibble obviously). He was a sick dog with liver cancer but all they wanted to do was cut him open to remove his breakfast from his stomach not caring if this totally unnecessary procedure would kill him. If he died during the procedure they would have been telling all their clients about the tragic tale of the dog that died due to eating bones (instead of kibble), or if he didn’t die they could boast of saving him. I am so glad that I did not give them that opportunity.
What a horrible experience! I cannot believe the audacity that vets display to their clients because of the industry-supporting NONSENSE they are taught in their training. I hope truly and sincerely that you will reconsider your resolve to not get another dog. It is entirely possible and even probable that a properly fed dog will NEVER have to see a vet, and I’m even including the “alternative” ones in that. My dog is only 4, but she’s been to a vet only once, regrettably, for a minor injury. Apart from that, she’s had absolutely no problems. My last dog lived to be 19 without a SINGLE VET VISIT in the last 11 years of his life. My sister’s dog did not visit a vet from the age of 2 (when I taught her how to feed him) until he died a natural death 14 years later. The testimonials go on and on, but you will NEVER hear these kinds of success stories from a vet. It is not in their interests to have a healthy dog populace! If you’d like to hear more of these stories that include reversals of every form of supposedly irreversible disease, they are shared all the time in my Facebook group called Rotational MonoFeeding. It’s a form of home feeding that keeps dogs OUT OF THE VET’S OFFICE. I have a website with the same name and a YouTube channel as well.
Aine, “horrible” doesn’t do this experience justice. Truly shameful, the hubris you had to endure and from not one vet but the entire group.
The truth comes out when he rushed into his home to eat a big meal!
I think, in the end, he died an honorable death, and their version of treating liver cancer would likely have greatly reduced his well being and peace of being at home. You did fine. I’m only sorry you had to endure this egregious behavior on the part of supposed professionals, who couldn’t entertain the possibility of raw feeding and misdiagnosed his cause of illness as having consumed real food.
Hi Doctor. I just listened to your podcast about vaccines and not only was I angry with my current vet, but I teared up as well. I’m a cat mama who had 8 senior cats. One with cancer, one with asthma, one with IBD and hypothyroidism, one who had pancreatitis, the rest have had a history of urinary crystals. Every time we go to the vet we don’t give rabies, however, the vet somehow convinced us because we have an FIV kitty (used to have two, but one died 6 months ago, I believe because of the vet) we need to give EVERYONE Fvrcp every 3 years (I think that’s what it’s called. The respiratory vaccine). The way they make us get rabies, I believe, is by telling us they need a dental and THEY WON’T do a dental without a rabies shot TO PROTECT THE STAFF!!!! Then when they go for a dental, which we feel bullied into, they pull a lot of their teeth!
HELP!!!!! We have no idea where to start to find a new vet. I have lost trust in veterinary medicine due to this and because one vet killed one of my cats during a surgery where they didn’t open the pop up valve and blew her lungs up.
How do I find a vet here in Jacksonville, Florida I can trust? What questions do I ask? I feel like I’m letting my babies down and I’m stuck. I want to do both homeopathic and conventional…only because I was told conventional vets are the only ones who can do surgery if needed. Thank you for your time and help!
BTW…I find it interesting the feral cats we care for and only went to the vet when we TNR them seem healthier than our house cats who get annual exams
Your last sentence speaks volumes.
When you hire a qualified homeopathic vet, much of this will go away, and surgery is no reason to stick with damaging “prevention” that your cats have been suffering from for a long time. It’s also known as chronic disease, which conventional medicine has zero means to cure.
See my Recommended Resources page, linked above, and watch the video on how to choose the best homeopathic vets, linked right after the AVH list (scroll down, you’ll see it).
It may be the next generation or two where things will really change for you, so hang in there. But extricate yourself from the damage first. It gets worse the more you bring them in, as you’ve noticed.