# 11 Breeders: Please STOP Doing This!

As a blog writer and podcaster, I get a lot of email, especially when things have gone badly in an animal’s world.

One recurring theme that has always rubbed me the wrong way is the reports that puppies were vaccinated, often more than once, before they were sent home. As most leave for their new homes at 8 weeks of age, that translates to vaccines given to pups of 4 weeks or 6 weeks of age, and maybe again at 8 weeks, before they travel!

As there is plenty of science behind this being a dumb practice, I’m calling it out as such in this episode.

Minimally, the early vaccination of pups and kittens does no good but more concerning: every vaccine, given at any age, carries a very significant risk of long term damage to the recipient. Witness the explosion of allergic itchy skin and/or ears over the past many years. Most of this follows vaccination, but often a month later (so, unless you look for this pattern, you’ll miss it).

It boils down to what’s long been known about Mom’s colostrum and “passive immunity.” We’ve generated data on that since at least the 1950’s! And that is the #1 reason for “vaccine failure,” meaning the hoped for immunization has failed.

As I understand the breeders’ intent (“We don’t want to lose youngsters to infectious disease!”), I do offer some safe and effective alternatives to all this crazy over vaccination.

Please join me for this discussion and tell me in the comments if you need anything clarified.

Links for this episode

Parvo and distemper nosodes with protocol

Canine Immune Complete

Natural Exposure, Natural Pup Immunity (Free report)

Our sister supplement site: Vital Pet Health

Thanks for listening!

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Vital Animal Podcast so you don’t miss a single episode.
[fusebox_transcript]
Next week: Dr. Madalyn Ward, long time friend and homeopathic colleague, on how horses can be part of the “Natural Rearing” world by viewing their wild cousins, the Mustang and thinking through common management challenges on feeding and vaccinations. If you’ve got horses in your life, you’ll want to be sure to hear this smart equine vet!

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6 Comments

  1. Josh on February 7, 2023 at 11:24 pm

    Hi there, very helpful podcast! My breeder is going to vaccinate the rest of her litter for parvo at 6 weeks, if I have her give my puppy the parvo nosode during that time should she be protected from their vaccine shedding? And should the nosode work regardless of the diet the breeder is feeding?

  2. Donna on December 4, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    Hi,
    I got a new puppy 8 weeks old first shots were already done as were wordings through the 8th week. What are my options and how can I go about avoiding the rest of the vaccinations but still keep him safe.

    Thank you for your counsel.

  3. Daina on November 10, 2020 at 10:03 am

    Hi there Dr. Falconer – Wonderful article/episode, very informative & totally makes sense. This sounds like our now 2.5 year old dutch shepherd/great pyrenees cross, we got him at 7 weeks of age from people who “needed to get rid of him & his siblings as soon as possible”, we were unaware if he got enough colostrum as he was still feeding off his mom when we picked him up & since then he has had bad continuous issues with itchiness of his ears, his chin moreso the past year, and a host of other issues gastrointestinal wise. We just recently switched him to raw & seems alright on it, he’s hated kibble. He has had his vaccines around the 3 month and later mark. My ultimate question is what can I do about it now at his age of 2.5 years? If I get the ‘Canine Immune Complete’ will that help solve some issues? Thank you!

    • Will Falconer, DVM on November 10, 2020 at 8:58 pm

      As the episode mentioned, colostrum is only available to a newborn. Only in their first 12-16 hours of life, in fact! Nursing beyond that is fine, but Mom’s antibodies aren’t getting through the gut barrier, even if they were in her milk.

      Chronic issues in early life are far more common from early life vaccines, especially The Itch. This is almost always allergies, i.e. “immune confusion” about how to react to normal things in the dog’s world.

      Raw diets help a significant percentage of the allergic guys and Rampart can also help get the immune system back to normal, stopping the allergic over reaction.

      If you’ve tried these strategies and are still having chronic issues remaining, you may need to hire a homeopathic vet to go deeper in treatment. I tell you how to choose a solid one on this page.

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