\”Hello? Is that the home visit vet?\” – Her voice was a bit echoey, hard to make out.
\”Yes it is – just let me pull over, it\’s a bit hard to hear you on this line…\”
\”I\’ll walk outside, we don\’t have very good coverage here,\” and so we paused for a moment in the conversation, while we all stopped cars and went outside.
\”How can I help you?\” I asked.
\”Well- I\’ve got a cat, and he\’s just not right, and he hasn\’t been right for ages – so we\’d like you to come and have a look at him. I heard you do more alternative treatments? The regular vets we\’ve seen have been no help at all with this problem.\”
\”Yes, I use a lot of holistic and complementary treatments, and they work very well a lot of the time.\”
It was three days later before I headed North out of Townsville in beautiful spring weather. Not too hot, not too cold, still a bit of green in the landscape. Driving, driving, driving. Being buffeted now and then by the wall of wind flung aside by big semi trucks, listening to music, thinking about life. Then pulling off the highway and onto a narrow road, bitumen all rough and broken on the edges. Finally the clatter spat of gravel road under the van before I pulled into the driveway. A welcoming smile, then I was invited inside.
\”So then, tell me his story…\”
\”Well, he had a bad reaction to his vaccination when he was a kitten, got really sick for a couple of days, and he\’s just never been the same since. It\’s hard to put a finger on it, but before the needle, he was full of fun, so lively and happy, and since then he\’s really not had that spark, you know?\” She looked at me questioningly, obviously concerned about her friend. He was a big ginger cat, though quite skinny, sitting on a ledge in the sun, watching us carefully.
\”And has he been vaccinated since then?\”
\”I have had the vet telling me I should, but no, I have not. I was worried that he might get sick again. Did I do the right thing? because I\’ve also been worried that he might not have protection.\”
\”I\’m glad you didn\’t. If you\’ve had a vaccination reaction of any sort, it\’s likely to happen again, and often it\’s worse each time you re-vaccinate. And please don\’t worry about the protection issue. These vaccinations give a long lasting duration of immunity. There is good research showing that they last from 5-7 years, to life.\”
She burst in – \”Really? Then why on earth are most vets still vaccinating pets yearly, and putting so much pressure on me to have my cat vaccinated?\”
I pulled a bit of a face, because this is a very sore spot for me.
\”My industry has a very long way to go to get to best practice with this issue, I\’m afraid. There is no evidence base whatsoever for the status quo of yearly vaccinations. The reason as I see it is that when vaccination started in pets, the drug companies that make the vaccines only tested their efficacy out to one year. It costs a lot of money to test out to 3, or 5, or 7+ years, you see, and then the research would also lead to them selling less vaccines. So they have zero motivation to do what is in the best interests of our pets. More recently they have done the research to register dog vaccines out to 3 years, but the cat market is smaller, and I doubt they will do the same there. There is a fellow in the USA, Dr Schultz, who has done research which shows that these vaccines last at least 5-7 years, and most probably for the life of the animal. My judgement is that you have to follow the money. For one, our professional veterinary associations are sponsored very heavily by the companies that make the vaccines… And for two, yearly vaccinations make up a very large portion of the income in many veterinary practices. So pets all over Australia, and the world, every day, are given unnecessary doses of a biological medicine, with potentially awful acute and chronic side effects. Our pets pay the price! It upsets me.\”
She looked more and more shocked, as I explained all of this.
\”My god!\” she said. \”That\’s terrible! I know it was really obvious that my fellow here got sick. Is there anything we can do to help him?\”
\”Yes- I will give you a homeopathic remedy, and I will also do some energy work with him too. I\’ll come back once a week for a few visits to do the hands on sessions, and we\’ll see how he responds.\”
\”How do you think the vaccines harm animals?\” she asked me.
\” You can get an acute allergic reaction, or anaphylaxis. But mostly I think they upset the immune system, and dysregulate it. So I suspect that a lot of the more chronic diseases that have become endemic on our pets over the last 20-30 years – like allergies, diabetes, kidney disease, auto immune diseases of all sorts, cancers, arthritis and so on, are a result of over vaccination, from insulting the body with unnecessary vaccines over and over again. Certainly I\’ve seen multiple older pets who\’ve suddenly crashed and died within a month of a vaccination, like another one just tipped them over the edge. The sad thing is, most vets actually believe that this is the best thing to do. They\’ve been brainwashed as well!\”
She watched as I gave him his first dose of homeopathic remedy, and held him for the hands on work. I gently released and cleared energy blockages, supporting his being to move towards greater health and well being. Then, over the next 4 weeks, I saw a steady improvement. His coat, which had been dull and stark, became shiny and soft. He put weight on (he\’d been over skinny since that vaccination, none of his food seemed to stick), and he got his spark of life and fun back, became more playful, and happier.
\”He\’s so much better, thanks so much!\” she said at the end of the last visit.
Before I drove off, I reinforced one important, vital point.
\”Don\’t, whatever you do, ever vaccinate him again… It could be the end of him if you do.\”