Side Effects of Pet Vaccines: A Closer Look

I have a five month old puppy. Her name is Starbuck. She is now having seizures.

Funny but when we first got her she was a jewel, smart, calm and everyday we were amazed at how wonderful a dog she was. As good dog owners we took her to get her shots. Everything started happening AFTER she started her shot series. First she was vaccinated against Parvo. One week after getting the shot, she contracted Parvo, we almost lost her not to mention the 2000,00 we paid to put her in the hospital. She was house bound to decrease the chances of getting Parvo. How she contracted is debatable i suspect it was the vaccines. She survived and of course we were thrilled. We bonded, trained her to do amazing tricks and welcomed her as a part of our family. She was house bound still at this point. All was well and to continue being the responsible dog owners we are, continued with her shots.. one week after receiving her third set of vaccinations, she began having seizures.

Now our sweet dog is having seizures on a weekly basis. I will not elaborate on how stressful and heart breaking as well as expensive this is but I completely understand all the emotions other dog owners are having when their pet goes through this.

We are now on the usual drugs which are not really working. She cant go out to play or anything that causes excitement. If she has too much fun she suffers from seizures when she goes to sleep. The seizures have become clusters mainly on the weekends.

They have not told us that because they happen in her sleep, that may be "significant". Translation: Now we have to go to a specialist. We cannot afford this and if the is what the vet tells us, we will have to make the decision to either give her away or have her put to sleep. THis is heart breaking to say the least.

I believe that these problems are caused by vaccinations. I am not a veterinarian, i am just looking at cause and effect.

Another reason I believe that vaccinations are the culprit is the experience i had with my ferret Duke. Duke was a healthy, fun loving house bound ferret, and being the responsible pet owners we are we took Duke to the vet to get his first series of shots. He had an immediate reaction to the shot and suffered an allergic reaction. One to two weeks after receiving his shots he began to get sick, no one could tell us why. I tried to save him, staying up nights, forcing food and everything else I could do to help him, but he just wasted away and after losing so much weight and suffering a seizure we had him put to sleep. They never determined the cause and we spent 3,000 on tests.

Shots are a necessary evil I understand but I also believe that they kill our animals, cause family members all sorts of heartbreak and drain our bank accounts. My only hope is that if we ever decide to bring another animal into our house we pray that they will survive the vaccinations.

I definitely believe that the booster shots cause seizures in dogs. I had a Samoyed who received a rabies shot. She had gotten loose and was picked up by the dog warden. When I went to pick her up, they asked me if she had had her rabies vaccination. I said it had just expired about a month prior. They would not let me get her out unless she got her rabies shot, so I said ok. I had not gotten them their shots, because I had heard of the controversy of vaccinations and so I had held off so that I could do some research. But instead I had to let them administer it to her in order to get her out of the dog pound. About 2-3 weeks later she had her first seizure. I was scared to death because I had never seen anything like it. I started trying to figure out what could have caused it, and thinking over the recent events to try and come up with a reason for her to have had a seizure. The only thing I could figure is that she had just had the rabies shot. Since I am in the medical field, I went into work and looked up the rabies vaccination in the Physicians Desk Reference. Low and behold, right there in the "side effects" it states that it CAN CAUSE SEIZURES. After doing some research on the internet, I found other cases where dogs had had rabies shots and had started having seizures as well. Now, I know that in the US, dog owners are required by law to have rabies shots every year or two. So for those of you who don't know this, you can have what is called a "titer" drawn. It is a blood test to determine if your pet is still immune or not. If they are, they do not need the shot and you can use that for proof, if you ever have the authorities question you. When an animal is already immune to rabies, and they are given another shot, it overloads their nervous system, and that is what causes the seizures. I unfortunately had to learn this the hard way. My Samoyed has been dead now for 3 years. I still cry to this day over her. She was like one of my children and she should still be alive today. So I hope this helps others to prevent this from happening to their dearly loved pets.

I have had a total of four dogs in my lifetime, two of them had reactions to vaccinations. My first dog was a male pug and had skin allergies. After vaccines, large tumors came up on his skin and there was a very strong smell that never went away. He always smelled but this was alot stronger. I now know that this permanent smell was the liver being unable to detox the vaccines and not due to the lack of bathing. The dog had to be on pregnisone the entire time, without it he would scratch and scratch until there was blood everywhere. I stayed up many nights putting him in a bath of greenzone which helped but didnt cure. I now know that his liver needed some work. He died at the age of two, from a stroke. I cant say it was directly from the vaccines but I can say that he got alot of help from the vaccines and the pregnisone. My other dog was a German Shephard, I inherited him from the neighbor that severly neglected him, she did tell me that he had heartworms, but she didnt tell me about the seizures. I questioned her about his first seizure and she doged the question, but after having many seizures, she finally admitted that his first seizure took place after he was vaccinated and was given heartworm meds. Imagine that, giving a dog with heartworms vaccines. Well that would explain his second seizure that came after the second heartworm treatment. This was a grand mal seizure and I thought that was it, but the doctor gave him a shot of steriods and it revived him. It lasted maybe a week and a half, then I gave him oral steriods every other day and then He had another seizure, but it wasnt bad. Then he got a severe infestation of round worms. I dreaded getting the meds, because I knew what was coming. I had 3 seizures, one every day. By that time, I knew this dog could no longer take any meds at all, I also knew that he couldnt handle chemicals either. But I wasnt able to put it all together fast enough. He started to decline, took him to holistic vet, she gave him an eye exam and from the look on her face I knew that this was a brain tumor. We were able to stop seizures, but not the brain tumor, I had to put him down yesterday. I now know that holistic doctors can detox these vaccines out of their systems.

As for heartworm, the meds are nasty but so is the disease. They provide heartworm nosodes that works for some animals but not all. I will spray my other two dogs with natural mosquito repellent instead of giving heartworm, which I have never done with my own dogs but after what happened to Obie, I am taking this disease far more serious. So what happened, I now know that obies liver could not detox and that all the toxins were routed to his brain which in his paticular case was the weakest organ. Toxins generally land on the weakest organs, then you have parasites, fungus, yeast, bacteria. Much like you would see with rotting garbage. Of course, I was not giving the whole truth about obies condition from the start. According to New York Times, one rabie shot should last a lifetime. My philosphy is after these experiences is one set of shots and one rabie, if you have an outdoor dog. MY new pug has hever had one, there are no racoons in my living room, at least I hope not. As for a large dog, that is more tricky, if they bite someone, and there not up to date on rabie, owner could be sued. If you want a healthy pet, stay away from the vet unless it is an emergency. Stay away from corn, diary, gluton and soy, no chemicals at all, supplements also have fillers and binders that dont set well. These expensive vet supplements have them too. There are supplements that are O, K. If you decide to vaccinate, call a holistic vet first, be ready in case you have a reaction to the shot. Most of all old dogs should die from old age, not from heartworm, tumors, seizures etc. Those were the excuses from the previous owner. Her excuse was, he was just an old dog, and she couldnt wait to put him down, as she had been trying for the past year. Each time we blocked it. It was just too inconvient and embarrassing for her. This is still too raw.sorry

My name is Kris Christine and my precious 6 year old yellow labrador retriever, Meadow, developed a malignant mast cell tumor directly on the site of his rabies shot 3 months after vaccination. After a long battle, he recently died when the cancer metasticized throughout his body.

In order to prevent dogs from being required by law to be redundantly vaccinated against rabies (1992 French challenge studies demonstrated a 5 year minimum duration of immunity and Dr. Ronald Schultz's serological studies from the University of Wisconsin proved 7 year minimum duration of immunity), I founded The Rabies Challenge Fund along with Dr. W. Jean Dodds.

Concurrent 5 and 7 year challenge studies, being conducted according to USDA vaccine licensing standards by Dr. Ronald Schultz, began at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in November 2007. Veterinary vaccine manufacturers are not required by law to provide long-term duration of immunity studies in order to license their product, only studies that demonstrate that they confer immunity for the length of time indicated on the label. Thus, rabies vaccine manufacturers are allowed to license 3 year rabies vaccines as 1 year vaccines despite studies proving that the rabies vaccines confer a MINIMUM duration of immunity of 5 to 7 years.

For further information on the rabies vaccine and adverse reactions associated with it, please visit THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND website at www.RabiesChallengeFund.org.

I volunteer in cat rescue and have seen a few reactions to vaccines. I learned (from a homeopathic vet) that the homeopathic remedy thuja can counteract a distemper vaccine reaction in kittens. I do not know if it will work for other vaccine reactions or if a different remedy is better for dogs. I have seen kittens with rapid breathing, lethargy, and shakes return to normal behavior almost immediately or within 24 hours of taking thuja. If you are going to vaccinate your pet, it may be worthwhile to research this and have on hand the most appropriate remedy.

Here is one advice that I find in many books written by homoeopathic doctors for avoiding damages of vaccinations (better would be to not vaccinate at all): Give your dog 5 globuli of Thuja D30 (or C30 whatever your druggist has) 1 hour before and after vaccination. Maybe you can even find a homoeopathic vet in your area. You should also ask your vet on 3 yearly rabies shots because they are available. Go to Dr. Mercolas website. I remember he had an interview with a Dr. Schulz who is a pretty well-known American vet and says that all mandatory shots will last a lifetime. But the only good shots are the ones not given.

Good luck, Marianne

I have a 5 month old kitten that is eating & acting fine but is having bad diarrhea. He had only one vaccine about 6wks ago. I have read many of the very sad stories abt pets and vaccines. My sincerest sympathy to any who have had very ill pets or lost a precious one to vaccines. I wanted to add, that, I understand that you can give any animal having any adverse type reaction to a vaccine or if you think an illness or tumor or cancer is vaccine related; you can treat them with homeopathic med "thuja" 30c is what is best from my natural med book on cats and dogs. I have read different dosing, tho one is to give one dose, but for 3 days. You could check the internet for other recommendations. But it could possibly save a pet's life. Also you can give even if there is no bad reaction, but I am not sure how long after the vaccine was given, this would be recommended. Hope this helps someone.