[…]Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats » Blog Archive » Recall Update: Saturday[…]

[…]Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats » Blog Archive » Recall Update: Saturday[…]

This food looks and smells like people food. I see chunks of meat and real veggie pieces. Real bonemeal grains etc.

The girl who helped me is an eastern michigan journalism major and as i chatted about my new thoughts on grocery store pet food she asked to quote me for an artice about all this she’s writing for a final project. I gladly let her and told her about this site and a few others so ITCHMO she may be mailing you asking to use or quote some of your site content, i hope that’s ok.
She said it will appear next month in their college newspaper, Eastern echo I think it’s called.

Anyway I just thought i’d share and say the few extra cents a can was more than worth the peace of mind i now have.

Tip on flea control - when I was doing shelter work, I learned a tip from the vet we used for applying ADVANTAGE: put on 1 drop per lb. of body weight. It comes in a pack of 4 tubes, almost the same price for 4 tiny tubes as 4 huge tubes for 70 lb dogs. The dog & cat formula is the same for ADVANTAGE–some other formulas are different & the dog formula will KILL a cat (I think Advantix is one of these, its a different product from Advantage), so make sure to check this CAREFULLY. Plus I don’t know if this dosage works for the other formulas.

We bought the big 4ml tubes for the cats & could get a lot of them treated with less money that way. I do the same for my six cats when there’s a flea outbreak, but not before. I squeeze out the tube contents into a disposable container & use a needless syrynge to take up the right amount for each cat. Saves a lot of money & reduces dosage to each pet.

Although AAHA recommends vaccinating against distemper every three years after the initial puppy shots, challenge studies have shown that the minimum duration of immunity can last five to seven years, and perhaps even longer. In fact, titers have indicated that dogs can be protected for nine to 15 years. “To be honest, although canine distemper is a core vaccine, I think a dog only needs to receive it once in his life,” says Dr. Schultz. “The same goes for canine parvo and adenovirus-2. That’s the vaccination program I’ve been practicing on my own dogs without any difficulty whatsoever. We’ve never had a vaccine-preventable disease occur.”
Pet Vaccine information http://felineinstincts.com/Fel.....eases.html
www.catshots.com

Toxins come from “pollutants (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, benzenes, pthallates, PCB’s, carbon monoxide etc.) that contaminate our food, water and air. They come from drugs, antibiotics, cortisone, flea control chemical products, heartworm prevention products and vaccinations.” See http://www.holisticvetpetcare......ukemia.htm (GLORIA DODD DVM)

also see critteradvocacy.com

A groomer told a friend of mine to lessen the toxins by choosing flea meds for a smaller dog so they will only get a partial dose instead of the full dose for their weight. My only concern is whether or not it’ll still work as effectively. Because the problem isn’t as bad in the winter, I do use a dose for a smaller dog. But in the summer, having live ticks on me or around my house doesn’t do a thing for me so I use the correct dose for her size.

I don’t know anymore……like you, I am obsessed with pet food right now…..but I can’t put my dog through getting sick after her yearly shots & I got really freaked about heartworm meds when I read how poison it is over the long term. Vet didn’t seem to feel strongly either way…..she just said to do what I thought was best. I did think about giving her one every other month instead of every month but that’s probably just as much poison so I stopped.

However, I think it’s wonderful news that vets are finally coming around to the fact that yearly shots are just too much. Probably kill the dog eventually rather than help the poor thing. Bad enough that we have to try not to poison our animals with pet food, we also have to worry about shots & other meds. Geez, cut me some slack here……

Now that I have this information though, I won’t worry about it getting done one year ago on the dot, like I used to. So thank you for that!

My cats have never shown a bad reaction to getting their yearly shots though. I wonder what that means. That they just have really healthy immune systems?

I am as well spending a lot of time on the pet food issues & the vac’s are not the biggest concern right now. I just hope this food issue will be over soon. I do think we are in the middle of more to come. I hope I’m wrong. We have had a fairly quiet week with just the one recall. I wonder what this next week has in store for us? :-{ Friday’s are always the worst. I used to look forward to Friday’s (until now).

One bad thing about not vaccinating is all the doggie day cares & kennels require them up to date on everything, & yearly vaccines. I haven’t found any that are changing to the 3 year routine like a lot of vets are doing. I don’t have much need for either of those types of facilities, but may need them sometime in the future. If I had the energy, I would go around & try to educate them on the new protocols, but am spending too much time on pet food issues right now. Maybe in another life.

Thanks for the advise. I am also worried that they give them too much of the stuff and it’s not necessary. Mine kids have no other contact with any other dogs except each other. My 6 year old also get’s ill for a few days after the vac’s. As I mentioned, we are going on 4 years now with titer tests and she still has enough in her system.

I think I will have the titers done on my little ones. I do have one that refuses to give up any blood which may be a problem????

Thanks again, I appreciate your thoughts. :-)

Like I said before, watching my other Lab throw up for two days after her shots was just awful. I swore I’d never let another dog of mine get those shots every year.

My dog walks on a leash & now & then goes nose to nose with another dog but she isn’t regularly exposed to other dogs (as in a kennel). I guess it would depend on how much your dogs are exposed to other dogs & if they’ve had any outbreaks of anything in your area. I’m certainly not an authority on the subject but watching your dog throw up for two days & mope around the house tells me that those shots can’t be doing her all that much good. Plus, like I also mentioned before, a friend of mine has not been allowing her dogs to get vaccinated every year…..after either two or three yrs, she had a titer done on both of them & they still had plenty left in their system.

What my vet told me is that they have found that these shots, that they always recommended your dog have every year, last a lot longer than a year. They now say to get them tested in two or three years. That’s all I know.