Clogged Anal Glands
Clogged anal glands are extremely common to all breeds of dogs.
Sometimes the glands are so foul smelling that they have to be
removed in order to have a pleasant tolerable living situation
with your best little friend.
Anal glands create the individual and distinctive scent that each
dog has that "marks its spot". Skunks anal glands are what "makes
it a skunk". When the anal glands are removed in a skunk, they
actually make nice pets (so they say).
Clogging of anal glands almost always indicates that there is a
serious bacterial balance within the body and that this imbalance
has existed for quite some time which now manifests itself as a
chronic infection.
Before we would do a drastic operation of removing the anal glands,
we would recommend that you flood the body internally with a
powerful probiotic containing 20 billion (or more) colony forming
units of good bacteria. This will flood the body with good flora
and will push the over whelming pathogenic bacteria out of the body
via the feces. This will restore the normal 80-20 bacterial balance
that warm blooded animals need to maintain in their gut/body in order
to achieve robust health and vitality.
Adding in herbs that have mild de-toxing properties, immune boosting
characteristics and mild antibiotic abilities can usually accelerate
this balancing act.
Additionally, we would mist this anal area with Oxyjuv™ that we use
for wound care and ear infections and eye problems (like dry eyes).
The microbes in Oxyjuv™ will bring oxygen to the clogged pores and
help clear them from the outside. Misting the area ten to twelve
times daily has been shown to really help clear up this condition
quickly.
Healing anal clogging from the outside in with the Oxyjuv™ and the
inside out with the ProBac Adult™ and Systemajuv™ has been shown to
prevent many anal gland operations. If you are diligent with your
administration, then these remedies can save your dog from
undergoing an operation and save you a lot of money. As we say,
"these remedies won't work staying in the bottle"! It's up to you
to help get your best little friend back to health without pain
and suffering if at all possible.
Vaccinations:
Are we doing too much too soon?
VACCINES: RISKS vs BENEFITS
~Reprinted with Permission~
As a Homeopathic practitioner and holistic breeder of Australian
Cattle Dogs for the past 16 years, I believe that the first thing
that needs changing is the myth that vaccines are not harmful. The
bodies of animals and humans have a tremendous capacity to detoxify
poisons but they have a limit! The limit is exceeded with toxins from
the vaccines, overuse of antibiotics, poor quality foods, and
exposure to environmental toxins prevent the animal's immune system
from being naturally challenged and strengthened. This is the main
reason we see a dramatic increase in allergies, organ failures,
behavioural problems in our pets. "Vaccinosis" is the reaction from
common vaccines against the immune system and general wellbeing.
Over the years I have been information gathering on this subject and
I truly received an education.
The thinking among Homeovets is that the rabies vaccine is not a one-
year or three-year vaccine but that it could easily last ten years or
the lifetime of the dog! It has just never been tested. It is however
manufactured to be effective for three years but Canadian law
requires a yearly vaccine! That means that every year your dog is
getting whopped with a triple strength of the so-called one-year
vaccine. Your dog's immune system will only produce so many rabies
antibodies. After a time her immune system will become stressed from
battling the rabies virus, weakening it and leaving your dog
vulnerable to other illness. Rabies vaccinosis can manifest in
aggressive behaviour, self mutilation, seizures, to the eating of
undigestive items including their own stools. If possible avoid
combination vaccines; these are shots which contain more than one
vaccine. For example the typical DHLPP shot is a combination of
distemper, hepatitis leptospirosis, parainfluenza and parvo. Wow!
That gives your dog's immune system five different diseases to
suddenly try and battle. Where would this ever occur naturally? Plus,
this assault avoids the body's first line of defences, by bypassing
the mucosal immune system of the respiratory and gastrointestinal
systems.
It is important to space the vaccines at least two weeks apart.
Unless you live in a high risk area wait until your pup is at least
five months old. By then the maternal antibodies will not interfere
with the effectiveness of the vaccine, therefore he will only need
each vaccine once. At one year of age your veterinarian can do an
antibody titre test, which is a simple blood test that measures your
dog's antibodies to a specific disease, such as parvo virus or
distemper.
Never give a stressed or sick dog a vaccination. If your dog is
suffering from allergies or fleas, or has skin problems, she is not
in optimum health. Stress is also a factor to consider. If she has
gone through an emotional trauma, for instance, a change of homes,
new member in the family, give her a while to get adjusted to the new
routine before getting vaccinations. Vaccine manufacturers recommend
that only healthy dogs be vaccinated. How do you know whether or not
his immune system is fully competent? How many owners know the
genetic background of their pet? Do they know if their dog has
relatives with epilepsy, thyroid disease etc? Keep in mind that
taking a young puppy to the vet for shots could weaken its immune
system for life, because his system was not fully developed, and he
will no doubt be emotionally stressed, due to being recently weaned,
and taken away from mother and littermates, placed with a stranger,
into an unfamiliar environment. The last thing this poor pup needs
added to all of those stressors is a "cocktail" vaccine.
High levels of stress can trigger autoimmune diseases such as
arthritis, haemolytic lupus, and various skin diseases. In autoimmune
diseases the immune system becomes confused and attacks the body.
In high stress situations the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in and
shuts off the immune system. Imagine if she has just been stressed
out of her mind with the car ride, her immune system is now shut
down, she gets her "cocktail" vaccine of DHLPP and possibly even her
rabies booster, gets back into the car, gets home, rolls on the grass
treated with herbicides, pesticides, takes a drink of her water
containing chlorides and fluorides, grabs a mouthful of cheap, over-
processed, commercial, dog food full of preservatives, BHA, BHT,
Ethoxyquin, dyes, by-products, including beaks and feathers, meat
meal, possibly even containing road kill!
In light of this new information I would suggest you educate yourself
before you vaccinate...in any case it is the rabies vaccine that is
not easily avoided especially if you cross the border.
Ask your veterinarian what he thinks of vaccines and you will
probably be met with a look that implies you are challenging his
experience and knowledge. He will assure you vaccines are safe and
they have tamed many diseases.
Our standard of vaccinating starts with puppies from six to eight
weeks receiving the combo vaccine. Maternal immunity starts to wane
at this point-the colostrum that the puppies receive while nursing
builds up their immune system. This immunity is known to last well
into their eleventh week. Why then are we inoculating these diseases
into our puppies starting as young as six weeks? Many breeders have
discussed the topic of "titering"-getting puppies' white and red
blood cells checked before inoculating-to see where their immune
system is at. A bit more expensive but in the long run may save us
all from over-inoculating.
Allergies, epilepsy, cancer, neurological damage, swelling of muscles
and tissues, kidney failure-these are just some of the side effects
that could be traced back to vaccines. One interesting column told of
a vet who was treating a dog who had a cancerous tumour removed. The
dog was doing well on holistic treatment when the panic call came in:
the tumour was back, worse than before. Upon asking if the dog's
environment had changed, was he back on commercial food, did you stop
giving supplements, all answers were no. "Matter of fact" they
responded, "our local vet told us just two weeks ago how great he was
doing when we took him in for his annual vaccine."
Cancer does not occur in hosts with strong immune systems. Vaccines
stress the immune system. If A creates B and B creates C, then A must
also create C. There are many case histories to support this theory.
Vaccines were necessary to save the population in the face of
epidemics. However, now we have too many adverse reactions. Maybe in
a hundred years scientists will look back and think that the practice
that we have now of introducing diseases into people and animals for
the purpose of preventing these same diseases is pure foolishness.
The combination vaccine DHL is broken down into D for distemper,
which in extreme cases leads to pneumonia or encephalitis. The H is
for canine viral hepatitis. This attacks the liver or kidneys. The L
is for leptospirosis, again attacking the kidney and can also be
fatal. The vaccine for rabies is given separately but at the same
time. Tho none of these diseases is extinct today, did the vaccines
help or are the diseases self limited? Parvovirus went from being
benign in the mid-seventies to a raging virus a decade later. Lyme
disease was discovered in the early seventies also, infecting both
humans and animals. Meanwhile the list of standard vaccines has more
than doubled as the years go by. Various others are recommended,
depending on the part of the country that you reside in. Jean Dodds
has learned a mind-boggling fact about vaccines: to ensure efficacy,
manufacturers for years have made vaccines ten times more potent than
what is needed to challenge the immune system. If you can, perhaps
persuading your vet to lower the dosage might be of some help. He may
not agree, since he could lose his license for not administering the
regular dose. Vaccines are controversial and will remain so until our
attitudes and our laws change. A recent survey by one of the largest
vaccine manufacturers of small animal vaccination practices (Pfizer)
found 1,700 different vaccination recommendations for dogs and cats
from veterinarians across the US.
What about vaccinations given to our veteran dogs? The last thing an
aging immune system needs is more stress. For instance, a 13-year-old
Golden Retriever. Why in God's name would you take him in for an
annual vaccine/booster? He is already at the edge of his normal life-
span. Would he really be in contact with any of the diseases he is
being vaccinated for in the next year of his life? Canine distemper
is usually found in younger dogs, tho some cases have been recorded
in dogs around eight. In our over-zealousness we are vaccinating dogs
twelve to sixteen years old who will never get distemper but who may
well suffer negative effects from the vaccines. Jean Dodds' articles
found on the Internet are very informative. Ask yourself-how often
are you vaccinated throughout your life?
There are twenty-seven veterinary schools in North America who are in
the process of changing their protocol for vaccinating dogs and cats.
Some of the information provided will present ethical and economic
challenges to vets and there will always be skeptics. Some
organizations have come up with a political compromise suggesting
vaccinations every three years to appease those who fear loss of
income vs those concerned about potential side effects. Politics,
traditions, or the doctors' economic wellbeing should not be a factor
in a medical decision.
Dog and cat immune systems mature fully at six months. If a modified
live virus vaccine is given after that age it produces an immunity
which is good for the life of the pet (i.e. canine distemper, parvo).
Not only are annual boosters for parvo and distemper unnecessary,
they subject the pet to potential risks of allergic reactions and
immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia.
Maternal immunity will neutralize the vaccine and little protection
will be produced if puppies and kittens are vaccinated before the age
of eight weeks. It is recommended that vaccines given two weeks apart
suppress rather than stimulate the immune system. With a vaccine
given sometime after six months of age (14 months is good) this will
provide lifetime immunity.
There are no new strains of parvovirus as one manufacturer would like
to suggest. The parvo vaccine provides cross-immunity for all types.
Hepatitis (adenovirus) is one of the agents known to be a cause of
kennel cough. Only vaccines with CAV-2 should be used, as CAV-1 carry
the risk of kidney damage.
When distemper and parvo are given in the series of 2, 3, and 4
months and again at one year with a modified live virus, puppies and
kittens program memory cells that survive for life and provide
lifelong immunity.
Bordetella parainfluenza (commonly called kennel cough) recommended
for our show dogs, boarding dogs, etc: this is an intranasal vaccine
which causes a more rapid onset of immunity with less chance of
reaction. The immunity does not protect from every cause of kennel
cough and is of short duration, 4 - 6 months.
Canine corona virus is only a disease of puppies (dogs can be well in
three days without any treatment). Cornell and Texas A&M have only
diagnosed one case each in the last seven years. Corona does not
cause disease in adult dogs.
Leptospirosis vaccine is a common cause of adverse reactions in dogs.
Lepto vaccine is immunosuppressive to puppies less than 16 weeks of
age.
Most kennel operators require annual boosters. For years the pricing
structure of vets has misled clients into thinking the value of an
annual office visit was strictly in the shots. This is not true as we
cannot emphasise enough the importance of a physical exam for early
detection of treatable diseases. Once the initial series of distemper
and parvo has been administered it is proven that the immunity from
the MLV vaccines persist for life.
Studies done by the Colorado State College of Veterinary Medicine and
Biomedical Sciences shows that the annual revaccination
recommendation on the vaccine label is just that. It is not a legal
requirement. Rabies is the only commonly used vaccine that is legally
required. Even with some rabies vaccines, the label may be misleading
in that a three year duration of immunity product may also be
labelled and sold as a one year duration of immunity product. Their
program recommends the standard three-shot series for puppies
(parvovirus, adenovirus 2, parainfluenza, distemper) to include
rabies only after sixteen weeks of age for dogs. They will then be
boosted one year later, followed by a three-year booster.
We only gave our dogs the 8-wk and 12-wk shot and then every year
thereafter till the dog died. In the '80s we were advised to give 3,
4 and sometimes 5 or 6 shots over the course of a year. I remember
getting one dog from New Mexico and at 12 weeks she had had three
sets of combo shots and accompanying her was a vaccination routine
set out for three more. I did not give those required shots till she
was two years of age. She has still to this day odd problems, immuno
deficient as well as neurological. I remember when they combined the
distemper with lepto and one other vaccine. All of a sudden dogs were
getting sick from another virus and they discovered parvo. So they
developed the parvo vaccine. From there, we then had symptoms develop
that were not exactly like parvo but with similarities. So all of a
sudden we have (killed or live) vaccine combos. It seems that each
time a vaccine is finalized, a new virus crops up from the possible
symptoms that the combination creates and then another virus vaccine
is developed to combat the disease. So are these vaccines worth it or
not? I had a dog who went down severely after being given the lepto
vaccine in the combo (I have not given the lepto vaccine in ten
years). Symptoms were immune response, weakness in rear, temperature.
As for rabies I never give a dog under one year a rabies shot. "My
puppies get one shot at 16 weeks and if really lucky will get another
booster whey they go to their first show and that is it. We do not
give corona or lepto and very rarely give rabies although we are on
an acreage. I have lost two pups to unknown reasons (so the vets say)
who had gone to new homes and the new owners had the vets update
their shots with the kitchen sink and within 72 hours both puppies
dropped dead. Their hearts were literally a mush pile. I blame the
shots; the autopsies were a huge waste of time as they are never
going to blame vaccinating.
After taking a litter of eight into the vet for their second set of
shots, two weeks later they came down with parvo and I lost the whole
litter. I had not been to a show in six months, nor had any contact
with any other dogs other than my own. Had I stayed at home and not
given my litter the second recommended shots, I feel they would not
have been in contact with the parvovirus, even though they were just
vaccinated for it."
For more information and other points of view consult:
