These days, more and more dogs, younger and younger, are presenting with itch.
It’s soooo frustrating.
Pet owners want to know why.
Let’s explore a few facets of this condition.
First, a little history:
What we learned in vet school (understand that I graduated over 20 years ago, so I’m telling you ancient history) is that there are basically three types of allergies. Food. Fleas. Hay fever.
Hay fever allergies tend to develop at 2-3 years of age. Because the first year the body sees the allergen (thing that generates allergies), the body says “whatever.” The second year, the body is like “whoa, the last time I saw that…” and allergies start.
Well…
That’s old school thinking.
Today…
These poor dogs! (And really, it’s most dogs. Cats don’t really scratch like this. We might have a reason why by the time we finish exploring this topic.)
These poor dogs – seems like some of them are born itchy. Or the itch develops by 4 months of age.
I’ve been suspecting that it’s because of overbreeding, overuse of chemicals, overuse of lousy dog food and overvaccinating. I have previously presented the Pottenger studies as evidence.
Here’s some new evidence. The evidence comes from human medicine.
Apparently, infants who are given vaccines containing aluminum are at major risk of allergies – allergies and asthma – to anything that could have been in their surroundings around the time of a vaccine.
Well let’s apply this to dogs (and cats). It’s not the puppy/kitten shots that contain aluminum; puppy/kitten shots are modified live vaccines. It’s the rabies shot that has aluminum; it’s a killed vaccine. It also has mercury (thimerosal). Four months old. That’s when animals get the rabies shot. And boom. Here come the itchy dogs. (Again, cats not as much. And it might be because vaccines are also linked to cancer in cats – primarily the rabies vaccine. So the drug companies have modified some cat rabies vaccines to be a lot cleaner (can you say no aluminum). Not all, by any means.)
In humans, children vaccinated with aluminum containing vaccines have permanent, lifelong allergies to whatever pissed off these kids’ bodies.
Dogs. Same fr54$ing thing!
Who’s not pissed now?
And. To make matters worse- there’s a shot, c650p9nt, that blocks itch. And it’s pricey!
Sooo
It starts with the first rabies shot at four months old.
Itchy dog.
Monthly c650p9nt shot.
Tremendous profits for Big 4arma. $$$$
How do we address this in functional pet medicine? Detox. Heavy metal detox. Fix the gut.
But dang. Some dogs do better than others, some really struggle with a lifetime of itch.
Maybe now we know why!
Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.