Christina Chambreau, DVM, a holistic veterinarian with Healthy Animals, Healthy People in Sparks, Md., says responsible pet owners should be given the option of a titer versus vaccinating, or wait longer between vaccines. “If a veterinarian is concerned about being penalized when a vaccine is forgone, they can always have the client sign a document relieving the veterinarian of malice if the animal does (however unlikely) contract the virus,” Dr. Chambreau says. “If you talk to 100 holistic vets, 90 would say vaccines cause problems. I have conducted in-house, long-term tests to determine ailments–to find problems would occur a couple of weeks after being given a vaccine. “The problem is, in the U.S. we want results fast–have the dog vaccinated and check it off the list. But issues don’t always happen in 48 hours and by the time a problem does occur, vaccines aren’t considered as a culprit. If we have a cough, we take cough medicine and expect it to be cured immediately, but things don’t work that way in reality and things don’t always go wrong immediately, either.” Chambreau says 70 percent of the chronic problems she treats are caused by vaccines and they include just about everything, including cancer. “There are websites dedicated to this topic, such as rabieschallengefund.org,” Chambreau says. “At annual American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Assn. conferences, this is always a topic. “Little has changed as far as awareness of this issue in 10 years, but maybe with more exposure, things will change.” Related Feature Article: Titers Join Debate on Vaccine Frequency <HOME>
