My Vaccine Nightmare

The Healthy Bark

This is the story of Caffelatte and the vaccine light bulb moment in my life. Pets can teach us so much, but you have to be willing to listen and see. This angel taught me so much about myself, my views, and my passion. She is my driving force to this blog. R.I.P. my angel.
Latte came to me at 3-months old, like any "good parent" I took her in for her puppy shots, exam, de-worming, and so on. That night she was not feeling well. I could tell something was off just not sure what it was. By the next morning she was sort of back to normal but still there was something not right. I called the Vet's office and told them what was going on, they said she probably had an issue with the de-wormer, so I let it go.

The weeks passed and as you know you get that great reminder and call that their next round of shots are do so please make your appointment, and like the good parent I did. This time however I asked to split the shots up. Thankfully my Vet agreed after we chatted and we did her last round of puppy shots over a four week period. She seemed to be OK, but still not normal after each visit. I honestly thought at this point I was overreacting, and that I was feeling things that were not possible. To this day I cannot tell you what is was I felt, but I can tell you it was if she was saying "No please do not give me that!"

Now Latte was 6-months old and it was time for her Rabies vaccine. Off to the Vets we went, and they gave it to her. The Vet gave her an injection to help with reactions as he put it as well. This time Latte had a small fever, would not eat for 24-hours, and seemed lethargic but restless for the next 24-hours. I felt terrible that my puppy was feeling so bad, she was not happy either, as she seemed out of it. After a week she was back to her normal puppy self and into everything.

Unlike today, the Internet was not really a thing you could jump on and search for answers, or see if people were having the same issues you were seeing. I thought back to my days working in a Vets office and what I saw in vaccinated dogs, and what I learned about them. I filed that bit of info away in my mind and went on about life.

At 7-months old she developed server food allergies, no not intolerance's, she was inflamed in her ears, her paws, her skin was a wreck, and she was miserable. Off to the Vets we went, a round of antibiotics, steroids, and some creams and shampoos. Round after round for the next 2-months, finally I had enough. I took her to a specialist and started a homemade diet to figure out her allergy. I refused to feed the allergy diet, because at this point I was starting to put the big picture together, I just was not there yet. Five months later, I had a list of foods I figured out she could not eat and that she could. Life was back to normal and so was my puppy, who now was over a year old.

Here we are again, time for her Rabies vaccine, I shuttered at the thought of giving this poor dog another vaccine, but knew I had no choice, or so I thought. I actually had found a new Vet, do to some things my previous Vet did that I will not go into at this time. She said she wanted to keep Latte all day so she could watch her and make sure she was doing alright before she came home. I agreed and left her at 7:00 am so she could get her Rabies vaccine first thing. The Vet called me at about 10:00am and said all was fine, but she had a low grade fever. She said she would call later that day and did. Latte still had the fever but seemed alert and even ate a little. I picked her up at 5:00 and she was happy to see me. The Vet gave me her cell phone number and said call if anything changed. 

Off to the house we went, Latte happy to be out of there. Our routine was pretty set each night. I had 3 other dogs at home and 4 cats. Yes I love animals and had a house full. All the dogs went out to play and get rid of some pent up energy from me being gone all day. Balls being thrown, tugs being tugged, and squirrels being chased. Cats getting their food, and bowls being made for the dogs. About 7:00 that night while watching some TV and finally getting myself a cup of coffee I sat down on the couch. Latte was laying in her favorite spot waiting for me. At that moment my world stopped. She turned and looked at me and the best description I can give you is she looked like a platypus. Her face was so swollen that I could barely see her eyes. Latte was a basset so you can imagine that was a lot of swollen for it to be all the way up to her eyes. The next few minutes were crazy, I was in panic mode, my dog was having a hard time breathing, I was trying to find my phone and the Vet's number, all while keeping the others calm.

In the car we went and I know I broke every driving law there was at that moment. The Vet's office was a mile from my house and the Vet was still there finishing up a few things. She met me at the door, the look on her face was shock when she saw Latte's face. She asked all kinds of questions while we took her to the back, she already had things set up from my phone call, and she knew with the panic in my voice it was not good. It took her three hours to get the swollen down in Latte's face, she gave her a few injections and with each one we sat and waited for it to work. She admitted it was the worse case of delayed reaction she had seen in a dog. While we waited we had a very long conversation about Latte and all that had happened. She went into great detail of her thoughts about this and at the end she recommended that she never get another vaccine, which I agreed with her. She wrote up a statement with pictures that we took to document what she saw and her thoughts. Once all was done, Latte had a letter stating that she could no longer have a vaccine again, that the risk was too high and life threatening. Not long after this I learned about titer testing and have used this ever since.
 
After all this I started buying every book I could find on naturals, holistic, and homeopathy for animals. Trust me it was not an easy find than, I searched many of book stores, and used books for what I wanted to know.  Even at this point there was not a lot written on vaccines and the issues they can cause. The Vets that did realize this were not ready to truly out the industry that was their bread and butter. It was not until around 2005 that you could find more on this subject.

You are your pets voice, it is up to you to decide what goes in your pets body and what does not. Once I saw what can happen, and know all the damaged it caused to such a young puppy, I look at it all very different now. There are more issues that came of this total breakdown in her body and another dog I had years before her. I now know what caused both of their problems and have lived with wishing I had stood up more for my pets. Instead of beating myself up over it, I have used this information to try and help others. The biggest thing I learned is listen to your instincts and what your pet is trying so hard to tell you.