How all natural are you?

[zentrainer]

For those of you who feed raw or even premium diets, what other natural health practices do you embrace?
~do you vaccinate?
~use flea meds?
~use heartworm meds?
~use drugs such as antibiotics, or steroids?
~use any type of traditional medicines: acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathic, herbal, etc?

[bellamicuore]

For those of you who feed raw or even premium diets, what other natural health practices do you embrace?
~do you vaccinate?
~use flea meds?
~use heartworm meds?
~use drugs such as antibiotics, or steroids?
~use any type of traditional medicines: acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathic, herbal, etc?

I am down to just the rabies vaccine. Bella has seizures and I've decided at this point to just go with what is required by law. For the same reason, I don't use flea meds (haven't seen a flea on her yet). I do use year-round heartworm meds.

I do still feed Bella kibble, along with a dehydrated raw food. Both are grain free.

[RawFedDogs]

Only the basic minimum vaccinations. That means puppy shots only. My Abby (8yo Great Dane) has had her last rabies shot. She hasn't had the other vacs in 6 years. I'm still undecided about Thor(3yo Dane) as far as rabies shot. I won't have to decide that for another year. I'm not concerned about his immunity. I'm conserned about what would happen if he ever bit someone and wasn't current on rabies vacs.

I use flea meds when I see a flea.

I use heartworm meds during mosquito season. I have it worked out to were my dog get about 4 doses/year.

I will use antibiotics or steriods if they are ever called for.

I use absolutely none of the out of the mainstream medicines. To me they are in the same category as witch doctors and voodoo priests.

[bellamicuore]

has had her last rabies shot. She hasn't had the other vacs in 6 years. I'm still undecided about Thor(3yo Dane) as far as rabies shot. I won't have to decide that for another year. I'm not concerned about his immunity. I'm conserned about what would happen if he ever bit someone and wasn't current on rabies vacs

How do you get away with not vaccinating for rabies?

[rannmiller]

For those of you who feed raw or even premium diets, what other natural health practices do you embrace?
~do you vaccinate?
~use flea meds?
~use heartworm meds?
~use drugs such as antibiotics, or steroids?
~use any type of traditional medicines: acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathic, herbal, etc?

I try to only vaccinate for rabies, I had to get my older dog vaccinated when I got my new rescue or they wouldn't let me have him. Plus, my rescue came from a place where all the other dogs were coming down with kennel cough, so I didn't want to take any chances there.
I don't use flea meds since I live in NV, no fleas and hardly any ticks here!
Heartworm, same goes for mosquitoes, not too many water-dwelling bugs in this desert.
I will use antibiotics and steroids if necessary.
I haven't had a need for any of the other "traditional" medicines and since I was raised by a family of doctors who practice "modern" medicine, I'm with Rawfeddogs on that one, seems like voodoo type stuff to me.

[BoxerMommie]

For those of you who feed raw or even premium diets, what other natural health practices do you embrace?
~do you vaccinate?
~use flea meds?
~use heartworm meds?
~use drugs such as antibiotics, or steroids?
~use any type of traditional medicines: acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathic, herbal, etc?

I will vaccinate every 3 years for everything on my puppy after his 1 year puppy booster, my girl I cannot vaccinate at all due to her medical condition.

I use Frontline Plus as we have fleas here and I am highly allergic (like let's put me in the hospital allergic) to fleas so it's a must for any dog that walks through my front door, fosters and clients included.

I use heartworm meds as we do live in a mosquito populated area (my puppy was outside for 10 minutes the other night and came in with 22 mosquito bites, YIKES!)

I will use antibiotics if necessary but I do not use them for everything and give things a chance to go away on their own first, but I do also then give a probiotic while on them. Never had a reason to use steroids. I typically combine natural with "western" medicine as I believe there is a place for both it doesn't have to just be one or the other.

I use some herbal and homeopathic especially on my girl who has liver issues due to her medication and her degenerative knee condition.

I am not all one or the other, I believe there is a place for traditional medicine as well as natural medicine, I am not quick to use either, but research what would be best for whatever the problem is at the time. Some things do require prescription meds, such as both of my girl's conditions, some things can be managed with natural medicine such as one of her conditions so it's all dependent on what the problem is.

[BoxerMommie]

I am down to just the rabies vaccine. Bella has seizures and I've decided at this point to just go with what is required by law. For the same reason, I don't use flea meds (haven't seen a flea on her yet). I do use year-round heartworm meds.

I do still feed Bella kibble, along with a dehydrated raw food. Both are grain free.

Some people don't know, you can get a letter from your vet stating your dog has a medical condition and that giving the Rabies vaccine could be harmful so that you do not have to give it and you're still okay legality wise. This is what we do for my girl and what I did for my boy when he had seizures and had cancer.

[domari]

I get the dogs and cats their rabies shots because it's the law.
Other than that I only do puppy shots.

I use Advantage for fleas for one or two months in the summer. Usually we don't have a flea problem because it gets cold here in the winter. Same with heartworm, my vet doesn't push the issue except for people who travel with their pets to the south or places that have more of a heartworm problem.

I haven't had a need for antibiotics except once when one of my dogs was in a fight and got bitten, she had some deep puncture wounds so the vet thought it was better safe than sorry. Never had a need for steroids in a long time. I had an old arthritic dog around 15 years ago that was on steroids for a while, other than that, nobody has needed them.

As far as accupuncture, or chiropractic care, that's not available where I live that I know of.

[RawFedDogs]

How do you get away with not vaccinating for rabies?

I haven't gotten away with it yet. They are both due rabies shots next May. I am just not going to give one to Abby. I still haven't decided on Thor yet. Like I said, I'm not concerned about immunity. I am sure both dogs are immune and will be for the rest of their lives whether they get another shot or not.

Abby will be 9 years old next May and thats pretty old for a Great Dane so I am just not going to subject her to that.

[zentrainer]

In some states (mine fortunately) you can get a blood test that proves immunity and it's accepted by the state and you can a license and tags.

For kids you can avoid vaccines based on religious grounds, philsophical beliefs or medical issues. We haven't tested that here yet on animals. (It will be fun though)

You can't vaccinate a dog with a medical problem no matter what. It says so right on the vaccine bottle "To be given to healthy pets only".