The following information is from Charles Loops, DVM and is reprinted with his permission

After practicing traditional western medicine for about 10 years, I became disenchanted with chemical drugs as being the only approach in dealing with disease. I was frustrated with the lack of effective treatments for chronic disease, behavior problems, and the epidemic of allergic conditions.

During my search for alternatives, my personal health was greatly improved with homeopathic treatment. This led me to the study of homeopathy and the incorporation of this great system of medicine in my veterinary practice. That was in 1989, and three years later I sold that practice so that I could devote myself solely to homeotherapeutics.

This is when my philosophy about disease changed and my interest in classical homeopathy began. I studied with Richard Pitcairn, DVM, going to workshops that he offered for several years. I completed a year of study with Linda Johnston, M.D., author of Everyday Miracles who had a very successful homeopathic practice in CA. I have studied extensively and continue to do so.

My practice is mainly by referral and 95% by telephone consultation. I have treated thousands of cases using the principles of classical homeopathy over the past years and I continue to find this system of gentle healing the most effective therapy that has ever existed. Sixty percent of my new cases have cancer and most of these several hundred companions each year survive longer and have more quality of life than cancer patients treated with western medicine or other modalities. The homeopathic approach is both very cost effective for guardians and gentle and natural for their
companions.

Having practiced twenty years as a veterinarian, ten with western medicine and ten years with homeopathy, there is no doubt about which is the more effective system and which has the curative approach to disease. The side-effects of homeopathic treatment are better health and a heightened sense of well-being, a statement that can't be made in support of western medicine.

THE VACCINATION DILEMMA and YOUR HEALTHY COMPANIONS

Homeopathic veterinarians and other holistic practitioners have maintained for years that vaccinations are doing harm. Aside from the immediate risk of vaccination side-effects sucb as allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock, there are more compelling reasons to avoid vaccinations whenever possible.

Vaccinations represent a major assault on the body's immune system. Attenuated organisms or chemically killed viruses or bacteria are injected directly into the blood stream via subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, an unnatural route of infection. This profound insult, avoids the body's first line of defenses, flooding the system with millions of organisms or viral particles, causing irregularities and abnormalities in the immune system which then manifest as chronic diseases in animals. The overall effect, while potentially protecting the individual from a specific, acute disease, is to weaken or create imbalance in the immune system so that underlying tendencies to disease are brought to the surface. In other words, vaccinations represent a major stress. Following vaccinations we often see chronic problems begin such as epilepsy, skin allergies, persistent upper respiratory infections, irritable bowel syndromes, auto-immune diseases and cancer, just to name a few. What we are now seeing are generations of over-vaccinated animals and these current offspring are suffering the penalty of this medical abuse. Where vaccinations have helped in eradicating or reducing the incidence of severe, acute disease processes, the result has been to plague humanity with more insidious, chronic diseases that are difficult to treat or even cure and that lower the quality of life for many individual and animals.

After twenty years or practicing veterinary medicine, I am observing chronic diseases that begin much earlier than before. Cancer before five years of age in dogs and cats was a rarity and now it's not unusual to see fatal cancers in two and three year old animals. And the incidence of number of cases is definitely increasing. While poor breeding practices, poor commercial diets and other environmental factors play their part, I believe it is the practice of vaccinating an animal repeatedly with multiple vaccinations throughout their lifespan that factors the most. We have genetically weakened our companions with this practice. A normal dog or cat living to twelve years of age will receive at least twenty and possible thirty vaccinations during their lifetime. Fifteen or so of these shots will have four to seven disease fractions present in each vaccination. In all of this, balance in nature has been lost to the pharmaceutical-medical complex's philosophy, propelled in great part by monetary factors, that all vaccinations are beneficial and that vaccinating is always better than not vaccinating.

Risk of Exposure should be the main guideline for consideration of whether to vaccinate and what to vaccinate against. If your cats are indoor only or if your dogs' outside activities are on a leash or within a fenced area under supervision, there is little risk. The other considerations for a vaccine's use are its proven safety, its effectiveness, and is the disease serious or life-threatening that the vaccine is used for. Remember, VACCINES ARE NOT HARMLESS. Only vaccinate if the threat is real. The following are some of my recommendations concerning your companions' health in choosing whether to vaccinate.

1.If you can, don't vaccinate puppies under three months of age.Vaccinations are much more stressful on the underdeveloped immune system. Also, these vaccinations are much less effective at providing immunity before three months of age.

***If you feel you must vaccinate, do so with one vaccination of Distemper at three months, followed by a vaccination for Parvovirus at four months of age, and stop with that. If you can't find a single Distemper vaccine use the Distemper-measles combination. Use killed vaccines only.

2. Kittens should only be vaccinated for Panleukopenia and not before three months of age. All other vaccinations should be avoided. One vaccine is sufficient.

3. Puppies and kittens can be given homeopathic nosodes beginning at three weeks of age, if there is a potential for exposure to Distemper, Parvovirus, or Panleukopenia. These nosodes can be used until vaccinations are given or continued periodically for the first year of life, if vaccinations are not given. Common sense should be used in avoiding exposure of very young animals to other, possible unhealthy, animals of the same species.

4. Booster vaccinations are completely unnecessary. Studies are now showing that these vaccinations are effective for many years and most probably for life. Vaccinated animals do not need any boosters. Homeopathic nosodes can be given periodically if you are concerned or if you think your animals live a high risk, life style.

5. Rabies Vaccinations should be given as dictated by state laws. Lyssin, the homeopathic nosode, should be given within a few hours after the vaccination. Clearly, the rabies vaccination is effective for many years more than state laws require booster vaccination.

6. Booster vaccinations can cause SEVERE set-backs when an animal is being treated homeopathically for chronic problems. They can completely erase any progress that has been made towards improving an animal's health.

7. My personal recommendation is NOT to vaccinate at all. The best road to good health is feeding a diet rich in fresh foods, raw meats for the carnivores, and avoiding vaccinations and allopathic medications. Antibiotics and other allopathic drugs should only be used in situations where their use is clearly indicated, and this should be only in potentially, life-threatening situations. Every time you suppress a symptom the body produces, you are potentially lowering the health status of the body system. Treating with the correctly prescribed, homeopathic remedy, herbs, or other noninvasive therapies, not of a chemical nature, will enhance your health and your companions health.

8. Commercial diets should be carefully chosen. Your companion is at the mercy of your good or poor judgement in selecting foods. Cats and dogs which have free access to the outside can to some degree supplement their diet. Otherwise, they are totally dependent on you. Science Diet and Hill's dog and cat food products are not good diets. They use chemical preservatives that have been shown to cause problems in some animals, and they use byproducts, which are words on the ingredient label that need to be avoided at all costs. This generally means food not utilized for human consumption.

If you feed a carefully selected commercial food, some supplementation with fresh food is necessary to maximize your companions' health. Raw poultry, beef, lamb, or rabbit and occasionally liver should be added to the diet at least three times per week, and fresh vegetables in small amounts should
also be offered.

(To read about the herbicide, preservative & rubber stabilizer ETHOXYQUIN used in many pet foods, including many Hills/Science Diet foods:
http://www.golden-retriever.com/ethox.html )

9, The best diet is a RAW FOOD DIET and we have recipes. There are also many good books with recipes for raw diets.

Definition of Homeopathic Nosodes (Pronounced no'-sodes), are remedies or medicines made from the disease itself and are diluted or potenized so only the energy exists. They are administered orally. So far, experience has shown no problem with side effects if the animal has been healthy.