Vaccinosis: What is it and How Can You Help Your Pet?

Vaccines, in both human and animal medicine, have become such a controversial topic. People can be at one end of the debate or the other, or at several different points in the middle. And we get that, it’s a critically important health concern – again, no matter where you sit.

One of the most concerning things about vaccines, in my opinion, is vaccinosis.

What is Vaccinosis?

Vaccinosis is a homeopathic term, and it’s when the body has had a chronic, negative response to being vaccinated. When you look at Chinese Medicine and Homeopathy, that chronic, long-term aspect is the major difference from conventional. A side effect of a vaccine conventionally isn’t long-term, conventionally they look at immediacy.

So they look at:

- swelling
- inflammation
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- fever
- anaphylaxis
- edema
- even cardiac arrest or death…

All of these can be a vaccine reaction in conventional medicine.

Homeopathy still considers these things vaccine reactions and has supportive remedies to go along with what your vet has given in life threatening situations, but vaccinosis is different as it is long-term or chronic. Homeopaths believe that the body has an innate ability to fight disease, fight bacteria, and it also has a natural energetic flow. In Chinese Medicine they call that “chi” and in Homeopathy we call that the “vital force.”

Therefore when a person or animal has never been well since a vaccine, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve had a massive reaction, but something has deeply shifted. The first year it could be just a little less energy, the second year could be a little more lethargy along with some joint pain or allergy symptoms. It could effect their mental state in the first, second or third year – they could become depressed or aggressive or fearful. But you can see, it’s absolutely not just something in the 24-48 hours after a vaccine.

Because a vaccine is injected, it forces the body to respond. The body can’t just go, “oh, I don’t need that vaccine or antibody or antigen or adjuvant or preservative (like ethyl mercury), so I’m not going to have any reaction to it.” Vaccines force an intense immune reaction. That immune reaction can trigger other reactions in the body that can cause a lifetime imbalance of the vital force. With the immune system, that could then look like or may even trigger a myriad of diseases like multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, allergies… These diseases or syndromes can be whatever the body could potentially move into from a genetic predisposition at an elderly age, but come on much, much earlier in life hence not having the longevity nor quality of life your animal should have had. In general, what this means is that the vaccine has shifted the body so much that it hasn’t come back to its natural balance. It’s damaged the vital force or the chi. 

The Vital Force: A River Flowing

When we look at that from a homeopathic perspective, let’s say your dog’s vital force looks like a natural river flowing. It’s beautifully flowing, twisting and winding, strong and uninterrupted. Then a vaccine is given, and the body’s response is to produce something that’s unnatural. When a vaccine has been forced into a body, the vital force is disturbed. It’s a like a tree has fallen across the river that’s not supposed to be there. That tree is the vaccine. It’s not natural.The body recognizes a natural disease, and therefore responds in its natural, innate, immunological way. There’s nothing natural about a vaccine especially combination vaccinations and the adjuvants, antigens, and preservatives that are needed to make them.

Hypothetically, if the tree is not removed from the river, the body adjusts to keep the river flowing. It goes over it and under it for a while and this could look like simple things like mild fever, lethargy, or anxiety, symptoms that are not really life-threatening but reduce quality of life. But then, after time, branches and leaves and debris build up so then the flow has to start going around the tree and start to erode or wash away the bank. This is where we start to see more chronic disease processes happening, like chronic inflammation leading to deep seated diseases such as autoimmune disorders, chronic arthritis, allergies, epilepsy, heart disease, etc.

We’ve become so used to the body’s response to a vaccine to be inflammatory on some level and used to the medical fields reaction with the our veterinarians to be “ thats normal it will subside” or with our children to give them a pain or fever reducing medication. Homeopaths understand that is the initial trauma and waiting or using medication does not remove the underlying trauma/tree but just minimizes or ignores the reaction. Moving right along, the tree stays in the river, but the water needs to keep moving. So the vital force, the chi, stays disrupted. 

Lots of things cause trauma, but vaccine trauma is different. It’s not a big trauma like getting hit by a car. The trauma from a vaccine is a slow, insidious process, where there’s an erosion that constantly causes further and further damage, slowly over time. That’s a vaccinosis. It’s a long-term chronic process from the body being forced to do something really unnatural with the immune system. This is why its so important to be educated and choose the vaccines and frequency of vaccines based on non-biased research.The choice is not “to vaccinate or to not vaccinate” but to make the right choice for your family and health philosophy in order to mitigate the side effects and to avoid unnecessary vaccinations. 

When a body has a vaccinosis, we can use homeopathic remedies like anti-vaccinosis, or work with a qualified homeopath to choose the individual remedy that is the most appropriate for your specific situation. The concept is helping the body to remove that tree/trauma, bringing the vital force back to balance by giving the body the tools and therefore the innate ability to heal itself. 

What Should You Do if Your Animal Experiences Vaccinosis Symptoms?

If your animal has any type of reaction, it is imperative that your veterinarian knows. Take them back to the clinic so that the reaction can be recorded.

The reason this so important is because not enough people do it. They just pick up the phone and go “oh my dog is lethargic” or “my dog is throwing up” or “my cat won’t eat tonight.” And your veterinarian will usually respond by saying “ok, give her some Benadryl” or “give her a few days – she should be good in 24-48 hours.” It’s crucial that the veterinarian knows because then it goes into the animal’s chart. It will then be taken more seriously for the next vaccine, and it gives you more power to say “my dog did not react well, please refer to her chart, and I would prefer to only do titer testing from now on.”

In most cases, that reaction will become more sever with every vaccine. Yet often this will not effect the clinic’s protocol to continue to vaccinate your pet. Instead, often an antihistamine like Benadryl will be given prior to the vaccine to decrease the side effects. Unfortunately, this does not stop the chronic process of the reaction. If it is documented you can go back and sign a waiver not to vaccinate based on the reaction and documentation. It’s a very good idea if you see anything off in those first few days, take your animal back to your veterinarian. If their face, lips, eyes, tongue or throat start to swell, please get back to your veterinarian right away! This can become anaphylaxis, and can be very life-threatening. 

Once you are back from your veterinarian and your pet is not in danger, you can support your animal homoeopathically by giving remedies like arnica 200c and aconite 200c, which is one of the reasons why we formulated our Adored Beast Your Go2. With a vaccine reaction it is simply that, the body is in a state of reaction and when that reaction becomes out of control, Your Go2 or arnica and aconite help to send signals to the body saying “it’s ok to calm down.” It tries to calm the body down so that it can process the vaccine in a way that helps it derail how over-triggered it has become. Later, our Anti-vaccinosis can be given as a really valuable tool to support the body from long-term chronic symptoms that may come from the vaccine. The effectiveness of remedies like thuja and silica are very well documented over years in homeopathic journals, material medicas, and repertoires in assisting the body in removing the adjuvants and the antigens, or the proteins that the body is looking at as foreign materials, or thimerosal (ethyl-mercury), or formaldehyde - all additives that are commonly found in vaccines. There are many, many reasons for a body to react negatively to vaccines and these two remedies can help support those reactions. Those two remedies help to pull those out of the body, helps the body deal with it. 

Final Thoughts

No matter what your stance on vaccines, whether you are on board with not over vaccinating, totally against them, already using titer testing to test immunity levels, fully in agreement with all vaccines or follow vaccination schedules based on your vet’s recommendation, vaccinosis is a real, long-term concern. It can have lasting impacts on overall health – impacts that may not show up for months as the river fights again the fallen tree. Taking the steps to help the body deal with the invasion is critical to help minimize those impacts and protect your animal’s vital force, hence supporting health and longevity.