Are Pet Vaccines “Safe and Effective”? Part 1

Written by Darby Shaw on March 8, 2023. Posted in Current News

Because of the Covid-19 vaccine scandal, many people are waking up to the stark reality that vaccines labeled “safe and effective” often are anything but

More Americans than ever before are beginning to question the wisdom of blindly following the advice of self-proclaimed experts on not just the Covid-19 vaccines but all vaccines, for humans as well as animals.

In this context, questions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines for cats and dogs have come up repeatedly in the comments section here as well as on other Substack pages. 1

It seems to be a topic of great interest to readers.

Last spring, I made a commitment to tackle the issue as my time permitted.

Then, life happened.  My elderly father passed away. Priorities changed.  Suddenly I found myself with little free time to spare for researching and writing Substack articles.

At long last, I have been able to clear the deck enough to make room once again for some citizen journalism.

This article is the first installment in a planned series of reports in which I will attempt to review the published research on the safety and efficacy of commonly administered vaccines for cats and dogs.

While I remain focused on the health and safety of children, I do not view animal vaccination and child vaccination as being unrelated.  In fact, what is happening to our pets seems to closely mirror that which is happening to our nation’s children.

It is not my intention with this series to try to tell pet owners what to think or how to care for your animals.  I will include links to all the studies I cite in the hope that each of you will spend some time reviewing those studies for yourselves.

Please post your own experiences with your pets in the Comments Section at the end of this article.  Please also let me know if you believe that I have misinterpreted any published research or overlooked relevant studies.

In addition, if you find this report informative, consider sharing it with other cat lovers in your circle.  I am not active on social media and have no way of promoting my Substack articles, all of which I write on a volunteer basis, other than through you.

Note:  While I have tried to be succinct, this report is not a quick read.  So, pour yourself a cup a coffee. Then, if you have one, call your furry feline to your lap and get comfortable.

Willow’s Story

I adopted her from a shelter in 2002.  She was a year old at the time.  Other than her age, I knew only three things about her:

1) She had been given up by her previous owner.

2) She was spayed.

3) She was vaccinated against rabies as well as distemper.

Along with being spayed/neutered, all shelter cats were required to be “up-to-date” on their vaccines before they could be placed for adoption.

After I adopted her, Willow lived indoors for the rest of her life.  She received no additional vaccines.  She ate regular cat food – not the most expensive brand, but not the cheapest, either.  She was somewhat overweight but otherwise healthy. She was a happy little camper, and she made me happy.

Then, in 2014, my husband and I noticed that Willow suddenly seemed to be drinking water all the time –lots of it. Every time we turned around, her fresh bowl of water was nearly empty.  We knew enough about cats to know that this was not normal.

In fact, excessive thirst is often the first sign of illness in cats.

A quick trip to the vet revealed the sad news.  Our Willow was suffering from chronic kidney disease.  There was no cure.  The recommended treatment was a special diet low in protein and phosphorus. We could also give Willow fluids under her skin.

Regardless, her disease was destined to kill her within two years.

We fed Willow the recommended special diet and, as her disease progressed, I learned to give her fluids subcutaneously.  It was painful for her and extremely uncomfortable for me.

Despite our best efforts to help sustain her, Willow gradually lost her appetite.  She also vomited regularly.  We were constantly cleaning up after her.  Her body weight plummeted. She felt like a rag doll in my arms.

During Willow’s final weeks, she seemed to want just to sit alone next to an open window in our living room and take in the fresh air.

Then one morning, Willow woke up crying out in terrible pain.  We rushed her to the vet, who promptly informed us that there was nothing more to be done for her. Our little Willow was dying.  It was time to bring an end to her suffering, which we did.

How Many Willows?

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in cats is defined as “a prolonged process marked by irreversible loss of kidney function, usually without an identifiable cause.” 2

Healthy kidneys perform many important functions, including filtering the blood and making urine.  Kidney disease can result in a variety of serious health problems for a cat.

Waste products and other compounds in the bloodstream that are normally removed or regulated by the kidneys can build up, causing the cat to feel sick, suffer lethargy, and lose weight.  Cats with kidney disease may also urinate more frequently, in greater volume, and drink extra water to compensate.

As the disease progresses, cats commonly suffer many complications, including hypertension, low potassium, anemia, and numerous other blood disorders.

So, how common is CKD in cats?  Just how many Willows are there out there?

The short answer is…nobody knows.  Scientists report that CKD is the most common metabolic disease in domesticated cats.  They also agree that CKD has been diagnosed increasingly over the past three decades, particularly in older cats.  In addition, they note that CKD is now at least twice as common in cats as dogs. 3

Anecdotally, veterinarians report seeing lots of CKD in their practices.

Yet, official estimates of the prevalence of CKD in cats vary widely. Researchers who looked at data from the Purdue Veterinary Medical Database estimated that the overall prevalence of feline CKD increased from 0.04 percent in the 1980s to 0.2 percent in 1990s to one percent by the 2000s. 4

A study by Colorado State University of 18,938 cats from 1992 through 2001 found a diagnosis of chronic kidney failure in 3.6 percent cats. 5

Meanwhile, across the pond, where similar veterinary medicine is practiced, a U.K. study published in 2015 found kidney disorders to be the most frequently identified cause of mortality in cats five years and older, accounting for 13.6 percent of all deaths in that age group. 6

A Swedish study of insured cats up to 13 years of age, covering the period 1999-2006, found disorders of the kidneys or ureters to be the most common cause of mortality, accounting for 7 percent of deaths. 7

By stark contrast, a study out of North Carolina State University, published in 2013 in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, found a stunning 50 percent prevalence of CKD for domesticated cats in one randomly selected feline-only practice in the U.S.

The researchers reported that even in the youngest age group, consisting of cats from birth to age five, 37.5 percent showed markers of chronic kidney disease. 8

The researchers were unable to account for the difference in their findings relative to previous studies. They emphasized that their study design had included more comprehensive testing for kidney disease, which enabled the detection of many Stage 1 cases that are often overlooked in other studies.  Still, this alone could not explain the disparity.

So, how prevalent is CKD among cats in the U.S. today?  Is the true number 3 percent, 7 percent, 13 percent, or 50 percent? There seems to be no sense of urgency in the field of veterinary medicine to answer this fundamental question.

In fact, this is a common theme throughout the published research on pet health.  Apparently, there is no strong financial incentive for anyone to quantify the incidence and prevalence of diseases that commonly afflict cats and dogs. Therefore, government and private institutions don’t want to pay for these studies.

For those who make their living in or otherwise profit from veterinary medicine, it may also be counterproductive to do so.  This is especially true if widely administered vaccines turn out to be a major cause of serious illness in animals.

Pet vaccines are to veterinary medicine what childhood vaccines are to pediatricians – the bread that pays the rent and keeps the lights on.  Needless to say, vaccines that are either required by law or universally recommended also are highly lucrative for the pharmaceutical companies.

Yet, for cats and those who love them, the question could not be more urgent, because there is reason to suspect that many, if not most, cases of CKD in cats today are caused by the distemper vaccine.

If so, they are preventable, and the terrible suffering of potentially millions of our beloved pets is unnecessary.

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