Dr. Patricia Jordan sent us an interesting link the other day. The AVMA has published a nice page on their website, entitled “What to expect after your pet’s vaccination“.

Here is the information they are giving to pet owners:

It is common for pets to experience some or all of the following mild side effects after receiving a vaccine, usually starting within hours of the vaccination. If these side effects last for more than a day or two, or cause your pet significant discomfort, it is important for you to contact your veterinarian:

Discomfort and local swelling at the vaccination site
Mild fever
Decreased appetite and activity
Sneezing, mild coughing, “snotty nose” or other respiratory signs may occur 2-5 days after your pet receives an intranasal vaccine

More serious, but less common side effects, such as allergic reactions, may occur within minutes to hours after vaccination. These reactions can be life-threatening and are medical emergencies. Seek veterinary care immediately if any of these signs develop:

Persistent vomiting or diarrhea
Itchy skin that may seem bumpy (“hives”)
Swelling of the muzzle and around the face, neck, or eyes
Severe coughing or difficulty breathing
Collapse

A small, firm swelling under the skin may develop at the site of a recent vaccination. It should start to disappear within a couple weeks. If it persists more than three weeks, or seems to be getting larger, you should contact your veterinarian.

Always inform your veterinarian if your pet has had prior reactions to any vaccine or medication. If in doubt, wait for 30-60 minutes following vaccination before taking your pet home.

Aside from potential collapse, it appears that vaccination is a pretty innocuous procedure (no pun intended). This is a pretty short and not-very-scary list. It’s no wonder pet owners are more than willing to allow vets to over-vaccinate their pets: we are all told about the potential good that vaccines do (vets are fond of scaring themselves and us into vaccination with “we just had a dog die of _____________ here last week), but rarely are we informed of the potential dangers. It would also appear that the vets are unaware of the dangers, if their own views on vaccine dangers match those of the AVMA.

In case you are wondering what the real dangers of vaccination are, we will share with you a list complied by veterinary immunologist Dr. Ronald Schultz. Dr. Schultz has vaccinated thousands of animals during his clinical research and although he advocates vaccines, he tempers that recommendation with a realistic view of their inherent dangers. Here is Dr. Schultz’ list:

Common Reactions:

Lethargy

Hair Loss, hair Color Change at injection Site

Fever

Soreness

Stiffness

Refusal to Eat

Conjunctivitis

Sneezing

Oral ulcers

Moderate Reactions:

Immunosupression

Behavioral Changes

Vitiligo

Weight Loss (Cachexia)

Reduced Milk Production

Lameness

Granulomas/Abscesses

Hives

Facial Edema

Atopy

Respiratory Disease

Allergic uveitis (Blue Eye)

Severe Reactions triggered by Vaccines:

Vaccine injection site sarcomas

Anaphylaxis

Arthritis, polyarthritis-HOD hypertrophy Osteodystrophy

Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia

Immune Mediated thrombocytopenia (IMTP)

Hemolytic Disease of the newborn (Neonatal Isoerythrolysis)

Thyroiditis

Glomerulonephritis

Disease or Enhanced Disease which with the vaccine was designed to prevent

Myocarditis

Post vaccinal Encephalitis or polyneuritis

Seizures

Abortion, congenital anomalies, embryonic/fetal death, failure to conceive fertility

“Safety studies on vaccinations are limited to short time periods only: several days to several weeks.” says Dr. Harold Buttram MD. “There are NO (NONE) long term (months or years) safety studies on any vaccination or immunization. For this reason, there are valid grounds for suspecting that many delayed-type vaccine reactions may be taking place unrecognized as to their true nature”.

The AVMA and AAHA continue to recommend over-vaccination for our pets, despite the fact that there is scant evidence that they prevent less disease than they cause. Is this because they are not aware of the potential dangers of vaccines? It’s not a warm and fuzzy feeling, thinking that the veterinary associations don’t understand the dangers associated with vaccines. But it beats the alternative: that they are aware of the dangers but recommend over-vaccination anyway.

The study demonstrated kitties have a daily calorie ‘intake target’ that is equal to 52 percent protein, 36 percent fat and 12 percent carbohydrate.

According to lead study author Dr. Adrian Hewson-Hughes:

“This is a fascinating discovery and we are intrigued to know more about why cats have the ability to do this. It is particularly remarkable that, even after thousands of years of domestication, cats still select a diet nutritionally similar to their natural prey.”

According to its authors, the Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in the adult domestic cat, Felis catus is the most extensive study of macronutrient regulation ever conducted on any carnivore. (Macronutrients are the nutrients animals need in large quantities, like protein, fat and carbohydrates. Micronutrients are those needed in smaller quantities – primarily vitamins and minerals.)

The results of this study are extremely exciting, but not surprising to those of us who understand the importance of providing species-appropriate food to companion animals.

Food Used in the Study

The study was conducted to determine if adult domesticated cats, given a choice, deliberately select food that is biologically appropriate for them (similar to the prey they would hunt and eat if they lived in the wild).

From the study:

Most domestic cats are fed commercial pet foods by their owners. Some of these products are moist and others are based on a dry formulation.

As well as differing in water content and texture, there are macronutritional differences between wet and dry commercial foods, notably a higher carbohydrate content of dry foods (required for their manufacture). We have therefore built into the experimental designs an investigation of the nutritional consequences of these different food types.

Our results show strong nutritional regulation, reinforcing the fact that macronutrient regulation is common across trophic levels [feeding positions in a food chain] and providing important information for the design of domestic cat nutritional regimes.

For the experiments, six dry cat food formulas and six canned formulas were used.

The dry food formulas were manufactured by Mars Petcare based on commercial recipes. They contained poultry meal, maize gluten, ground rice, wheat flour and beef tallow to fulfill the three macronutrient requirements of protein, fats and carbohydrates.

The canned foods were also manufactured by Mars Petcare using commercial recipes and contained chicken breast, soya protein isolate, lard and wheat flour.

All the formulas (kibble and canned) contained added vitamins, minerals, taurine and L-methionine to meet the National Research Council (NRC) and Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) guidelines for adult feline maintenance.

Only kitties fed dry food from weaning were used in the dry food experiments; only cats weaned on canned food were used in the wet food experiments.

While this research didn’t include them, study authors recommend future projects incorporate other dietary factors like water content, texture and added flavorings to determine to what extent those features impact how cats select the food they eat.

Fascinating Results

The cats in the study demonstrated a maximum tolerable level (ceiling) of carbohydrate intake that is under 25 percent.
Given the option, the cats exclusively chose high-protein food over high-carb food even when there was less of the high-protein food available.
Cats offered a choice of three foods with variable amounts of protein, carbs and fat mixed them to achieve a daily intake as follows:
100 calories or 52 percent from protein
67 calories or 35 percent from fat
24 calories or 12.5 percent from carbs
When the cats were restricted to a high-carbohydrate food, they did not eat enough of it to get the targeted amount of protein (52 percent). The same happened with cats confined to a high-fat food – the target intake of protein was not achieved.
Cats restricted to a high-protein diet ate more than the target protein intake, probably to gain energy. This suggests cats are able to eat even higher levels of protein than the target 52 percent.
Experienced cats eating dry food increased protein intake and ate less carbohydrates than naïve cats offered the same choices. This indicates given the option, cats learn to avoid eating excessive amounts of carbs.

Research Proves It: Cats and Carbs Don’t Mix!

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have nutritional requirements that can only be met with a diet based on animal tissue. The macronutrient profile for cats is high in protein and fat, consistent with a meat-based diet.

According to study authors:

The carbohydrate ceiling explains many of the intake patterns seen in both dry and wet diet experiments and suggests that cats may only be able to process ingested carbohydrate up to a certain level.

The feline body is specifically designed for a low carb diet. Indicators your kitty isn’t equipped by nature to process a lot of carbohydrates include:

No taste receptors for sweet flavors
Low rates of glucose uptake in the intestine
No salivary amylase to break down starches
Reduced capacity of pancreatic amylase and intestinal disaccharidases

In other words, cats don’t produce the enzymes required to digest carbohydrates. The only carbs felines eat in the wild are pre-digested and are found in the stomachs of prey animals.

In my opinion, many of the illnesses we see in cats today are attributable to low quality, biologically inappropriate commercial pet food formulas.

If your kitty’s body is incapable of digesting a heavy carbohydrate load and she’s eating a cat food with high carb content, she’s on track to develop digestive disease and other serious conditions like diabetes and pancreatitis related to eating a diet unfit for her species. And certainly, too many carbohydrates aren’t the only problem with most processed pet foods.

Pet Food Industry Response

To answer research findings on the appropriate way to feed carnivorous pets, and in response to growing consumer demand, an increasing number of pet food manufacturers are introducing grain free formulas that are higher in protein content.

Unfortunately, the type of protein used in most affordable pet foods is of poor quality. Whole food protein sources (animal meats) aren’t cheap, after all.

Much of commercial pet food protein is derived not from human-grade meats, but from crude, rendered or non-meat sources. The digestibility and absorbability of low grade protein sources is questionable at best. This means your pet’s body won’t get optimal nutritional benefit from the protein in the majority of commercially available pet foods.

I can only assume as more protein is added by pet food industry giants, the quality will decrease proportionately to insure the products remain affordable for consumers and profitable for pet food companies.

Even more concerning to me is that while science is proving cats need more protein and manufacturers are beginning to deliver high protein products, they are still not biologically correct.

High protein diets that are dehydrated or extruded (made into kibble) do not contain adequate moisture content. Cats were designed to get most of the moisture their bodies need from the water found in fresh prey (which is about 70 percent water). When cats eat dry food, their organ systems become stressed and they can end up with kidney, liver and digestive stress.

Maloney is the author of 40 books, including two bestsellers. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He went through public schools there, and then graduated from Suffolk University in Boston with a degree in journalism. He went on to graduate school at Emerson College earning a degree in filmmaking. He then worked in corporate public relations for the General Electric Company before leaving to write full-time.

The vast majority of Mack’s work has been in military fiction. However, because several of his highly popular novels deal with the military and UFOs, when he approached his editor about writing a nonfiction book on the topic, he got the immediate go ahead.

Mack gathered a mountain of information from many sources and spoke with some highly acclaimed UFO researchers including Jerry Clark, Keith Chester, Richard Haines, and Stan Gordon. He also spoke with a number of contacts in the U.S. military and people connected with U.S. intelligence services. It took about two years to distill all this information down to a collection of about 70 episodes detailing military encounters with UFOs from 1909 up to the first Gulf War. That’s what makes up “UFOs in Wartime – What They Didn’t Want You To Know.”

www.mackmaloney.com

This interview originally aired December 16th, 2011:

On Friday, September 9th 2011, I was invited down to NASDAQ by my friend retired NYPD Det. Rich Miller for the Ringing Of The Closing Bell. Here, they did a dedication and a remembrance for the victims of September 11th, 2001.

February 3 marked the anniversary of Buddy Holly’s plane crash, one of the most legendary plane crashes in history and one of the “100 Biggest Weather Moments,” according to The Weather Channel. So why should the National Transportation Safety Board reopen the crash investigation now, five decades later? Interview bestselling author Gary Moore, who has a new twist on the tragic crash that killed Buddy, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, whose deaths were forever immortalized as “The Day the Music Died” in the Don McLean song “American Pie.” Gary will also share funny and moving stories he learned from Buddy’s friends, celebrities, and fans while on his personal journey to discover more about Buddy, his music, his influence, and the times in which he lived. Gary will also share the contact that he recently had with a clairvoyant, who sought him out after Buddy Holly came to her and said that she needed to connect with Gary to “get the truth told.” Gary can share about his numerous conversations with her, what Buddy wants told, and Gary’s mission to unveil the truth. Moore will reveal: - Why the Dwyer Flying Service, who owned the plane, claims the true story behind what happened that fateful night has not yet been told. - A new theory, from a retired NTSB crash investigator, about what really happened in the final minutes of the flight. - The ongoing controversy of whether Buddy Holly’s gun was involved in the tragedy. - Why so many fans still make a pilgrimage to the Iowa cornfield where the crash occurred

website: www.heybuddybook.com

This episode aired May 27th, 2011:

This video was uploaded on Youtube by Brian Luenser. This is what Brian has to say: This is the aftermath of a pretty brutal thunderstorm in Fort Worth Texas on May 10, 2011. It was taken from my balcony on the 34th floor of a building in Fort Worth. Though I thought we were at war or was terrorism, it was a massive series of downed 12,470 volt power lines. As I took it with my 70-200 2.8L IS lens, it is farther away than it looks. (it is 5 miles away) That is why there are not explosion sounds. This was a very well documented event. I was on my balcony to take lightning pictures (Yes, not smart) and this started happening in front of me. I turned my camera (Canon 5d MkII) to video mode and let it roll.

I think this video speaks for itself.

The sound editor did a great job synching the music to the action in the film. He should get a job as a foley in a sound studio. Oh, and, by the way, the music is from the film Predator. How appropriate. LOL