I applaud Amani's very nicely delineated defense of Vaccines and her
pointing out how many people who are anti vax ( and dare I say wedded to
" all natural " cures etc) more often than not have a sub standard
understanding of immunology, Micro Bio and even basic physiology..... I
am not a huge fan of the medical 'machine' in america but the fact that
it is BIG business should not obviate the fact that there are MANY
individual MD's and Vets who do their level best to practice well and
ethically and who DO know quite a bit more than we do even if we do not
always like the conclusions they draw. Silly people who are fond of
saying that " The Doctors don't know what they are talking about" can
seldom be seen avoiding these same uninformed professionals as soon as
something goes amiss with their health.( Then , of course, fail to
follow the advice they are given...don't improve and blame it on the
fact the the " Doctors don't know what they are talking about" : ) We
run that risk here as well.... Vets are businessmen/women and the world
of Vet medicine is rapidly changing in the same direction as Human
Medicine...Vets are incentivized in group practices to sell services AND
medications and don't always predicate their decisions on what is best
for the patient or owner..THAT is why it is SO important to NOT run from
Vet to Vet... find one that you basically trust and stay with them!!
Same with MD's.... Even if they are under pressure to " sell " most
decent people will allow the long term relationship to count for
"something" over time and modify their approach. Most importantly try
to learn all you can to discourse _ intelligently_ about your animals
disease process so that you can somewhat impassively evaluate the advice
you were given by a vet and determine if he/she was simply not paying
enough attention to your concerns, or fully grasped them but reached a
different conclusion.... The Vet I saw the other day who really did
give a careful examination to my Yogi had no investment in me OR my cat
but was a professional and did what needed to be done....prescribed
sensibly
( which resulted in very clear improvement for my cat) but did NOT want
to prescribe Winstrol I believe because he could not keep the script in
house ( ie...can't get his hands on it and can't make a profit on it)
The other vet in the same practice that I saw showed no signs of the
same profit motive, WAS willing to prescribe Winstrol but gave my guy a
FAR more cursory examination( eg...didn't even use a tonometer to
measure Intraocular Pressure).. and recommended against using the very
drugs that were responsible for my guys improvement...... Who is the
better vet?? I don't know... I know that I have to decide on someone
with whom to develop a relationship and I could go broke running from
Vet to Vet until I find one that I trust right out of the Box... (
BTW....EACH one of the Vets mentioned were recommended to me)..
Sorry for the length of this "rant"... hope it wasn't an imposition...
The brief " take away "... We are the advocates for our FeLV kitties
and we owe it to ourselves and them to be as scientifically informed as
we can be ... Sadly todays " professionals " are sometimes not a lot
different than the Deli clerk who has been instructed to routinely go
over when you ask for a "half pound"...... I am old enough to feel a
profound sadness at this dilution of the meaning of professional.....
Now we really DO have to keep both eyes open
until we know our " professional" well.
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