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Fleas or vaccine side effects?

MatthewM

Registered
Joined
Jan 8, 2024
Messages
4
Hi,

I recently adopted a sweet dog named, Shilo (about 2 years old - likely a german shepard/blue healer mix), and I had to get her rabies & distemper vaccines updated due to the request of the lady I adopted her from & the city I live in requires rabies vaccination. A few days after getting the shots she starts scratching & licking (mainly her tail, paws, belly, & ears) and shaking as if to get something off her at times. She doesn't do it a lot somedays & other days it's more frequent. I also started taking her to the dog park and the area I live in has a lot of dogs. At first I thought she had fleas, so I gave her a bath & started spraying this natural product on her before we go out that is supposed to prevent them. I've used a flea comb only a tiny bit and only on a very small part of her body. I vacuumed my entire apartment and washed the covers on the couch. I also started feeding her raw garlic since yesterday & ordered the Bug Off garlic supplement y'all recommend for fleas. I have yet to see any fleas on her or anywhere in the apartment. I even did a test to see if any of the black specks on her turned red when applying water & they did not so possibly just dirt from playing in the dog park (I read online this will apparently tell you if it's fleas if it turns red). I'm now wondering if she is having a reaction to the vaccines she recently got. She also moved to another city when I adopted her about an hour and half away from where she originally lived, so I thought it might also be an environmental allergy. And I changed her food to better quality recently as well. Any insight is appreciated as to whether this might be fleas, a vaccine reaction, or something else. Thank you!

@Dr. Jeff @Dr. Christina @Dr. Jean Hofve
 
Last edited:

Dr. Christina

VIP Member
Veterinarian
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
1,336
Always good to rule out fleas with the flea dirt test and looking for them on the belly. You seem to have ruled out fleas. No need to jump to all the flea "treatments" that you did if no fleas seen.

the move, the vaccines, new water, new food, new people...all can certainly push the vital force off balance and it is producing these symptoms to get back into balance. Remember that skin symptoms never make an animal very ill - just seems bad to you watching.

Go to the member resources to read ALL ABOUT SKIN problems for more on this thinking and for a lot of topical and supplemental approaches you can use. Some are in your pantry!

Download the Healthy Dog Journal and start tracking the symptoms. Maybe you will notice something different on the itchier days.

Take the 101 class because your goal right now is to rebalance the energy field, while soothing the skin.

And, finally, right now is the time to create your holistic health care team. Search "find a vet" and read that article!

Welcome to Holistic Actions, Matthew
Dr. Christina
 

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