“Your Site is Under Attack”
Hi Will or support folks, I have been trying to read up on new things on your web site, and can not get in. It says it’s up and running, but won’t open. Just keeps saying to reload page and then error. Is there a problem that may be fixed soon?
I received this email recently, and many others from a robot with eyes on the site, repeatedly telling me that this website was down. Unreachable for about a half hour at a time. When these became more frequent, multiple times a day, I alerted support at my web hosting company and they found the site was, in their words, “under attack.”
It’s been fixed now, but interestingly, these increased attacks paralleled a particular post I wrote on Apoquel [Apoquel: Dog Drug With a Dark Side] that’s getting an amazing amount of views. Maybe it’s even “gone viral,” getting far more traffic than any other page on the site. By about 400%! I Googled “Apoquel,” and that post ranks high on page one of the search results.
The first two links, no surprise, are from Zoetis, the giant manufacturer of this drug.
Apoquel: Works Great! Till It Doesn’t.
As you might imagine, my post outlining the short-sighted design of this drug and growing reports of its serious side effects probably doesn’t set well with Big Pharma’s greedy goals. Keep the shareholders happy! Your animal’s health? Not so important, it would seem.
When harm comes from tweaking your dog’s immune system with a drug, I think you need to know about it. Are you going to hear about it from Dr. WhiteCoat who sells Apoquel for dogs who itch too much?
You can bet not.
Trifexis: Reports of Harm Still Pour In
Before the Apoquel article blew up, my most popular post was about another drug commonly associated with harm and death in the pets who get it: Trifexis from Elanco [The Great Trifexis Hoax: 6 Ways to Spot the B.S.] This combo of pesticides kills heartworm, fleas, ticks (and apparently many dogs), yet vets still sell millions of doses to unsuspecting pet owners.
The company to this day denies Trifexis causes illness or death. But see what you think when you click on the article linked above.
The comments in both articles are well worth your time. That’s where you get to read your neighbor’s story of these drugs used in real life. Real animals, really sick.
In the Trifexis story, there’s more evidence that tells me Big Pharma is listening to your stories: drug industry shills have joined the conversation. Kathleen calls out Cody, who left a wildly inaccurate comment that leaned heavily on scientism (which I blogged about here, in case that word is unfamiliar).
That’s a common ploy Big Pharma uses to put a positive spin on a conversation that’s critical of their products.
Why Should You Care?
Popularity of articles means only one thing to me: they struck a chord with you. You are seeking answers (a good thing!) and Big Pharma and Dr. WhiteCoat are not providing them (a seriously bad thing!!).
Rather than Zoetis and Elanco recalling their products and working to make them safer for your animals, they try to shut down the voices who speak up about the elephant in the room: both Apoquel and Trifexis are unacceptably risky. And they continue to sell large quantities to people who blindly trust their veterinarian who recommends them.
I think there are two large take aways from this experience:
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Big Pharma does not care what happens to your animals as much as what happens to their bottom line.
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Dr. WhiteCoat, if he’s selling you these products, does not have your back. He should be fired.
That means you’ll ultimately have to be savvy, do your own research, and question authority, themes I’ve touched on for years with my clients and readers. You’ll only have Vital Animals if you think your way through the morass that is veterinary medicine today. Blindly trusting authorities will come to no good end.
Find Alternatives or Pay an Unacceptable Price
What’s the commonest reason dogs go to vets? It’s chronic disease, allergies, and Apoquel is for dogs with allergies.
Please know this:
Conventional medicine cannot cure chronic disease.
It also creates it, most often in the name of “prevention.” (How’s that for irony?)
Over the years, often as a “D.L.R.” (Doctor of Last Resort), I’ve seen countless patients who’ve been through years of treatment for chronic disease, at a cost of thousands of dollars, and they are still sick. Some have been too damaged to help, but most have improved and some have been cured with homeopathy.
My colleagues all have similar “war stories,” and we’ll be sharing them again this year when we meet at the various homeopathic and holistic conferences we go to for continuing education.
The bottom line for you, as I see it, is to step outside the paradigm, the “machine,” that damages your animals and costs you emotionally and financially.
Nothing in treating chronic disease is easy, even for those of us who’ve been at it for decades.
Prevention is best taken seriously and not handed over to those selling you harmful drugs and vaccinations.
Tell us in the comments what you’ve learned in the “school of hard knocks.” I know many of you have a degree from this school, and my hope is that your stories will save someone else from making the same mistakes that you discovered.
