part 2
Canaries In A Coal Mine
Do you know what a canary in a coal mine is? Early coal miners didn’t have anything in the way of ventilation systems, so legend has it that miners would bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the bird kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary signaled an immediate evacuation. The phrase “living like a canary in a coal mine” often refers to serving as a warning to others.
Our dogs are canaries in a coal mine – but we don’t see it. We keep filling them with toxic chemicals like heartworm meds and, as long as they keep singing, we think they’re fine. But they’re not – something insidious is happening inside, while the toxins build up and, over either the short or long term, eventually kill or harm our dogs.
And the evidence has been right under our nose all along – you see, it’s the constant exposure to those heartworm drugs – the ones that should send humans to their doctors immediately – that makes dogs get heartworm!
The Heartworm Society overlooks this fact, as do conventional vets, because they don’t understand what a healthy immune system – and hence a healthy dog – look like. As long as dogs are chronically exposed to heartworm poisons, flea and tick meds, processed foods, repeated vaccinations and drugs, they simply aren’t healthy – the immune system can’t possible keep up to that chemical onslaught.
So while the dog’s immune system is busy fighting off his last visit to the vet where he got flea and tick powder, vaccines, maybe some antibiotics, and even some nice, processed veterinary food, the microfilariae are free to take over because the defenses are taxed to the limit.
Is this just speculation? Maybe. But for those folks in the south, I’ve got something saved up that might give more credence to my thoughts.
What About The Southern States?
OK, here we are: the dreaded southern states! You probably noticed that the wolf study I mentioned was done in Wisconsin where the threat of heartworm is obviously lower than in the south. So what about the wolves who are living in the southern climate?
The Red Wolf was decimated and nearly extinct in 1980 but is being reintroduced throughout southeastern Texas, Florida and North Carolina – the states that are heartworm hotbeds.
The population has grown to 100 animals and they’re keeping very close tabs on them. Here’s something that’s interesting: most of the wolves are testing positive for heartworm – but the infestation hasn’t been shown to be a major source of mortality. (
view the study here)
Now why do up to 45% of “unprotected” dogs living in the southern states suffer from heartworm while the wolves may have a couple of heartworms swimming around but rarely suffer from a life threatening infestation?
Why are our companion dogs so readily infected with heartworm?
Here’s an important thought from the late Dr Glen Dupree, a popular veterinary homeopath who resided in Louisiana and never treated or tested his dogs for heartworm:
“I operate under the assumption that all of my dogs have heartworms. But there’s a very big difference between having heartworms and heartworm disease.”
And that difference is a healthy immune system.
The constant flow of toxic chemicals gets in the way of good health. Common sense would tell you that it’s ridiculous to expose your dog to vaccines, neurotoxins, carcinogens and think that you’ve made him healthy.
How did giving poisonous products to healthy dogs to make them healthy become a viable treatment option? Where did it go so wrong?
I ask myself this question and when people say “I’ve put my dog on heartworm preventives,” I have to ask, “what exactly have you prevented?” And more importantly, “what is the cost?”
Why are we exposing 100% of our dogs to this poison when the reality of healthy dogs actually getting a heartworm infestation is about the same as those wolves who aren’t exposed to the same constant chemical onslaught?
We don’t know what a healthy dog is any longer. They are few and far between. But I assure you, they exist and they are living and thriving in the southern states without heartworm preventives.
So to answer the final question from that vet who challenged my thoughts: am I a vet? No, I’m not a vet. I’m just holding them accountable for the demise of healthy dogs.