You are correct.
With the exception of several human foods, such as broccoli in excess, onions, macadamia nuts, grapes, raisins, etc, a ‘home made’ pet food is superior to processed ‘fast food’ in every way.
My dogs have eaten raw beef [including hamburger] and beef organs for years and never gotten sick from it.
At least one, however, got very sick from ‘premium dog food’.
I feed a combination of high rated kibbles and raw.
As a caveat, you should *not* mix raw meat with kibbles.
The digestion rates for each are different.
Over-vaccination is a plague upon our pets.
It is also a very high profit margin ‘service’ for those who provide it.
The standard yearly DHLPP shot costs about $30, not including office visit charges but you can go to any farm store and buy it yourself for $6.
[be warned that the Leptospirosis vax provided is not even the correct serovar and is associated with severe side effects in many dogs]
Yearly titer tests are a far superior way to make sure your dog stays healthy.
See this also:
http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/education
I went through the rabies series myself last fall and I can tell you it was extremely unpleasant and I’m still not quite ‘over it’.
Imagine having to get a condensed version of that every 1-3 years but you can’t speak up and tell ayone how sick it makes you.
How many of you have had your vet tell you “it’s normal” for your dog to be ‘off’ for a few days after it had its shots?
I don’t think it’s “normal” at all.
Even my own vet, who still believes in the discredited mandatory ‘annual vax protocol” has my dogs stay at the clinic for 20 minutes, post-vax, in case they have a “reaction”.
After reading up on it some time ago I decided not to ever do the Lepto again, nor the Kennel Cough booster. Both of those are every 6 months and of course there’s no guarantee that the Lepto will even be effective against the strain your dog MIGHT get! (And Kennel Cough is pretty much ineffective as a vaccine anyway. No prevention there.) We will be titering for the “biggies” as I have no intention of continuing something which can be so counter-productive to our furbabies’ health. (And I have been following Dr. Ron Schultz’ recommendations very carefully - as has apparently the Vet community because they have adapted the rabies to echo the three year rec.) I think he’s working on a longer study now to prove the non-necessity of vaccinating even every 3 years.... Interesting stuff!
But it pays to do one’s own research and not accept everything the vets say out of hand. They are not gods and in some areas their education has been woefully deficient (which the honest ones will admit).
My understanding on the latest lepto vax is they now include coverage of all four types that can infect a dog. I still think there are issues with high rates of reactions. And I still think there is the issue with it only being effective for about 9 months. I think that’s because it’s a bacterial infection versus a viral infection like most other diseases that are vaxed for.