I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Sammy82 — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:07:44 GMT

Forums can be very nasty places. As a keen fish keeper I've read/contributed to a couple of tropical fish forums. They are ruled by some bossy extremist who bully every beginner who dares to ask beginner questions or has made typical beginner mistakes of mixing to many of the wrong fish. They very quickly get accused of cruelty by the bullies who have turned their hobby into a scientific project. Almost every thread turned sour within ten posts. Not nice!

At least here we treat each other as adults, even when sometimes people have to agree to disagree on a topic.

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Nicola Lawlor — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:51:32 GMT

I work for Medivet and we do not push vaccicheck in any way in our branch at least. It is a test that is available to those who ask for it (ie people from that sort of forum!). We don't have posters advertising it in our waiting area and I don't mention it to clients unless they themselves bring up the topic. I try to explain limitations of such testing too so they hopefully make an informed correct decision at the end of the day. Whilst I am very very pro vaccinations I also believe we need to respect the rights of people to make a choice. It doesn't mean that my personal choice is vaccicheck though ! (My dog is vaccinated annually!)

Anthony - well done for being brave and stepping forwards to try and correct misinformation in a war zone!

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Bob Russell — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:53:44 GMT

Another line of defence I present is "yes more pets get cancer - they are living longer!".

Occasionally someone listens!

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Glenn Hodgson — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:12:55 GMT

Good effort.

There be some very hungry trolls..

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Glenn Hodgson — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:12:53 GMT

Good effort.

There be some very hungry trolls..

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Sarah McGurk — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:08:20 GMT

You're a brave man Anthony! I ventured into the pets area of MumsNet once. I didn't stay long after that. I stick to veterinary forums now if I want to discuss animals. At least most of the contributors are relatively sane....

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Anthony Dennison — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:03:49 GMT

One of the contributors to the discussion just will not be swayed - looking at her profile she is an animal communicator (currently communicating with a stolen dog to figure out where it is... sigh)

They've started talking about holistic vets seeing and curing all the horrible diseases us standard vets cause by vaccinating. Going to have to hold my tongue on this one.

Also, does anyone work for Medivet? Why are they advertising vaccicheck - the cynic in me sees a corporate doing this and just thinks it's a money spinner

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Alex Gough — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 19:44:24 GMT

Very brave Anthony. I did something similar about 10 years or so ago, before facebook, on the jstsayno2vaccines yahoo group. I joined just to see what was happening, and then replied privately to a genuine concerned new puppy owner. But as the advice she got became more bizarre and dangerous, I waded in on the main site, to try to inject some facts and science. The vitriol was amazing, and I quickly got called a troll and booted from the forum. I rejoined under a different name to see what they were saying, which was an eye opener as they had concluded I was a disabled vet from Denmark. who clearly spent all day in his wheelchair trolling the internet. I pointed out I wasn't, not that being disabled should have counted against me, and promptly got booted again. I recall spending at least 24 hours extremely angry!

Catherine O Driscoll has been around a long time, btw, and gets a lot of media attention and airtime. It's scary to think how many dogs might have died in a lot of pain due to her well-intentioned efforts.

There is of course no persuading people who have made up their minds. Interesting article in the Guardian recently with a mathematical explanation of why it is impossible to change the minds of close-minded people:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/life-and-physics/2014/sep/28/belief-bias-and-bayes

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Bob Russell — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 17:48:43 GMT

[quote user="Stephen Courtney"]

Never argue with people you don't know on the internet. It's not healthy. Can't educate crazy people and fanatics anyway, and i'd rather not know what they believe.

[/quote]

Thats VetSurgeon told then!!!!

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Stephen Courtney — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:58:41 GMT

Never argue with people you don't know on the internet. It's not healthy. Can't educate crazy people and fanatics anyway, and i'd rather not know what they believe.

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Bob Russell — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:10:55 GMT

The problem with these people is they know enough to be dangerous but not enough to be safe!

I love the comment about lepto being an exotic disease!

I just direct clients to Wikipedia, specifically Andy Holmes, the Olympic rower who died from Weil's disease. I suspect lepto cases are underdiagnosed.

Almost tempted to join in the fuss.

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Matt Hilary — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 11:50:59 GMT

Thought you handled it quite well!

I've always wanted to ask how many of these people would take up no strings attached free vaccinations if offered (but unwilling to wade into an online argument). I suspect there's a few people using 'science' to justify saving £x/year.

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Anthony Dennison — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 11:45:25 GMT

Anyone else heard of 'dormant antibodies' that wouldn't show up on an ELISA?

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Anthony Dennison — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:44:24 GMT

Just read this article on that site:

http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/Vaccines%202.pdf

Creeping nephritis causing skin lesions? Some serious scientific holes in that. The virologist they have taken a quote from in that article has been massively misquoted too; I read the full quote last night from a link that was posted in response to my replies.

Re: I've been well and truly Facebooked...

Kirsten Simpson — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:29:56 GMT

Oh god she's that mad wifey with the excellent website. http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/ Some terrifying reading on there btw.