The end of an era.
January 1 2017, will mark the end of an era for ranchers, farmers, animal keepers, and preppers.
Why you ask?
The FDA and the end OTC Veterinary Antibiotics
The FDA is changing the class of animal antibiotics from OTC to VFD Rx. (OTC= Over The Counter and VFD Rx is Veterinary Feed Directive prescription) A few letters from the FDA have been sent out, and in the BEST government fashion are as confusing as ever.
The Survival Blog, on October 24th posted this. The Survival Blog VFD RX The letter CLEARLY says:
“Drugs Transitioning from Over‐the‐Counter (OTC) to Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) Status Upon completion of their voluntary transition from OTC to VFD, all feed uses of the following drugs, alone and in a combination, will require a VFD as of January 1, 2017, except in cases where a sponsor chooses to voluntarily withdraw the drug application. “
But there is also this directrive frm the FDA Drugs Transitioning from Over-the-Counter (OTC) to Prescription (Rx) Status
it reads as :
This list represents the antimicrobials approved for use in water affected by GFI #213. The complete list of affected applications will continue to be updated as changes are made and can be located here.
Upon completion of their voluntary transition from OTC to Rx, all uses of the following drugs will require a prescription from a veterinarian as of January 1, 2017, except in cases where a sponsor chooses to voluntarily withdraw the drug application
Notice the words all uses of the following drugs will require a prescription from a veterinarian as of January 1, 2017
Ok Feed animal uses of antibiotics. Well that is a good thing. It is well documented that the over use of antibiotics in cattle, swine, poultry and sheep is partly responsible for the rise in resistant bacteria. This is just one of many verticals on the subject A Review of Antibiotic Use in Food Animals: Perspective, Policy, and Potential. But here is the bad on this. Its Christmas Eve evening. . A rancher goes out in the snow to feed and a prize Angus heifer who is pregnant from a VERY expensive bull is down with the scours (bad diarrhea) A few thousand units of Penicillin V wile take care of it and unborn calf and momma cow are saved. But he is out of it. He runs down to Tractor Supply, grabs a bottle and gets in line. The cashier ask from his script. He doesnt have on and is refused the sale and is told to call his vet. His vet is out of town for the holiday and wont be back for 2 days. Cow and calf die from dehydration. Multiple thousands, even 10’s of thousands of dollars are lost to th rancher.
So what does that have to do with preppers? Well everything! For years Cat Ellis and I have told people on the Medic Shack Radio Show to stock up om Vet meds. Because they are the same exact drugs as the human counter part. ( Well the ones sold as fish antibiotics) And to take the time to learn the how and when to use them.
So both letters say similar but 2 very different things. Where does this leave the everyday prepper, survivalist, or person who just wants to make sure that their family are well taken care of. It leaves them with what they can obtain, process and store by December 31st 2016. However there have been incidents of price hikes and of places demanding a script before sale. For example I went to the Tractor Supply in Edgewood NM the other day to see if I could get a bottle of Penicillin V. I dont really need it since I have others of my own. The young lady said that they have to have a prescripton from my vet before they can sell any drugs any more. I asked to speak to a manager and the poor kids was totally unsure but asked if I could wait a day or two so he could get confirmation from corporate.
I’ll head back over in a day or to to check. Folks who subscribe to The Medic Shack Facebook Page have reported price increases in their favorite suppliers over the las couple of months. My self I can NOT confirm this. I have my own supply of antibiotics so I haven’t had the need to buy..
So what is the PREPPER or Sustainable medicine person going to do? Most vets, unless they know you will not write a script for a few different antibiotics for “Just in case”. As I like to say and proudly stole it from the movie Speed, Pop Quiz Hot Shot. What are you going to do?
Well, A couple of things. First, if you can and have the money, STOCK UP NOW. Buy the longest expiration date you can. Remember that the expiration dates are not the day the drugs go bad. Re did a show on this a couple of years ago that showed that the expiration date was nothing more than a throw away and buy more and CYA date than a true ex[expiration date. The SLEP website used to be in the public domain, but that has changed. We posted the linkson past shows and were able to access it. Not so any more. In fact the gateway now says this: The following is a general notice from SLEP manager:
As a reminder, all testing and extension data provided to the Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP) by the Food and Drug Administration is considered For Official Use Only and cannot be shared with anyone outside the user’s organization. SLEP Administrators have fielded several calls recently from individuals wanting to share this information with local, civilian counterparts. That is not permissible, as it is not only a violation of the terms agreed to by the FDA but also a violation of the Memorandum of Agreement each participant organization signs prior to entering the SLEP program. SLEP website accounts of violators will immediately be terminated and inventories may be eliminated from the program, pending notification of the parent organization. Additionally, non-SLEP organizations that use SLEP information are in violation of Federal law that governs misbranded pharmaceuticals. Questions on this topic may be addressed to SLEP Administrators through the website.
Ok time to loosen the tin foil hat a bit. What ever,. Short story, with proper storage and care, they really do not expire 1 year from purchase.
But say you do not have hundreds of extra dollars just lying around and you want to cover all the bases. Well folks you stepped in to the right office!
Ok first off, there is not really a true systemic herbal antibiotic. Nope not a truly effective one.
You can eat enough garlic to kill off every vampire in a 50,000 kilometer radius but it wont kill a UTI unless you put it in contact with the bacteria.
I’ll let that image soak in for a bit.
Ok now for the brain bleach!
I truly believe in Herbal Medicine. I really do. But if herbal antibiotics existed, then Mary Ingalls would have not lost her sight to Scarlet Fever.
There are some papers, none that are scientific so I cannot cite them as a source, that show that in certain instances 2 classes of people survived the Black Plague better than others. The very rich. The ate better so they had a better immune system because they were not malnourished. Also they ate and drank from silver plates, goblets and silver eating utensils. And the very poor. Because they, 1 had no home so slept apart from others so those were bitten and passed on the fleas that infested others did not infest them, And they would eat the scraps that others would toss. Namely moldy bread. Penicillium mold.
We discussed that there is no true systemic herbal antibiotic. But there is something that IS systemic. That will attack gram negative and gram positive bacteria. It is easy to make and it is safe. AS. LONG. AS. THE. INSTRUCTIONS. ARE.FOLLOWED.
My good friend Cope Reynolds of Southwest Shooting Authority is one of the biggest proponents of Colloidal Silver that walks this earth. I worked with him on parts of his book on it. The Medic Shack has a page devoted to CS. TMS Page on Colloidal Silver. No before folks start hammering me on the dangers of CS, first off remember. NO MEDICINE IS TOTALY SAFE. Now that being said if the instructions are followed the chance of you or someone using your CS turning blue is about <1%. The reasons that people turn blue, the proper name is Argyria is one of three reasons. Reason 1. Salt is added to the water making silver. Silver is a highly reactive compound. It tries to bind to anything it can. Salt is made of Sodium Chloride. Sodium is a positive ion. Chloride is a negative ion. Silver is a positive ion. This makes Silver and Chloride stick like a magnet. What you get is Silver Chloride. It was part of old black and white film and paper. Basically you developed your self. Reason 2. Ran the generator far longer than recommend. This makes a hyper strong CS solution and when ingested it binds with the salt in your blood and the same thing happens as above. Reason 3. Water other than distilled water is used. All waters contain salts and other halides. Silver will bind with them and either by a chloride ion or by oxidation the blue color will happen.
Colloidal Silver is a systemic antibiotic. It will work if used and made and stored correctly. Now remember. I am NOT a doctor. I can not diagnose and or prescribe. This information is for educational purposes only.
Now that that is out of the way, and I have hopefully whetted your appetite for more. Next week we will actually get in to the herbal antibiotics and how to make, store and uses them. Including. Colloidal Silver.
Next. The Herbal First Aid kits are shipping! And unfortunately I have found a problem. The 5 ml bottles that the Glycertites and Tinctures in are not holding up in shipping. I have ceased using the original bottles and have ordered new 1 ounce plastic amber bottles and expect them in any day now. These bottles are more robust and will take up less space over all. As they come in I wil be sending out new ones to all have the old style bottles at no cost.
Order your kits here! TMS Herbal First Aid Kit
Lastly. Cope Reynolds and I are finally getting a combined skills class going. Its going to be a 2 day class that will have Rifle Shotgun and Pistol training And then advanced wound care caused by wounds from those three AND blunt force and lacerations. This class is still in the formation phase but we expect to have it up and running a few weeks. This will be as far as we know a first of its kind and is going to be 2 full days of intense training.
Normally here I would include some Amazon links. This week I am including SWSA’s CS kit. Click on the the image to pick yours up.
