My Pet's Place
9111 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, CO 80125
Call: (303) 683-0330 to register
Cost: $25
Dogs have muscles too! Massage is no longer just for humans--dogs can
benefit just as much as humans. Come learn how to help your dog feel
better with massage and acupressure.
Click here for more
details.
Journey Books & Gifts 1050 S. Wadsworth, Lakewood, CO
$33 through Jan 28 ($44 thereafter)
Come join us as we rediscover the therapeutic uses of essential oils
including: fighting colds & viruses, relieving stress & pain, releasing
emotions, safe use on animals, and other everyday uses in addition to
how to include oils in your healthcare practice.
Click here for more details.
You probably assumed all the Katrina animals had been rescued and
re-homed by now, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case yet. There are
still some rescued Katrina dogs in Denver seeking homes. For more
information, see:
www.optimumchoices.com/katrina-help.htm.
Now that the holidays are over, how many of you made New Year's resolutions
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Ingredients
Highest Potential is an inspiring fusion of the essential oil blend
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Body System Supported
Emotional
Directions/Precautions
Possible sun/skin sensitivity. Keep out of reach of children. If pregnant or
under a doctor's care, consult your physician.
Description
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Many people make New Year's resolutions to improve their health such as
losing weight, getting more exercise, eating healthier, etc. How about some New
Year's resolutions to help our pets' health too? We have found Internet sites
sponsored by major pet food companies that rate how well you are taking care of
your pet and then proceed to deduct points for such things as failing to
vaccinate annually or feeding forbidden "people food" to your dog. My scores
come out pretty low on those quizzes. However, if you were to consult a holistic
vet, they would tell you that over vaccination and feeding of many commercial
pet foods will decrease, not increase your pet's health and longevity. So, we
will describe steps to improve your pet's well-being from a holistic
perspective.
1. Feed the optimal diet designed by nature
Most holistic vets recommend feeding a home-prepared raw or cooked diet
containing human-grade meat, fish and vegetables to dogs and cats. If you look
at what the ancestors of dogs and cats eat in the wild, you see carnivores that
are eating raw meat, bones and organs, not dried kibble made primarily from
grains. There is controversy among holistic vets as to whether raw or cooked
meat is best for our pets. We think it depends on your pet. Some pets do great
with raw meat and others don't. So we suggest researching how to do a balanced
raw diet and then following it if your pet does well on it. If not, then a home
cooked or super premium commercial diet may be better. For more information, see
our article on pet nutrition here:
Optimal nutrition for dogs and cats.
What about table scraps? Isn't "people food" bad for dogs? Well, it depends
on what your diet is. If your diet contains healthy foods: organic meat, fish,
vegetables, fruits and grains, then giving some to your dog isn't going to hurt
him. If you eat fast food and junk food, then it isn't going to be good for your
pet either. Most holistic vets say you can feed up to about 1/4 of your dog's
diet in table scraps without seriously imbalancing the diet. Again, this is
something where you would want to see how your pet does. The one thing to be
wary of is that some human foods are toxic to dogs and cats. For a list of foods
to avoid, see our article here:
Don't feed this to your pet!
One toxic food you particularly need to watch out for is onions because they
are added to many foods, such as ketchup, tomato sauce and hot dogs. The ASPCA
Poison Control Center also reports that
avocados have a toxin in them, though we have not seen our dog have a
problem with them. However, our dog is a Chihuahua mixed breed so avocado is a
more natural food for her to eat than other breeds. We suggest taking into
account your dog's breed and individual susceptibilities. For instance, northern
breeds like Huskies thrive on fish but when we gave our Chihuahua-mix dog
salmon, she spent all night vomiting it up. You can learn more about
breed-specific nutrition in the book
Canine Nutrition: Choosing the best food for your breed, by William D.
Cusick.
2. Provide healthy, clean water
Many of us give our animals tap water to drink. We feed our pets the perfect
diet and then put down a dish of tap water for them without thinking. Tap water
contains chlorine and other chemicals that can have a negative impact on the
health of both people and pets. We have heard of cases of dogs or cats with
bladder or kidney problems that improved when they were changed from tap to
bottled water. So we suggest that you consider using filtered or bottled water
not just for yourself and children but for your animal family as well. We will
provide more information on water and health in an upcoming newsletter but
meanwhile you can call or e-mail us for more information.
3. Avoid unnecessary vaccinations
Everyone knows that good pet owners take their dog or cat to the vet every
year to get their "annual vaccines", right? And if you want to take your dog to
a doggie daycare, kennel or dog park, you may be required to provide proof of
"current vaccines" (meaning annual for most and twice-yearly for bordetella).
However, this conventional wisdom may not be the best thing for our pets'
health. Many holistic vets feel that over vaccination is a major factor leading
to the epidemic of cancer and other degenerative diseases seen in our pets now.
They generally follow a different vaccination schedule than conventional vets,
recommending a few core vaccines for puppies and kittens, the rabies vaccine as
required by law and then no other vaccines for the life of the pet. They feel
that vaccines typically last for the life of a pet, not for only one year. If
you press them, they may privately admit that the rabies vaccine need not be
given every one year or three years, either. In fact, there is now funding
underway to support a study showing that the rabies vaccine persists for longer
than 3 years. For more information, see this site:
Rabies Challenge Study Fund. There are now studies coming out of veterinary
schools showing that vaccinations last longer than a year and the American
Animal Hospital Association is now recommending vaccines every 3 years. However,
many vets are not yet following the current recommendations and are still
promoting annual vaccinations. To learn more about this topic, see our article
here:
Vaccination Controversy.
We have seen evidence with our own cats of the difference between heavily
vaccinated and lightly vaccinated animals. Our previous two cats both died at
age 17 from chronic kidney failure. They both received complete annual
vaccinations the first 10 to 11 years of their life. One vaccine that may be
related to kidney disease is feline distemper, as it is grown on kidney cells.
So it may set up an autoimmune reaction. While 17 years is not a young age for a
cat to die, we now have a cat that is estimated to be around 20 years old (she
was a stray so we don't know for sure) and she has no kidney problems yet. She
had the same diet as the other cats for most of her life--dry kibble (we now
feed her canned and raw food). The difference is that she was not heavily
vaccinated. The neighbors may have vaccinated her when she first appeared in the
neighborhood but the only vaccine we gave her was the rabies vaccine, one time.
4. Avoid overuse of drugs
Those Internet quizzes
that rate how good a pet owner you are will deduct points
if you are not using heartworm preventive medication every year. Heartworm is a
problem in dogs and the treatment for it once they contract it is pretty
nasty--they are given arsenic to kill off the worms and then must be kept quiet
for a month or two while the medication works. In severe cases, the dogs can die
anyway from heartworm or the treatment may kill or permanently damage them.
However, you should be aware that the preventive medication is not without side
effects, either. It is an insecticide designed to kill off the larvae before
they can mature. Ingesting an insecticide can't be very good for them either. In
states with a low incidence of heartworm, such as Colorado, holistic vets often
recommend that owners get yearly testing for heartworm and avoid giving the
preventive medication. They feel that the risk of contracting heartworm is not
high enough to justify giving a poisonous drug to the dog. In parts of the
country with a high incidence of heartworm (such as the deep south, where the
Katrina dogs came from), then you may decide that the risk of contracting
heartworm is too high and you prefer to give the medication. There is no "right"
answer to this dilemma. Dr. Richard Pitcairn, the noted holistic vet, feels that
keeping dogs healthy with fresh, raw foods and plenty of exercise helps them
resist parasites like heartworms, so that preventives are less necessary. He is
also experimenting with a homeopathic preventive for heartworm and is seeing
good results so far.
Steroids, such as prednisone, are another heavily used class of drugs. They
reduce inflammation and can eliminate the symptoms produced by many different
diseases, at least in the short-term. However, with long-term use they suppress
the immune system and can create more problems than the animal had in the first
place. Because they are so effective at reducing symptoms, conventional vets
will often use them heavily. However, holistic vets tend to avoid them whenever
possible, due to the long-term effects. In fact, when a vet at a recent meeting
of holistic vets joked that the first thing she does is reach for steroids on
her shelf to give patients, everyone burst out laughing at the absurdity of what
she said. Dr. Richard Pitcairn, DVM states in his book Natural
Health for Dogs & Cats that when he treats cancer, the third of animals that
he has the most success with (the tumors regressing or no longer growing) are
the animals that have had no prior use of steroids or surgery.
Holistic vets, instead of using steroids, will instead work with homeopathic remedies, herbs,
diet, supplements and natural treatments like acupuncture to build up the
animal's body so it can heal on its own and then it doesn't need steroids. We
have seen problems in pets that would normally be treated with steroids helped
by nutraceutical whole food products that provide the body with the nutrition
it needs to heal itself, such as the
BioSuperfood/BioPreparation algae product that we offer.
As with humans, it makes sense to avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics, both
to avoid creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria and to avoid side effects from
their use. Conventional vets will often prescribe antibiotics prophylactically
(for prevention), such as when an animal has its teeth cleaned. Holistic vets
will typically use them more cautiously, reserving their use for an active
infection that is not responsive to other treatment.
5. Avoid environmental toxins
We now live in a very toxic environment, laden with chemicals and pollution.
And our pets get more exposure to it than we do, since they walk and lie on the
floor and ground and then lick their feet and body. You probably already know
not to put herbicide on your lawn and then let your dog out to play on the lawn.
(We would suggest you not put chemicals on your lawn at all, since it is bad for
the health of your environment). But what do you use inside the house that might
harm your pets? Many household cleaners can be toxic to pets (and people--we are
just bigger so it takes more to visibly harm us). Indoor air quality can often
be worse than the smoggiest day downtown.
We learned first-hand just how sensitive our pets can be. We avoid using any
cleaning products with chemicals, since I am sensitive to chemicals. However, we
were using orange oil to polish the furniture (a "natural" product but high in
natural chemicals). As it turns out, our little Chihuahua-mix dog is sensitive
to this. She would periodically have episodes where she would be sick at night,
spending all night licking the sheets, pillows and herself instead of sleeping,
and if we took her outside, she would eat every weed and twig in sight, like she
was trying to cleanse and rid herself of something. Our holistic vet was
mystified as to what might be causing this, as were we. We could not connect it
to anything we were feeding her. Finally, an animal psychic suggested that she
was reacting to something in the environment, possibly orange oil. This theory
was inadvertently put to the test about a month later when we paid someone to
clean our house and she used orange oil on the furniture. When I got home that
night, the orange smell was so strong it almost made me sick. A little later
that evening, I noticed our dog licking the pillow on the sofa and when we went
to bed that night, the "licking fit" started. Fortunately, I was able to stop it
with a homeopathic remedy and some energy work, but it showed that she was
indeed reacting to the orange oil. By the way, citrus oils are are extremely
toxic to cats. Be careful when using any household products containing citrus
scents, including any "natural" essential citrus oils around cats. See
www.optimumchoices.com/animals_oils.htm for more details.
To learn more about how environmental toxins affect our pets and how to
reduce their exposure, we recommend the newly revised version of Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats.
This is our Book of the Month and it has an excellent
chapter on this topic. A non-toxic recipe for furniture polish is described in
his book: 2 parts vegetable or olive oil with 1 part lemon juice.
6. Get plenty of fresh air and exercise
This seems like an obvious recommendation but can be hard to follow at times
when both adults are busy working all day. Just like people, animals need
exercise to keep their bodies healthy. The dog breeds that were created to work
hard all day--hunting dogs in the field or herding dogs in the pasture--suffer
both physically and psychologically when they don't get the exercise and work
their bodies were designed for. Border collies do best on farms where they can
work, not in suburban backyards. Behavioral problems can often be reduced when
dogs get more exercise. As dog trainers like to say, "a tired dog is a
well-behaved dog". To meet this need, many doggie daycares and dog parks have
sprung up. It seems like a new doggie daycare facility opens every day (now if
you could just find one that doesn't require "current vaccinations").
See
www.optimumchoices.com/Daycare.htm for a doggie day care & kennel near
Denver that does not require vaccines. Facilities
like this provide a very necessary element for our dogs' health if you cannot
take your dog for long walks, runs or play sessions every day. Rather than
"pampering" your dog, you are meeting your dog's very real physical and
psychological needs by taking advantage of these places.
7. Supplement the diet with super nutrition
Even the best diet may not be sufficient to provide optimal health in our
pets, given the factors that have damaged their health in the past and our
polluted environment. It is no longer possible to find animals anywhere on the
planet that are not contaminated with chemicals. PCBs have been found in polar
bears. So even the organic raw meat you feed your pet has some chemical
contamination in it. Also, even the best diet can be lacking in nutrients due to
the depletion of minerals in our soils. Genetics plays an important part in our animals' health as
well. Unless your pet comes from several generations of animals fed organic raw
food, given no vaccinations, exposed to no environmental toxins and responsibly bred,
their health is already compromised as soon as they are born. And if you are
like us and acquire your pets from shelters or neighborhood strays, you may have
no knowledge at all about their background or parents.
So, what can you do to counteract this and prevent future health problems? We
suggest supplementing the diet with superfoods containing very concentrated
nutrition, providing the body with the building blocks it needs to detoxify
chemicals, as well as prevent and fight off disease. It is best to do start this
as a puppy or kitten and continue throughout the animal's life (or even better,
start it with the mother when she is pregnant).
Many people hesitate to do this while their animal is "young and healthy",
feeling that it's not necessary and they "can't afford it". They don't think
their animal will get sick. Unfortunately, the odds are against them. Pets have
a higher cancer rate than humans. The Morris Animal Foundation estimates that
63% of Golden Retrievers will die from cancer and nearly 50% of all older pets
will get some form of cancer. Dr. Martin Goldstein, a
nationally-known holistic vet specializing in cancer, states that he sees far
more cancer now than he did 20 years ago and in far younger animals. Almost all
holistic vets state that the level of degenerative disease seen in our pets now
has greatly increased. So, when the animal does get sick later, the owner is now
desperate to get them well and no longer concerned about cost. Unfortunately, it
may be too late at that point, for either conventional or holistic medicine to
cure their pet. While some animals can recover from cancer and other fatal
diseases, not all will. Some animals will recover while others may have improved
quality of life from holistic treatment but will still die from the disease. As
the saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".
We suggest feeding nutraceutical-grade superfoods that provide the body the
nutrition it needs to reduce the chance of degenerative diseases later in life.
The product we use with our pets is
BioSuperfood/BioPreparation, the whole food algae product that we offer. We
have given this to our dog since we got her, even though she is "apparently
healthy", as a preventive. We saw the power of this product when we were first
introduced to it and tried it on our 17 year old cat who was dying of kidney
disease (one of the cats mentioned in the vaccination section above). That cat
felt better and was more lively after just 2 days on the product (despite a
lifetime of over vaccination and poor diet). This product might also be one
reason why our 20-year old cat is still here, despite a lifetime of dry kibble
and obesity. She has been on it for 3 years now. So, we feel that supplementing
our pets' diets with powerful superfoods is an important component of providing
for our animals' well being.
This New Year's, resolve to help your animal on the path to better health by
implementing the above steps to optimal wellness. To learn more, we suggest
reading the Books of the Month (below) and our other recommended books here:
Book Page.
Dr.
Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, Third Edition
by Richard H. Pitcairn, DVM, PhD and Susan Hubble Pitcairn
ISBN 157954973X
Click picture to order from Dogwise
This is the third edition of the book that has become a classic in the
holistic health literature for pets. Dr. Pitcairn is a pioneering holistic
health-oriented veterinarian who has trained many vets in how to use homeopathy
to treat their patients. After watching the extensive interview with him in the
film
Eat, Drink, and Wag Your Tail: Improving the lives of our dogs through
nutrition, we were eager to read this new edition of his book which was
recently released. This
book covers a broad spectrum of topics, including a chapter on the effects of
environmental toxins on our pets, something not always considered, even by
holistic vets.
Dr. Pitcairn takes a truly holistic approach, looking at seemingly unrelated
symptoms and illnesses in one animal as being caused by an underlying imbalance,
rather than the allopathic approach of treating each disease and symptom as a
separate, unrelated occurrence. He explains it this way: "The individual animal
is a whole organism, not parts patched together. When healthy and balanced,
everything moves along smoothly and there are no symptoms. However, when injured
or exposed to an infectious organism, the whole patient responds, and
this response includes the production of symptoms. These symptoms (even
inflammation or pain) are expressions of the healing process the body is going
through". This would seem pretty self-evident but this approach is totally
different from the western medical approach used by most veterinarians. This
holistic approach is also different than using "natural" treatments such as
herbs to treat or suppress symptoms. The truly holistic approach supports the
body in healing and minimizes the suppression of symptoms, which can lead to
long-term health problems and even drive the illness deeper into the body.
The second part of the book contains a quick reference to many different
conditions ranging from allergies to cancer, FIV and weight problems. Dr.
Pitcairn points out repeatedly that good nutrition is fundamental to prevention
as well as treatment of disease. Our one quarrel with him would be his heavy use
of grains and beans in his recipes for dogs and cats. We feel this does not make
sense as they are carnivores and their natural diet is meat, bones and organs.
Most holistic vets these days recommend a diet of raw meat, bones and organs
with some vegetables but minimal grains, especially for cats. Also, according to
the Weston
Price Foundation, grains and beans need to not only be cooked but should
also be soaked and fermented to make them fully digestible, for either humans or
animals (unless the animal has a multi-chambered stomach for fermenting plant
foods, such as cows, sheep, deer and goats). Dr. Pitcairn's recommendations are partly due to the
fact of his being a vegetarian, which he feels is healthier, as well as easier
on the environment, therefore he suggests reducing the amount of meat fed to
dogs and cats as well. We would disagree with his assertions about vegetarianism
and direct you to this article for more information:
Myths and Truths about Vegetarianism. Dr. Pitcairn also feels that a high
meat/fat diet is too rich for our relatively inactive domestic dogs/cats vs.
wild animals; however, many vets feel that a high-carbohydrate diet is what
causes dogs and cats to become obese (think "Catkins" diet for fat cats).
Despite our disagreements with his diet recommendations, there is much of
value in this book and it definitely deserves a place on your bookshelf along
with other holistic pet care books.
303-271-1649
866-305-2306 (toll-free)
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best.
Nothing on this website has been evaluated by the FDA. This information
is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Please
see a qualified healthcare practitioner for any disease or illness.