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HealthyLife.net Presents...
Wendy's Animal Talk
with Wendy Nan Rees
An Ounce of Prevention
January 15, 2008 at 1:00–2:00 PM (PDT)
with Guest Russell Louie, Optimum Choices, LLC
An Ounce of Prevention
I have a pet that is 2 years old, running around with too much
energy. Why should I be concerned about prevention at this stage in his life?
We seem to see only two types of customers at Optimum Choices. 1) Those that
wait for symptoms to show up before taking action and 2) Those that wait for
symptoms to blow up before taking action. Unfortunately, by the time these
customers come to us, their pet already has a degenerative disease and sometimes
their actions are too little and too late.
Optimum Choices’ mission is to create a third type of customer. Through our
education and by informing people about their holistic options, we want
customers that choose to take preventative action now when their pets are
younger, so they can avoid the expense and heartaches of their pet contracting a
serious degenerative when they are 15-20 years old.
Could my pet live to be 15–20 years old and still be healthy?
Yes, absolutely! When I was growing up 50 years ago, dogs and cats routinely
lived to be 15-20 years old. It wasn’t uncommon for a cat to live beyond 20
years of age. Cancer, diabetes, auto-immune disease was very rare in pets 50
years ago. But today, veterinary statistics and dog and cat registries show our
pets have a life span half of what it used to be 50 years ago. The average life
span of a Golden Retriever today is only 7-8 years old.
Our last cat died at 23 years old.
What are the chances of my pet getting a serious disease?
Studies show that cats have a 20% chance of getting feline leukemia. Chronic
Renal Failure (or CRF) is almost in epidemic proportions today. According to a
2005 Morris Animal Foundation Study, nearly 50 percent of natural deaths in
older cats and dogs are attributed to cancer. Cancer has become epidemic in some
breeds, with 63% of Golden Retrievers dying of it. We met Dr. Martin Goldstein
in NY several years ago and he told us he sees puppies 1-2 years old with
cancer.
So, if one does what everyone else does, namely go to the grocery store or big
box store and buy a 40 lb. bag of dry kibble for their pet for $19.95, take
their pet to the vet once per year for their annual vaccinations and never
cleans their pet’s teeth, these statistics are what the average pet owner can
expect to get. Optimum Choices’ goal is for all our customers to beat those
statistics though educating people on a good nutritious diet and other holistic
options.
What role does diet play in my pet’s health?
We feel a good diet is the number one thing an animal guardian can do to
preserve their pet’s health and longevity. Let me use our cats as an example.
The first several cats we had were fed exclusively dry kibble and died at ages
between 11 to 17 years of kidney disease. We were told that was totally “normal”
by the vet. Our last cat has had minimal vaccines and was switched from dry
kibble to a combination of premium canned and raw diet when she was 15 years
old. She lived to be approximately 23 years old. We attribute this longevity
mainly to her better diet.
Most holistic vets recommend a home-cooked or raw diet of meat, bones and organs
for both dogs and cats. That is what nature designed them to eat. Recognizing
this, many local pet stores now offer pre-made, balanced frozen raw diets. If
feeding raw food is not possible, then one can use freeze-dried raw food or some
very good super premium canned food available at natural pet stores.
Won’t premium food and other holistic options cost me more
money?
Yes but there is an old saying based on an old commercial, “You can pay me now
or pay me later.” Let me give you an example. A customer of ours had a Golden
Retriever, about 7 years old, that was severely overweight. I am guessing he
weighed at least 100 lbs. We tried to convince her that it would be in the dog’s
best interest if she would switch to a premium brand food and get the dog to
lose weight. She said she couldn’t afford to do that. In less than six months,
she called us saying she had to take the dog to the vet because he literally
couldn’t get up. Between the vet visit, shots, medications and prescription diet
she spent over $600. The same $600 could have been spent at $50/month for a
whole year on a healthier food that might have prevented this one vet visit. But
how many more vet visits will be needed in the future if the guardian continues
to do nothing? Later, it could be not just be arthritis but diabetes or
something even more serious. As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure”.
Many older animals have arthritis and are taking drugs and
glucosamine supplements. Do you have a preventative option for that?
Yes, we have found a whole food source of glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate and
hyaluronic acid that supplies the cartilage cells with the building blocks they
need to actually re-build joints. We prefer not to give glucosamine in an
isolated supplement because our research shows it could cause the side effects
of impairing insulin secretion which could lead to diabetes, cause yeast
flare-ups or Candida and overload the liver.
Breeder’s Choice makes a line of dry kibble, canned food product as well as
joint treats called Active Care. We particularly like their Active Care Joint
Chews which are a whole food doggie treat made from bovine cartilage, trachea,
connective tissue and beef liver. These cow parts are naturally high in
glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate and GAGs (glycosaminoglycans) and other
nutrients that healthy joints need. So, instead of feeding a dog treats made
from wheat, corn, or soy that contain sugar and artificial flavoring, feed them
Active Care Joint Chews before they get arthritic. In all the years we have been
using these chews, I have not found one dog that did not like them.
If one feeds dry kibble, we also suggest adding a superfood supplement, like
BioPreparation, to their diet because dry kibble is the most nutrient deficient
form of food we could feed our carnivorous pets.
I want to keep things simple and affordable. What is one
holistic product that I could supplement my pet's diet with?
A superfood product would be my choice. Superfoods supply the critical
live enzymes needed by our pets. Without live enzymes to break down the food,
absorption of nutrients cannot take place. I don’t just mean digestive enzymes.
The body needs plant and metabolic enzymes for such vital body functions as
energy production, new tissue regeneration, reducing inflammation, speeding
healing and just about every bodily function.
Without these enzymes, animals age faster and could get degenerative diseases so
prevalent in animals today. Animals fed dry kibble do not get live enzymes
because all cooked food is void of enzymes because heat kills enzymes. We
believe one of the causes of degenerative diseases includes feeding our pets
nothing but cooked, processed foods void of enzymes. So, we use a superfood
product called BioPreparation with all our pets because it has over 5,000
enzymes not just the half dozen or so digestive enzymes in a typical enzyme
supplement.
You seem to have wealth of holistic information. How can we
access your 50+ years of holistic wisdom?
One way is to go to our website, www.OptimumChoices.com and sign up for our free
monthly e-newsletters. We have written on such topics as, Is glucosamine the
answer for arthritis? How to improve your pet’s health holistically, Healthy
water for you and your pets and Whole Food Nutrition vs. Supplements that are
all archived online by searching on the specific topic.
A second way is to sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter which contains
holistic articles for people and pets. If your listeners will sign up for our
e-newsletter, they’ll get our free report entitled, What Pet Food Companies
Don’t Want You to Know. It will list the ingredients on pet food labels that are
not good for your pet and give secrets pet food companies use on their labels to
list ingredients in a deceiving way.
Another way is to download our new series of Holistic Choices e-Books. The first
three titles that have been published are:
• Save Your Dog or Cat
• Secrets of Longevity
• How to become a canine massage provider
Tell me more about what’s in your dogs and cats e-Book.
We start off by telling the reader what Nature designed wild dogs and cats to
eat. Then we compare all the various food options from dry kibble to raw food to
the optimum diet in Nature. We educate the readers on how to find good premium
pet food by reading the labels. Next we discuss all the advantages and
disadvantages of a raw food diet and how to transition to a raw diet. We also
have a section on what human foods are toxic to pets. Many people don’t know
that grapes, onions and Xylitol, a sweetener, can be toxic.
For more information on Optimum Choices and holistic options for your pet, go to
Russell’s website at www.OptimumChoices.com. You can also call toll-free
866-305-2306 or email them at info@OptimumChoices.com.
Future Radio Show Topics:
Jan. 15, 2008—An Ounce of Prevention
March 11, 2008—What's Safe After the Pet Food Recall
April 8, 2008—What Pet Food Companies Don’t Want You to Know
May 13, 2008—Save Your Dog or Cat
June 10, 2008—How to Choose a Good Holistic Supplement
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