HOLISTIC VETERINARY CARE

Sometimes it's just not a good time to get a vaccine...

3/4/2019

In modern times, vaccines seem to be given regardless of whatever else might be going on, simply because your pet is "due." In many cases the dog has diarrhea, or the cat is suffering with cystitis, or your puppy is going to be neutered, and vaccines are given because they are due.

This is not a good way to practice medicine. The vaccine insert warns us that vaccines are meant for healthy animals. Not for animals who are going to be anesthetized for a major surgery, such as a spay or neuter. Not for animals who have a chronic condition, like hypothyroidism, diabetes, allergies, or cancer. And not for animals with acute symptoms such as an ear infection or vomiting.

We don't often think about the timing of vaccines, and they seem to be given willy-nilly, as the opportunity presents itself. So I see puppies who have been given vaccine boosters every two weeks, or in an attempt to preserve the immune system, the rabies vaccine is given one whole week after the distemper vaccine. This is a really bad idea! Vaccines are immunosuppressive, and your pet's immune system needs time to recover from one vaccine before the next one is given.

When health problems arise after vaccines, typically drugs are given to suppress the symptoms, and the next booster is given because the vaccine schedule is paramount. This is also not good medicine. Health problems after vaccination indicate that the animal should not be vaccinated again, as the immune system struggles to detoxify itself. Instead the animal should be supported and stabilized with nutrition and homeopathic remedies, and then after recovery the idea of vaccination can be reconsidered.

it's your job as a pet owner and my job as a veterinarian to pay attention to my patients and not ignore their symptoms. Symptoms are the only way your body has to tell you that it is out of balance, and balance must be restored before it is disturbed again.

Remedy Series - Aconite

6/13/2018

Aconite, or Aconitum napellus, is the homeopathic remedy made from the toxic plant Monkshood.
it is the first remedy to think of for any frightening event, something that is so scary that your heart pounds and you wonder if you will survive. Think of Aconite as the first remedy after a dog fight - for you and your dog - or after any kind of scary physical or emotional trauma.
Aconite is also a remedy to think of for high fevers or other illness that comes on after exposure to a cold wind. For example, you are at an agility competition outdoors where there is a stiff chilly breeze. The next day your dog has a red, swollen, painful ear, or a fever with a hoarse dry cough - Aconite is the remedy.
For acute cases like those described above, a 30C potency might be sufficient. You can give the remedy dry or wet (one dose dissolved in a glass of water, giving 1/2 teaspoon doses) every hour or so for three or four doses.
Remember, with homeopathic remedies don't dose more than necessary to bring about a change in the symptoms. Once that happens, stop dosing and let your pet's body adjust to the new state of affairs.
In chronic cases, such as a dog who has never recovered from a frightening event, or who was severely traumatized in the past - for example, dogs who develop severe anxiety at the dog park after being attacked there, or storm phobia that develops after being caught outside in a storm, or dogs who have been through the rescue experience and are still traumatized - higher potencies might be necessary. Remember, with higher potency - stronger - remedies, dose less frequently and think twice before repeating the dose.

Help! I found a tick on my dog! What do I do?

4/4/2017

Welcome to Minnesota. If you're not from here, then you should know that this is the buggiest, creepiest, crawliest place that I have ever lived. Yes, it's gross to find a tick attached firmly to your best friend. Grit your teeth, grab the tick up against the skin and pull it out. You can crush the tick with a rock or put it down the toilet, choose your method of destruction.

Now what? Shouldn't you be doing something to prevent infection?
Hopefully by now you are already feeding your dog a raw food diet and giving supplements at least occasionally, such as probiotics, essential fatty acids, and enzymes. That is your basic foundation for health.

Ticks can leave a nasty bite. The bite of the tick alone can be toxic, even without the added bounty of tick-borne diseases. Sometimes a large welt develops with an open wound on the top where the tick was attached. There is even a condition called "tick paralysis," which is solved by removing the tick.

A tick bite is not an reason to reach for an antibiotic. If you feel that you need to treat the wound, you can use a solution of half water, half vinegar, and soak it onto the spot with a cotton ball. Blot gently to dry, and repeat 2-3 times a day for two or three days, and it will heal.
But what if the tick was attached for a while? What if my dog has already contracted a disease from this tick?
There is no way to test a tick to see what diseases it might be carrying, or to determine what it might have transmitted to your dog.

Want a quick boost for the immune system? Give echinacea for a week, or spirulina, or bee pollen. Any of these provide a wealth of antioxidants and minerals to support the immune system in doing what it needs to do to protect the interior of the body. There is no specific dose for these supplements, so use about 1/8 teaspoon for little dogs, 1/4 teaspoon for medium sized dogs (up to about 60 lbs., say), and 1/2 teaspoon for large dogs.

You can also give a dose of homeopathic Ledum, in 30C or 200C potency, to counteract adverse effects from the tick bite.

If symptoms do develop, schedule a visit with your local holistic vet to find the right treatment protocol and homeopathic remedy for your dog. Liver and immune system support are necessary, as well as finding the right remedy that matches your dog's symptoms.

Here is a recent case that I treated: A young dog presented with a mild fever and shifting leg lameness. This means that the dog was mildly lame in one hind leg for a couple of days, and then it seemed to be the other hind leg that was lame. His temperature was 103.2. Normal dog temp is 100.5-102.5.
He was still eating and drinking, but was quieter than normal and preferring to stay in bed, rather than play with the other dogs. Out in the yard he stood in one spot, instead of running around.
Bryonia is the homeopathic remedy for symptoms that are so painful, you would rather not move at all. Because the dog was already raw fed and on health-supporting supplements, a 200C potency was chosen and given three times a day for the next three days. By then he was back to normal and the remedy was stopped.
If he had not been on a raw food diet, a raw diet with supplements would have been started immediately and the remedy given in the 30C potency.
it's important to understand that Bryonia is not a remedy for Lyme disease, or any other tick borne disease. In other cases I have used Natrum muriaticum, Rhus toxicodendron, and other remedies, depending on which one fits the symptom picture the closest.

How Long Does It Take?

2/15/2017

I get this one a lot: "Doc, my dog has had inflammatory bowel disease for 7 years now. Do you think if I do what you say she'll be better in a month or two?"

I've even had people tell me, "I'll give you three months to fix my dog." Which surprises me, because you gave the last vet 12 years and they couldn't do it. Your dog only got more broken!

Detoxification and the restoration of health take time. I am as impatient as the next person, and probably the wrong kind of person to become a homeopath. Homeopathy requires patience and careful observation. It requires slowing down and thinking, rather than the knee-jerk reactions of conventional medicine.

You can detoxify quickly. You won't like it, you will feel like crap, and wish you would just die already. I try not to do that with my patients. Our pets did not ask to be pumped full of vaccines and to have toxic chemicals poured on their bodies while they are offered artificial foods to barely sustain themselves. It is not fair to ask them to get over it and detoxify now, today.

People come to me because they love their pets. We all want to see the animal's health improve quickly. The miracle stories of rapid restoration of health spur us on to want that for our own pets. I want that for my clients' pets as well. I want it for my own pets.

And yet homeopathy teaches us that in this nonrandom universe, the body is moving at its own pace. It alone knows the order of importance of tissues to detoxify. We are along for the ride, supporting the vital force and correcting course as necessary - but we are not the drivers here.

True health takes time. Not everyone has the mindset for that.

20 years as a veterinarian and 15 years as a homeopath have finally taught me that the restoration of health takes time. And that's not a bad thing. Symptoms wax and wane, and this is where your holistic vet is a true asset - because you need someone who is looking at the long term trend that you can't see from where you are in the trenches. When you live with your dog every day, it's hard to feel like progress is being made when it's been three months and he's still itchy. That is when you need to go back to your holistic vet who can point out the details that signify improvement. Even though, yes, he's still itchy. Because eventually he won't be, and those days of antibiotics and steroids will be a distant memory. Persistence is the key to success with a holistic approach.

Seasonal Herbal Blends to Maintain Health

1/9/2017

Conventional medicine talks a lot about prevention, which is expressed as a plethora of vaccines and screening tests. While vaccines may indeed prevent some acute diseases, they are a huge cause of health problems (it is no secret that vaccines are immunosuppressive and potentially deadly). Screening tests check for various health conditions, but don't actually prevent them, so I'm not sure how those qualify as "preventive medicine" at all.

How can we keep ourselves and our pets healthy? What is true preventive medicine? Beyond a natural lifestyle and correct diet, what else can we do?

All life is sustained by the earth, so it made sense to look there for answers. Organic herbs are supportive and helpful to our bodies as living foods. Eating organic herbs on a regular basis is an easy way to stay healthy and prevent disease.

How to choose appropriate herbs?

Of course certain herbs are useful for specific health conditions, but I was looking for a general kind of support that would offer living nutrition to our bodies. I happened upon the Chinese calendar of the seasons in Dr. Elson Haas' book Staying Healthy With the Seasons. In the Chinese calendar there are five seasons, and each relates to a pair of meridians that need the most support at that time of year.

Then I did a lot of research and put together a Winter Blend. The herbs are synergistic and suportive for dogs and horses. They are meant for animals who don't have specific health issues, and whose owners simply want to keep them healthy and give their organ systems a boost that matches their needs for that time of year.

There are plenty of supplements on the market for horses, but once I read the ingredients I would not feed them to my own horses. Not being able to find a line of supplements that I would recommend, I make my own. I buy organic herbs, mix them, and feed them to my horses.

The Winter Blend for Dogs and Horses is now available at Canine Crossing. It contains four herbs that have supportive qualities for the kidney and bladder meridians. The idea is to offer the immune system and the organ systems some support for the season, but the herbs do not need to be given throughout the entire season. The dose is small, since the goal is not therapeutic but supportive. With herbs it is usually a good idea to take them for a limited time and then let the body adjust to its new normal. Each herbal blend offers an opportunity for an increase in health.

When Dogs Play So Hard They Scare Us

12/12/2016

Often people with more than one dog tell me that when the dogs are playing, at some point things go too far, and they can tell that the dogs aren't playing any more. Now things are serious and the dogs are out for blood.
This is a photo of two of my dogs playing. They sound like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Patrick (the little blond one) looks and acts as if he is going to kill Anton. He makes a ferocious "mean face" and you do not want to challenge him when he has a tennis ball!
How do I know that this is play?
Anton is not bothered. He continues to engage with Patrick. He is not giving calming signals (lip licking, lifting a paw, looking away), or leaving the room.
There is no blood. Nobody gets hurt.
Between attacks the dogs stop, pant, and wag their tails at each other.
They look scary. They sound scary (mostly Patrick).
Sometimes when they play I feel my body becoming alarmed at the savagery of their engagement, and I have to remind myself that this is how dogs play. Playing this hard and with this intense level of activity and interaction is important for their mental health.
Studying resources like Brenda Aloff's Canine Body Language and Turid Rugaas' Calming Signals helped teach me the difference between battle and play. I read those books when I had two terriers who were trying to kill each other (well, at least Ariel was trying to kill Tootsie). These are necessities for any dog owner, and particularly for people who rescue, people with multiple dogs, and people whose dog ever has to interact with another dog (say, passing another dog while out for a walk).
The value of playing this hard wtihout reserve reduces their frustration at having to live in a home with humans, adhering to human rules. It's just like when we hang out with our best friends, when we can totally be ourselves without moderating our own behavior. We like other people better after that kind of relaxation.

How Old is Old, If You're a Dog?

10/11/2016

So often I meet pet owners who tell me that their dog has some health problems because he is getting old. They say, “Well, she’s five, and the vet says that’s why she has arthritis.” Or, “Well, he’s nine, so the vet says that’s why his liver enzymes are elevated.”
Age is not an excuse! Some of this is just misinformation, like the pneumonia vaccine ad on TV, where the actor tells you sincerely, “If you’re over fifty, your immune system is weakening.” I disagree! Why would my immune system become weaker simply by passing an age milestone? Why wouldn’t it be true that if I take care of myself, exercise, eat well, and take my supplements and homeopathic remedies, the longer I live and the more illnesses I meet and overcome, my immune system should be stronger the older I get? Perhaps even more important than exercise and vitamins is the practice of NOT getting vaccinated, and NOT using pharmaceutical medications, because those influences actively destroy health rather than build it. Limiting our exposure to harmful chemicals will promote stability and correct function of the immune system.
As soon as you gain an understanding of the adverse effects of boostering your pet’s vaccines, stop doing it.
As soon as you find out that there are better things you could be feeding your pet, change what you are feeding them and throw out the junky treats.
As you learn about supplements, add them to your pet’s diet.
Look up the effects and side effects of any drugs or chemicals you are using on or in your pet. Don’t pass the buck and merely ask your vet, “Hey, do you think this tick repellent that you sold me is possibly harmful to my dog?” Do your due diligence as your pet’s advocate; look it up yourself. If you don’t use a holistic veterinarian, contact one and schedule an appointment to have your pet evaluated for its current and future health. Don’t wait until things go wrong, if at all possible!
Modern medicine is misleading when it comes to longevity of our pets. At veterinary conferences I hear the wonders of modern medicine touted as the cause of our pets living so long – now dogs and cats are living an average of 11 years! This would be wonderful if we weren’t treating species that can live into their twenties if we stop messing with them. Horses are considered old in their late teens and near death in their twenties – a species that can live into their 40s if a natural existence is supported.
Arthritis (and indeed any chronic health condition) is NOT a natural sequela of old age. Inflammatory conditions are caused by vaccines, drugs, chemical exposure, and pro-inflammatory foods. There are numerous resources describing ways to keep our pets healthy well into old age, or even starting in old age. Make some changes that seem reasonable to you, and that fit within your budget and your lifestyle, and you can improve your pet’s health at any age.

That Pesky Cruciate Ligament

5/11/2016

It's always fun when our dogs run like maniacs after the ball or leap into the air to catch the Frisbee! Certainly dogs, nature's ultimate predatory athlete, should be able to leap and jump and run freely. This is, after all, what they are built for.

When cruciate ligament damage occurs it is tempting to think that the dog jumped too high, or turned too quickly, or landed wrong on its legs. Ligaments, however, are made of incredibly tough connective tissue. It requires a tremendous amount of force to tear a ligament!

In order for a ligament to tear, the stress on the ligament must be huge (once I treated a dog whose hip was dislocated by a tree falling on it), or the ligament must already be damaged.
Why would our dogs have damage to their ligaments?

Poor conformation is certainly part of the puzzle. Many dogs, like my own Dutch Shepherd, are poorly assembled, with hind legs that are too straight and don't provide enough shock absorption for even normal activities.

Poor nutrition leads to challenges in repairing injured tissues, and inflammation in the connective tissues predisposes them to injury.

Inflammation of connective tissues is commonly caused by vaccines. After vaccination, dogs produce antibodies not only to the virus and all the other stuff in the vaccine, but they also produce antibodies against their own connective tissues. Blood and bones are also connective tissues, which explains why dogs get immune-mediated hemolytic anemia and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia after vaccination. Muscles are not made of connective tissue, but the wrappings around internal organs, around the brain and spinal cord (meninges), and all ligaments and tendons are made of connective tissue.

How then can we prevent cruciate ligament injury?

Feed your dog a raw, species-appropriate diet in order to make sure that there is sufficient nutrition for cellular repair. Ligaments have poor blood supply (that's why they're white in the photo), and have a difficult enough time getting nutrients. A processed food diet will not provide sufficient nutrition for cellular repair. This means that a raw fed dog has better odds of living longer and healthier.

Stop vaccinating your dogs. Once they have had the series of puppy shots, repeated vaccination does not benefit them. There's a previous blog post about this issue.

Walk your dogs. Literally. Many dogs just don't get enough exercise, have lousy muscle tone, and aren't strong enough to be weekend warriors just because you're at the cabin or the weather is finally nice enough for a strenuous ball session. Even those that do get a lot of exercise are often able to compensate without using their rear ends. My shepherd can chase a ball at a full gallop without actually using his hind legs a whole lot. He has a massively overpowered front end that hauls the rest of his body around.

Going for a walk is physically harder for him than chasing the ball, since he has to use all four legs much more evenly than when he's tearing around the yard.
Going for a walk on a hill (which we don't have where I live) would be even harder.
Walking along the side of a hill instead of up and down is even harder.

Think of your dog as an athlete. How much time does a pole-vaulter spend vaulting? Much less than the time they spend running, lifting weights, and gaining the strength and endurance necessary so that when they do pole-vault, they have maximum strength, ability, and agility, and minimum chance of hurting themselves.
And that is what we need to do for our dogs.

Why Not to Vaccinate

10/26/2015

A question that came up yesterday was, Why should unhealthy animals not be vaccinated?

For one thing, the vaccine insert that used to be packaged with the vaccines tells the veterinarian not to. The vaccine insert states that the vaccine is "for use in healthy animals." This is code for "If you, veterinarian, vaccinate an animal and something goes wrong, we (the vaccine manufacturers) are not liable. Chances are the animal was unhealthy in some way - ear infection? UTI? parasites? a history of seizures? thyroid problems? - and we told you not to do that."

At the end of the vaccine insert is a list of precautions, stating that animals who are stressed from shipping (because cats love being stuffed in a carrier and put in a car), malnutrition (is your pet eating processed food?), parasites (like the puppies who get a vaccine and by the time the shot is given, the poop sample has been found to be full of worm eggs), or who are incubating any disease (how would we know?) might suffer from an adverse reaction as a result of being vaccinated.

For the last couple of years I noticed that the rabies vaccine that I used to carry in my office did not come with an insert. Then recently I thought, well, surely it's on the internet.

No, vaccine inserts for animal vaccines are no longer available.
Luckily I have one that I kept from some years ago.

In practice, I see animals who become incurable as a result of being vaccinated. This means that you can only get them to some level of health restoration, but never all the way, even with raw food, supplements, and homeopathic prescribing. Some of their symptoms are a direct result of the vaccines.

I realize that people have their pets vaccinated because they want them to be healthy.
Let's be clear. Vaccines do not make you healthy.
With vaccines, you will pay now or pay later.
If you pay now, your pet has an immediate reaction - facial swelling, diarrhea, vomiting, fainting, seizures, death.
If you pay later, your pet might become hypothyroid, develop cancer, have seizures and/or behavior changes, and a whole host of chronic diseases.
Unfortunately, you don't get to choose. But you will pay.

More Food Changes

8/3/2015

Another benefit to discontinuing the dry food has been weight loss for all the hefties. All my fat cats slimmed down, practically overnight. Even Grrl, who is relatively inactive, lost weight. She basically lives in the kitchen on one of the chairs. When it was very hot in the house she migrated to the countertop, which is where she is in the picture. She goes outside for a few minutes once a day when the weather is nice. She never visits other parts of the house.

Grrl always had big clumps of fur around her rear end. And, of course, she hates to be brushed. Since getting rid of the dry food, her coat has improved massively. She is soft and smooth and sleek. No more clumps of fur. And that is just from replacing the half of her diet that was dry food with canned.

<<Previous