Does your pet suffer
from seasonal allergies? Now is the time to prepare for the
next allergy season.
Seasonal allergies are
on the rise for people as well as their pets. Depending upon the scientist or
researcher, estimates range from an expected 100% to 500% increase in seasonal allergies
over the next decade. Regardless of how high they claim this increase will be
or what the potential causes (from pollution to global warming), the one thing
they all agree upon is that allergies are going to get worse. The best defense
against allergies is a strong body that reacts to irritants in a way that
doesn't make us feel lousy in the process. For most people, we get irritating
sinus, lung and eye responses. Most animals develop equally irritating
symptoms like red itchy skin patches known as "hot spots", brittle
coats and nails, severe shedding, ear problems and/or irritations between the
paws. Our beloved chocolate lab, Max, had such severe allergies the first year
we got him that our vet actually advised putting him to sleep. The poor fella
was almost completely hairless and covered in red angry itchy skin. He was
allergic to just about everything from grass to pollens to molds. I am happy
to say that Max no longer has terrible allergies. Just a little dry coat near
the end of summer when the hay field gets mowed which has been my signal to
increase essential fatty acids in his diet
The Best Defense.... A Good Diet Plan
and a Parasite Cleanse
"You are what you
eat" and in some cases, "you are what's eating you." The same holds true for our pets.
A proper diet and the occasional parasite cleanse can do wonders for reducing
or eliminating allergies.
Dogs and cats
have been part of human's lives for thousands of years. However, it is only in
the last century or so that we have taken to feeding our furry companions a steady
diet of bagged or canned food. The
first commercially prepared pet food was a dog biscuit introduced in England
about 1860. Since then, pet foods have expanded to include canned, dry and
semi-moist foods. Numerous studies have proved that feeding a cat or dog the
same dried or canned food alone day after day, year after year, leads to diseases and a
shortened life span.
Cats are particularly at
risk for health problems related to their food. They have evolved to
eat small prey in its entirety to get their needed nutrition - skin ("animal roughage"), bones
(calcium), internal organs (vitamins, minerals) and stomach contents
(roughage, possibly vitamins and minerals from partly digested food). The
bones of their natural prey are tiny and fragile enough to be broken by the
cat's teeth. The sort of bones fed to cats by humans come from much larger
prey and may splinter when crunched, causing damage to the mouth, throat,
stomach or intestine (the latter often being fatal). The sort of meat in most
cat foods comes from muscle meat from large boned animals with some sinew and is not nutritionally balanced
for a cat's needs.
In investigations in the US
and Canada, it was discovered that pets are often in the pet food supply. Many
pets are rendered into the pet food complete with their
collars, tags, flea collars and in many cases, still inside plastic pet body-bags. Chemicals
from plastic and organophosphates from flea collars end up in the mix along
with a host of other substances. Pharmaceuticals are often present in commercial
foods from the drugs given to diseased livestock. Heavy metals accumulate from a variety of sources such as pet ID
tags or surgical items like bone pins. Unsold supermarket meats arrive in
styrofoam and plastic containers. It takes time and money to
remove flea collars or unwrap spoiled meat so... into the pot they go. More plastics
are added with the arrival of cattle ID tags, plastic insecticide patches and pet body
bags from veterinarians. These plastics contain several toxic substances which may
survive rendering and cause a host of problems, from infertility to allergies
and autoimmune problems.
As if the ''ICK!"
factor of knowing your pet food may contain the processed carcasses of
other dead pets wasn't enough, there are other reasons why these processed
diets are bad for our furry companions. Most animals are not cannibals by
nature, for a reason. Dogs may fight to the death for pack status, but they
rarely kill each other for food. The same goes for cats. Feeding them these
kinds of foods is definitely not what nature intended. Cannibalism often leads
to the spread of disease and in some cases, new diseases. A prime example is
mad cow disease which has been considered to be the result of feeding live
cows feed containing rendered dead cows.
There are a number of
companies now making quality pet food such as Wellness, Innova, Wysong,
Nature's Variety, etc. Even Newman's Own now makes a reasonably good pet
food and it won't bankrupt your pocketbook. Since most domesticated pets
experience digestive problems with big diet changes, the simplest option is to
add a little variety
to a quality food from time to time. The easiest and least expensive way to do
this is to mix
about a tablespoon of whatever cooked vegetable you had for dinner into their
dish and add a raw organic egg or the occasional teaspoon of olive oil or fish oil.
Just a little addition to their regular food twice weekly can do wonders for skin, coat and over-all
health without upsetting their digestion.
Parasites are the next issue
for dealing with allergies. Testing for a parasite has changed over the years,
especially here in America. Most labs now do something known as a 'smear
stain'. The fecal sample (poop), is spun and then a small smear on a
slide is studied under a microscope. According to Dr. Bruce Shelton, head of
the Arizona Medical Board and Chief Medical Official for Heel USA, smear
stains fail to identify the parasite more than 90% of the time both in people
and animals. This leads to misdiagnosing a parasite infestation as a number of
other conditions such as allergies, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS),
auto-immune diseases, dermatitis, or emotional problems.
From a natural health stand
point, the # 1 reason why animals (especially dogs) chew on their back ends
(rump, tails, back legs, etc) is because they have a parasite. This causes a
domino effect. Parasite poo-poo is the perfect home for breeding fungus. Which
can cause itching and dry coat and/or nails. Which depletes the dog's
natural fatty acids, which increases the need for vitamins and minerals
especially B vitamins like biotin and minerals like sodium and silica....
creating even more itching or "hot spots".
The easy and cheap option is
to feed the dog a parasite cleanser. (I prefer Total Para from NutriWest.
It's only $12.00 for 10 days and usually gets the job done in that time.)
To deal with the domino effect, you will also want to feed your pet
Acidophilus or a similar probiotic which is the natural bacteria that lives
in the intestines and helps with digestion. And to make sure coats
repair nicely, feed a good fatty acid food like avocado, olive
oil, sesame seeds and fish or fish oils; and something for B vitamins.
An easy recipe for this
is:
1/4 avocado mashed or 1/2 raw organic egg beaten (save the other half
in a glass container for later)
1tsp ground flax seed or ground sesame seeds
open 1 capsule acidophilus
1tsp brown rice syrup or black strap molasses (for the B vites)
1/8 tsp sea salt (It MUST be SEA salt, not table salt)
Mash Total Para (1 tab per every 20 to 30 lbs for dogs and 1/2 tab
for average sized cat)
Mix together with regular
food and feed twice daily for 10 days. If a parasite is the problem, coat
and chewing typically clear in about 7 to 10 days.
You can expect some loose
stools around day 3 to 5 that should last no more than 48 hours. They may
also pass worms or in some cases, worms have been known to come crawling out
of the animal (usually their tushies and especially at night), looking
for a tastier host. So, DON'T SLEEP WITH YOUR PETS. (Unless of course,
you want to become the new host to their parasites!) Be
sure to wash bedding and their favorite chew toys at the end of the cleanse
to help prevent a recurrence.
Other Helpers
There are several natural
remedies that can help reduce allergies as well. Strengthening the immune
system with preparations like Guna- Matrix and Citomix or the Stage III
Detoxification from Heel often dramatically reduces the symptoms of allergies.
However, these options need to be started at least six weeks prior to the allergy season to be
the most beneficial.
Once the allergy season
starts, homeopathic
remedies like Allergy (by BHI), Allergy Prevention (from Guna) or single
remedies like Allium, Kali Sulph, Nat Mur or Apis Mel can help reduce symptoms without side
effects. Allium helps with runny eyes. Kali Sulph helps with sores on
paws and skin, especially if they tend to have a yellowish discharge. Nat mur
helps with any condition that can be described as too wet or too dry such as
dry coat and wet ears. Apis mel helps to reduce the histamine response that
triggers itching and burning in the first place. Homeopathic remedies come in
different strengths. Typically, the Allium is most effective at 30x, the Kali
sulph and Nat Mur at lower strength like 3x to 12x and the Apis at higher potencies
like 200C.
Herbs like fenugreek, horseradish, nettle and mullein are
common allergy fighters. Higher doses of Bromelian (the enzyme in pineapples)
and Quercitin (an antioxidant found in grape skins, apple skins and green tea) have also been known to be helpful for
reducing allergy symptoms as are the antioxidants Vitamin C, Zinc and Selenium. Now
Foods makes an effective and inexpensive product called Respir-All that
contains a combination of most of these allergy fighters. Starting a program
now can help strengthen the body to better handle allergens when the season
starts.
A good liver cleanse can
also improve health and decrease allergies. The liver has at least 500 known
functions to do every day (and we suspect as many as 5000) including helping
our immune system to function properly and processing toxins for
removal. There are a number of options for supporting a liver such as
milk thistle, dandelion or tumeric. Equal parts olive oil and lemon juice are
another inexpensive and easy way to support and clean the liver.... assuming
you can get your pet to drink it. Some animals love it and others will turn
their nose up at it. Just 1 tsp each olive oil and FRESH squeezed lemon juice
in the morning for 5 days in a row once monthly will do it.
If you taken a good look at
your pet's nutrition and made sure there is no parasite involvement, but are
still seeing an allergy problem, it's time to consult a professional to help
you determine what your pet's specific needs may be.
