Blog Moved

Please note that I have moved this blog to Natural Dogs Health

Fleas, Allergies and Skin Problems

Skin problems are quite common in dogs. So are fleas. And allergies. Your veterinarian will probably tell you that your dog can be allergic to a single flea and this can create a skin rash. Then they prescribe a highly toxic flea preparation.

To me, this is illogical and unintelligent. Let's examine why.

Dogs, and other furry animals will probably always be susceptible to the odd flea. In the wild, this is normal. So why do domestic pets commonly suffer from flea population explosions?

It’s all to do with the diet. Wild dogs, on the natural diet their species evolved on, have a healthy skin pH which, for the most part, repels fleas. Certainly their populations cannot explode, as they do with domestic dogs on their highly unnatural and toxic diet.

If, and I am skeptical, dogs are allergic to a single flea, then this is not a natural occurrence. Allergies are a sure sign that the dog’s immune system is very low. Two major contributions to this, in my opinion, is the diet and the health care system.

Commercial dog food is, for the most part, low in quality and high in toxicity. This does an excellent job in lowering an immune system all by itself. But couple that with the immune suppressant medical drugs and vaccines and it is a wonder that dogs can survive at all.

Just improving one of them will immediately allow your dog’s immune system to rally and clear some of the backlog of healing. By changing both, even an older dog is likely to have the energy and the enthusiasm for life of a puppy.

The body, of anyone including your dog, has a wisdom and intelligence that works by any means of keeping it healthy despite the garbage thrown at it. There is an order in health decline. When a dog faces the first hurdle of imbalance, the skin will be the first place to show it. The skin is the least important organ of the body, so a skin eruption is not going to do much more than cause an irritation.

If the skin eruption is suppressed and so denied expression, then the body has to turn to the next least important organ to release the tension. After the skin, comes digestive problems - poor assimilation, production of gas, stomach pain, constipation and diarrhoea.

If these symptoms are suppressed, then the body has to look for the next level, and so on until the nervous system and brain are reached, which normally spells death.

Once this process is known about, as homeopaths do, then you know that when a skin eruption is apparent, the health of the dog is quite good, or at least not badly suppressed. So the healing may not take a very long time.

By the way, a bad body odour is not the same as a skin eruption. A strong body odour that doesn’t respond to regular bathing tends to indicate a deep chronic condition. One that will probably take time to fully heal.

If you use a commercial flea preparation, then I urge you to check out the ingredients, before you use it again. Let’s look at Frontline. According to Wikipedia, Fipronil, the active ingredient, is a slow acting poison which disrupts the central nervous system. Imidacloprid, the main ingredient of Advantage blocks nerve receptors. If they can do this to insects, it’s likely that they will have at least some deleterious effect on the host of the insect.

Doesn’t it make more logical sense to find the cause of the problem and address that, rather than to further compound the health of your dog? Does anyone mainstream care about the health of your dog or does it all come down to money?

And finally, to cheer you up, this Youtube is fantastic. I still howl with laughter each time I watch it.

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Rectify the Spiraling Decline in Canine Health

If you have been around a few years, as I have, you may have noticed that the health of the world, both in people and animals, is deteriorating. When I was at school, I don’t recall anyone having a health issue that needed medication to be taken at school.

As a family, we had a lot of pets, but the vet was rarely visited because our animals just weren’t sick.

These days, school teachers need to be as adept at administering drugs as they are at teaching. Animal health issues are at an all time high with serious and previously unheard of diseases now becoming common. Pets don’t live as long as the did.

Allergies are so common almost everyone has them. Diabetes is on the rise in both humans and animals. Gum disease in cats is the most common problem I am asked about. Cancer is gaining momentum.

What’s happening to life on Earth? Health is spiraling out of control. And it will continue to decline until the causes are addressed.

They may be many causes, but I believe there are two important ones. Ones that can easily be rectified today. And these are diet and health care.

First, diet. If you, or your dog, are not eating quality, natural, species appropriate food, how can you ever expect to be healthy, to prevent disease? Dogs have evolved over millions of years. Do you really think that humans have managed to unlock the key to a nutritious diet in a few measly decades?

They may claim to have done, through clever marketing skills. But can you really pit us against nature? Could this claim have more to do with profit than health or truth?

The enormous growth of human junk food doesn’t come close to that which passes for dog food. As there are no laws (enforceable ones) that determine the quality of dog food, anything can be used with impunity. The enormous death toll of animals poisoned by their food is rising. Commercial pet food recalls are at an all time high.

So the first step you can take is to be responsible for the food you feed your dog. Really responsible. Buy all the ingredients and make it yourself. It’s not difficult.

Second, health care. If the common medical health care system was so good, would health be declining so fast? Surely, the health of dogs would be improving, not declining? Surely there would be fewer diseases, not more? Surely dogs would be living longer lives, not shorter? Surely diabetes, so rare in dogs a few years ago, would have disappeared?

To me, this shows there is a serious flaw in the medical system. It is not resolving problems, it is creating them. Homeopaths know that drugs suppress the body’s natural ability to heal itself. And this is showing up all too clearly in the health of dogs today. Suppression of one problem invariably causes the rise of another, more serious, one. However, it seems that only homeopaths, and other natural therapists, are able to see the connection.

There is a saying that goes something like this - there is none so blind as those who don’t want to see.

People don’t understand the innate ability every being has of healing themselves. People panic very easily. A dog choking on a bone can sound serious if you are unused to it, but this is a healthy response by the dog to clear the bone. Rarely will this be serious. Being frightened of possible (and normally rare) impending doom is encouraged by those who profit by your concern.

You can take responsibility for your dog’s health, by choosing to use homeopathy as the health care system of choice. Homeopathy works by supporting your dog’s natural healing abilities. It enhances it, clearing blockages, raising the immune system, creating ever more healthy dogs. This is true health care, when the patient becomes naturally resistant to disease, whatever the strain, whatever the micro-organism.

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Homeopathic Treatment for Dogs is, Above All, Safe

In a recent issue of Cesar's Way magazine, there was an interesting article called

Don't Let Them Eat THIS!
Here are the top 10 things that can accidentally poison your pet, based on a recent study by the Veterinary Pet Insurance company:

1.  Pet or human drugs
2.  Mouse or rate poison.
3.  Chocolate, caffeine
4.  Plants
5.  Household chemicals
6.  Snail and slug poison
7.  Insecticide
8.  Heavy metals (lead, zinc)
9.  Toads
10.  Antifreeze

A couple of other interesting facts about this study were

•  87% of all cases were due to the top 5 listed above.
•  The average cost of each claim was $791!

(Thanks to K9 Klear Up for alerting me to this.)

The number one poison? It’s the drugs they were given by a veterinarian. Does that concern you at all?

The cost of accidental poisoning is pretty intense, too.

A pet getting into the drugs cabinet is as dangerous as that of a child.

One of the greatest side benefits of homeopathic treatment is how safe it is. Because homeopathy is an energetic medicine, it is not the size of the dose that matters, it’s the frequency with which it is taken. So one dose could be one pillule. Or it could be the whole bottle. It still remains one dose, even if a more expensive one.

This means that a dog (or child) who manages to get into your homeopathic kit, will only have one dose of the remedy they have managed to open, however much they take.

If the remedy is in a high potency (that prescribed by a homeopath, rather than in your first aid kit), it is possible there will be an unfavourable reaction. But never a life threatening one. And it will wear off reasonably quickly.

It’s not really dogs who will do this, it’s much more likely to be curious and energetic puppies.

While on the subject of poisonous things a dog can ingest, I’m amazed at some of the items ‘out there’ that are deemed poisonous.

Avocado. This mystifies me the most.
I’m lynched each time I have an avocado, which is frequently. I have to share mine with my cats and dogs. They never let me get away without this. Yet they don’t pester me for anything else. And they are well fed, a wholesome diet.

Grapes, raisins, etc.
One of my dogs insisted I share my grapes equally with her. My other dogs and the cats thought she was strange, as they don’t care. She lived to a ripe old age of 14. However, grapes are sprayed with some pretty toxic pesticides, so if they are dangerous to dogs, they will be to you, too.

Onions, garlic. This mystifies me too.
I often put fresh garlic in my pets food. It is a natural pesticide and immune booster. They probably wouldn’t eat it whole and fresh, any more than they will eat onion, but certainly there is no toxic effect.

Cat food. ?
Cat food is generally better quality, even the commercial brands.

Bones. ??
This is a normal, natural and vital food for dogs, AS LONG AS IT IS RAW. Cooked bones can be a problem, so should never be given.

The really odd thing is that these sites (often veterinary sites) who warn you not to feed your dog all these healthy and natural foods ENCOURAGE you to feed the worst food of all - commercial pet food. And to use the toxic (nerve gas ingredients) flea and worm preparations. And, of course, the vaccines with their toxic ingredients (mercury, aluminium, squalene, formaldehyde...).

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Not Every Situation Always Needs Treatment

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to adopt another dog. I really wanted to rescue one from death row, but everywhere was closed. I finally found a young dog who didn’t get on with her family.

I had no qualms about getting her. I knew the problem didn’t lie with her. Animal problems never do lie with the animal. They are perfect just the way they are. It’s the human/s in their lives that are the problem.

Sure enough, when I arrived at her home, she came to see who I was, then scuttled off. Just viewing her behaviour, I could see what the problem was. She was highly sensitive, and the family were not able to meet her needs.

There was nothing inherently wrong with her family. They were pleasant and friendly, as most people are. And I don’t for one moment consider they were actively cruel to the dog. But I do believe they were passively cruel. I also believe most people are.

Let me explain myself, before you become too upset. It is my opinion that most people clod-hopper through life. Most people are totally insensitive to the needs of those around them, be they family, pets or the environment. They are also mostly insensitive to their own needs.

If this was not true, the world would be a very different place.

I’m not suggesting it is anyone’s fault. It’s just the way it is.

But you can do something about it. You don’t have to be this way.

This very sensitive dog went everywhere with her tail down. She ran away and avoided people. A raised voice, even directed at someone else, sent her off in fear.

She needed her self confidence boosting. She needed constant reassurance.

In two weeks, she now has her tail up most of the time. She has finally bonded with my other dog and in the last few days they have been playing, taking it in turns to chase each other. It’s a delight to watch. They are both totally abandoned in the joy of the moment.

Humans need to be open and adaptable to the needs of those around. It isn’t good enough to expect everyone to fit into a rigid regime that suits us. We need to learn to adapt to each situation as it arises. Some dogs (and people) are more sensitive than others. They need more gentle handling, more reassurance than others.

I recently read of a very valuable young colt who could not adapt to being stabled. The stable management had rigid rules, so tried to impose these on the colt. The colt could finally take no more and badly injured a stable hand, who was mishandling her.

As ever, the animal is found to be at fault and he was shot.

All the stable management needed to do was to accept that not all horses are the same. If they could have accommodated the colt’s needs, he may well have gone on to win them the enormous amount of money his breeding suggested.

My dog could not meet the needs of the family because her own needs were not being met. Because I accept her for who she is, and encourage her, she is now blossoming.

When your basic needs are not being met, you need the situation to change, not necessarily treatment. This is what homeopaths call a maintaining cause. There is something constant in your life that is preventing you from being who you are.

Of course, it may be difficult to change every situation. But with good homeopathic treatment, one of two things can happen.

1. you can then see a way out of the situation
2. it changes your view of the situation, so you no longer are affected by it

Either way, your tension is greatly reduced.

Would you like to know more about keeping a naturally healthy dog?

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