Some who know me, know that I have been treating my pets holistically and with homeopathy for several years. As a matter of fact, I am currently enrolled in an Acute First Aid Homeopathy for Animals course as we speak (more to come with that later) Prior to Slicks coming home, I had already contacted my vet Dr. Sheryl Bourque DMV who practices as a Holistic Vet and talked to her about Slicks issues. There was a plan in place as soon as she came home. Just as a side note Dr. Bourque is an incredible Vet and is operating PetWell Vet Consulting, She is the most loving and caring human known to dog! She takes phone consults so I will leave her contact information at the end.
The first step and the major part of her protocol were to immediately switch her to a whole food diet – I choose to feed Raw Food, I had started to feed raw to Bear and Moto a few years before Moto died – and maybe once that becomes easier to talk about, I will write their story and how they both came to pass last year. Again, stay tuned for more information regarding Dog Nutrition and Holistic Health, as I am currently in the midst of writing a course for all you Pawrents on what to feed your dogs to help them live longer lives.
So, not only is a Raw diet species appropriate for dogs – there are many health benefits to eating a whole food-based diet. It improves gut health, digestion, vitality, and overall pet health it also has been known to decrease reactivity and mood.
The second biggest thing we did was a full detox of Slicks’ liver and immune system (remember she had been on Trazadone for months prior to her coming to me, she also had rounds and rounds of vaccines all within a very short period, and her poor little immune systems were taxed to the max) What we used was an Adored Beast Reblancer – helps remove negative effects of vaccines… what it does not do is remove any of the antibodies that you need from vaccines. I will be speaking more about Vaccines and Titer testing in the Holistic courses coming up. Sprocket is already on most of the supplements recommended for Slicks so that was easy to give her -these included Adored Beast Phyo Synergy/Super Antioxidant and last but not least Adored Beast Gut Soothe/Anti-Inflammatory – we now switch between Gut Soothe and Fido’s Flora which is species-appropriate probiotic.
I don’t want to go too much in-depth into what Homeopathic Remedies we used because we treated her with what she needed, and I wouldn’t want someone just willy nilly giving their dogs remedies we gave Slicks because I think when you are taking in a rescue dog you need to look at each individual dog and treat them as a whole. This means consulting a holistic vet or Homeopathic Vet/Dr so you are treating that individual dog and putting a plan in place specifically for that dogs issues.
There were a number of Homeopathic Remedies also used initially with Slicks some are more generalized and others I had another consult with Andrea Ring who is a Homeopathic Dr, who I have also known for a number of years- Andrea (who is currently co-teaching this course I am taking) took a look Slicks whole picture, a Homeopathic Dr will ask loads of questions- from what the dog is eating right down to traumas life events, observations, odd behaviors, skin/ear infections, the smell of the breath, bowel movements, routines. All these questions are asked because they want to get a FULL picture of the patient so they can treat it as a whole and not just treat a symptom – symptoms are just showing you something bigger is going on. For example, a skin infection most likely means there is a gut health problem. Where most traditional vets would suppress the skin issues missing the fact that there is a gut problem. I think that there is an ever-growing problem with Western medicine with animals and humans.
OK so back to Slicks’s issues - Everything that I know about her history and what she “does” daily. Here is a list of some of the odd things Slicks suffers from
Again, Slicks has some very defined issues:
· She runs in circles to the left when excited or anxious, to the point she will run into things for example – if I put my leg out when she is running around the coffee table, she will slam right into me without noticing it’s there – like she is blind.
· She has trouble righting herself – if she falls, she struggles to get on her feet (questioning in the beginning that she may not have had the muscles to do it easily) she’s much better now but still a bit of a struggle
· Struggles with balance, when climbing steep hills, it’s almost like she going to fall backward
· She falls off things – has a lack of ability to sense the edge of things – she would fall off the bed or couch
· Her depth perception is bad she can’t judge distances – she struggles to jump on and off things and as mentioned before she can’t judge where your hand is when giving treats
· She runs into things – one a hike she ran into a pole in the ground and split her nose open
· She is leash reactive and the resource guarding
· Hair loss was intense when she first arrived which is not an abnormal thing for a dog coming into a new home.
· She struggles to scratch herself – I have watched her try to use her back legs and she doesn’t seem able to scratch herself because she gets off balance and will topple over.
Just as a side note I personally take the extra time and make the dog's veggies to add to their Raw Food diet. Even though most packaged raw food comes with veggies I choose to make my own and order food that has no vegetables in it. I make a fresh vegetable slurry for the dogs, so they have a variety of nutrients and vitamins– I make a veggie slurry in a big batch and scoop it into jars and freeze it. I just want to point out that I have been making a vegetable slurry for many years and was feeding the veggies to Moto and Bear in their Kibble diets before I switched them over to a raw. So even if you don’t want to or can’t afford to put your dog on a raw diet adding vegetables to their kibble will help extend their lives and keep them healthy and happier.
An example of what I put in the slurry.
· Celery
· Zucchini
· Kale
· Spinach
· Parsley
· Blueberries
· Sometimes sweet potatoes, broccoli
· Bone broth
· Apple Cider Vinegar
· Turmeric
We are now at 11 months since getting Slicks and there have been some new issues I feel are getting worse – could be for any number of reasons (including mirroring some of my stress levels more about that in later blogs) so we had another consult with Andrea Ring last week. I am going to start giving her Arnica and Aconite on a more regular basis. I feel like she possibly has back pain which may be related to her cranky moods. Aconite also is a stress/anxiety reliever so giving this daily may improve her ability to leash walk. We have come a long way but are very far from perfection.
Contact information Dr Sheryl Bourque https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087275653118
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