A Guide to Dosages | Shorts

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've.

Been practicing for over 20 years.

This podcast is all about your dog.

Through an herbal lens.

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Welcome to another edition of our shorts here on the podcast. These are shareable little, little small sections of love that you can, that you can give to your dog.

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Before we get into, quickly get into our episode, I would like to thank our sponsor, earthbuddypet.com earthbuddypet.com check out their coupon herbalbuddy 20 all lowercase, 20% off their store. I am really loving the herbal buddy line. Sean, the owner here grows all of his own hemp, processes it, him and his family and employees, they give so much love into these products and it really does show, I have to say that I am embarking on a month long speaking and camping tour this Saturday and I'm taking my little 12 pound pug figgy Nubbins with us and I'm definitely taking the earth buddy salve because it comes in this great little travel kind of like lip balm case and she's a small dog, so it's just wonderful for that I'm also taking some of their CBD that they sent me to try. Loving that. Check out all their products@earthbuddypet.com and again, I met Sean at Super Zoo a.

Few months ago and he was a delight.

And I love, you know, there's some really great CBD companies out there and I love the companies that really stand behind their product. They show you like how it's being processed, how it's the products are being made and the face behind their company. And Sean does a really good job at that. So check them out again. Earthbodypet.com all right, so what are we talking about today? We are talking about dosage and I've talked about dosage before, but I kind of want to just bring home the idea that your dog is an individual and they have their own dosage and we really need to work with that, right? We really need to know like what is the dosage of this and what.

Is the dosage of that.

And I know that sounds vague, but it can be different, okay. And it's really important that you learn how to dose products in general. So for instance, tinctures, okay. Tinctures is a alcoholic based extract and if you have an issue with alcohol, go back to My podcast on alcohol. Listen to that. If you have a problem with alcohol, then use a glycerin. But not all herbs that come as a glycerin are beneficial for that plant. Just because it's a glycerin doesn't mean that it's effective. Glycerin only extracts certain constituents, and it only works for plants, in my opinion, only works for plants with a lot of moisture. So a tincture is a very concentrated medicinal compound, and it depends on the plant. Get to know your plants as individuals. Search herbal monograph. Like, if you were searching milky oats or Avena sativa is the Latin name, you would search Avena sativa monograph. Avena sativa herbal monograph, Milky oats herbal monograph. And those types of documents are written by herbalists. And you're gonna find out the most information. And you look, look at everything and figure out, you know, is milky oats or Avena sativa good for my dog? What, what is this plant? What is it? What does it do? Does it fit the energetics of.

Of my dog?

If you don't know what that means, check out my canine herbalism dot com. My energetics course. You will not be displeased. You'll love it or your money back. But get to know your dog's energetics. Does the plant conform to my dog's energetics? That's a really good question. Like, is my dog a more cool.

Dog or a warm dog?

Do they need a cooling plant or a warming plant or a neutral plant? You know, so you want to know that. And some. Some remedies are more harsh, like goldenseal or black walnut or Oregon grape root. Anything with berberine in it can be a little more harsh. And you're gonna give less. Echinacea, you're go give less. So you want to start out or like, there's remedies like blue flag iris or wild indigo, different things like that that I only use, like, maximum three drops with almost any dog. And like, for a little tiny wee one, like under five pounds, you would take one drop and dilute it in, like, one ounce of water, and then take a dropper of that and give it to your little tiny wee one, right? You want to be really careful with small dogs. And then like a regular small dog, 10 to, like 10 pounds, 10 to 15 pounds. You know, start out with one drop, 20, you know, 20 pounds. I still start out with one drop to two drops of almost anything. And then medium dogs, you know, you can. I always start out with one drop, and then I Work my way up slowly over a period of a week or so, trying to get up to dosage and seeing how my dog reacts. And remember the first three days you can see like an aggravations and it can be something you're trying to heal that it seems like it's getting a little worse. If it's not life threatening, which I've never encountered, but if it's not life threatening, give it three days to work itself out. On the fourth day, if there's a problem, then you can stop the remedy and then start at a lower dosage or stop it altogether. It may not be the one for your dog. Now, if you're doing a protocol and you're trying to work your way up to dosage, what I like to do is say that we have three remedies and the first remedy, the recommended dosage is 10 drops twice a day. The second remedy is five drops twice a day. And the third remedy is eight drops twice a day. This is just an example. And you're going to start out with, you know, start out with one drop. If your dog is really sensitive, definitely start out with one drop. But you could, if you're, they're not very sensitive overall, you could start out with, you know, two drops and then do two drops and wait three days, start the next remedy at whatever dosage you feel comfortable with. Like let's just say two drops and then the next remedy three days later, two drops. So you're giving, at the end of nine days, you're giving all three remedies. Now when you want to go up in dosage, you want to make sure that you know what your dog may.

Be reacting to if they do.

So go to the top of the protocol and start with that first remedy, add a drop, wait 3 days, go to the second remedy, add a drop, wait three days, go to the third remedy, add a drop or two drops, depending on what you want to do. But at least you'll know what tincture is affecting your dog. Okay? And you definitely see this type of titration or different types of dosing with tinctures because it is a very concentrated form of medicine. But the overall importance in dosage is that you understand what is affecting your dog so you don't end up kitchen sinking them. I think a lot of people do a lot of googling when they should put down the pencil. And I mean, yes, I've googled myself many times, but you know, when you're working with a protocol and a professional gives you a protocol, give yourself Time for the protocol to work instead of adding, adding, adding. Well, I just read, you know, on this site or that site that this was good. I'm going to try this. And that's in the middle of your protocol. You're never gonna end up. Well, you're gonna have a hard time figuring out what is working and what's not, and then you're gonna end up kitchen sinking your dog, which is giving them everything in its mother, just in hopes, in desperation, which I totally understand. We all get desperate of trying to get something to work, but the beauty of plants is giving them time to work and also knowing what's working and what's not working. Because plants, along with anything else, can be acting at a detriment to your animal. I've seen a lot of dogs on a lot of remedies. My top that I've seen is 52. That's in my last 20 years. The top number is 52 supplements at once. Yeah, that was a lot. Had to get the dog slowly off that kitchen sink. Had to unload that sink into the dishwasher. I've seen dogs on a lot of supplements, and when we get them off that supplement, their vibrance comes back. All these supplements that they've been on, and sometimes they're on them for two, three years. For fans of the podcast, you may have already heard me talk about this, but it's always good to revisit because we really need to learn about dosage. So glycerates, glycerits. I kind of pretty much double the dose that I would of a tincture. And remember that too much glycerin can cause nausea. So you want to know that glycerin is not full of sugar like a lot of people think, because it's sweet. It's not. It's a humectant, so it brings moisture in the body. It isn't the best for, like, severe dampness when a dog has way too much moisture. But that, that again, you want to give a glycerin a few days to work and start out slow and work your way up. Herbs are, like, digested by the gut.

Like in pill form.

You definitely want to give it extra time to see how your dog's doing.

Don't add anything else.

Give it a couple of weeks, you know, see how.

See how your dog does on that supplement.

The issue with dried herbs in pills is that if you have a dog with assimilation issues, they may not be getting a lot from that. That remedy. So you do need to give it time to work. And then dosage in general for herbs are a little different and you probably need some guidance on that. But basically like a golden retriever, I usually start out at 500 milligrams of most things. Unless it's again like goldenseal or echinacea or something organ grape, that's a little harder on the liver. I think that like little dogs. 150 milligrams sometimes, you know, 50 milligrams for dogs that weigh like three pounds, you know, those are the baby we's. So I think that you should go up small and then continue to build. And what I'm reinforcing and driving home here is you need to make sure that you're taking it slow and letting the herb work. All right, so that's a little more on finding your dose. Very, very important because whatever an herb can cure, it can cause and usually it'll cause at the wrong dosage. So if you get to a certain dosage and you start seeing side effects, then after the three days period is up, the adjustment period, if you get to a certain dosage, bring it back down to where you didn't see the side effects and stay there. I know that dosage can be a little tricksy, but I hope this podcast can help you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals.

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Okay, so thank you so much for.

Listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals podcast and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode.

The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or healthcare provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not.

Been evaluated by the Food and Drug administration.

The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.