Acid Reflux | Short

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. So let's get to it and dive right in. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of our shorts. We're going to talk today about acid reflux. Someone wrote into the podcast and asked about acid reflux and I'm going to talk about it, but before I do, I want to thank our sponsor, Real Dog Box. Real Dog. You can use this website that they have to help feed your dog to help learn how to feed your dog. They have a amazing nutritional course on Real Dog. Check that out. And also remember, boxes can be delivered for under, I think, $10 to $15 per month. Your dog, a variety of different types of chews so that they can experience new things. And it's fresh, it's ethically sourced. Just check them out. Real Dog, let's talk about acid reflux, right? I get a lot of questions about acid reflux. I have a lot of clients that have acid reflux and we work to get rid of their acid reflux. But it's uncomfortable even, you know, and it's definitely, it's not isolated. It's a larger, like it's a symptom. It's one of those things that the body's saying, hey, something's wrong here. You know, pay attention. Being uncomfortable, your dog being uncomfortable comes from basically their stomach contents flowing in the wrong direction. And I don't know if you guys have ever had a verp, which you can look that up, what that is. It's horrible. It is disgusting and horrible. And, you know, we don't want our dogs having discomfort for sure. So some signs that your dog might have acid reflux is burping, lip smacking, nausea, definitely Anxiety, vomiting, bile, being restless, kind of walking around and pacing, posturing, kind of like that heaving posturing. Sometimes it looks like they are gonna puke, but they don't. That can definitely be an issue. One of the common energetic patterns. And again, if you don't know what I'm talking about, please take my energetics course@canineherbalism.com you will learn so much and you'll understand kind of what I'm talking about moving forward here. But the common energetic pattern for acid reflux is what's called damp heat. And that includes dampness and it also includes tension. And tension is just the tissues in your dog's body are too tense. They need to Relax a little bit more. I think that the immediate response for people is to just freak out and give their dog an acid reducer or another thing. Kind of stronger is an antacid. So these medicines can give temporary relief, but they cause a bigger problem. And the issue is that there isn't too much stomach acid like people think. The acid is just in the wrong place and you have to fix that. Giving too many antacids can cause a cascade of food allergies because it decreases stomach acid. And if you've listened to some of my other podcasts, especially the one on allergies, if you don't have enough stomach acid, you can't break down proteins. Proteins get into the small intestine, and then we get proteins marked for termination, and you end up with a dog that can't eat hardly anything. Antacids are not the answer. We definitely can give soothing remedies to bring down acid and to protect the esophageal tissues and the stomach from acid being in the wrong place. So what are some causes of acid reflux? Well, acid reducers, antacids, one of them, anesthesia, that can definitely cause usually temporary acid reflux. But if you treat it the wrong way, then it elongates the acid reflux and you've got like an acid reflux cascade. Citric acid. Too much citric acid that your dog is consuming can cause acid reflux. And then, of course, digestive insufficiency. Not enough digestive enzymes, which, you know, TCM calls digestive fire. Not enough digestive fire. So we need to add digestive enzymes. Energetically inappropriate foods. Again, if you don't know what I'm talking about, take my energetics course. But foods that are consistently the key to energetics is consistency. Consistently fed over and over again that are inappropriate for your dog. You know, like, my dog can't deal with chicken. And you're feeding them chicken. And your dog may be fine with whatever you're feeding them, but you feed it so consistently that you're pushing them towards either hot or cool. Problems with the esophageal tissue in the first place are the esophagus that can cause as a reflex. So you want kind of rule that out if you can. If none of these, you know, if nothing is working, you want to definitely bring your dog in and find that too many fermented foods warm to hot dogs, they can have fermented foods, like a couple times a week in like a teaspoon or a tablespoon, depending how big they are. But I Wouldn't give them very many. Now, like, slightly warm to cold dogs can have much more fermented foods, but you don't want to give them too many food fermented foods all at once. And if your dog food is fermented, then don't add a lot of fermented foods on a daily basis because you're already giving fermented dog food. Okay? So just keep that in mind. Too much of anything isn't good. So food sensitivities, that's a cascade usually caused by digestive insufficiency or some type of pharmaceutical antibiotics that your dog has taken, warmers that your dog has taken, too much, steroids. These all shut down the normal process of the body and we can get food sensitivities. And then, of course, gut inflammation, hiatal hernias. That's something that your doctor can tell you what's going on there. Histamine intolerance. Acid reflux can be a byproduct of histamine intolerance. Leaky gut, low vagal tone. That's important. Low vagal tone, that. I mean, I don't know if we've talked about that too much, but it's basically your dog's parasympathetic nervous system not being active as it should. That is a low vagal tone. And that means that your dog is in fight or flight too much, just like most people are these days. And we're not digesting. The liver's not detoxing enough. We're not giving the liver its support. Because when you're in fight or flight, everything goes to the heart and muscles, so you don't digest very well, and neither does your dog. And then dogs that are obese, dogs that have pancreatitis, dogs that are under a lot of stress. Again, fight or flight. And ulcers, which usually are caused by fight or flight and sympathetic excess. Okay, so those are the. What's like, kind of the main causes of acid reflux. And remember when I talk about the energetics, the heat, damp heat, you know, got to dry that dampness off, bring down that heat, and usually acid reflux will go away. So you can give your dog some temporary relief, that's for sure. But I don't go for acid reducers or antacids. I like to use things like ashwagandha or licorice root deglycerides, licorice root, aloe vera, usually in a formula. One of my sponsors for the long editions of my podcast is Adored Beast apothecary. They have a Great remedy called gut soothe that's really wonderful for acid reflux. And I usually liquefy it and put it on top of your dog's food or give it to em in a syringe. It helps coat the stomach. There's also ginger root for cool dogs, chamomile for warm dogs. Marshmallow root can be used temporarily for any type of energetic meadow sweet Oregon grape root temporarily for like two weeks. Slippery elm bark is wonderful and then if you're in England or in the uk it's here too, but it's harder to find. There's a. There's an herb called mallow and mallow is like marshmallow. It's like slippery elm. It's very good for acid reflux. You can give those remedies, I like to liquefy them for acid reflux. I like to put them in a tea or. And then I will put them. I'll make a tea out of them or a decoction which is making a tea out of the root. You simmer it on the stove for about 30 to 45 minutes. You know, 1 tablespoon to 8 ounces of water usually does fine and make a slurry. And I put the herbs and the liquid on your dog's food or give it to them just before they eat. Those are some things that you can use. Now there are a couple of homeopathics that work really well for acid reflux and I'm just going to go through those. You want to look at the symptoms for these, but you could try them one at a time. Use like a 30C or a 6X. The 6X can be better. It's a less potency and it can be better for these types of things. But a 30C is fine to use as well and usually more available. But arsenica album, Arsenica album can be for any type of thing, any type of food that upsets your dog's stomach. Carbo veg, iris versicolor, phosphorus and nux vomica. So those are some homeopathics that are good for that. And also for cool dogs. You can try adding a little bit of ACV apple cider vinegar to your dog's food. I know it seems counterintuitive because vinegar is an acid, but it actually does reduce acid in the stomach. So those are a few things that you can use. Try not to get frustrated. So thank you for joining me on this short ride down the road esophageal canal and learning about acid reflux. I will see you next time and again. Thank you for real dog box realdog.com thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much 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. 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