Allergies + Food Sensitivities Part Three

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.

Welcome to part three of our Food Sensitivities Talk. I missed you guys. I can't do this every day, but sometimes I'm thinking if I could, I probably would. I love this conversation we're having. I'm hearing from so many awesome people via email about the podcast, sharing the podcast, and it kind of makes me smile inside. So I want to thank you. Thank you so much. I also want to thank our sponsors for the long episode, because without them, we'd have nada. I like to give kind of more of an explanation when it comes to sponsorship and products and things like that. So today I am just gonna talk a little bit about a mushroom from realmushrooms.com that I love to mix with reishi mushroom and that shiitake mushroom. Shiitake mushroom is a wonderful little brown mushroom that is, you find it in, like, the five defenders mushrooms or the mix of mushrooms and real mushrooms, has a hot water extracted shiitake mushroom. It's really great for immunity, and it helps with kind of like activating the immune system. It modulates it, which means that it helps the immune system with what it needs to. To do.

Okay.

So it balances it out, it gives it options, kind of. That's kind of what it means by immune modulation. And shiitake mushroom helps bring down inflammation.

Okay.

It's high in antioxidants, and it also helps regulate what's called nitric oxide concentrations. And this is important for overall detoxification. I definitely think shiitake mushrooms can be used with dogs. And again, I like to mix them with reishi. And one little superpower that shiitake has is you can spray it on the teeth for plaque. It definitely is a beneficial mushroom that helps with cavities and gingivitis and periodontis or dentitis. It basically, let me just say this. You can take therealmushrooms.com, you can take the powdered shiitake. You can add it with water. I would probably like, I would say a half a teaspoon of shiitake with maybe 2 ounces of water, shake it really well, and then you can get that brown water and spray it on your dog's teeth. It is wonderful at removing plaque. So realmushrooms.com, one of our sponsors for the long format podcast that you are listening to right now. So we're gonna talk about part number three on food sensitivities. We have a lot to discuss, and last time we left off with talking about the liver and what you can do to ease up on liver health. Because we don't want what's called, you know, that liver cascade, where the liver is not breaking down histamine. It's not dealing with blood toxins very well. It's, along with the immune system. It's always reacting, always reacting. Can't break anything down, can't deal with things like histamine and antigens. And we want proteins to break down because we'll get more histamine and antigens if we don't. And we don't want the liver storing too many immune reactive toxins.

Okay?

We want to increase cellular health, increase assimilation, and increase elimination. All right? And being kind to our dog's liver and ourselves, liver, being kind to liver can help with that. Right? So it's all about balancing the body. Assimilation, elimination, looking at your dog's body as an ecosystem, looking at your organs, being kind to our organs, being kind to your dog's organs and supporting their nervous system. These are all things that we need to do in order to have a balanced system. And when our dog has allergies, what I call sensitivities, we have reactions happening all the time. So we want to avoid those, what I would call high allergens, those high reactivity antigens in the body that's causing chaos. Chaos, okay? So you have, you know, a group, a room full of really calm people. And then we have this person running in, screaming and yelling, running around, smacking everyone in the face, and total mayhem breaks out. That is an antigen, okay? And we don't want that. We want calm inside the gut. We want calm inside the immune system.

Okay?

Digestive enzymes are important for that. We went over stomach acid, how important that is. And I would also give Saccharomyces bolidardi for eight weeks. And as always, you know, check with your veterinarian to make sure your dog's okay with all of this. I would simplify the diet for 12 weeks, up to 15 weeks, but make sure that you're still giving greens that are okay with your dog because you don't want the microbiome to collapse as far as not having things that feed it. So a simple diet of meat, bone and organ is important. You can add other things as long as your dog is okay with that and not Reacting to that. We talked about checking the ears in earlier episodes of the podcast. You know, 30 minutes after your dogs eat, check those ears. If they're burning hot, if they're really, really warm, then you've got an immune cascade going on. And you wanna find out what individual ingredient in the food or groups of things coming together are causing an immune cascade. Cause that's what we want to avoid. Cause that's causing inflammation. We wanna do an elimination diet and we wanna add foods back in slowly while we're working on healing the gut. Because once you heal the gastrointestinal tract, think of it as a wound on your arm and turn that arm inside out and you've got the gastrointestinal tract. Basically, we wanna heal that wound so that the gut can handle the food. All right? Because just eliminating the food isn't gonna do anything. If you don't heal the gut, that means the good stomach acid. And it might mean digestive enzymes for a while breaking down proteins so they don't get into the small intestine in larger sizes. Right. We want them broken down into amino acids. And further. And we wanna support our microbiome that includes stimulating the lymphatic system that deals with fat soluble vitamins and fats in general. We want to support liver detoxification and elimination. We talked about that in nauseam in the last episode of the podcast. And we want to heal the brush border, which is the gut, the leaky gut, the permeable membrane, those tight junctions. We want tight junctions. We don't want loose junctions in our gut.

Okay.

And increase gut diversity. So how do you give a simple diet? How do you give a simple diet? So if you are feeding kibble, you want to give the lowest ingredient kibble you can get.

Okay.

I don't recommend kibble for this. I think you need to work to get your dog off kibble. But if you can't, then you want a kibble that does not elicit a heat response from the ears 30 to 40 minutes after they eat. We want. Very nice. If we started out with cool ears or slightly warm ears, we want those ears to be the same after 30 to 40 minutes after they eat.

Okay.

But I'm gonna speak to just fresh food feeding here. Simple diet, 12 to 15 weeks. 12 weeks is usually, you know, 8 to 12 weeks is usually what you can go for. If it's like severe issues, we might have to go up to 15 weeks. Muscle meat, organ meat. We want to have the proper amounts of calcium. So bone or calcium powder, organs or organ powder, digestive, fatty acid, oil, some type of fatty acid, digestive enzymes. And then for cool dogs, I would pick spirulina. For warm dogs, I would pick chlorella. Or a neutral one is phytoplankton. And Adored Beast has a good phytoplankton, chlorella, you want to look at. Make sure it's organic. And I would definitely pick vat grown over open air and Spirulina. Dr. Peter Dabias has a great product called Green Men. It's spirulina mixed with algae, a great product for cooler dogs. I would probably start there. Ear test. After you add those to make sure that your dog's okay with chlorella, spirulina and phytoplankton. Not all of them. Pick one and ear tested. Ear test, ear test. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take my canine energetics course on canineherbalism.com or check out my podcast on ear testing and make sure, if you can, if you can, that you're feeding an energetically appropriate diet.

Okay.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about again, check out my canine energetics course. So feed energetically appropriate when possible. That's going to help bring down inflammation. And remember, for those of you that do know what energetics is, energetics is all about consistency, not rotational feeding consistency. You don't want to consistently feed energetically inappropriate food. And then if your dog is tolerating some type of vegetable like greens, you can add that in as well. As long as you know your dog is 100% on that and doing okay.

Okay.

And make sure you're doing digestive enzymes. So just a comment on ear testing. Just a quick go over so you. So you don't have to go to another episode of the podcast. Basically, you're going to feel the inside of your dog's ears going up towards the tip. You're going to feed the substance. It could be a carrot, it could be the entire meal. Check back 30 to 40 minutes afterwards.

Okay.

And feel your dog's ears. If it is an obvious increase in temperature, you most likely have an immune response. And then either stop feeding that substance or figure out what is in the entire meal that is causing that.

Okay.

Could be the protein, could be the veg, could be pretty much anything that you put in there. See what is going on with the heat. Keep herbs and stuff out of that for now. And like, you could test raw goat's milk and see how that goes. So Ear testing is very. I find it very reliable. And you can test veggies, you can test whole meals, you can test proteins, you can dress grains, snacks, anything that is digested by the gut. And you want to avoid things that cause excessive heat, because that is causing what I call a high cascading allergen. All right? One thing you want to add into your dog's diet if you're having gut problems is definitely it's nice and neutral. Saccharomyces bolidarti. S A C C H A R O my C E S B O U L A R D I I Saccharomyces bolidarti. It's a beneficial yeast, and it does not mess with candida. It does not cause yeast infections. It increases glycocalyx and IgA, and that's going to decrease inflammation. And one of the things that you want to do while you're dealing with Saccharomyces bolidiardi is avoid giving probiotics. Fermented products. If you can bone broth. While working with saccharomyces, I like to give it alone. If your dog is nice and cool and has no problems with fermented foods, you could give just a little tiny bit or a little bit of bone broth. But if they have any reactions, test the ears. If they have any reactions, stop, because they could have histamine intolerance or histamine issues. And ferments and bone broth are really high in histamine, so just be careful with that. Saccharomyces can be given with antibiotics. Remember my ploy on antibiotics? I don't give antibiotics unless the life is threatened. And saccharomyces helps increase positive gut bacterium, and it also helps fight fungal overgrowth.

Okay.

Saccharomyces, I would give eight to 10 weeks. 4. Leaf Rover has a good saccharomyces. You can use a human product as well and just feed it as directed. So you want to stimulate the lymphatic system while you're working with the gut and food sensitivities. For cool dogs, I give calendula, and for warm dogs, I give cleavers. Okay, Cleavers. I use a tincture, and I usually give one drop for extra small dogs and small dogs, two drops for medium dogs, three drops for large dogs, and four drops for extra large dogs. Medium like a spaniel, Large golden retriever, extra large Irish wolfhound. For cool dogs, I give calendula. Same dosage as the cleavers. They're just really great at Stimulating the lymphatic system and they help push through stagnation. Like calendula helps warm up the tissues in the gut. Cleavers helps cool it down, it helps clear heat. So both have like that liver skin connection and the skin, you need to look at the inside of the gut as skin.

Okay?

So we really want that liver skin connection with things that we are using to move the lymphatics and heal the gut. So we want to give liver support. And so some, some remedies that are good for the gut. I'm going to some warming remedies. So for cool dogs, okay, warming remedies, we've got turmeric, ginger, cordyceps, calendula, decaf tea, green tea. Some people think tea, green tea is cooling. It's not my experience of it and definitely not my experience of it, but it's not super warming. But I still think it gives off some heat. So I'm going to keep that under the warming. Make sure it's decaf. Organic green tea, don't give non organic green tea, okay? It's filled with pesticides and herbicides. Just don't do it. Spirulina is more warming than chlorella. So that green I have over in the cool dog section. And then for warm dogs, dandelion, yellow dock cleavers, chlorella, chamomile, artichoke leaf. These are liver supports. We want to support the liver. And then for everyone, those more neutral things, we've got deglycerides, licorice, milk thistle, phytoplankton, reishi mushroom, slightly warming but not too much, chaga mushroom. And then also more on the cooling side, burdock, root. And then milk thistles, a little neutral, slightly cooling, but not too much. Milk thistle's pretty universal for both types of dogs. I don't see a lot of issue with it. And then broccoli sprout powder, which is more on the cooling side, is also good for liver support. Now, gut support, you're going to see a little crossover here. Okay, so our warming things, we have apple cider vinegar. It's fermented, it's warming ginger, small amounts of fermented food, I really like green juju for that. You can give small amounts of ferments for dogs that are cool as long as they don't have problems with histamine. Okay, Too much histamine, turmeric, calendula, cordyceps, you probably remember that from your liver herbs. We have lots of crossover livers, deal with the body systemically. They really Feel the body as an ecosystem. And so you're going to see a lot of crossover there. For, for warm dogs, we have cleavers, again, dandelion, yellow dock, chamomile, marshmallow root, yarrow, slippery elm. Slippery elm's a little more neutral than marshmallow. Marshmallows, a little more cooling. But we have, you know, some more neutral nettles, licorice deglycerides, licorice, turkey tail, slippery elm, phytoplankton, Saccharomyces bolidarti, of course, is neutral. Burdock root can be neutral. It's a little more cooling than it is warming. But, you know, my experience of it for dogs is that a lot of dogs can take burdock root. And then we have prebiotics and probiotics. You know, as long as your dog doesn't have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which is a different podcast, you can give good prebiotics and probiotics. So a good prebiotic is cooked apples, organic apples, chlorella, organic banana, dandelion root, burdock root, mushrooms and ferments. So fermented things are also good. Prebiotics and probiotics. Ferments, Bacillus coagulans, bacillus indicus, lactobacillus, Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus ramosus. Planetarium and paracassie. Cassie. Don't know if I pronounced that right, but I try. Cassie is C, A, S, E, I. Those are some prebiotics and probiotics that are good for helping heal the gut. Okay, again, we want variety. And then things like chiropractic reflexology. Really great acupuncture. Acupressure is good for gut healing. Massage and exercise, grounding, getting on the ground, staying there with your dog, fresh air, movement, circulation. I talk a lot about those things.

Okay.

Bringing down stress for you and bringing down stress for your dog. All right, so this is, you know, basically my go to for. For my starter protocol and like, things that I use for dogs with gastrointestinal issues and food sensitivities. What we really wanna do is we want to bring down the inflammation, so we wanna eliminate those foods that are causing an immune cascade. You can do that with ear testing. Is ear testing a hundred percent? No. It's a good guide and it's been a guide for me since I was in my early 20s. I happen to be 52 years old, so you do the math. But I really can't stress enough that having good Stomach acid is one of the most important things that you can do to ensure your dog will not get sensitivities to food. Another thing is feeding an energetically appropriate diet. I know I repeat myself, but super important. That doesn't mean that your cool dog can't have, you know, a whitefish treat every now and then or your warm dog can't have a lamb treat every now and then or even a dinner of lamb or you know, venison or something really warming. It's consistency. Feeding that day in and day out will push your dog towards inflammation and too much heat or, or too much cold. Okay, we don't want that. So that's important. Variety, variety, variety, variety. Focus on variety. I love seasonal healing because it really offers variety. You use the seasons to kind of guide you in a way of what you're eating. That's also, you know, some a wonderful weight to live in my opinion. It's very, you know, it's based on natural psych, nature cycles and offering. It's just kind of a guide. Right. And I think we all need good guidance and I think nature gives us better guidance than anyone if we pay attention and look to see what it's doing throughout the seasons. So if you have questions about this three part series, write to me at the podcastanineherbalist.com and I will clarify some some questions for you. I'm sure you've got some questions right into the podcast. I will let you know in future episodes of Dogs are Individuals. Want to thank my other sponsor, Adored Beast Apothecary. Adored Beast has been really good to me. I really appreciate them for sponsoring my podcast for so long. I would since we're talking about the gut and gut health, they have two products. One is called Gutsoothe and Gutsoothe I would say can be used as needed for when your dog's stomach is gurgly and they have an upset stomach or they got into something. For sure I use it as is or I make a tea out of it and put it over the food, including the powder. Or if you're giving it long term, it's more on the cooling side. You just want to keep that in mind. It's definitely geared toward the more warm dog with heat in their stomach, but can be used acutely for any energetic. All right. I really like that product. It's very beneficial, it's reliable, I always keep it on hand and you can get 15% off. They have given our dogs are individual podcast listeners a 15% off coupon herbs rock all one word, all caps. Herbs rock 15% off. Another product that they have is Healthy Gut. And Healthy Gut is a great prebiotic probiotic that you can give your dog. It also has digestive enzymes, and I definitely would say that almost any dog can use it. However, in my experience, dogs who are kind of between that cool to cold spectrum, so kind of moving away from cool, kind of getting a little colder, don't do that well with bromelain. And so if your dog is that way, if they have an issue with the healthy gut, it probably is that it's the bromelain. Either way, it's a great product. And Healthy Gut is wonderful to add to meals as a digestive enzyme for probiotic support. And again, keep variety going, especially if you are supplementing with probiotics, make sure that you keep the variety going. And Adored Beast has a, well, a plethora of probiotics to choose from to keep variety going in your dog. And remember, the dosage on the package is not always your dog's dosage. So I start out with a quarter of the recommended dose of almost anything and work my way up slowly. And so with probiotics, you can get burping, kind of stomach gurgling if it's not working out. But sometimes it's too high of a dosage. So bring it down. Start slow. As one of my mentors, Matt Wood, would say, slow and low or low and slow. And just work your way up slowly.

Okay?

Don't be afraid to, to have some patience. Patience is so needed in the natural health world. Okay, patience, patience, patience. Otherwise we get frustrated and remember to breathe.

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. 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.

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