Extending Your Dog's Life

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. Hello, welcome to the fourth edition of the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I am your host, Rita Hogan. Some exciting news here on the podcast. I recently acquired two great sponsorships to support this podcast and bring it to you every other week. The first sponsor is the Adored Beast Apothecary. I love Adored Beast. I use their products in my protocols every week in some fashion or another. And the second sponsor is Real Mushrooms.com I love realmushrooms.com because their products are really high quality, they're correctly extracted, and I've had really good results with them. I've used them in my own life. I've used them with my dogs. I trust realmushrooms.com I really do go to them for their powdered products that I spec in my protocols. So I couldn't be happier, really for this sponsorship opportunity. So I'll be Talking about real mushrooms.com's products for dogs and for people. And I will also be mentioning the Adored Beast Apothecary in my program. So just wanted to keep you up to date with that. For those of you new to the podcast, I do encourage you to go back and listen to the first episode of this podcast so you get a good background on who I am and kind of what I live for. So we are going to talk about age and a few other things. I'm kind of irritated with the whole my dog's geriatric at age 8. A dog is not old at age 6 or 8. I think that someone made that up and has kind of forgotten that they made it up and living like it's real in human ages. Not that I really believe in the translation between human and dogs ages, but it kind of would be like age 40 and, or 42. And, you know, I'm 51 and I'm really not ready to be put out to pasture. So as a society, I think that we have to start looking at how we speak about our dogs and how we relate to their, like, what they look like. You know, early onset aging isn't caused by just natural rhythms on the planet. It is definitely being caused by things that we're putting in our dogs and on our dogs. Cause remember, you know, the liver really takes a big burden from all the pollutants and toxins. That's kind of being thrown at it all day long in your dog's body. I do think that as people, we want our animals to live as long as possible, just like most of us want to live as long as possible. Look at the success of Rodney Habib's and Karen Becker's book, the Forever Dog. It's a best selling book, it's being translated into multiple languages. And I think it's because people are yearning for longevity in both themselves and their animals. And I'll tell you right now, just because your dog may look kind of older right in this moment, it doesn't mean it has to stay that way. I remember when I got my heart dog, Frances from a puppy mill and she lacked hair. She looked terrible. She had elephant skin, she smelled really bad, she had demodectic mange. And she looked super old, even though she was only like one and a half, two years old. She even had some graying. She was a black pug. I mean, it was kind of horrifying. But I put her on a holistic regimen. I put her on holistic food, fresh food, and after a year or so, she looked fantastic. Now, I'm not saying that a 16, 17 year old dog is going to look like a 7 year old dog if you put them on holistic food and supplements and herbs. I am saying that you can reverse a lot of the, I would say, rapid aging that is occurring in dogs right now. Many of you that know me know that I am kind of a pug freak. I love pugs. I've had pugs for a really long time, over 20 years. And I did a pug rescue, which I talked about in my first episode of this podcast. I hear a lot of information, kind of generalities about certain breeds. And just gonna take pugs, for example. You know, they snore and they're really expensive to have because they have so many medical issues. And, you know, I don't believe that my pugs have not had a lot of medical issues. The rescue pugs that I've had, yes, they've had medical issues and we've had to turn those around. But, you know, overall, I haven't had a lot of issues with having pugs that people complain about, like, you know, their wrinkles being completely dirty and, you know, the chronic snoring and the kind of weakness in the musculoskeletal system. And it's fascinating to me how we make up these stories and then again, forget that we made them up and now it's real. What if it's not Real what if it's all made up? We're taking an animal and trying to fit it in to our convenient lifestyle. And sometimes that doesn't work out. Dogs need real food. They need fresh air. They need access to plants, just like they do in the wild. You know, just because my pug is highly overbred, obviously, and very domesticated, doesn't mean they don't have, like, the same innate needs as coyotes and wolves. No, they may not look the same. But again, when we're trying to shove our dogs into this convenient package that works out for us, sometimes things go awry. And I do believe that early onset aging is one of those things. We all have our stories, right? We all have the stories that make us who we are. And we have those stories that kind of propel us into our passions. And I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again, but, you know, my experience with one of my pugs named Finbar and Purina Bring a One with Yogurt was a huge foundational piece for me because I experienced my pug, Finbar, who was my first pug, as all of those things that I had heard about pugs. You know, he snored, he had a stinky face, he suffered from breathing issues, he developed arthritis at an early age. He was a mess. When I figured out that, you know, really poor kibble was at the basis for all of his issues, I was just taken aback. I felt so let down. I didn't even know. I had a really hard time with the disservice that I was experiencing from a dog food company that I thought I could trust. Now, I don't know what's going on with Preena these days, but back in the day, 20 years ago, the bag was beautiful. The yogurt was flowing, the chicken looked beautiful. I thought I was doing right by him. Nope. So when I figured out that it might be his food, I changed him to a better kibble first and then to a freeze dried diet. And everything started changing. When I put Finbar on herbs, and it was milk thistle at the time. It was when I was first starting out in herbalism and I gave him greens and gave him again freeze dried food, a fresh food diet with lots of moisture. Things started turning around. His wrinkles cleared up, his breathing got so much better. We never went back to the vet for pneumonia after that. Never ever. And he stopped snoring, which was a saving grace for me because a lot of times it kept me up at night. Cause he snored crazy and he went from a crazy snore to just little tiny breathing noises, which I completely fell in love with. Now, all this went down before Finn was three. So what was cool was is that his arthritis went away. It went away. His body healed itself. Extending your dog's lifespan doesn't need to be complicated either. So there's a few things that you can do right now to really kind of turn your dogs around. One thing, start filtering their water. Don't overlook the water. Water is so important, and, you know, a simple carbon filter can go a long way. You can also get more complicated with like reverse osmosis or things like a berkey. With those two, you need to kind of add back minerals. So I usually give like liquid fulvic and humic acid probably three to four times a week in my dog's water when I'm filtering. I work with a lot of people and consistently I hear that people are not filtering their dog's water. Another thing about water is stop giving bottled water in plastic bottles. Specifically, bottled water is overpriced crap water. I'm gonna say it again. Bottled water is overpriced crap water. People think that they're giving their dog this fresh spring water coming off of a mountain. Unfortunately, our world is so polluted that there are very few fresh water sources left that aren't polluted in some way, shape, or form. Put your money into a high quality water filter instead of purchasing bottled water that's filled with plastic pollution, bpa, bha, and plasticizers and endocrine disruptors. That's a huge thing that you can do to help your dog's hormonal system and their liver. The cool thing is, is that it's pretty easy to do, right? Filter their water. Step one, number two, feed a fresh food diet. And if you can't afford to feed a fresh food diet, make sure you're giving the best kibble that you can find. You can go onto my website@k9herbalism.com and I have what's called a kibble primer. In the notebook read that if you're a kibble feeder, you can add fresh food to your dog's kibble. There is a company called Green Juju. I love them and it's Kelly Marin and Billy Hokum. And they have this wonderful company that is pretty much all about adding fresh food to your dog's diet, whether it be a raw diet, a cooked diet, or a kibble diet. I especially love green juju for kibble feeders because it's an introduction. It helps get your paws wet in the real food feeding world, and you'll see benefits right away. There's more vitality. Food is filled of enzymes. Plants are filled with enzymes. Plants are filled with chlorophyll. Fresh food has nutrients, it has vitality. It's giving your dog something they need. There are a lot of resources out there to help you prepare in making the switch over to fresh food or improving your dog's fresh food diet. Dr. D. Blanco has a wonderful website, Dr. Judy Morgan, Dogs Naturally magazine. And for those of you on social media, you can find a lot of really great groups out there focusing on fresh feeding. Okay? So another thing that you can do to bring down your dog's aging and increase their longevity is start reading labels. Read labels for everything that you put on your dog or in your dog. Make sure that you're not giving your dog any crap. And that includes shampoos, sprays, flea and tick meds, heartworm meds, unneeded pharmaceuticals. A lot of these things really tax the liver. And unless your dog absolutely needs it, then I would forego giving it. Every chemical that you put in or on your dog has to be processed. I think that people need to be extra mindful about reading labels. You'd be surprised at how many excellent pet parents out there don't read labels for grooming products, for salves, for creams that they use on their dog directly on their skin, or on open wounds on their fur in the bathtub. You know, like, oh, I forgot to look at that. And when I go through their products and look at the ingredients and we talk about it, they always have the deer in the headlights face, like, oh, God, I didn't realize that that was in there. Another huge, huge thing that you can do is be prepared, have a, you know, create a relationship with a holistic vet or a homeopathic vet. Many holistic vets do, like, zoom sessions and telehealth. And so you don't have to have a local vet that you coincide with their belief system. But having one and establishing yourself as a client I think is really important so that you can be prepared and you can ask them questions when something happens. Why am I saying this? I recently taught a antibiotic coaching session with people on social media. And I went over things that I have experience using antibiotics. And if you have a plan, you're not gonna use antibiotics as often. You know, I tell people unabashedly that, that I only use antibiotics if my dog's life is threatened. Antibiotics destroy Your dog's microbiome. And I can't believe the number of people that use antibiotics regularly because they're afraid of their dog dying, even though it might be like a paw wound or over excessive licking of the paw or something on top of the skin. And all of a sudden we're doing 14 days of antibiotics. And this really brings down vitality, this antibiotics really accelerate aging. They destroy healthy bacteria. And it's hard for dogs to get back on their feet after a round of antibiotics. Of course, antibiotics can save your dog's life for sure. Absolutely. Antibiotics saved my life. I'm not anti antibiotic. However, I can tell you right now that from taking a hefty course of antibiotics in my life, I developed autoimmune disease and a couple other things that I can trace back to the specific antibiotics that I used. And I definitely see this in dogs all the time. I see clients with, you know, five to 14 rounds of antibiotics in a dog that is under eight. And that, my friends, is a travesty. It leads to early onset aging. And we have to figure out, why are dogs getting old so quickly? Why are they looking so old? Why are their bodies deteriorating at such a rapid rate? You got to sit down and look and be okay with the answer. You know, the answer is definitely something that we are doing as humans, both to our planet and to our animals, and a lot of times to ourself, going back to antibiotics. The standard of care, which is basically, you have a set of symptoms, and this is the answer. And the standard of care really applies to everyone, despite individuality, environment, food, et cetera. So the standard of care for many forms of diarrhea is a antibiotic called metrodizanol or flagyl. And wow, it's really hard to find a dog out there that has not been given this medication. And it really packs a punch. There are so many herbs out there that deal with diarrhea. And, you know, diarrhea happens for a reason. We don't want dogs to have diarrhea for three days straight. You know, they can get dehydrated and it can become a thing where they're needing sub q fluids. But one day of diarrhea may be needed. The body really needs cleansing. And diarrhea is a way to get well, to expel things out of the large intestine and get it to exit out the body. And then usually things will clear up. But again, there's many herbs that we can use for diarrhea, like slippery almond, BlackBerry leaf. And I probably could go On Forever Plantain. I mean, we need herbal education for sure, but we also need to stop giving antibiotics for simple things like diarrhea, just in case there might be a bacteria at play. Let's find out if there's a bacteria at play. Let's look at how to target that bacteria specifically instead of kind of letting off a generalized microbial bomb. And that's one of the issues. And definitely the overuse of antibiotics is contributing to early onset aging. Another factor is stress. How stressed is your dog? How stressed are you? Our stress is. Can lead to their stress. And I know I've talked about this before, and I'll probably talk about it in nauseam in future episodes because stress is such a huge ordeal. And I've noticed that a lot of people will kind of sacrifice themselves for others or sacrifice their happiness for their animals, even when they're stressed out of their mind. But, you know, it's that old cliche to put on your oxygen mask before, you know, helping another. We need to help de stress ourselves so our dogs can be more confident and less anxious and in our homes. Because, remember, when dogs are stressed in the wild, they run. They, you know, they deal with that stress. They get it out of the body. The average American dog gets less than 15 minutes of exercise per day, and that is a travesty. Again, lack of exercise can lead to early onset aging as well. Getting rid of that stress is hard when dogs aren't moving around and. And when we are arguing in front of our animals, when we are stressed and we come home and we slam down, you know, our briefcase or our purse on the table, and we let out that big sigh, and then we look at the refrigerator and make a couple grunts. Our dogs are listening. You know, our dogs are our mirrors. And stress is a huge factor in early onset aging and longevity. Stress is also a huge factor in the need for proper nutrition and vital enzymes and live food so that our dog's nervous systems are moisturized and nourished. They can deal with stress better and turn off sympathetic excess, which is that fight or flight, and have more access to their vagus nerve, which helps them relax, which helps them digest, which helps them sleep better, and it does all the stuff for us as well. I spent the last 20 years mapping human concepts onto canine physiology, and a lot of times they go hand in hand. What I'm saying about dogs can apply to people as well, and vice versa. The good thing is, is that a lot of people will do something for their animals that they won't do for themselves. And so what I'm saying is watch your stress. Help your dogs de stress, Give them exercise. That's another step in bringing down morbidity and increasing longevity. I really think all of our goals include having a happy, healthy dog, having a happy, healthy cat, or, you know, any other little creature that you're hanging out with on a daily basis. We want health. We want health for ourselves. And we just have to look at the last 20 years where we've seen a huge, huge, huge decrease in longevity. What has happened in the last 20 years? What does that look like? What are we doing? What's different and what's the same between humans and dogs? Because as I said before, in other episodes, you know, one out of two dogs will die of cancer. One out of four people will die of cancer. That's a big number. And as a cancer survivor, I'm totally interested in what is the difference what is happening right now and for the last 20 years that's different from subsequent years, right? What's been going on? And that's where the answer lies, really. So we'll be discussing more about this in, in future episodes, but I just want to bring attention to the fact that no, dogs are not old at six and eight years old. Six, seven, eight. They're just not. And it's a travesty to start looking at them like they are. You know, when we, I hear people saying, yeah, he made it to 8 or he made it to 9 or he made it to 10 and he's had a really good run. That's really good. No, that is a travesty. Your dog is supposed to live a long life. We have to make some changes to turn that around. We have to take that baseline and move it back, move it towards age 20, age 25, instead of going from a geriatric dog at age 8. We have to stop this in its tracks. You know, we have to work together to figure out what are those things that have happened in the last 20 years. Processed food, glycophate, pesticides, herbicides that should not be in our environment. Stress. We know stress. The 24 hour news cycle. Ugh, Ig gross. I don't participate. And taking on the burden of the entire world is not what human physiology is made to take in. We can't take in all of that. It causes huge amounts of stress and it causes our dogs to stress out because they smell our stress, they smell our fear. So dogs are not old at 6 and 7 and 8 years old at all. For those of you listening who have not read the Forever Dog by Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker. I, I would get a copy right away and read it front to back. It's a great read. It's really scientific based, which isn't my thing, but it definitely is theirs and I love it. It's gonna help you extend your dog's life and really kind of see what are some factors that are going on, what are some easy changes that you can make. Even if you're, you know, if you're a raw feeder, we can all make changes. You can start looking at energetics, you can start looking at variety. You can, you know, look at nutrition, sourcing and rotation. There's always ways to improve what we're doing. We can talk about it too. Right into the podcast, you can go to k9herbalist.com, click podcast content and let me know how you're thinking. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer them here on the podcast. Like usual, I like to leave you guys with some actionable steps which we went over. You know, water, chemicals, what you're putting on your dog, things like that. And, you know, for those of you that like to spend time with your dogs, there's one really wonderful thing that can bring down stress for you and your pup that you can do. And it's called square breathing. It's really easy to do. I usually sit with my dogs while I'm doing it. I might hold them or sit next to them, depending on, you know, what makes them comfortable. And you really just begin by exhaling all of your air. Then inhale slowly and in your mind, slowly count to four. Then you're going to hold your breath for four counts. 1, 2, 3, 4. After that, exhale for four and go slowly exhaling out all of your air. At the end of the exhale, you're going to hold it again for four. I've been practicing this type of breathing for a while and it really helps me center myself and get back to my focus. It's just a really great way to access your vagus nerve and to help relax yourself. This in turn is going to help relax your dogs and cats that are in your space that are sharing that vibration with you. They will smell it and they will also feel it and they'll know that you're less stressed and then they'll become less stressed because they really are our mirrors. I know, you know, I repeat myself a lot. And for, for those of you that haven't listened to my first episode of the podcast. I've warned everybody that I do a lot of repeating of myself, but this helps people remember and people actually thank me for it, so I'm okay with it. I forgot to mention that one of the benefits of square or box breathing is that it helps lower cortisol, which in people is super important, as well as dogs. But a lot of people have really high levels of cortisol in their body, and this is a stress hormone. And this type of breathing can help you bring that down and it also helps nourish your nervous system. Because when we're in that fight or flight during the day, listening to our phones or, you know, worried about work, it's a really good way to help bring that access to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest, and relax and take you out of sympathetic access, which is the fight or flight. And you can do that type of breathing anywhere. But I love doing it with my pets. Okay, so that's a wrap. Thank you for listening to my ramblings. I would call it kind of rambling rant today. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really appreciate you as a listener and and if you like this podcast, go ahead and leave me a review on your podcast app. That's gonna help the podcast grow and it will help me a lot. You can follow me on Instagram at canineherbalist. I also have a Facebook page, Canine Herbalist, and a private Facebook group called Dogs are Individuals. You can see my courses@canineherbalism.com I think I'm on Twitter too. I make a comment here and there a few times a week. You might want to join. My website is k9herbalist.com you can contact me there for a consultation or check out the items I carry in my store. Well, that's a wrap and I will see you on the next episode of the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. Thanks for being here. Take care. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. Don't forget, sharing is caring. If you love the Dogs Are Individuals podcast, share it with your friends and family. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resident Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show via my website K. Click Podcast Contact in the menu. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It isn't a substitute for veterinary advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your pet's veterinarian before making any major health decisions. Okay, so that's a wrap, and I will talk to you in the next episode. Thanks for listening.