Guide to Safe and Unsafe Foods + Herbs | 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. So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hi, welcome to another short. I am super excited about today's short. It is from a question that was submitted from Tara S. Tara says, I love your podcast and have learned so much from you. Thank you so much for doing the episodes. You are welcome. Tara. Could you talk about food or herbs that are generally considered bad for dogs? I see conflicting information whether certain foods and herbs are good or bad for dogs, like broccoli, garlic, potatoes, mint, chamomile, ginger, and if the food or herb is deemed safe, how should I decide on what's low or high dose of that particular food or herb? I have several materia medicas at home. Novice herbalist here. Keep on going, Tara. We're all novice herbalists. I could be studying for the rest of my life and, you know, and still be a novice or herbalist. But my books are designed for humans. Can I use them for dogs? Thank you so much again. Love your podcast. Okay, let's dive into this. But before we do, I want to thank my short episode sponsor, Earth Buddy. Earth Buddy. I recently went to Super Zoo and I met Sean from Earth Buddy and loved everything that he had. It was a wonderful experience. I got to see pictures, these big, beautiful pictures of his farm. Got to meet my sponsor, which is super fun, and learn all about his process, about how he grows his hemp and how he processes it and how he cares so much about his products. I love that. Love, love, love that. Check out earthbuddy@earthbuddypet.com and Sean made a lovely coupon for all of our listeners. And that's herbal buddy 20. Herbal buddy 20. That's all lowercase with a two and a zero. Herbal buddy 20. You can save 20% off of all their products on their website, earthbuddypet.com okay, we got a few questions to answer. I don't know if I can answer it in the 10 to 12 short minutes, but I'm definitely going to try. So let's just break this down. Tara is asking about good or bad foods for dogs. Well, there are some. I'm not a fan of the word bad, but there are some foods that dogs shouldn't eat, like grapes and macadamia nuts and onions, things like that across the board. You know, like that's a generalization, right? Chocolate Those are other foods that your dog should not eat. Now you can visit Google and Google toxic food for pets and you'll come up with a lot of variety. Like one avocados. I'm looking at this 12 by 12 informational poster and they have marked avocados. Avocados are not poisonous to dogs. The seeds are, but they're not. I would, you know, don't give avocados in like super large amounts. But yeah, avocados are fine for dogs. Coffee and caffeine, I would agree. Don't give your dog caffeine. Okay. Onions, I agree. Garlic, I disagree. In small amounts, fresh organic garlic is very beneficial. Raw eggs. Totally disagree on that one. Totally disagree. I don't know where that came from. Salt, Morton.

Table salt.

That's been altered. Sure. Not a fan of that. But like Himalayan or sea salt, just fine. And then we have sugary foods like artificial sugar and artificial flavors and then like sugar, sugar. Yeah, totally agree. Tea. Green tea is very beneficial for many dogs. It's, you know, I find it to be on the warming side, slightly warming, but on the range, it could be slightly warming to slightly cooling the green tea. But I find it very, very beneficial for dogs. So as an antioxidant, anti inflammatory. So I disagree with that. And yeast dough, I, I agree with that. Don't give yeasty dough to dogs. It can bloat up their stomach. But, you know, the food that isn't on here is soy. I'm not a big fan of soy for dogs. It's genetically modified. It's just chuck full of glyphosate. So I would say don't give that to dogs. Organic soy, we could have a conversation about that. But across the board, try to avoid soy in general. A little soy oil, like the minute amounts of it. Make sure you call the company, ask them if it's genetically modified. But I would avoid soy pretty much across the board. But I see a lot of these things that are like toxic or safe. It's another one that you can order. They talk about milk being bad for dogs. Raw milk is excellent for dogs. Raw meat and fish. It has on the list. No, fine. For dogs. Mushrooms. Oh, what a terrible piece of advice. Yeah. Poisonous mushrooms, but not good. Medicinal mushrooms that are not poisonous. And do not go foraging for mushrooms if you are not a skilled mushroom hunter. Okay. Just don't do it. Potato skins, raw potatoes. I think if potatoes are cooked, they're fine. I've never had a problem with giving a dog a cooked potato skin. I feed organic potatoes That I grow myself. However, I don't think that's a problem. Rhubarb, you can avoid that. But again, with the teeth. And walnuts. Walnuts are not toxic to dogs, but you should give them in very small amounts. And of course, xylitol. Xylitol is a absolute. No, no for dogs. It can kill your dog. So those are some of the things that you kind of see out there in the world. You see them a lot. But going back to our email, we have a question about broccoli. Broccoli is fine for your dog. The one thing you want to know about broccoli, it's a goitrogen, okay? It's a goitrogen, which means that it can slow the thyroid function down. So do you want to feed broccoli every day? No, you don't if you can help it. And if you do, you want to do it in very small amounts. Okay? Broccoli is definitely a seasonal vegetable in my opinion, but it's a very healthy vegetable. It's a cooling to neutral vegetable. It's a lovely little. I mean, I happen to say I love broccoli and I do have a more like a slower thyroid, so I have to watch my consumption of it. Broccoli sprouts are also very good for you. High in antioxidants, much better for the thyroid. So you could do broccoli sprouts in lieu of broccoli. And then we have garlic. Now, I don't have time to get into this, but I will do a podcast on garlic. But organic, fresh, minimal garlic is healthy for dogs that are especially cool. Okay. Garlic is warming. It's not hot, but it is warming. So you want to keep that in consideration. If you don't know what I'm talking about, visit canineherbalism.com and take my energetics course. But garlic can be very beneficial. It's anti parasitic, it's anti inflammatory, it's antibacterial. You wanna use it in a very specific way. I wrote an excellent article on garlic for dogs Naturally magazine. I will put that in the show notes and have that link for you so you can learn all about garlic for your dog. And don't waste your time sending me an email about how I am crazy. Look at the science behind garlic. And all the testing that says that garlic is bad for dogs was done with tons of garlic. Garlic, the amount of garlic that your dog would never, ever, ever eat. I've had over 16 dogs in my lifetime and they all have had garlic. Okay, thank you. Potatoes Potatoes can be starchy.

They're not for every dog.

You need to be careful with giving them. Make sure they're cooked. But you can feed potatoes to dogs, like, straight up. But again, they're not going to be for every dog. I would not feed potatoes on a raw diet. Unless you need to. But again, can dogs eat potatoes? Yes. Mint. Now, mint, that's like saying tissue. There's a lot of different brands of tissues and there's lots of mints. So mint, I would say no, you need to know what mint. So spearmint? Yes. Peppermint? Yes. Motherwort? Yes. You know, apple mint's fine. Pennyroyal, not fine. Pennyroyal is toxic to dogs. So please do not give pennyroyal to your puppy doodle. Okay. Don't do that. So, mint. Yes. And it depends on dog. You know, lots of people are sensitive to peppermint without knowing it, because peppermint is in everything. You know, it's in our toothpaste. Lots of menthol and mint are in the toothpaste and you get hypersensitive to it. And so a lot of people are unknowingly sensitive to peppermint. I had sores in my mouth for years, like these little, I don't know, pustules that used to drive me nuts. And I couldn't figure out what they are, what they were at all. And then I figured out it was mint. And as soon as I stopped using peppermint toothpaste, they went away. And if I start using peppermint toothpaste and continue to use it for a few weeks, they come back. So be careful with different types of mint and make sure they are suitable towards your dog, your individual dog. Chamomile, yes. Chamomile is fine. I definitely use the chamomile matricaria, and that's the Latin name of the type of chamomile that I use. Matricaria. Chamomile. This version of chamomile is also known as German chamomile. Some people do have issues with Roman chamomile. This type of chamomile is known as anthemus nobilis. And some people find that dogs and cats don't do that well with this form of chamomile. But it's not my experience, however, to err on the side of caution. Just stick to German chamomile, the matricaria. So, but I, you know, for me, the noblest version is, again, good at nausea and vomiting and gas. So I don't have an issue with it but some people have noted that you shouldn't use it with cats and dogs. It's just not my experience. But I do want to put that out for, you know, just for safety reasons. I don't have all of the keys to the kingdom. I don't know all but I tend to grow the matricaria and use that and a lot of people do. I do use both essential oils for self selection. The matricaria version of chamomile is blue chamomile and it's very high in azulene which is a constituent and it's very soothing and calming and it what makes the essential oil of this plant blue. We are running out of time. But just quickly. Ginger is fine for dogs. It's hot so use it for dogs that are cool. Don't use it in large amounts. And also yes, you can use your materia medicus for for people on dogs. You just wanna be careful. So my book's not out yet, but invest in the book Herbs for Pets by Greg Tilford that can help you. Most of the herbs that are safe for dogs are in there. Lastly, just be careful and err on the side of caution. If you have some other specific questions, just write into the podcast and I will try to answer them for you. Thank you so much. And another short is in the books.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individ. 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 Frank. 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 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 with or other possible complications before using any production.