Over Supplementation + Balanced Doggie Diets

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.

Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. Hi. So today we are going to talk about over supplementation and I'm going to give you some tips for, you know, what supplements to start out with based on a good diet. So let's talk about this.

One thing I do want to say.

Is speaking of a good diet, thank you, thank you, thank you to Green Juju diet and Goodness Gracious. Goodness Gracious is a gently cooked food and treats.com and green juju is a freeze dried food. And both of these companies are so kind to support me on this podcast. That's one thing I can say and another thing is that both of them do such great work. It's speaking in the community. Amy Ren's the owner of Goodness Gracious. I recently saw her speak along with Billy Holcomb or Hochman and wow. I mean they have such passion and drive and they are creating transformation not only through their brands but also through their education. And I can get behind that. I think it is wonderful. I'm currently trying out the probiotic mushroom probiotic from Green Juju and my pug Figgie Nubbins is trying out a gently cooked recipe from Goodness Gracious. So I will keep you posted on both of them but I'm looking forward to seeing the results of that. Check these companies out, please support them because without these two companies and real mushrooms.com which is my other sponsor for they sponsored my short last week. Without these lovely companies I wouldn't be here. So give them some loving. Okay, let's talk about over supplementation. So this came across my desk this week. I saw a great post by the phenomenal Josie Bug and she was talking about how she had to take a client off a bunch of supplements. And over supplementation can really cause problems in the body. And I know that I've talked about this before. I know that I might have talked.

About it in detail.

I'm not positive, positive. But we're going to talk about it again because it is so important to understand how you know when you put 40 herbs together in a dog's body, sometimes 60 if you count them, plus supplements, plus, you know, nutraceuticals, enzymes, food, that's a lot going on. You know, it's a lot. And we need to be careful that we're not overwhelming your dog's body with all of these supplements because 99% of them need to be processed by the liver. And that's just a ton going on. And when you're feeding your dog twice a day, all their liver is doing well. Their Liver does, like 500 things, but it's putting a lot of reserve into processing food and processing supplements, especially supplements that go through the gut. Okay, so we want to look at that. What does that look like?

Right.

So without mentioning any names, Josie was looking at a few supplements that, you know, one of them had, like, over 15 herbs in it. The other one had, I think, over 20 herbs in the formula. And then the dog was on multiple other things. And she made just a really poignant post about overwhelming the body, about the liver's role in detoxification, and about understanding that even though you're coming from a place of good intention, and a lot of us come from that place of desperation, we can do a lot of harm from a lot of good.

Okay.

I don't know if that resonates with you. I've definitely done it. You know, I have definitely done it. And it's not that the supplements that you're giving your dog are bad.

Right.

It's that we're giving our dog too many because we don't understand how these herbs work or work against each other. Right. Some of these herbs can work against each other, and you probably don't have that knowledge, and you're just giving according to what it's indicated for, you know, especially remedies for joint support, mobility, pain, you know, things like that after surgery. So there's nothing wrong with taking a couple Chinese formulas for sure, but do it with some guidance of someone who knows how to use Chinese medicine, and that would not be me. I am not a Chinese medicine expert. Chinese medicine formulas have a lot of herbs in there. So, you know, I'm looking at one right now. It's got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 herbs.

And then here's another one that has.

2, 4, 6, 8th, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 22 herbs in it. So, you know, you need some guidance for that. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions. For sure. You know, people who won't answer your questions. I wouldn't shop on their website. You know, questions should be answered if you're buying your. You're purchasing products. But let's go through a few things that I feel, you know, that are good quality things to add to your dog's food. If they're well indicated. You know, one of those things is enzymes. Enzymes are responsible for a myriad of biochemical processes in the body, and they are definitely help with food allergies, food sensitivities, gastrointestinal problems and liver function. And dogs really rely on enzymes. They create enzymes in their bodies, but.

They also rely on enzymes that is from their food.

So if you're feeding like a food, like, goodness gracious, you want to give an enzyme because it's light, it's gently cooked, okay. And cooked food lacks a lot of enzymes. So you want to add an enzyme in there. If your dog is switching from kibble to a raw diet, you want to add enzymes. I would add enzymes for probably about.

Six months if your dog is stressed.

If your dog has anxiety, you want to add enzymes because those types of things bring down gastrointestinal juices and mess with enzymes. If you're feeding your dog any type of pharmaceutical, you want to give enzymes. So enzymes are definitely found in raw food. You know, you like avocado pulp, different types of raw meats and organs have enzymes. Fermented foods, papaya, pineapple, pumpkin, definitely raw dairy is full of enzymes. But I definitely recommend giving an enzyme supplement. So that's something that you can give that doesn't really add to the load to your dog's supplement load.

Now, another thing that doesn't add to.

The dog supplement load is, you know, prebiotics, probiotics. These are things that you can give your dog to help with, to support their microbiome, and you want to do that with intention. I have some great episodes on probiotics. I plan to do a few more. But yeah, I mean, these are very good things to do. And if you have access to raw dairy, they are also. It's good to help build up a microbiome. You can also do ferments like kefir or bone broth or different types of fermented dairy. Helps with the microbiome and the gut in general. And then definitely prebiotics, you know, mushrooms are great for that. And then healthy fats. Healthy fats are awesome. And they really help with forming, you know, vital structures that are fat dependent.

Like the nervous system.

Okay.

The myelithin sheath is dependent on quality fats. And we need quality fats for our.

Heart and brain health and especially your.

Dog'S heart and brain health. So one of our sponsors, Billy Hochman, I always say Holcomb, but it's Hochman. He is very much, I would say, a healthy fat researcher. And I talked with him about Omega 3s and Omega 6s for my book. And he talked about like pastured meats and pastured eggs being really healthy because of their omega 6, omega 3 ratio and how they show up in a balance. And he said, you know the interesting thing, and this is a quote from him. I do share this in my book that your dog will always get adequate omega 6s through diet. So if you are looking to supplement omega fatty acids, it should be something that is basically only Omega 3 and that is like algae oil or algae oil, however you want to pronounce that. Wild caught fish, green lit muscle and other extracts like from anchovy, sardine, cod liver oil, these are all rich in omega 3s. And pastured meat also has good balance of omega 3, omega 6 that can help with your, your dog's heart, immune function, lungs, gut microbiome, nervous system, and definitely their gut brain access and their cognitive function in their brain. So another thing that I did mention is that in my book is that when you're purchasing Omega 3s and I was at the Super Zoo conference like a month ago, I don't. Was it a month? Yeah, it was a month ago I was at Super Zoo and I noticed that some people were selling their omega 3 fatty acids in plastic.

Don't do that.

And don't purchase Omega 3s in plastic. And if you're a company that has Omega 3s in plastic, get them out of plastic, put them in glass, okay. Amber glass bottles. Don't get down on the companies that sell their Omega 3s in plastic. They may not know, okay. That plastics is not good for oils in general. So encourage your favorite companies who sell oils to put them in glass bottles.

Okay?

A lot of times glass is more expensive to ship. But. But with Omega 3s, they need to be in glass bottles. So Omega 3s, we could talk about them for an entire episode. But those are a few things. Omega 3s balanced omega 6s. Not giving omega 6 fatty acids as a supplement is a good thing because if you give too much Omega 6, it brings down your. It decreases the Omega 3 levels.

Okay?

So we want to do that. And then a few things about just feeding in general that can help decrease.

Your need for supplementation.

One, never feed your dog cold food, okay? It causes stagnation in the gastrointestinal tract and it affects assimilation of nutrients.

Okay?

We want to up assimilation of nutrients and increase elimination. These are two things that we want to do. So it's really good advice. And I didn't make that up. So, you know, I learned that a long time ago. Room temperature food or slightly warm is best. Don't feed your dog all the time, okay?

Feed your dog just once or twice per day.

I prefer if your dog has any type of liver issue or organ issue elimination, assimilation. Feed them one time per day and then give them like a raw goat or raw cow's milk in the evening so they feel like they're getting something. You can mix that with some supplements if you are like functional mushrooms or bone broth or different types of probiotics and things like that. But feed them most of their calories in the morning so that their organs can rest and their organs can help detoxify something besides their food.

Okay?

And again, that's a long conversation too.

And we'll do that later, but that's what's going on. I definitely wanna do another liver liver episode and explain it in more detail what the liver is doing. Because people get freaky about feeding their dog once a day. But a dog digests almost all of their food with their stomach, okay? Basically all of their food with their stomach. And it doesn't matter if they eat fast, just let them eat it and they digest with their food. Now, if your dog has a history of bloat, that's different, okay? Don't get crazy with absolutes and what I say, you know, guide. It's a guide. It may not, it may not, it may not relate to your dog, okay? It may not be relevant to your dog in what I'm saying. You have to do what resonates for you. But I do recommend feeding your most of your calories in the morning and then just giving a light meal of goat's milk or something nutritional at night to make them think that they are getting their second meal. Another thing is find different foods that.

Your dog can tolerate.

If your dog can't tolerate a bunch of foods, different types of proteins, then you need to work on the gut, okay? But avoiding food sensitivities by feeding a rotational diet throughout the year will bring.

Down the need for supplementation because your.

Dog will be assimilating so much more of the nutrients. Another thing, don't overfeed your dog. Overfeeding your dog puts pressure on the liver and it causes a whole bunch of gastrointestinal upset and it messes with elimination and assimilation.

Okay?

Filter your dog's water. Don't feed your dog out of plastic. Don't store things in plastic. Buy glass containers to freeze, you know, freeze friendly glass containers. I think another thing is don't give.

Foods that your dog consistently refuses to eat.

You know, that's a big sign. Don't add salt to your dog's food. Try to avoid ionized salt as much as you can. Sea salt is good, very high quality Himalayan salt. There's a lot of cheap Himalayan salts on the market that has heavy metals in it. So just, you know, make sure that the salt company is testing for heavy metals. And there's also things like Redmond salt here in the United States, that's a good salt. But don't feast like table salt to your dog. And then, you know, another thing that can help with assimilation and good healthy elimination and of bring down supplementation is.

Letting your dog play in the dirt.

If it's healthy dirt, not glyphosate, you know, not something that you've sprayed with pesticides. Interacting with other dogs, interacting with nature, getting out and grounding, sitting on the ground, getting age appropriate exercise, breathing in fresh air. These are all things that increase longevity, they increase nutritional value, they give your dog a more diverse microbiome. And the more diverse their microbiome is, the more that they assimilate and eliminate in a healthy manner, which helps avoid the need for supplementation and brings down disease and increases longevity. So how many supplements is too many supplements? You know, if you are giving supplements and herbs and homeopathy, if you're giving them with intention and guidance from a professional, then I think that you're probably okay. But if you're just, you know, listening to someone talk about a supplement, oh, that sounds good, I want to try that for my dog. I'm just going to add it. And then you keep on adding, which I'm telling you, it happens. We get, we get desperate to find answers that the, you know, regular medical community is not helping with. And I understand, but you need to be mindful.

You need to ask questions.

You need to look, you know, with herbs. You need to look those herbs up. You need to find out will they work for my dog? You know, know your dog's energetics. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my energetics course and find out if they are well indicated for your dog and how long are you giving those supplements. You know, my protocols last about six to 12 weeks, sometimes less. If you're not moving in the direction that you need to. If things are not improving in, I would say six to eight to 10 weeks, then most likely it's not going to improve. You need to stop what you've added and redirect yourself in a different direction. And a lot of times those things that. Those substances that don't work can tell us a lot about what will work for your dog. Okay, so everything you know in that part is positive. I think that we need to educate ourselves about formulas that we're purchasing, about different types of things that you use every day. You know, a lot of supplements that.

You'Re using every day for a long period of time.

I would stop them systematically, one at a time for a few weeks to see how your dog does off of them.

Does their vitality increase or does it decrease?

You know, does their appetite improve or does it decrease? You know, you can always put your dog back on a supplement. But it's interesting to find out what, you know, how they're expressing themselves off the supplement. And you kind of don't know it until you know it, you know, yesterday I was talking to a woman who is suffering from Lyme disease, and she was telling me about, you know, her symptoms, and she's had them for a few years. And people just get used to things. It's like the new normal, you know, aches and pains in the body. A lot of them aren't supposed to be there. They're telling you, hey, we've got a problem here. We need. We need help with this and inflammation. We need help with inflammation. And I was just saying, you know, you really don't know until you feel better that you were feeling crappy in the first place. You know, we accept, like, it's kind of. I hate to use this analogy, but, you know, the. The frog and the pot. I love frogs. So, you know, it is a crappy analogy. But, you know, getting people used to something a little at a time, and we don't really recognize that it's happening. We don't know that We've been, you know, I would say, not feeling well for a long time until we start feeling well, right? We've been desensitized to feeling like crap. And once we feel better, we're like, oh, my God, I cannot believe how great I feel. I thought I was fine, but I'm not. I feel fantastic. And that can happen to all of us, including our pets. You know, it definitely can happen. I am in something right now called what I call Rita. Renewal.

Okay.

Renewal. I'm 53 years old. You know, I went and got this monumental super large blood test that tests. It's like 90 some different blood tests, and they have to take a buttload of blood from you, and it tells you your biological Age and it tells you all these things, you know, how your vitamins and minerals are doing and your heart and your immune system and your thyroid and, you know, it does a full panel, thyroid and blah, blah, blah. Got referred to that test from a friend. And the test has really helped me understand some things that I need to take care of in my life. And it's part of reta renewal. I wore a glucose monitor for a little while. That was a wake up call. I eat way too much fruit and I need to balance my plate to regulate my blood sugar. My blood sugar isn't like, you know, diabetes or anything like that. But blood sugar's so important in feeling well, in feeling healthy and energetic. And so I wanted to know what my diet was doing to my blood sugar. And so that was an eye opener. And then I got this test, and then I got tested. My white blood cells tested for food reactions for inflammation. So now I'm in the middle of avoiding different foods for a period of a few months to get them to be not sensitive in my body.

Okay.

Bringing down inflammation is very important in.

My life right now. I think it is important for all of us, including our animals. And learning what causes inflammation as we are individuals too, I think is also important. And after I get done recording this lovely little podcast, I am on my way, way to lift weights at the gym, to keep bone mass as I age. I'm not 55 yet, but I am really looking forward to the second half of my life. I it's happening right now as we speak. I'm loving it, but I want to, you know, someone asked me, who do you want your 75, 80 year old person to be? And I want to be a 75, 80 year old person that can climb the side of a hill. I want to be a 75, 80 year old person that can walk down the road with no problem. I don't want to be trapped in my body for as long as possible. You know, I look at my relatives and I can see the future that is in my family. And I don't want to be my genetics. I don't want to be my, my medical history. I need to make changes in order for that to happen. And in order for that to happen, we have to be informed. So I think that learning and having intention and what we're putting into our bodies, be it supplements, herbs, homeopathy, you know, anything that you put into your body, is it resonating with you? Is it helping you? Are you giving it too long, too short? You know, having intention. And that involves putting a little, you know, brain capacity behind some of these choices, taking the time to breathe, to inform ourselves. And this is the same with dogs. This is the same with our pets. You know, are we causing inflammation or.

Are we.

Controlling and decreasing inflammation? And over supplementation, in my opinion, does not decrease inflammation. We need to be more intentional about our supplementation. You know, we need to know what.

We'Re giving and why.

We just don't want to keep throwing things at the wall and hoping something will stick because that will, you know, that's at a detriment to our dog. And there's tons of great information out there. We just have to answer the question, is that good for my dog? Is my dog a good candidate for that? And then we need to try out these supplements one at a time to see if our dog reacts well to it, if it increases vitality. And it's all about increasing vitality. It's all about bringing gentle detoxification to the body so that our dogs can handle our current world gift that keeps on giving our pollution levels, our toxicity levels, both emotional toxicity and physical toxicity, environmental toxicity, because that's what we're dealing with right now. So, you know, we want our dogs bodies to be prepared for these types of things and be able to process these types of things and to live long lives. You know, I, as I've said before in the podcast, you know, my dogs.

Need to live until they're 40, 45 years old.

There's really no other option. I digress.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals. If you enjoy 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 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 potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.