Plechner’s Part Two: Herbs, Hormones, + Healing Plans

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, everyone. We are coming from Williamsburg, Virginia, right now in the damp heat. So I'm a little damp, and this damp heat is awful. But I have noticed that I've gotten a lot better over last year, so I'm making strides over here. So for all of you that are damp or your dogs are damp, just keep at it, keep at it. Drying up the damp, drying up the damp, and things will get better. Oh, one thing I did want to mention about damp, make sure that you get yourself or your dog's mold level checked, because mold can have a big, like a big foundational cause of damp. So you want to rule that out. Just, you know, something off cuff in my head. So I'm at. I was just at the More, you know, by the nautical dog conference. It was brilliant to just brilliant. Susan Thixton. We owe her so much gratitude and she's a delight. And what an amazing advocate for pet health and pet food and fighting the fda. She's unbelievable. So, you know, I got to meet her again. I met her at Dr. Judy Morgan's event, but I got to meet her again and a little more time. I got to spend a little more time with her and wow, Just unbelievable. Unbelievable. Amy Ren's talk from Goodness Gracious, they are a sponsor of the book tour. Love them. Love. Goodness Gracious. And Amy Renz talk was mind blowing. She knows so much about metabolic health, and I just absolutely love listening to her speak. Katie Kangas spoke. Wonderful, Great talk. Absolutely great talk about, you know, when you should go to the vet, when you should add western medicine, and when you can stick to more holistic methods. That was just such a needed talk, right? A needed talk. And then we had Dr. Connor Brady and he closed out the shenanigans there at the conference with a talk on fiber. So. And really accentuated that, you know, animal fiber isn't really talked about and can be used for our dog's health needs. So this was great. I was really, really happy with everything. It was awesome. So we're here outside of Williamsburg, going to take off today on my way to Saint. No, not Saint, but John's Island, Johns Island, South Carolina, at the Trinity Veterinary Clinic. You can check out my book tour events and get tickets. And I believe this is a free event. Theherbaldog.com check under tour dates. All right, so a big thanks goes out to Real Mushrooms, a sponsor of this podcast. Let's not forget who sponsors the podcast. Guys, please give them some loving either through my store, through their store, through any other store that carries their products. I'm going to be doing a little video for their anniversary and show them some love. And I just can't say, you know, I just can't say enough about how much I love them. They have been an advocate for me, supported me for so long and I use their products when I had cancer. Very. They helped me so much through cancer. And it was definitely evident when I was off them and when I was back on them then. Green Juju, thank you, Green juju for sponsoring the tour. Real Mushroom sponsors the tour. Thank you for being my advocate again for supporting me throughout this journey. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Billy and Kelly from Green juju were doing Coffee Talk the next morning after the more conference and learned a lot more about their new probiotics, leaves, soil and farm. And what I love about all three of them is that I think they're pretty energetically neutral. So any dog can try them. Even dogs that have issues with dairy. Dairy is more on the damp side. So I am actually going to try them myself. So I will give you feedback on my experience with all three and. But I'm loving that a dog who is damp can get the same cultures from raw milk without drinking raw milk. Right. And that is the farm probiotic. And then there's the soil which is a soil based probiotic. And I'm excited to try that one. That one's very good for allergies and chewing feet and things like that. And then there's leaf which is going to be good for yeast infections and any anywhere where you need beneficial yeast and getting the cultures of kombucha. So just innovative. Can't thank them enough. Awesome. Okay, we are going to talk about Pleckner's. We talked about like the conventional kind of really quick overview of Pleckner's last the last time we met last week. And we're going to talk about remedies for Pleck Nurse this week. What do you think? I think it's good. Now remember, when we talk about remedies, don't be going giving your dog every remedy that I'm talking about. We don't do that here on the podcast. We don't kitchen sink.

Okay.

We look at each remedy as an individual. Most of these remedies I cover in the Herbal dog. So pick up my book. And some of them I don't, so I will go through them. So let's hit it. So the first one, that is a good, you know, remember plecturis is all about the adrenal glands and cortisol and estrogen.

Okay.

So endocrine support. And we know that we spay and neuter our dogs, right? And that completely messes up their endocrine system. I've had a hysterectomy, so I know all about this. It's not a walk in the park. So the first one I want to talk about is licorice root.

Okay.

Licorice root is an adaptogen. It's an adrenal tonic and it helps with excess cortisol that's, you know, that's been kind of run amok, that's been allowed to just tear through the body. Right. We want to make sure that, you know, we don't want to use the glycerides like where the, the, the active constituent is taken out of the licorice root. So we want to use normal licorice root for this. And we just want to make sure that you don't use it on a dog that has hypertension, that has heart problems.

Okay.

And it's not for long term use. I would, I would cycle this. So I would do probably five days on, two days off, and then after three months, I would take a month off. Licorice root is neutral, so you can give that a try. And like I said in my book, I have cofactors for licorice root. I would look at those and see if they're a match to your dog Ashwagandha.

Okay?

Ashwagandha is an adaptogen and it supports the hypothalamus pituitary access, which helps reduce cortisol and it also balances thyroid function. So when I think about Ashwagandha, I would say that it helps balance cortisol, not necessarily reduce it. I mean, it does reduce like that. It. Okay. It reduces the damages that cortisol causes in the body because it helps the body deal with stress better. Okay, that's very. It's warming.

Okay?

Remember, it's warming. So if you have a warm dog that you think has pleckers or even symptoms of plep. Nurse, remember, let's not put everything in a box. Ashwagandha might be a good place to start. And then for a warm dog, rhodiola. Now I use the phytoembryonic for this because rhodiola is endangered. And the phytoembryonic does not endanger the plant. And I find that it works very, very well. Rhodiola is an adaptogen. It supports that resiliency in the body. It helps with mitochondrial function, it helps preserve good mitochondrial function. And it's stimulating, but it helps with stagnancy.

Okay.

So stimulating in the fact that it's going to get things going in the body but not build cortisol.

Okay, that's rhodiola.

And then we have holy basil. And holy basil is an amazing herb. It's an anti cancer herb, it's an anti stress herb. It calms the body down. It's warming. It definitely helps modulate that stress induced immune response. Right. That suppression. And it works on the HPA axis as well. The hypothalamus pituitary access, it helps balance that out. All right, and then we have from our. From our eastern medicine friends, Romania.

Okay.

This is a classic traditional Chinese medicine herb. And it helps with adrenal support. It's when you have too much yang. Right. And I don't like to use these terms on the pod because I find them confusing for most people in this society. But, you know, yin energy goes in, yang energy goes out. It's big, it's heating. Right. Yin is cooling. It goes inward. And so when you have too much big energy, too much burning out of energy.

Okay.

Autoimmune disorders, inflammation. So rehmania is good for adrenal support in that situation. Okay, so then we have some mushrooms and we have other things that we're gonna talk about too. So don't think that I'm just, you know, it's gonna be done. This is one of our longer episodes, so. But those are some really great herbs.

Okay.

And then we have some mushrooms. Reishi, cordyceps, turkey tail, Reishi warming. Cordyceps hot. Turkey tail neutral.

Okay.

So if you're unsure about your dog's energetics, pick up a copy of my book, the Herbal Dog and use turkey tail.

Okay.

It balances the terrain. It's anti tumor. It helps support the microbiome, and it helps restore the immune system. Reishi. It modulates the immune system. It's antihistamine. It helps detoxify the liver. It works on the hypothalamus, pituitary access. And it's really good when your dog has inflammation and not a not so good immune system. All right, Cordyceps. If someone tells you they're selling you cordyceps sinensis, they're not.

Okay.

They have to go and get that from a caterpillar.

Okay?

They're not doing that. They're selling you the militarism.

Okay?

So I get my cordyceps from real mushrooms. And cordyceps can help support the adrenal function of your dog. It helps enhance oxygen within your dog and reduces the fatigue.

Okay?

That can come with adrenal depletion. And it's for adrenal burnout, it's for low energy, it's for lethargy. It's extremely stimulating, right? It's extremely stimulating and it also has a good effect on the kidney. All right, so let's talk about a few supplements, okay? A few supplements, B complex. And we want it methylated, okay? We don't want any folic acid in our B complex. We want folinic acid or folate. And this is really an essential adrenal and thyroid remedy, okay? Helps with detoxification. We got, you know, B5, B6, B12, and that's critical for a healthy hypothalamus, pituitary access kind of pathways. So be complex and you can get your dog tested. I like parsley. Pet myself. You can get your dog tested for vitamin depletion, heavy metals. I highly suggest you do that if you think your dog has Pleckner's glandulars. Adrenal glandular, thyroid glandular. These are things that can help. Make sure you do a five panel thyroid test before you start giving your dog thyroid glandular. But adrenal glandular is good. Don't overdo it here, okay? If your dog's hormone levels are suppressed, glandulars are a good idea. Omega 3 fatty acids just can't over accentuate. Omega 3 fatty acids. They're anti inflammatory, they support the immune system. They are excellent for the brain. They help the hypothalamus, pituitary axis, they help mitochondria, they help cell replication. The body needs them. They're essential, okay? They're essential. That means that your dog absolutely needs them for health. Omega 3 fatty acids. And then we have, speaking of acids, we have humic and fulvic acid, right? So humic and fulvic acid come from the earth. And humic and fulvic acid help balance the train in your dog's body. And this helps with detoxification, mineral absorption, immune kind of dysregulation and mitochondrial function. And like how cells signal each other in the body. And this is a bioavailable form. And I love using, using humic and fulvic acid. Let's just talk a Little bit more about, like, fulvic acid and humic.

Okay.

Just gonna go through them a little bit. So fulvic acid, and you want them to have both fulvic and humic. And now fulvic acid has humic acid in it, but humic acid does not have fulvic acid. And that hurts your brain, but that's don't kill the messenger. So fulvic acid helps, like, penetrate cell membranes.

Okay.

And it acts as a carrier for nutrients and trace minerals and antioxidants and gets it into the cell.

Okay.

And it also removes toxins. And one thing it does is it supports mitochondria. And we need to do that. Those are the little cells, like the little fires inside the cells that keep them going. And in Plectnir's we get endocrine dysfunction. Right? Fulvic acid helps with endocrine dysfunction, so it improves nutrient absorption, it reduces inflammation, and it detoxifies the cell. Right. And that means it helps get rid of pesticides, glyphosate, heavy metals, and hormone disrupting chemicals. That is very important when it comes to Plecknors. And it's good when you need good, healthy estrogen metabolism.

Okay.

Or when your dog's liver is sluggish. So we really want that. And humic acid is a larger molecule than fulvic acid, and it works in the gastrointestinal tract. It acts as a binder, a detoxifier, and it modulates the immune system. I will have a special episode of the POD for these acids and get more into them. But humic, it binds with toxins in the gut. It supports integrity in the gut lining. It helps modulate the immune system. And speaking of the gut, like, it supports a healthy microbiome, okay. Because it makes the microbiome less hospitable for pathogens, okay. Like, you know, E. Coli, Salmonella, clostridium. We don't like clostridium. Someone remind me. I have to do a podcast on clostridium and how to get rid of it in case something ever happens. One of the ways to get rid of clostridium, which has science behind it, is that FMT.

Okay.

FMT. I learned that from Dr. Connor Brady this past weekend. I was like, oh, that's awesome, Connor. Thank you, Mr. Brady. So humic and fulvic together.

Okay.

Humic and fulva together. Now, I went through some of the reasons why they are important for pleknurs.

Okay.

But in general, they're good for dogs with low cortisol suppressed adrenal. Output, you know, like high circulating estrogen and thyroid disruption.

Okay?

Immune function, inflammation, leaky gut. The humic and fulvic acid address a lot of this. Now, you need to start out low and slow, okay? Low and slow. And because we want to make sure that you don't get a horrible response and not be able to use it, you want to just give a little and work your way up to dosage. All right? I like beam minerals. B, E, A, M, beam minerals. So remember, with Plechner's, you know, you have low cortisol or like completely dysfunctional cortisol. High cortisol is not good either. Remember that. And usually this low cortisol, in my opinion, is caused by, you know, un. Well, when cortisol is not on a leash, you know, it just gets completely unruly and unmanaged and then you end up ruining the adrenals for a while and get really low cortisol. And then estradiol, which is a form of estrogen, is pretty high and unregulated.

Okay?

And it doesn't matter if a dog is spayed or neutered, the body compensates and can produce high levels of estrogen. So and all of that, like, coming together, that interrupts thyroid conversion. It messes with your dog's immune system and immune surveillance, like looking for things that don't belong and overall detoxification. So, yep. So we want to use these strategies to help your dog. And definitely humic and folvic acid is one of those things. Now, I went over some regular herbs, I went over some supplements, and one of the things that I love to use that I do have, I believe I do have episodes of. If you just search, it is phytoembryonic therapy. This is plant stem cell therapy. Okay. I find it very useful with dogs that seemingly have Pleckner's in dogs with so many things I could go on for, like, I don't know, a year. But one of the remedies that I use for Pleckner dogs is Judas Tree cersus sequestrum. You can use it for dogs with autoimmune disease. You can use it long term. The one thing that you don't want to use it for is retinopathy. If your dog has retinopathy, don't use it. And don't use it for dogs that are on hypothyroid medicine.

Okay?

Just bypass this one and use something else. Not safe for pregnant dogs.

Okay.

Judas Tree. I carry it in my store under phytoembryonics. But very good. I definitely would do one drop per. I would say every ten pounds. One drop for ten pounds, twice a day. Olive leaf, olive leaf. Olive leaf has a stem cell component.

Okay.

It's made from the buds and olive is good for autoimmune disease. You can use it long term. The only caution I have is that it can cause nausea. Now I haven't seen the phytoembryonic cause nausea, but I like to tell people that. So if your dog were to get nauseous by using olive of the phytoembryonic of olive, then just give it with a little bit of food. But usually, I mean, I've never seen it. Same dosage, one drop per £10. This is pretty neutral to warming. I really love this remedy. And you can mix it with Judas tree. It doesn't interfere with any of the remedies that I've talked about. And then we have God. This is a plant that really is in my heart. I used it for three years after I had cancer. It's an aromatase inhibitor and it's oriental plane tree, Plantanus orientalis. And it is neutral to cooling. They use the buds to make it and it has an affinity towards the endocrine and the reproductive system. And it's good for autoimmune disease and it's good for long term use. The only thing that I want to say is that, you know, it's anti estrogen.

Okay.

So if the estrogen is high, you might want to use this remedy. If your dog has too many xenoestrogens, which are like that come from plastics, right. That bind to the receptors and not letting good estrogen bind to the receptors. This is the, this is a good remedy. And it's also good for, it's an environmental remedy. It's good for high cadmium, it high chromium, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, lead, mercury, PCBs, dioxins, again pseudoestrogens and organochlorines and well, you can call it pseudoestrogens but also xenoestrogens. So it's a good environmental remedy. So if you think your dog has plecktners and you get them tested with parsley, pet or another heavy metal vitamin testing center or test in general, and your dog comes back high in these things, then this is a good remedy for you. Right? Same dosage, I would say one drop per 10 pounds. Sometimes if it's 10 pounds, your dog's 10 pounds, you can give two drops. But it depends. But if your dog's under 10 pounds. Don't give more than one drop to start. St. John's Wort, the phytoembryonic therapy of St. John's Wort can't be used with pharmaceuticals. So if your dog is on pharmaceuticals, don't use this remedy. But it has neutral to warming energetics. For this remedy, they use the buds of the flowers. It can be used for autoimmune disease, it can be used long term. Don't use it with antidepressants or low blood platelets. Again, no pharmaceuticals. I would say that if your dog gets lip smacking or diarrhea or nausea or has a sensitivity sunlight discontinue, I haven't seen these things with the phytoembryonic, but just letting you know, okay, it's a just a really low risk of side effects with the phytoembryonic. Again, none of these remedies that I'm talking about are good for pregnant dogs. So just don't use them. This one is not good for cats either. But you know, this is good for dogs with brain issues, inflammation, joint pain, leaky gut, neurological damage and like shock, stiffness, swelling of joints and stress. Same dosage as the other for this. And then one that I really love, and this is, you know, an Addison's disease remedy is black currant phytoembryonic therapy. The only caution there is, don't use it for dogs that have had seizures. It's quite stimulating, it's warming and it's phenomenal at raising cortisol.

Okay.

At raising cortisol and balancing out cortisol levels at building back the adrenals and building back cortisol production. So black currant and if your dog is more warm, you can cool that down. You know, you can cool it down. And olive is more cooling. I'm sorry, Oriental plane is more cooling. You could use that or any of our cooling remedies like rhodiola phytoembryonic therapy. You could mix it with that to cool that down a little bit. Lion's mane will cool it down. Tremella mushroom will cool it down. Any of our cooling plant friends that I've discussed will cool it down. So those are some remedies that you can use for dogs with pleckners. What I would do is I would probably choose three and work with those. Like choose a mushroom, choose a regular plant tincture or dried plant in the dried plant goes in the food. And I would, you know, make sure you've got your supplements and your nutritional testing and then and your, your heavy metal testing and then choose phytoembryonic therapy. There. That's a good plan, right? Good plan. And most of the phytoembryonic therapies do have a, do have an effect on lymphatic function, so keep that in mind. But you can also add something for lymphatics. Calendula for cool dogs and cleavers for warm dogs. I cover lymphatics in on the pod too, if you want to listen to that. And you know, these are some strategies that we can use to help dogs with a Pleckner's profile.

Okay.

And you want to look at the diet too.

Okay.

Feed an energetically appropriate diet. I cover that in my book and I cover that on the pod here. Energetically appropriate diet, because if your dog has symptoms of Pleckner's, they're not healthy and we want to make sure that they're not sensitive to anything in their food and that their food is working for them. So energetically appropriate diet. I would give digestive enzymes with dogs with a Pleckner's profile. Again, humic and fulvic acid for sure. Leafy greens, the green juju freeze dried greens are great. Nettles are wonderful for dogs with a plector's profile. They're in those leafy greens. And just kind of breathe and take it easy. And remember, not every day is health day, okay? Not every day is health day. Enjoy the dog in front of you. Don't spend every day trying to fix them. Breathe. Spend time in nature. Get your feet on the ground. Bare feet on the ground. Bare paws on the ground. Do some grounding to get rid of all that electromagnetic frequency stored up energy in the body. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals.

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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 come 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 or other possible complications before using any product.