Solomon's Seal + Listener Questions | Mini Episode

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 another short. I'm here. You know, I'm only 5 2, so I'm a short all the time. But this is one of our short episodes. Anyways, I want to thank my sponsor of these shorts, which is Real Dog Box. Love Real Dog Box. We talked about meatballs in the last episode. I just want to talk about the convenience of Real Dog Box. You can start at, like, I think, $10 to $15 a month and get, like, different types of treats that you can try for your dog. And they're like, real treats. They're not full of grain and wheat and byproducts. They are awesome. And there's a lot to choose from and there's lots of variety. And you can be part of this thing called the Secret Shop. You can join the Secret Shop and you can have access to these things before they go out to the public. I believe. I believe that's how it works. I have a couple friends that are members of the Secret Shop and go crazy for it. So Real Dog Box, an awesome, real company. You can find them at Real Dog. On this short, we are talking about Solomon's Seal. But first, I do want to answer an email question that was brought to my attention about flower essences. And if you can mix them. So the answer is yes, you can. So if you are trying to mix a flower essence, I would say you could look at the flower essence that you're working that you want to work with the most of. And, like, if you were doing two, you could do 75% that 1 and 25% the other, or you could mix them in equal amounts. I would try to mix, like, three or six together, or you could do two together. That's perfectly fine. And that's from Julie. I hope that answers your question. Yes, yes, yes. You can mix them together. Okay, so we are going to talk about Solomon's seal today. Solomon's seal. Latin word is polygon. Polygonum is kind of how I pronounce it. P O, L, Y, G O, N, A, T, U, M. And there's many different ones that you can use. Solomon's Seal. It's cool. It's moist. Why I want to bring this up is because it's really good for spring and supporting tendons and ligaments. It can help dogs keep from tearing their cruciate. It's anti, anti inflammatory. It helps the heart in general. It adds moisture. So definitely for dogs that have dryness and it's a tonic. It has a lot of like amino acids and polysaccharides. I really love it. It's safe for kitties. The flower essence, since I was just talking about flower essence, is good for aggression. It's good for like in house fighting and kind of dogs that are inflexible. As far as what you can use it for, we can go. These are what I call cofactors. Dry coughs, definitely as I dry joints, leaky gut. It's good for. It's definitely good for leaky gut. Dried out anal glands. When the anal glands are too dry and they can get impacted, anal glands can get impacted from dryness, but they can also get impacted from too much damp too. So it's good for diarrhea, blood in the urine, urinary tract infections, stagnant lymphatic glands. Definitely good for CCL tears, arthritis, tight ligaments and tendons and creaky joints. It's good for dogs that have heart weakness. So you kind of look at like these different things that I'm saying and if your dog is checking off a lot of boxes, this might be a good remedy for your dog or for yourself. You never know. Musculoskeletal weakness in humans it can be good for. It can help with fatty liver, liver weakness. It can help with like tennis elbow or carpal tunnel, repetitive stress injuries, disc conditions in the spine, calcifications, bone spurs. I already mentioned it's an anti inflammatory. So inflammation, musculoskeletal inflammation, high blood pressure, lung inflammation, gastrointestinal inflammation. So it's a really good remedy for lots of types of inflammations. And the lungs, the heart, the liver, the joints, the musculoskeletal system obviously has a little effect on the kidneys. It's definitely a lubricant. Okay. For your dog's musculoskeletal system. It helps lubricate joints, right? Ligaments, tendons. I see it a lot in formulas. I use it a lot in formulas. It can be used as a decoction. That's where you're simmering roots on the stove. You definitely can do that if you want to. Or I use it as a tincture. I like to use it leading up to winter and then get coming from winter to spring and through spring. Some people use it in winter and that's fine to keep the joints lubricated it definitely adds some flexibility and keeps things moist and pliable. You can use a tincture, you could use a glycerate, you could use a decoction. So the tincture dosage, just to start out, for extra small dog, you know, we're talking about a Chihuahua, like dog, something tiny, 1 to 3 drops small dog, like a 15 pound pug, 2 to 5 drops medium dog looking like a corgi or a spaniel, 4 to 8 drops large dog, 6 to 12 drops. An extra large dog, 10 to 16 drops. And you wanna give that two times a day. If it's a major situation, you can do three times a day decoction. You get the liquid from that, you can look up. I don't have time to tell you how to do a decoction, but you can look it up. Mountain Rose herbs. Check that out. There's a great video on how to make a decoction. Quarter teaspoon for extra small, small, half a teaspoon medium, 1 to 2 teaspoons large, 1 to 2 tablespoons extra large dog, 3 to 6 tablespoons, depending how big they are. I wouldn't give it with digitalis. It interacts with that pharmaceutical and you want to avoid high dosages unless you're using it acutely. Only use the root of Solomon's seal because the rest is poisonous except for the flower essence. And it can cause nausea and vomiting if you're giving too much or if it's not well indicated or your dog's not doing well with it. Remember, give herbs at least three days to their body for your dog's body to get used to it. But if they had like a little vomiting like on day five and six, then I probably reduce the dosage or just discontinue the remedy until you can get sorted and find a different remedy for that. There's lots of different remedies for musculoskeletal conditions. I happen to love Solomon's seal. I think it works really well. I've got one more question for the podcast. Ryla or Rila or Riya. I'm not sure how to pronounce your name. I apologize for that. But she writes in, says, I love your podcast. Thank you. I so much appreciate that she likes the theme song I use. She says it makes her happy every time she hears it. It makes me happy every time I hear it. I love it. So I was thinking that a podcast on dryness and dampness, like excess and deficiency, would be very interesting. Okay. I've done dryness already and I will do dampness. Let's do that next time on our short. Okay, I can do dampness in a short. I'll do dampness. But check that podcast out about dryness cause I've already done it. It's labeled dryness. She also said that a podcast on Plantain would do. I think I've done that so check that one out. Thanks for writing into the podcast and if you guys have any questions you can visit my podcast contact form@canineherbalist.com also while you're there, check out my store and my courses are on canineherbalism.com again thanks to my sponsor. This wouldn't be possible without them. Real Dog Box. Check them out. They are awesome. Real dog. Okay, you guys take care and I'll see you on the next short.

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 so much for listening to this episode. Thank you 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 herbs 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 production.