Supporting Spay + Neuter | Short

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, I hope you're having a good week. This is Rita Hogan, and I just want to talk about today, what I promise last time, which is talking about how you support spay and neuter. Okay? So we're going to run through this and then for those of you that know about my webinars, I'm going to be doing a webinar on spay and neuter and going through everything in detail. But here is the sneaky rundown. Okay, the sneaky rundown. Before we get into it, want to thank my sponsor, Goodness Gracious. And I promised you guys a little update on Figgy Nub. Figgy Nubbins is my little pug. And I've been keeping you up to date on her progress with Goodness Gracious. And she is eating the rejuve. We switch in a few green juju's in there and we've been doing some ferments as well. But for her base food, she's been eating reju. And I helped formulate this one. I added in the dandelion greens and the bilberry and the dried oyster mushroom, calendula and plantain leaf. And I like this one because it's balanced. It's energetically pretty balanced between warm and cool. I love this diet because it is packed with antioxidants and anti inflammatory substances like, you know, the oyster mushrooms and the sprouts and the plants. And it's a high protein diet. Okay. So it helps heal leaky gut. And she definitely got leaky gut from getting her eye taken out, the stress that was put on her gut. So she's very, very much able to digest this food because it is gently cooked and I give her enzymes and raw goat's milk. But it's been a game changer for us. Vicki's £12, and she definitely had disturbances in the gut, which you could see on her skin and her nervous system. And that has all calmed down. And so I'm loving this diet and I just wanted to keep you up to date. Up to date. So check them out. Goodnessgracioustreats.com so let's get through the endocrine system. All right. Last time we talked about things that we forget we do to our dog. And I'm going to be talking about that in Nauseam this year because I feel that it's important. So let's talk about. What do you do when your dog is spayed and neutered? So first thing, we need to support the endocrine system and the adrenal glands. When dogs are spayed and neutered, their endocrine, which is their hormonal system, it gets completely jacked because we remove 25% of their endocrine system, and that's removal of the ovaries and the testes. And that disrupts hormone production. It messes with estrogen and progesterone, testosterone. It also interacts with the nervous system. So the nervous system is looking for things that are no longer there. So we need to support the nervous system, and we're gonna basically talk about the endocrine system today, but we also need to support the nervous system. If you haven't gotten a copy of my book, the Herbal Dog, get it wherever you buy books or go to my website, Canine Herbalist, and you can buy it there. You can also buy a signed copy if you want. But supporting the endocrine system post surgery really helps balance hormones. And I'm speaking to everyone in this department. And it does not matter how long your dog is spayed or neuter. We want to. It's been a while. If it's been a while, we want to do it once a week, every month. Or if they just got spayed or neutered, we want to do it for about three to six months. Pretty heavy. Because, like, spay and neuter can lead to cancer. It can lead to weight gain, which also can lead to cancer and poor organ health, adrenal stress, adrenal imbalance and thyroid imbalance. And the thyroid and the adrenals, I mean, they control everything. So it's all about hormones in the body. So one, we wanna support the adrenal glands. Okay? The adrenal glands are gonna take on some of that function after spay and neuter. And I love ovary sparing spays, and I love all the things that we're looking at to deal with some of this compromise. I love that. But just to give you stuff that you can do. So we can look at adaptogens like ashwagandha, the rhodiola, phytoembryonic therapy. Holy basil. So ashwagandha is warming. So is holy basil. Or basil. However you want. A tomato, tomato it. Rhodiola is cooling. And then we can also use things like nettle bud. And then I have a whole list of adaptogens in my book the Herbal Dog, you can check that out too so that you understand them. But they help regulate cortisol and the stress response. And getting spayed and neutered is super stressful. You can use glandular supplements, right? You can use the ovary, the teste. You can deal with different types of adrenal tissue and thyroid tissue can provide a lot of support for the glandular system in which you are removing. So glandular supports are a big part of this. And then dglycerides, deglyceride, licorice, you wanna use the DGL licorice root, but it can help regulate adrenal function as well. That's number one. Now number two, you want to optimize the thyroid. So the adjuster disruption from spaying and neutering can really increase the risk of hypothyroidism. So you want to make sure your dog is getting enough trace minerals. Iodine, selenium, zinc. You know, there's lots of foods that can do this, so bladderwrack is one of them. Seaweed, kelp, a small Brazil nut. Every day like a half or a pinch if you have a super small dog. Organ meats, a green juju topper. They're made from grass fed organ meats. That is an excellent supplement for whole food. Supplement for selenium and zinc is also good. You can get that from ground pumpkin seeds. Grind them yourself. Organic pumpkin seeds are good for zinc and eggs, pastured eggs are also a good source of zinc. And in my book the herbal dog, I have under zinc in the back I have all the food sour that minimize exposure to endocrine disruptors. That's get the plastic, the bottled water, the plastic, bottled water. Feed as fresh and organic as possible. Make sure you're washing your produce and your fruits. Get as much good sourcing as you possibly can. And don't feed kibble if you can help it. And if you're feeding kibble, add as much fresh food to the bowl as possible. And then for female dogs, we want to give phytoestrogen rich foods. And these are things like freshly ground flaxseed, freshly ground flaxseed. Things like red clover. Red clover's a good phytoestrogen. It's cooling. And then there's things like angelica, angelica root, Angelica sinensis. It's a very nourishing herb for the female endocrine system. Shatavari, asparagus. It's a cooling herb. It helps with estrogen balance and supports the adrenal glands. We love Shatavari. It's like 50mg for an extra small dog. Same for the angelica. And then, you know, I would say 150 milligrams for a medium dog, 2 to 300 for a large dog, and 500 twice daily for a extra large dog. And again, you can also do diglyceride, licorice. I would say 5 to 10 milligrams per pound. I would start off at the 5 milligrams per pound. And you can do that, you know, one week a month. You can support the endocrine system with phytoestrogens. And then for boys, testosterone production, there's things like maca root, which helps with energy and mild testosterone production. It's like a quarter teaspoon for every 20 pounds of body weight. And then you have tribulus. And that helps maintain these precursors to testosterone, which are. A lot of them are destroyed when you take out the testes. So that one's about a quarter teaspoon for every 20 pounds of body weight. And then one, like I said before, we have pumpkin seeds, freshly ground pumpkin seeds. Those are really good at testosterone production because zinc is really required for that. That's a half a teaspoon per 10 pounds. Those are a few things to support testosterone. There's a lot more, which I will have in my webinar. If you're not on my email list, check that out. You can go to k9herbalism.com and in the upper right hand corner, you'll see the email sign up. Make sure you're on the email list so that I can tell you about it. And then I think that things like organ health in general, because dogs can get overweight when they get spayed and neutered and their metabolism can be affected. And their thyroid gland nettles are good for that. Dandelion root, milk thistle, decaffeinated green tea that contains this substance called egcg, which helps regulate metabolism. So decaffeinated green tea is great for puppies. Also helps protect against the avian flu, if you're into that. And then ginger, that helps improve digestion and your metabolic system. And making sure your dog is getting adequate amounts of omega 3s, these are things you can do throughout the month because organ health and liver detoxification, these are all important. So if you have a warm dog and, you know, burdock root, milk thistle, beetroot, Bam's beets, Green juju has Bam's beets. We love that. I think that if you have a cool Dog turmeric is an excellent example. You know, a quarter teaspoon with fat like coconut oil, one quarter teaspoon per like every 10 pounds of body weight would be good. Beetroot is the same thing, same, same place you can start out. We like, we like things like probiotics like raw goat's milk and raw cow's milk and you can also do different types of probiotic. Green Juju has that awesome fermented mushroom probiotic and they're coming out with three new probiotics soon. And Adored Beast has a good line of probiotics, Pet Health Nutrition center and then things like Four Leaf Rover. Those are all you can just keep rotating, rotating, rotating. I guess my final thoughts since this is a short. You really want to deal with your dog heavy afterwards and you want nutrient dense foods, you want lifestyle adjustments, lots of stress management and supporting your dog's adrenal glands, all of their thyroid system, their lymphatic system, their liver, their kidneys, lots and lots of organ health is needed, okay? And organ health is what my book the Herbal Dog is all about. So get your copy, work through it. Herbs are far reaching. Okay? Herbs are far reaching. And that is really an important thing to remember before we close up. I just wanted to go over really quickly, you know, some of those phytoestrogen for female dogs choices. You know, we have flaxseed, freshly ground flax, only freshly ground flax. I mentioned red clover, organic alfalfa, very small amounts there. The dosages are in my book. Fennel, which is warming, has some mild estrogenic properties. And then nettle also contains plant based estrogens. It's excellent for that adrenal thyroid connection. Okay, Very, very important we have Shatavari, which is asparagus rasmosis. That's an aerobatic herb. It balances estrogen, diglyceride, licorice, Angelica sinensis. That's warming too. Licoriceous, neutral Shatavari is cooling. And I just, you know, those, those are the ones I would start out with. So support and don't forget your glandular support as well. For dogs that have been spayed or neutered a while back, one week a month. And then for dogs that have been recently spayed and neutered, do hardcore for three to six months and then go down to once a month. All right. I hope this helped a little. Send in your questions and we'll talk soon.

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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 or other possible complications before using any production.