Tea Time with Pup + Infusions | 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.

Welcome to another edition of our short podcast. We are going to talk today about making infusions for your dog. And. And making infusions for your dog is such a wonderful thing to do. While we're transitioning from fall to winter and throughout the winter months. You can do it in spring and summer, fall all year round if you want. But in the wintertime, I find sharing a cup of tea with my dog is a fabulous way to not only bond with them, but to nourish their body. So we're gonna talk about that for first, I want to thank my sponsor, Earthbuddy. And before I forget, they have given us the most generous coupon. I talk about it every week while they're our sponsor, herbal buddy20. All lowercase herbal buddy20. It's going to give you 20% off their entire website. Their website is earth buddypet earthbodypet.com and one of the products that I'd like to recommend for this short is a product called Max Life Glutathione capsules. So I love this. I've been using with my dog Lola. It is a combination of glutathione complex, liposomal, so it's more bioavailable. L glutamine, L glycine, alpha lipoic acid, and then it has vitamin D, zinc, quercetin, and they're all natural forms and bioavailable, which I absolutely love. So that's really gonna help support immune function and allergies. And then they've mixed lovely, lovely elderberry extract into this remedy along with full spectrum hemp. So, you know, you get all of the constituents and different types of deliveries inside the hemp, like cbd, cbda, cbg. And I mean, you really want that full range of compounds. And what I love about Sean's products is that they're a small company. They're grown in Longmont, Colorado, under the sun, which we all love. So check it out. Max Life. That is from Earth Buddy. Wonderful supplement in the wintertime. So also in the wintertime, infusions, right, Infusions. If you don't know what an infusion is, it's pretty simple. Okay. An infusion is a hot water or cold water extraction. It's a really beautiful way to drink the medicine of a plant and kind of exchange with that plant, the vibrational energy, the energy from the part of the plant. So the nut, the seeds, the berries, the, I would say the leaves, the flowers, depending on the plant. And infusions can be either what is technically called an infusion or what is called a decoction. And I'll talk about both of those. So infusions really bring out the nourishment of a plant and it can extract, like low levels of alkaloids. So most infusions are very safe. Bitters of the plant, glucosides, flavonoids, polysaccharides, tannins, vitamins, minerals, saponins, and some of those nice volatile oils. But it's all in a very low dose experience. And that's what I love about it. You know, that is definitely one of the things I love about infusions, for sure. So let's talk about how to like make an infusion. Okay. And a lot of people call infusions teas are or tisanes. But definitely an infusion is a tisane. But, you know, depending on their herbalist, they may not use the word tea. Teas usually steep for just a few minutes. And, you know, a lot of teas are in a tea bag. And so like in herbalism world, infusion is the correct kind of bit of rhetoric to use for talking about hot water extractions of plants. So when you make an infusion, you are usually going to extract it for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the herb. Okay. Depending on the herb. And I love infusions of BlackBerry leaf. I love dandelion leaf. I love. My newest jam is hawthorn leaf and flower. Really love that in summer. And I also like it in winter. You can infuse parsley, nettles, I mean, corn silk. We do cold infusions for herbs like cleavers, but you can also infuse chickweed and, well, you can do green tea, right? You can use that for the outside and inside of your dog. It's excellent for the coat and skin for itching, but also very high in antioxidants. You want to use decaf green tea if you're giving it to your dog. Green tea tends to be warming, you know, slightly warming. So just be on the lookout. If you have a very hot dog, you can infuse plantain and marshmallow root, yarrow. These are all lovely infusions. Some of those are cold infusions, like again, cleavers and marshmallow root. Also works nice nicely as a cold infusion. I have used it as a hot Infusion. But if you really want the thick mucilage out of marshmallow root, what we do is we cold water infuse it. So let's talk about, let's just talk about cold water infusions first. So cold water infusions are really suitable for those plants that have mucilage. Again, cleavers, marshmallow root, lemon balm, peppermint rose, St. John's wort, slippery elm. Now, cleavers is the one plant in that list that really is sensitive to heat. So you want to always do a cold water infusion. But the rest of them can be used in hot water. But they do make suitable cold water infusions. And the standard herbal infusion, which is more like a folk infusion, which I use most of the time, is 2 tablespoons of fresh herb per 8 ounces of water. Okay. For most leaves or flowers. And then the 2 tablespoons of dried herb can go into 12 ounces of water and almost boiling water, not boiling, but almost boiling. And then what you do is you cover it and you let it steep for the allotted amount of time. I can tell you if you're making infusion of catnip, do not let it steep for over three minutes because it is nasty. Nasty. It tastes terrible. Highly effective, but tastes terrible. And also this is a short, so I can't go into everything. But sometimes infusions can change the way that herbs kind of present themselves. Like skull cap as a tincture is very good for the nervous system. As a infusion, it's much more like a sedative. Okay. So you want to like, know your plant. Most plants are just fine, pretty cut and dry. But there are some that do change when you do an infusion. So most infusions you're going to give twice daily over food. And I like to feed in a bowl and put about a size appropriate bowl for their head and put about a quarter inch on top of the food. You can also mix it into bone broths if you want to get technical. Like extra small dog, like a chihuahua, eighth of a cup small dog, quarter cup, medium dog, like a spaniel, half a cup large dog, three quarter to one cup, like golden retriever, an extra large dog, one and a half to two cups. And you just want to, you know, you want to get to know the herb you're infusing, learn about it. But basically you're going to crumble up the herb in a food processor. Or you can use just full plant herbs, put the herbs in a mason jar, heat 8 ounces of almost hot water and pour it into the jar and then stir with a stainless steel spoon. I like a wooden stick myself. And then put a small sheet of natural wax paper over the top to protect your infusion from like BPA that's on the inner sealing disc of most like ball jars. And then just seal the lid, let it steep for about 20 minutes or more, again depending on the herb. Strain it. And again, quarter inch of infusion over your dog size appropriate bowl. That's what I do. And then I did mention a decoction, right? A decoction. A decoction is barks, berries, roots, seeds. These are all good for decoctions. And decoctions is you're going to lightly simmer these plant parts over the stove for about 20 to 30 minutes. Okay. And the cool thing about a decoction is most of the time you can do it twice. And same ratios for the infusion and concoctions can be a lot stronger than infusions. But you want to chop up your herbal like the herbal ingredients so that you can expose as much of their surface area as possible. And then you're going to simmer, you're going to let it cool. I always let it cool with top on and then strain it and use it. And you can also dilute it if it's too strong. Okay. You can dilute it if it's too strong. Okay. So that is an infusion or decoction. And again, some really great ones going into winter is nettles, parsley. I love nettles. And parsley for dogs. Parsley's a little warming, so more for cool dogs. You know, you can do hawthorn leaf and flower. It's nice and calming. You can do rose. There's so much lemon balm, skull cap, especially for dogs that have a hard time calming down in the evening. And you can also use it for yourself, right? And you can use, you can do hot water extracted mushroom powders as tea as well. So use your imagination. If you have any questions, write into the podcast and I will definitely try to answer them.

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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 product.