The Things We Forget We Are Doing To Our Dogs

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. Welcome back to the pod. This is Rita Hogan coming live from Berkeley, California. We are here in Berkeley. Tonight I am going to teach at the Berkeley Herbal Center. Big dream of mine as an herbalist. Not a lot to do with the dog world, but as being an herbalist, connecting with plants, using them as medicine, and a lot of the people that I admire and some of my mentors have taught there. So coming full circle. Another full circle moment. I love those full circle moments in our lives. Don't you really take time to kind of take them in because they're amazing. So today we are going to talk about the things that we have forgotten that we do to our dogs that affect their health. I was talking about this at an event on my book tour. And if you have not seeing the dates of my book tour, they are, there's ones being added every day, but, well, not every day, every week. And you can see them@theherbaldog.com under book tour.

And I do want to take a.

Moment to thank the people that are responsible for my book tour because there's no way I could do my book tour without these lovely people. One is Green Juju, which is a sponsor of this podcast. So we all love them. They just came out with three new programs, probiotic formulas. I think they'll be available next month. I'm super excited about that because we will have three more formulas in which to rotate, rotate, rotate in the world of probiotics. And what's really cool. And this is also true of their mushroom formula. Okay, listen up, because this is grand. Each new batch, you look at the batch number on their product. Each new batch has a different set of commensal or good bacteria because of the way that it's made and it interacts with its substrate. New organisms are formed. So variety, variety, variety. I love that. Another POD sponsor that's sponsoring my book tour is real mushrooms. Can't thank them enough. They are coming out with some new products. They just came out with a feline product and they've got a couple more in the pet department coming up over the next year. I'm excited about that. But deep appreciation for real mushrooms. And they are sponsoring my teaching event at the Berkeley Herbal center. So helping me make dreams come true. Then we have Fido's Bone Broth and as you know from before, from a long time ago, Fido's Bone Broth is a mother and daughter team and they are awesome and I have formulated their entire line of products. Check them out, request them at your local store. Fido's Bone Broth and then for the lovely ladies at Coco Therapy, best cocoa products on the market. Coconut oil, MCT Oil. Love love love them. Rawsome nutritional excellence and Raw Pets. Raw Pets is out of Florida and Rossum is out of Plainville, Chicago. They are people that bring you lovely very hardcore raw feeding products. Check them out. Rawsome nutritional excellent out of Plains, Plainsville, Chicago or Illinois and Raw Pets out of Tampa, Florida. Love the lovely Sonia and Angela. And then we have Goodness Gracious who sponsors this episode of the podcast. I had the privilege of being on a summit this past weekend from the lovely Dr. Linda Loudon and Amy Renz spoke at that and she is phenomenal. What an innovator in our lovely all natural community. I mean just mind blowing in so many ways. So Goodness Gracious is just really a forward thinker in the all natural dog world and the pet food world. So give them some love. Goodness gracioustreats.com and like I said before my figgy nubbins, my 12 pound little package of joy eats their Goodness gracious lightly cooked food. Then we have Dr. Ruth Roberts. She is a pioneer in the all natural dog community in that I mean she was there in the beginning right and she's still innovating, creating and training people to help our lovely pets. So thank, thank thank you Dr. Ruth Roberts. And then we have Earthbuddy. Now Earthbuddy they sponsored our podcast for a while and Sean at Earthbuddy is another innovator making awesome products that are cannabis based and mushroom based and also nutraceutical based. So check them out@earthbuddypet.com and then finally Innovative Pet Lab. Innovative Pet Lab is a wonderful testing company. You can check them out and I am going to start carrying some of their testings on my website. So I'm looking forward to that. But it probably won't happen until later on in the year because I'm busy. The other two that are sponsoring our tour are Feline Essentials. That's the two crazy cat ladies. So gracious of them to help me and my book tour. If you have a cat check them out at 2crazycatladies.com and then finally Anna cellbiotech.com these are the people that can help your dog if they are in Dire straits, CCL tears, stage four kidney disease. So many things about mobility and tendon problems and also immune issues. So check them out@anacelbiotech.com, let them know Rita sent you. Brandon there will let you know if they can help your pup. And these are vet only products, but they're affordable and can, can save you thousands and thousands of dollars. So that's basically it. Those are the sponsors. Those are the sponsors that I thank, thank, thank them for helping me on my book tour. All right, so let's get to the nitty gritty. We have a whole list of things that we have forgotten that we've done to our dogs and then we're acting like kind of sort of that they've never happened and then wondering why our dogs are so sick. So let's go through some of them, shall we? So the first one is spay and neuter. And yes, there are areas of the United States and around the world that need spay and neuter laws and need spay and neuter because of the overpopulation of dogs. And dogs are suffering. And I get it. I did the hardcore six years of rescue in the South. I put my time in and I understand, however, this is not a reason to spay a new to your dog if you're not in that situation. Because spay and neuter takes out so much of their endocrine system and that's not really positive for health outcomes and longevity. And I have, out of the five dogs that we have, four of them are spayed and neutered. So I understand this completely. I've actually had a hysterectomy. So in essence, you could say I've been spayed. But it comes at a cost. It comes at a cost. And you have to support your dog's hormones throughout their life if they are spayed and neutered, not just for like a week or so, not just for a couple months. You have to continually support your dogs and cats if they are spayed and neutered. And I will go through what you do for that. Why don't we do it on the next podcast? So the next podcast, I will go through what we do to support our dogs for spayed and neutered. But why this is so important is that hormones are everything. Hormones control so many things and actions and they help with organ health, the liver, the kidneys, the adrenal glands, your dog's brain health, their gastrointestinal tract, how they deal with bile. So many things are hormone dependent. And remember what I said, you know, everything is connected. So when you take out a big portion of their body's systems being their entire reproductive system, we can have problems. Now there are procedures like the ovary sparing spay, which I love. That is a very good one, the ovary sparing spay, so that some of those hormones are still active. We can do that too. But many dogs are even spayed and neutered below like 10 weeks of age. And that is absolutely crazy. So because it's being becoming more normal and more commonplace, I have found that more and more people are dumbfounded when their dog gets early arthritis, when their dog has early onset of chronic disease. And then I go back and look at their paperwork and da, da, da, da. Early spay and neuter. Just think about the things that we forget that we do. And that's definitely one of them. And if your dog was early spay and neuter, you have to take invasive, like just, you have to take immediate action and keep on taking it. You know what that looks like. I'll discuss next week. But really it's, you know, one week out of every month of their lives, they need to get support. And in the first, I would say six months, they need daily support. So because, you know, if you look at hemangiosarcoma, I just did a cancer intensive webinar on Hermangio and if you look at the statistics of dogs that are spayed and neutered over dogs that aren't, that get Hemangio, it's kind of crazy, Kind of crazy. Spay and neuter really contributes to hemangiosarcoma. And that one is there. You know, obviously there's no cure for it. You can use herbs to help, you know, longevity and outcomes, but it's a silent killer. It's kind of like ovarian cancer in women. Not a lot of signs until things have went completely south. And then you're just trying to manage, you know, that your dog doesn't bleed out and that's, you know, who wants to be there, not me. And so I'm hoping that the veterinarians that are at B. Right. The powers that be are going to start putting these things together and having different recommendations for spay and neuter. So that we are putting off spay and neuter as long as possible. That's the goal, really. If you have a puppy, put it off as long as possible and then speak with your veterinary surgeon to have that ovary sparing spay. There's another procedure in male dogs. I don't have the language for it right now, but I will next week. But I think there's also something you can do for male dogs there. But we really. I'm not positive, but I think there is. But really, you know, we can't forget that this has been done to our dogs and rescue dogs. Yep. They're going to be spayed and neuter. So we just need to know and have the skills that we need to support them, and that's what we'll talk about next week. So what else have we done to our dogs? Well, let's talk about worming. So little puppies get wormed when they don't even need to be wormed. Now, some little puppies need to be wormed, but a lot of times we can use homeopathic wormers and natural wormers that don't do the damage on the gut that our prescription warmers do. And, you know, the worst case scenario is you have to do the prescription warmer. Correct. Worst case scenario. But why is it our first choice? Because it does damage the gut, it does damage the gastrointestinal tract, and then sometimes we give them these pharmaceuticals for fleas and ticks and heartworm, and they are worming our dogs every single month. That is a no bueno. Remember, everything's connected and your dog's ecosystem knows much better than we do, and it is highly negatively affected by monthly worming. This is also true in the horse world, so don't get me started on that. But worming is definitely in that list of things we do to our dog that we need to be more mindful of. And our cats, we need to be more mindful that we're doing the least. The least invasive techniques first, then find out if it's working and then go to more invasive techniques. Now, I've got it on the list that we will go over worming in a future podcast, the one after the next. I'll just kind of go through these in our next podcast. That'll give us a good schedule, what we can do for worming. All right, from least invasive to more invasive. What. What can we do naturally for worms? Now the next one is heartworm. So ivermectin is the main pharmaceutical for heartworm. Now, this one doesn't bother me all that much. Out of the chemicals out there for heartworm, it's the least invasive. It has the least issues. But I'd rather not use it if we don't have to. Now, people seem to be more afraid of heartworm than they are cancer. And that should not be a thing. Cancer is a lot scarier than heartworm. And the issue there is that most vets don't know how to cure heartworm. And so it's scary for them, and they freak out and they have what's called imiticide, okay, which is poison imidicide that they use to kill heartworms. Now, we don't want heartworms to get to the point where they're big, fat, nasty little adults, you know, infiltrating your dog's heart. We want to catch them when they are young and they're baby worms. So what I recommend is, is I recommend that you test your dog three to four times a year. Now, if you are in a high vector area, that means high amount of heartworm cases, lots of mosquitoes. If you're in a high vector area, then I want you to test four times a year. And if you're in a lower vector, I think, like, Florida is a high vector area. If you're in a lower vector, then test three times a year, every four months. High vector every three months. Okay? Just go and test. And if your dog is ever positive, then what you do is you go to a company called Amber Technologies and you use their hwf. And then you also order the professional formulas, heartworm aid, that is a noso of heartworm, and you give it to your dog. And I really haven't seen a case of heartworm that hasn't been able to be balanced out and those little worms gotten rid of using that process. All right? And then you also. There's also things you can do, like high levels of CoQ10 to support the heart. And there's other herbs that support the heart for sure. But it's not impossible to get rid of heartworm naturally. I did it when I did rescue in the South. God. I would work with heartworm and help veterinarians work with heartworm where dogs had huge adult worms in their heart. And yes, we did get them better, and yes, we were able to heal up the heart tissue. It took something, but we did it. But for me, don't let things get to that point. And also don't. If you do give ivermectin, don't rely on ivermectin to be 100%. I've seen dogs tied outside in the south on ivermectin get heartworm. It's not 100%. And then there's another lovely, nasty little drug called try heart. Don't use that. Not a fan of that one. If you're my client, I can't really tell you to get off it because I can't recommend against pharmaceuticals if you are my client. However, I'm talking blue sky here and yeah, I would highly recommend against it. And I know a lot of vets that highly recommend against it. So there's the heartworm information. We forget that we're giving those medicines as well. Oh, and by the way, I really love that heartworm aid by professional formulas. You can get it anywhere. I do carry it in my store during heartworm season. I recommend giving it once a week. You can also give it daily if you really worry. But once a week, about four drops to pretty much any size dog. It does work real well. Then we move on to our lovely over prescribed antibiotics. So antibiotics are one of the biggest banes of my existence for sure. They are an absolute wreck. I, I see so many cases of antibiotics and I was teaching an event recently and a woman was going through her dog having all of these issues and I asked her, hey, when's the last time your dog had antibiotics? And she says, well, I mean, it was over a year ago. That is the case in point. I'm trying to make. If you give your dog seven days of antibiotics and do absolutely nothing, it takes over two years for the microbiome to recover. But it's not the microbiome that your dog started with before the antibiotics. And it's not going to be a thriving microbiome either. So we need to make sure that we do an antibiotic recovery protocol. And that is in my books or my book, the Herbal Dog. There is an antibiotic recovery protocol in there. And what I'm excited about is that the company Green Juju is bringing three more awesome probiotics along with their mushroom probiotic to the market. And then they have their veggie blends that are also fermented and have different organisms with each batch. So that's a lot of variety. And you could mix in four Leaf Rover, you can mix in Adored Beast probiotics. All of these really great companies that are making these wonderful probiotics. And there's lots of other probiotics. There's Pet Health Nutrition center, there's different soil biotics, there's raw milk. So many to choose from. And the goal is to rotate, rotate, rotate, but do the antibiotic recovery protocol first so that you know when to start adding those probiotics in. Because we want to bring up glycocalyx and IGA in the gut. I have another podcast about that and it's in my antibiotic recovery protocol. So a lot of people will just forget it was three years ago. Yeah. And your dog has been ill for three years. And there is pending research right now and very profound research about the correlation between antibiotics and cancer. I truly believe that antibiotics cause cancer and can cause cancer. Just the, you know, the standard of care for diarrhea includes a drug called metronidazole, and that's also called flagyl. And it causes inflammation markers to turn on in your gut tissue. That particular one that is given out like candy. It's a gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving and giving and giving. And so many dogs come to see me for gastrointestinal upset, chronic gastrointestinal upset, chronic diarrhea, chronic constipation, chronic food sensitivities. That drug is always involved. Okay, well, let's just go nine times out of 10. I mean, it is so prevalent that as I started putting these puzzle pieces together, I, you know, I had to keep myself from getting really angry because it's just such a travesty. Because things like BlackBerry and calendula and different astringents, sometimes the slippery elm, marshmallow root, pumpkin, plantain, they can all help stop diarrhea, Especially the BlackBerry leaf, can help stop diarrhea in its tracks after 24 hours. Diarrhea should be allowed to happen for 24 hours because your dog needs to get something out of their system. But when it goes on, then they can get really low on electrolytes. I also have a recipe for electrolytes in my book. So we can't forget that we've given our dogs antibiotics. And what happens is we do. And as the weeks go on post antibiotic use, we just continue down the path and forget that we've given it to them in the first place. And that's what I kind of want to wake people up to. You know, when's the last time your dog had antibiotics? If. I don't care if it's seven years ago, do the antibiotic recovery protocol. Because what's going to happen is, is your dog is going to feel better, their organs are going to work better. And it doesn't matter if you do my antibiotic recovery protocol or someone else's, Just work very intently on reconditioning the gut. You know, we have to recondition the gut so that our immune systems are back intact, and we're never going to get that immune system back from when before they got the antibiotics. But I will tell you, I was at Dr. Lilly Chen's event had a blast there, and something very profound happened where Lily Chen does a lot of FMT transplants. So fecal matter transplants for dogs that are having severe allergies, sensitivities, leaky gut, different types of things that have, you know, they've been on antibiotics, and it's done a lot of damage. And she said something gross but profound. So she said that when you have a puppy that has not been on antibiotics, save some turds, folks. Save some turds. Put them in the freezer, label them turds, date them, what dog they came from. Because if your dog has a healthy microbiome in that turd, you can do a fecal transplant to. When your dog has antibiotics. So you can do the antibiotic recovery protocol. Condition the gut for. So I'm. So that that FMT pill takes. You have to condition the gut first. You got to make sure the glycocalyx and IgA is up to snuff before you do that. FMT. But what a brilliant way. I don't know why I didn't think of it. I'm sure other people have mentioned it. I have never heard it before. It's so logical that it's scary. I love it, love it, love it, love it. Go Lily Chen. Dr. Chen is in Rolling Hills, California. If you ever get the chance of going to her practice, it's amazing. Yeah. She is awesome. And so that's a little tidbit to share. Yeah. Antibiotics. We just forget that we've done it. And I know that a lot of us want to get to the point where we just want to forget, Right? We want to forget what happened, but the body doesn't forget. Next on the list is flea and tick meds. So flea and tick meds are nerve toxins. They're liver toxins. They're toxin toxins, and they're a hard one. So many dogs wear these nasty flea collars. They affect our lives as well. The spot ons affect our lives as well. They get all over our environments. Blankets, other pets, children. They get into our bloodstream. And it's poison. It's nerve toxin poison. It's poisonous to fish when it gets into the water systems. When we bathe our dog, it gets into the water systems. We need to come up with something better. But we forget that we give our dogs, you know, I just gave them one dose of Bravecto. I just gave them one dose of Trifexis. I just gave them one dose. That dose has forward effects. It's not benign. We want it to be benign because a lot of us have guilt for giving it to our pets in the first place. We want it to be benign, but it's not. It affects their organ health, it affects their lymph health. It affects all of the interstitial fluid, which is the matrix material between the cells. It creates cellular toxicity. It affects DNA. It's poison. Poison. It's poison. And everyone breathe. If you've given your dog these things, just breathe. Let's breathe together. Okay, I totally understand and sometimes it has to happen. But we have to protect our animals against these nerve toxins. And if we have to give them something, we have to protect their bodies. And so I have a lovely little flea course. It's on canineherbalism.com you'll see it there. Flea, Natural flea. It's a natural flea course and it's $55. It has everything that you need to know about using, about protecting your animals from fleas naturally. I think I also have a. Yeah, I have a podcast on doing that as well, so you can go back and check that out. But we have to protect their nervous systems with herbs that protect the nervous system. We need to use homeopathy, if we can. We need to figure out what natural substances work with our own individual dog. And you can do that through self selection because a lot of those natural substances are essential oils. But there's also a lot of herbs and there's a lot of homeopathy. Different types of selections there that you can use together. There's some flower essences that you can spray on them. There's the flea comb. You can flea comb them. And yes, it's normal for a dog to have one or two fleas. Comb them off, kill the fleas and move on. And it's a great way to bond with your dog as well. Flea combing. My partner flea combs all of our animals and my cat Carl, this Elle, is silent so we kind of call him Carl. Carl. He comes up to her every night, gets on her lap and wants his flea comb. Because our cats go out on their harnesses out in the yard so that they can have some soil time and rub around in the grass. And they do get some fleas. And so we comb them out and we do it every night and they love it. And we also have short haired dogs so it's a lot easier to do some flea combing on them. Figgy nubbins. She doesn't appreciate it, but they only go on certain spots and she's easy. You can plop her in the sink and give her a quick bath, quick rinse and they come out. But there's lots of ways that we can do that. And there's ways that we can protect our yard. There's ways that we can protect our home. I think that it's part of having dogs and cats. And these poisons are not the answer unless something is terrible, unless we have a flea infestation. But again, we need to prepare the body. Because if we keep giving these poisons to our animals and rationalizing that it's okay because we're desperate to not have fleas, we still need to remember that this is what we've done so that when your dog does come down with chronic disease, that this is a factor. Putting poison into their body is not benign, no matter what the drug companies tell you. Look at the black box warnings. Look at all of the side effects and the rare side effects of anything that you are giving. Now, in my flea course, I cover all of those lovely little side effects for pretty much, I think, every chemical on the market. I just want you to remember that you did, you know, these types of things that you've given these types of poisons. And it's nothing to shame you or make you feel bad. It's just a lot of people are perplexed when their dog comes down with severe disease. And then when we go back and we look, okay, that dog was spayed and neutered. That dog had worming. That dog had metronidazole. Right. That dog had heartworm meds. That dog had antibiotics, multiple rounds of antibiotics. That dog had different types of flea and tick medications. They take their toll. And we need to support the body at getting rid of those toxins. And last but not least, our lovely vaccinations. So I'm not an anti vaxxer, so just put that out of your mind and set yourself at ease. I believe in giving dogs vaccines when they're puppies. For me, it's one round. Rabies is required by law and I have a vaccine protocol in my book to help prepare for that. My own dogs, we do our own thing, but we can't forget that we have given our dogs vaccines. And for those of you that give vaccines on a yearly basis and sometimes twice a year with like Bordetella, oh, I have to. Their groomer requires it. Oh, I have to. I can't board them, right? Find a pet sitter and get a different groomer, in my opinion. But we have to do what we have to do. You can't forget that you've done it. You need to support your dog every single time two weeks before, sometimes six to eight weeks after. You have to support your dog in getting those vaccines. The issue is they are not the vaccines of your. Those vaccines have hundreds of ingredients in them that do not belong there. I can't tell you why they're there. Some of them are to stimulate the immune system. Immune system vaccines. Some of the vaccines in the world save lives, for sure. Not saying that either, but they still do come at a cost. They come at a cost. And the only vaccines in the United States that required by law is rabies, Parvo distemper, lepto, the Lyme disease, which was taken off the human market. All of those things are not required by law. And I hear a lot of people feeling very guilty when they get the card in the mail reminding your dog that their vaccines are due. Now, what I do is I throw that in the trash or I put it through the shredder, which really feels good. Ignore them. Ignore them. Like I said, rabies is required by law. I can't say anything against that. But you have to take control of your dog's health. And if you have given them vaccines and if you have given them yearly vaccines, you need to help your dog's body deal with that. But, you know, just look at. Just look. You know, we've got, again, wormers, antibiotics, flea and tick meds, heartworm meds, vaccines, spay and neuter. That's a lot of stuff for your little pup to endure on a consistent basis besides the spay and neuter. So we just have to look back, be mindful, and start repairing our dog's body. All right, so, yeah, total Debbie Downer today. Debbie Downer. Just Rita Downer. I'm a Rita Downer. However, I just want you to remember what has happened to your pup so that you can start getting in a preventative mindset and not a reactive mindset. You know, my dog's totally healthy. And then a week later they get diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma. If your dog has had the spay and neuter, or especially the early spay and neuter, if they've had the wormers, the antibiotics, if they've had the vaccines, if they've had the flea and tick and the heartworm or combinations of those, your dog is not healthy. They need support. That. Liver needs support, kidneys need support, lymphatics need support, gut needs support, immune system needs support. And that's, you know, my book, the Herbal dog focuses on organ support because that's what's really needed from all of these things that we do to our dogs, right? And sometimes we have to like antibiotics. I don't recommend them unless your dog is going to die. But if your dog is going to die, if the vet says, you know what, your dog is going to die if you don't do these antibiotics and give the antibiotics, but don't forget that you gave them, work hard at repairing that microbiome. Reach out to people. Get advice. Reach out to people that are good at repairing the microbiome. There are Our community has amazing products to help repair the microbiome and test the microbiome. So there it is, another edition of the pod.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your Podcast apparently 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 interactions or other possible complications before using any product.