Three Remedies for Head Conditions

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. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you're listening. How are you guys? I hope that you are wonderful. I hope that everything is going wonderful in your life, and if it's not, I hope that you are able to work it out or react to it differently. Smile. I always try smiling. I was. I'm, you know, I have an interest in this eastern practice called qigong. And in qigong, there's this lovely smiling ritual to just smile to your organs. Smile. Try it right now. Smile. No matter what kind of mood you're in, it makes you feel better. I love just smiling. Even when I feel like crap, right. Or I'm having a bad day. Just smile. And you can just feel like things start to shift in your body. I love that. Love it, love it, love it. I also love herbs. As you guys know, we are going to talk about today, draining the head. So what that means is bringing fluid and infection and everything down out of the head so that it can be rendered. Basically, that's kind of a philosophical way of talking about it, but helping things that are occurring in the head. And I have three remedies that I go to for this type of situation. Ear infections, sinus infections, you know, even cancer in the brain and things like that. Crossing the blood brain barrier, that is also drainage of the head. However, today I'm just talking about things that are not cancerous. So again, ear infections, conjunctivitis in the eye, different types of sinus problems, polyps in the nose, infections in the teeth, different types of occurrences that are, in a way, building up in the face. Okay, that's what I'm talking about today. And there's three remedies that I love. And one is called hornbeam phytoembryonic therapy. There is Cleaver's tincture, and then another one is our lovely homeopathic friend, Hepar sulfur. So we're going to talk about that today. We are talking about that today. Okay, so let's just open up with. Let's do Hepar sulf. So hepar sulfurous calcareum. In homeopathic speak, hepar sulfurous calcarium. So pepper sulf is a remedy that helps with the lymphatic drainage, which is key to anything in the face. There's Lots of lymphatics going on in the face and glandular swellings, unhealthy skin, kind of like stagnation. This applies to all of these remedies. You can use a 6 or a 12C which is its potency and or a 30C or 200. Those are the, those the kind of the potencies that you can look for. Just Google it. Hepar H E P A R S U L P H U R Homeopathic Hepar sulfur. You can look at that. And when using hepar sulf like let's just say for instance for a ear infection or kind of of a swollen tooth. I recently had a pocket of fluid right above this one tooth that is in front of this other tooth that's missing. Well, it used to be a tooth. It now it's like an empty socket in the side pocket of my mouth that I lost one of my teeth. And I have this little, I have this little. They call it a spider, right? It's this little click in there that I use to keep my jaw in order to make it sure that it's not shifting. So I wear this little. I don't know, I would call it a fake tooth as therapy to keep my jaw in place. And every now and then when I use it, I get this little pocket of fluid that comes up on the tooth next to it. And my dentist told me there's not much I can do about that that is gonna happen from time to time. Well, that's not true. I take heparasalf when I wear the little click in now. And the pocket of fluid doesn't happen because hepar salt helps me drain it. I also combine it with cleavers which we're going to talk about. So that's kind of an example of how to use this remedy. Now homeopathics can be used for lots of things. Okay, so this I'm just going to go over and like the more, the more things that your dog may have, the more symptoms, the more like well indicated a remedy is. And that's for me the truth with almost any remedy, how it resonates in the body. So we're just gonna go through some areas of the body that heparasalf can help with and you can look at this remedy and get to know it more. So basically we're looking at like the extremities. So your dog could have swollen fingers or joints, right? Respiratory. So your dog may cough when there is cold or wind or especially a cold wind, or they may get like a little Hoarseness in their cough or their bark. Homeopathy deals with a lot of strange symptoms in their materia medica. So that's one of the things, you know. Oh, yeah, my dog does tend to cough when there's like a cold wind. Like a really cold dry wind. Oh, yeah, he does that. Well, that might be another indication. Okay, and then let's see. So another symptom for hepar sulf is bladder weakness. Okay. Bladder weakness. Are they prone to bladder weakness or kind of a low urine stream every now and then? Do they have any white stool? That's another thing that heparasulf can help with. Or undigested fats in the stool. Are they constipated? And heparsolve, to me, is a very draining remedy. So, you know, constipation would be releasing drainage once it, you know, breaks through and you're not constipated anymore. And let's see. So stomach not liking fatty foods in general. Right. When they're having a hard time breaking down fat. So throat a lot of gacking or hacking. They could have gacking or hacking. Oh, yeah, my dog has some of that too. You know, soreness in the nose. Sores in the nose. I like this remedy for sneezing when it's cold out. Okay. Or runny nose from. From cold or a very dry wind. Like sometimes people can get a runny nose when they're in the desert. Or your dog's nose could run when they're in the desert when it's very windy. So you get that dry wind. Okay. In the ears. So, like, if an ear infection has a little pus from it, okay. With humans there's like throbbing in the ears. So but in dogs, there could be a little pus in the ears and the eyes. Definitely conjunctivitis with discharge. Okay. And your dogs don't really want you to touch their eyes. You could have some redness in the lids. These are all things that point towards hepar sulf. I love it for dental abscesses, especially to try to get rid of the dental abscess before you can get to your veterinarian and your doctor. A lot of times I've gotten rid of the abscess and helped it clear. I did it actually in myself. I did something really stupid one day. It's actually how I lost that tooth. I did something really stupid one day in a panic. Never make. Try to make good decisions in a panic. This was years ago, but I had this tooth that I was going to get kind of like they Were going to do like a graph and, and try to save my tooth. And I tried to clean it out with a water pick. And I don't know why I did it, because if someone told me that they were going to do that, I would freak out and be like, oh, my God, don't do that. You're going to get all this bacteria up in that, in the channel of your tooth. And it like, this is crazy. Don't do that. Well, I did it and I caused myself to have an abscess. And it wasn't. It definitely just was not my brightest moment. Lost my tooth, had a huge abscess. They had to drain it at the dentist. Yuck, yuck, yuck. But they gave me antibiotics and I wasn't taking them. And so I took hepar sulf and some natural antibiotics for my face. And within two days, everything was gone. All the soreness was gone. My face felt completely normal. I went back to the dentist. They're like, oh, my God. You know, the antibiotics worked great. I smiled most of the time. Normally I would have taken the antibiotics, but I had all the symptoms that really indicated hepar sulf. And I took a very high potency, which is called a 5M. I took a 5M of the heparasulf. I took it multiple times that day and the next day. And so when you're dosing for hepar sulf, you know, start out with a low potency again, 6c 30c 200. And you can dose multiple times during, you know, up to like one to three days. If things aren't starting to clear, I would stop and go to a different remedy. And if you have any questions, just write into the podcast and I can answer them here on the podcast. But that is hepar sulf. And so I love, love, love that remedy. It helps a lot. It can be used with other remedies. Just don't use it with essential oils or if you're using it as a person, don't drink coffee or use peppermint. Don't use peppermint around it or something that's very strong smelling. It tends to antidote the homeopathy. And there are a couple, couple of remedies that this remedy does not work all that well with. Okay, so I don't use it with chamomile. It doesn't seem to like it. And I think that's about it. So just really, really love Heparsol. We are going to go on to Hornbeam. So Hornbeam is a phytoembryonic therapy and that is a stem cell, plant stem cell therapy that I love. I teach an entire system of medicine, part of herbology of phytoembryonic therapy on my canine herbalism platform. It's a awesome course called phytoembryonic therapy for canines or canine phytoembryonic therapy. And this is part, this is a remedy from that course. But it's hornbeam carpinis betulis and we're using the bud for the function of the remedy. It's slightly warming for acute reasons. Anyone can use it for long term. If you're using it on a hot dog, I would try to cool it off or maybe use a different remedy. But this is very specific to draining of the head. Okay, so draining of the head, you can definitely use that acutely. Ear, nose, throat, head, blood, it is, you know, I don't use it, I don't use hardly anything but homeopathy for pregnancy. For dogs that are pregnant or lactating, just know that. I just don't because there isn't a lot of research on using this remedy for pregnant dogs. So, you know, just don't do that. If your dog is pregnant or lactating, it definitely can be used with autoimmune disease. It the uses for it, it's an antibiotic, it's an antioxidant, it's antifungal, it's an adaptogen in the plant stem cell realm. Ear, nose and throat. Like I said, it has some affinity towards the heart. And here again, spasmodic cough, draining of the head. It's great for splenectomy. It helps repair mucous membranes in the nose. Wonderful for, wonderful for polyps. I use this for kitties. One to two drops for kitties. That's it. The one thing you don't want to use it for is when your dog has thrombocytosis or elevated platelets. Okay, you don't want to, it can elevate platelets a little bit while you're using it. So you don't want to use it for those types of dogs. But let's look at some cofactors like we did Hornby, like we did hepar sulph. So the more cofactors, the more symptoms, I like to call them cofactors. But the more symptoms cofactors that your dog has, the more well indicated this remedy is. Okay, so if your dog has had allergies, any type of bacterial overgrowth, bleeding, ulcers, coughing, consistent ear, nose and throat conditions, eye infections, the need for head drainage in the past. Yeast overgrowth, kennel cough, sinus conditions, sleep apnea, hypertension, respiratory conditions, difficulty breathing, low blood platelets. So thrombocytopenia, H. Pylori infections, or any type of hematoma. Those are some cofactors for this remedy. I have seen this remedy work absolute wonders, especially with tooth pain up in the roots where you feel like there might be something going on. Any type of abscess infection, you can mix it with helper salt. You can mix all three of these remedies that I'm talking about. If there's something major going on, they're gonna work in different ways, different channels. So just love Hornbeam. It's really great for again, any type of drainage from the head, conjunctivitis, ear infections, ear notes and throat issues. It does have a lymphatic connection there. It helps with the lymphatics and we need to drain the lymphatics if we are working with hormone hornbeam. Okay. Anal gland congestion, constipation are also issues that Hornbeam can deal with. Sinus infections. Right. Allergies. Because we in allergies we have to drain the head. So I hope you're seeing these connections and I know for some of you this is a little above and beyond. Just try to understand. And again, if you have questions, write into the podcast with the through canine herbalist dot com. So that is Hornbeam. All right, Hornbeam, now we are going to go in and start talking about cleavers. Now, cleavers is a tincture, okay. You can use a glycerin extract of cleavers. I would probably use like 5 to 8 drops for an extra small dog. Oh wait, let me talk about dosing Hornbeam. So Hornbeam is a phytoembryonic therapy. It's a mixture of alcohol, low alcohol, glycerin and water for extraction. The glycerin is key for extracting the embryonic stem cell constituents of the the of the remedy. So I hear a lot about alcohol being upsetting to the stomach of dogs and not good for their guts. Yes, it's totally true. In large amounts. Okay, but one drop of a phytoembryonic therapy. I'm sorry, not one drop. Ten drops. Which is well above the recommendation for what I am going to talk about with most phytoembryonic therapies, unless we're dealing with cancer or autoimmune or something. And it would be a larger dog. But 10 drops of phytoembryonic therapy tincture equals one drop of alcohol, one single drop of a 80 proof, which is 40% alcohol, one single drop. That is not going to have a negative effect on your dog's gut. In fact, I work with leaky gut and imbalanced microbiome mucous membrane damage with these stem cells and with tinctures in general. Now, if your dog is sensitive to a tincture, drip it on a treat or dilute it in water and syringe it in the mouth. The one thing that I have noticed if a dog is sensitive to alcohol, and that is only if a dog has histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance. And that is very rare, but it does happen. And how you know your dog has histamine intolerance usually is if you give them anything, even with a drop of alcohol in it, they will sneeze, okay? They will sneeze or start itching. That's a histamine response. Very elevated histamine response. And so I will use another route. But if the remedy is so well indicated, I will give what's called histaminium, 30C or 12C. That's a homeopathic. And that usually takes care of it. I will give it to them prior, like one dose prior. Usually it come in these balls. I'll give them two balls of histaminium prior to the dosage and then two balls after. That usually takes care of it. But I'll usually try to go with a glycerin extract and with cleavers you can do a glycerin extract with corn beam. You cannot, it has glycerin in it. But again, 10 drops of the remedy equal one drop of whatever proof alcohol they're using. And with stem cells, we're going to be using usually an 80% proof organic grape alcohol which is not toxic to dogs. When people see your grape, we're not using that part of the grape that is going to be toxic to dogs. But you're going to use, you know, it's going to be between 40 and 60%. And again, that's going to be 10 drops equals one drop of alcohol. So breathe and try to take the information in. And again, if you don't want to use it, don't use it. It's very simple. Use only the homeopathy or use the cleavers as a glycerin only extract. It's very simple, okay? You have free will. No one can tell you what to do, right? Just don't do it. That's what I tell everybody. Just don't do it. If you get all up in a tizzy. Just don't do it. Do something that makes you feel comfortable for your dog. Okay. You feel comfortable for your dog. I am a safety first, do no harm herbalist. So I always keep safety in mind. And I would never tell you to do something that's going to harm your dog. But dogs are individuals. Everyone has their own safety threshold, their own comfort threshold. So work with your dog to figure that out. All right? And if you have any questions right into the podcast, right into the podcast. I will answer them here on air. So let's talk about dosing Hornbeam. Going. I went off on a tangent. Sorry. So the dosage for Hornbeam, to start out with, we've got a small, extra small dog, like a teacup dog, you know, like yorkie, you know, three to three to five pounds. What I would do is I would take one drop of hornbeam, I would put it in 15 milliliters of water and then give a dropper of that water to the dog. Okay. Start there. See what the reaction you get. You could do that dropper twice a day or three times a day. And then for a small dog, like a pug, 10 to 20 pounds. Do one drop, three times a day if it's serious, twice a day. If you're doing trying to support, like ear drainage, then medium dog, two drops, that single drops coming out of the dropper. Large dog, three drops, extra large dog, four drops. We're not even getting to a full drop of alcohol here. Four drops of hornbeam two to three times a day. Okay, See where you're getting. And you can go up from there. But usually those are the dosages that are going to give you good results. All right, again, autoimmune disease, cancer, a really bad abscess or infection, you might have to use double your dosage. You can go up to double the dosage and that's it. Okay. All right, let's get to cleavers. Cleavers. Cleavers and I, we go so far back. I love cleavers. It's sticky when it goes to seed. Most dog owners don't like cleavers. We all get in an argument with it because he has these sticky little balls that you have to comb out of your dog's fur. And before I discovered cleavers. Cause I didn't know cleavers until I moved to Tennessee. That's when I met cleavers. And I don't remember cleavers growing up in Michigan. And it certainly didn't grow on our farm. I would remember this because it does. It gets into the dog's fur. But it could have been there. I just, I didn't meet it personally until I moved to Tennessee and then I was. We didn't get along until I figured out what beautiful medicine it made before it went to seed. And then I started loving cleavers. And then everything disappeared. All that animosity just disappeared. I had to apologize. It was my ignorance that, you know, I just didn't know. Right. I did not know what was happening. So cleavers is sticky, it's low to the ground. It has these beautiful small little flowers and it is wonderful at moving the lymphatics. Lymphatics of a warm to hot dog. You can use it on cool dogs, but I would not use it on cold dogs. Or I would use it in combination with ginger that's, you know, hot. So it will warm that up. If it's really well indicated and you're using it acutely here. Okay. Don't use it long term on a dog that is cool unless you've really, really warmed it up. And it's super well indicated and you're having fantabulous results from it, which I doubt. Okay. So cleavers can be used as a glycerin in glycerin, 100% glycerin, because it's very full of moisture. It's heat sensitive. So do not make a hot water infusion with it. It doesn't like heat. You could do a cold water infusion overnight if you want. Chopping it up and putting it in water overnight. Cleavers is super high in chlorophyll. It's high in polyphenols, which are lovely for everything in the body, that polyphenol. They're an antioxidant. They are just add so much to the vital force. In general, cleavers has trace minerals, vitamin C. It mixes well with things like dandelion and marshmallow root, but it's great at draining the head. And here's the beauty of like elemental medicine, elemental herbalism. The moon, the stars, the sun. You know, there's a lot of other things that I practice in this practice that we are not getting into right now. But I practice what's called planetary herbalism in many ways. And cleavers is a moon planet. And let's just look at what the moon does, right? It brings water in and out in the ocean, it saturates plants, it fills them up with more water at certain times of the moon cycle. And Then drains that water in certain times of the moon cycle with its pole. Okay, so it's beautiful how you look at nature and nature just really dictates what's in the body, what's going on in the body, what we can do with the body. And the moon is a big part of that. And especially moon has a huge kind of affinity and overseeing of the moisture element. And when we're dealing with ear infections and abscesses and things that need sinus infections and things that need to be drained, the moon has this influence. And so cleavers is a moon remedy. And it's slightly sweet, it's a little salty, it's cooling, it can be moisturizing in the, like the initial use of it, but also draining. And it moves energy downward from the head. Okay, down downward from the head. It's indications. So these are some co factors here. Obviously things that need to be drained, bladder stones, calcifications, constipation, decreased urination, a dog that doesn't want to be touched. Excess of uric acid involving the kidney, excessive itching, an excited nervous system, inflammation of the urinary tract, edema holding onto water, stagnant lymphatic drainage, stagnancy in general, neurological disorders, obesity, painful urination, like when dogs cry out. Skin interruptions, swollen glands, weakness in the pelvis or cysts. So those are some of the things that cleavers is well indicated for. You know, bladder stones, it helps clear heat from the kidneys, it helps clear heat from the face, it helps clear heat in general because you know, it's draining downward, it's draining down and through. And cleavers is a mild diuretic. So if your dog pees a little more when they're taking cleavers, that's normal. Cleavers clears heat from the liver. And we need the liver to help us with this remedy. It helps protect the liver from being over loaded with processing toxins. Remember, the liver does not store toxins. It's. It's a pass through organ of detoxification. It is a, it does like over 500 like things in the body, functions in the body that we know of. And there's lots of things it does that we don't know of. It's a lymphatic superpower. And that's where the draining comes in. It helps regulate your dog's internal ocean. Like the late fabulous herbalist Michael Moore says, the lymphatics are your dog's ocean. It helps regulate that ocean. It clears heat and stagnancy it has a cooling effect on the body. It's a nerve tonic. It relieves itching and shrinks lipomas. I just love cleavers and it is definitely a really great way of draining the head. Working with ear infections. Anything, you know, I use can like, I use cleavers for dealing with imbalances from different types of brain cancers. With some of the people I work with, I don't treat brain cancer because I'm not a doctor, but I help with the imbalances in the head to help drain facial swellings. Again, ear infections. Anything that we need the energy to drain downward. Okay, so that is cleavers. Now again, you can use it as a tincture, you can use it as a glycerin. You can use it long term. For dogs that are not too cold, definitely cool to cold dogs. I'm going to limit its use or I'm going to warm it up with ginger. Warm it up deliberately, see how your dog reacts to it. But if you're using it acutely, you can go ahead and use it for most dogs because you're only using it for like a week or two. Okay, maybe three. I haven't seen it have toxicity. It's definitely a really low, low toxicity herb. Anything can have toxicity with the right dosage for sure. But I have not seen it with this, with, with this plant. It can, you know, you don't want to use it with dogs that have really high blood pressure or, you know, in low dosages and acutely. I'm not worried about it. But for super high blood pressure, you want to be careful with a lot of herbs. I don't know a lot of dogs that have super high blood pressure and you do not want to use it with diabetes. Okay, so just don't use it. Be careful with a lot of herbs with diabetes and get some coaching and or some guidance from your holistic vet with that. Always use if your dog has diabetes. Make sure that you're checking in with your vet. Cleavers is safe for kitties. I would use the glycerin or an infusion for kitties. The glycerite is very safe for kitty, kitty, kitty cats. And that's about it. If you have any, you know, things to say, just write into the podcast. But this is Hornbeam, Heppersalf and Cleavers. Okay, So I want to thank my sponsors, real mushrooms, realmushrooms.com and I also want to thank my sponsor of adored beast, apothecary, adoredbeast.com Great, great companies doing great work in so many ways for our dogs and our cats and a lot of other little creatures. Okay. Horses, pigs, chickens. I mean, you know, the remedies that they put out can be used for so many things. Adored Bees puts out a lot of homeopathic remedies and different nutraceuticals and supplements, probiotics. They have a full range use. I use, I've used every single product they have successfully with so many dogs. Now remember, not every product in that line is gonna be for your dog. It doesn't mean that the remedy is not. Okay. It means that it's not for your dog. Just like, you know, mushrooms, there's different formats of mushrooms. There's tinctures, there's powders. Real mushrooms does hot water, extracted medicinal powders. Okay. There's no alcohol in their powders. Even if they extract with alcohol, it's not going to be in the powder. So they're just top notch as far as medicinal powder goes. And I really like who they are in this community, who they're being in this community. I can't thank them enough. But again, their products may not be for your individual dog. If that's, you know, if it doesn't coincide or match the vibration of your dog. Not every product is going to work for your individual dog, okay. But it may work for someone else's dog. So just remember that dogs are individuals. Dogs are individuals. Dogs are individuals, okay? So thank you, thank you, thank you. Real mushrooms. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Adored beast. Apothecary. We're going to be bringing out some new products soon for both of these companies. Can't wait to share those products with you. We can talk about how or if that product is going to match your individual dog. We can talk about that. We can talk about anything here on this podcast. Okay. We can talk about mushroom tinctures. We can talk about phytoembryonic therapy, tinctures. We can talk about glycerins and alcohol and dried plants and stem cells, plant stem cell therapy. We can talk about flower essences and essential oils. We are going to be talking about it all. Having some great, great upcoming podcasts. I hope you are enjoying this. I have started to do a little bit of book reviews. I've been doing that. Write into the podcast if you want to have me talk about a specific subject and I will get to it, I promise. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals. If you enjoy discussing 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 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 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, potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.