What Does Dryness Mean? | 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. Hi, Rita. Here we are in store for another short and this question is coming from the podcast contact, which is 9Herbalist.com under podcast contact. Jennifer wants to know about dryness. So before we talk about dryness, let's just talk about our sponsor, Real Dog Box. The kind and generous people at Real Dog Box are part of our sponsorship that makes this podcast possible. I've got a lot of good feedback on the podcast. People are loving the podcast and I really appreciate it. This is a short, so I'm going to make this quick. I promised you guys a long time ago if you listened to some of my past podcasts to talk about one of my favorite products at Real Dog Box, and that is the meatballs. My dogs are goo goo gaga over this. They have turkey meatballs and then they have pork meatballs and beef meatballs. So we tried the turkey and the beef meatballs. We've got turkey breast, turkey gizzard, beef green tripe, pork kidney, beef liver, chicken feet, anchovies, rabbit fur all mixed together in these little balls. And my, oh my God, my dogs, I think they would knock me over for them. And the way that you find them on their website is you go to Real Dog, you sign up for one of the boxes. I think you can sign up for as little as $10 a month and you'll be able to see and pick your products. And the meatballs are part of those. Now the beef meatballs have beef backstrap neck meat, green tripe, spleen, liver, chicken feet, anchovies, and rabbit fur. It's like 78% muscle, 12%, 5% spleen, 5% liver. Really good treats. And I like to see that low liver treat in these meatballs. So anyways, check them out at Real Dog for Real Dog Box. Okay, let's talk about dryness. I know this is a short, so we don't have a lot of time, so we are going to just talk about what does dryness mean. For those of you that don't understand what I'm talking about, check out my energetics course@canineherbalism.com okay? So in the dog as ecosystem model, which I talk about a lot, moisture rules the environment of the dog just like it does in nature. So everything that we see in ourselves and our Dogs, we can see in nature, we can see it happening, we can see it playing out. Water is critical and we don't want too much moisture. And in the dog as ecosystem, body moisture is more than just water. It's fats, oils, plasma and lipids. And of course H2O. And these types of things make up our cells, like lipids make up the membranes in our nerve cells. And that's a really important part of the dog's ecosystem because the nervous system is everything. It controls so much of the body. It helps control our heart, our kidneys, our liver, our bladder. All of that relates to the dog. And we wanna make sure that the moisture element isn't too much and isn't too little. We want a good balance of that. And we have to look again at moisture balance and that, I mean, it basically permeates every cell. And so looking at that in your dog is something a lot of people don't pay attention to. And it's not how much your dog is drinking. Okay, that's not what I'm talking about here. But if we look at like moisture in the form of fat, it's really important in cells in general because it's how they communicate with other cells and absorb nutrients. Each cell has a fat layer, and without proper moisture, those cells kind of dry up and the nervous system gets dried out. I was just talking to a client today about their dog, and we figured out that they were very dry and had some bladder stones. And we want to add more moisture to that dog's ecosystem so that their nervous system isn't as dried out as it normally is. We want to balance that out. And we're also working on those stones. So dryness affects organ function too, like the pancreas and gallbladder and digestive fluids. And it really controls nutrient absorption. I know that a lot of you have heard me talk about the lymphatic system. And dryness can have a negative effect on the lymphatic system as well. And that's where we get our fat soluble vitamins. So moisture is really important. And I think that kind of getting into the mindset of looking to see how dry or moist your dog is can be something new for people. It's really important because water and fat soluble components like vitamins, minerals, hormones are dependent on moisture and the right level of water, fats and oils. And so when we start to look at that, things start to get clearer. So figuring out your dog's energetics is very important. And the nervous system is very moisture dependent. And it conducts electrical signals that are also moisture dependent. So a dried nervous system often leads to things like anxiety and restlessness and heightened anxiety, which a lot of people complain about with their dogs. They're too anxious. So finding true answers to anxiety can be looking at the dog's ecosystem and figuring out moisture levels. We wanna look at our dog's bodily patterns, and when we start paying attention, it starts to become clear again. When you're assessing moisture, you wanna think more than H2O. And if you have a cat, it's really important to look at moisture because dryness can affect their kidneys. And it's one of the main reasons why cats die so early of kidney dis is because we're feeding them dried food. And they are not meant to eat dried food. They're obligate carnivores. They eat meat and lots of it. They get their moisture from meat. They get their nutrition and moisture from blood. And it's actually harder for a cat to absorb water by drinking it. It usually gets it in its prey. So cats should eat moist food and moist food only, in my opinion. You can disagree with me. No big deal. We can disagree with each other and still like each other. A lot of people don't realize that, but it is true. Dry, energetic cofactors. I talk a lot about cofactors, and these are kind of like symptoms where you're looking at, huh? How many symptoms does my dog have? So some cofactors of dryness include, well, anxiety, dry tongue, cracking joints, of course, dry skin, dry nails. Not all dry skin is dryness. It can be from dampness, but we'll get into that some other time. A dry nose that's not pharmaceutical related. Dry stool, big indication there. Endocrine disorders, hypothyroid, excessive heat or excessive cold. If you don't know what that is again, check out my energetics course on canineherbalism.com lethargy, nervousness, nutrient deficiency, the inability to gain weight, prone to allergies. If you know how to take your dog's pulse, a rapid pulse, sensitive skin, stiffness in the joints. I think I already said that, though. And weakness or undigested food in the stool, that is excessive dryness. Dryness can be associated with both heat and cold conditions, and it can result from, like, underlying conditions like the body not absorbing or producing fluids like moisture depletion and too much heat. So if your dog has too much heat in their body, it can kind of slow down and bake down those fluids, and then you get dryness. So it's important to figure out dryness because bodily fluids are cooling. And without enough bodily fluids, your dog can have a hard time cooling itself. And you can have a lower level of blood circulation and lymph circulation. And when that happens, heat increases. And if heat increases, then dryness can increase. Okay, heat builds. It definitely builds. And so dryness can lead to, like, things like low digestive enzymes, pancreatic secretions. It can cause undigested food in the stool. Like I said, food sensitivities, hyper immune function, definitely hard stool and constipation and anal gland conditions. I think the endocrine system in general is pretty sensitive to oil and moisture balance. So it's a good thing to figure out, you know, is my dog dry? I can say that a lot of dogs are more damp than they are dry. The nervous system has a lot to do with dryness in general, when it manifests in the dog's ecosystem. So if your dog is, like, hyper anxious, you might want to look, hey, is my dog dry? Because that nervous system is so dependent on good moisture levels. The nerve cells have a conductive layer of oil that is really, like, integral to having a healthy communication system in all the nerves in your dog's body. And the nerve cells are protected by what's called the myolithin sheath. And that sheath is oil dependent on the nervous system. And the nervous system can't really work very well when we don't have enough oil. And then you get exhaustion or kind of like you can get the inability to recover from exercise. You can get dogs that completely, like, fall over and have, like, an episode when their nervous system is too dry. You know, I see this a lot in dogs that are working, dogs that are always on the job. Their nervous system can be dry. They're not getting enough essential fatty acids. They're not getting enough moisture in their diet, and they can get too much adrenaline, and too much adrenaline can cause dryness. So that's a little bit about dryness. I mean, I could talk for a very long time about dryness. You know, there's different levels. There's different. A different spectrum of dryness. But I can say if you figure out your dog's energetics, you want to figure out, is my dog warm or cool? They're usually born warm or cool, somewhere in between. And then you want to look at what the moisture level is in your dog and some good herbs for dry energetics, depending on if your dog is warm or cool. But like astralagus and burdock root, burdock root really is good at helping your dog's body deal with fats and oils. Chickweed cleavers, Marshmallow root, Milky oats, Mullen Plantain violet those are a good place to start Licorice root, which is nice and neutral. You want to do deglycerized licorice root for long term. It's not safe in the long term. I mean, licorice is not safe in the long term. Deglyceride licorice, which adds a lot of moisture, can be used long term. As long as you use the deglyceride, you can get Animal Essentials. Greg Tilford's line, He does a nice licorice glycerin okay, so if you have any questions for me on the podcast, go to k9herbalist.com, check out our store, go to the podcast contact and send me a question and I will answer it here on the podcast. 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 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 production.