What Is Deficiency In 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.

Hi everyone. Welcome to another edition of our shorts brought to you by Green Juju. So this week I was using green juju and there are a couple of things. So green juju has raw, right, raw patties and stuff like that, but it also has freeze dried. And one of the things with my pug figgie nubbins is that she sometimes will eat the freeze dried and. And she will puke, right? She'll throw it up. And what I figured out is because her gut is so tiny, right, she has to have me crumble it up. Okay, I have to crumble it up and then I hydrate it and then she'll eat it but she can't eat it in the regular pieces that she that is there because she's too tiny. So I wanted to give you that feedback. Also, any type of freeze dried you want to rehydrate because they've taken all the liquid out of it.

Okay?

So remember when you are using freeze dried to rehydrate, rehydrate and rehydrate. Oh, and I promised to get back to you guys about the mushroom probiotic from Green Juju. So as I said before, I always use almost all of the products that are in a line that I am doing a sponsorship partnership with. And we've been using the green juju fermented mushroom probiotic with Ronan who is another pug who was having some liver issues and liver and gut issues after a dental and extraction of some teeth. And he is doing so well. The crap is out from his eyes. He is digesting better, he's looking better, the grayness is going out of the coat. So loving, loving, loving the fermented green juju probiotic. And you can order that on their website and they will ship it to you. I don't carry it, but you can order it on your website and they will ship it to you frozen. So check that out. Green juju.com okay, so what are we talking on the short today? We are going to talk about deficiency and excess. We had a question from Ryan. Ryan writes into the podcast. I'm excited to have a boy right into the podcast, Ryan. So thank you. Ryan asks, you've spoken about deficiency in excess. Can you elaborate on that? Because I misunderstand what they are. Okay, Ryan, I don't want any misunderstanding. So let's just go over that. So deficiency is sort of. Well, I mean the word is there deficient. But what does that look like? Okay, what does deficient look like? It's lacking. Okay, it's lacking. So when we look at a dog, what could be lacking? So weight is one of them. Weight. And then there's a few signs of deficiency. So feebleness, you know, weakness, being weak, that can be deficiency. When you look at the definition of deficiency, it usually is in rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. All right, so you have qi. In traditional Chinese medicine that's spelled Q I. And qi is just energy. Okay, Energy. And so we have energy, weakness. All right, so I mentioned weight and weakness in general. Okay, but when you look at that, it looks like dogs that have shortness of breath, that can get out of breath very quickly, dog that have lethargy or fatigue or poor appetite, their tongue is really pale. You know, loss of appetite is a big one. They could have coughing, right? They could have coughing or they could be fearful or timid. Thinning of hair could mean deficiency. You know, deficient dogs can be hot or cold, that is for sure. So, you know, deficient dogs could also be, you know, aggressive because there could be deficiency in the liver. And so some symptoms are mild, some symptoms are not so mild, they're more intense. A dog with too much diarrhea could get deficient. And I hope I'm making sense. So it's a weakness in an area, a lack of strength, the body's physiological processes that's inside the body, right, are weak, they lack strength. That's basically the simplest way that I can put it. The simplest way. Now what causes deficiency? Well, for one, chronic illness, which can be caused by vaccine, too many vaccines, too much toxins in the diet, environmental toxins, emotional stress, definitely poor diet, you know, exertion, too much work, not enough play. When you look at deficiency, it can, lots of times it's related to dryness. All right, not always, but a lot of the times. So, you know, dry coat, dry nails. In non spayed females, you might have irregular menstruation as far as being in their cycle. And you want to look at how deficiency is manifesting in the body. You know, does your dog have a dry tongue? Do they have a dry mouth which is going to lead to excessive decay in the teeth? Can they sleep at night? Are they jumpy? Is their nervous system dry? Is it deficient? I hope I'm making sense. I'm trying to make sense out of this for you, Ryan, and for all of you out there. You know, it's a dwindling of a lack of strength. You know, dogs with long term illness can be deficient. I love, love, love the flower essence. Fireweed. For deficient long term and illness.

Okay?

Dogs that age can get deficient. They can have weak digestion, they can feel cold.

Okay.

Or they can get super hot. If they're hot dogs. Yes, old dogs can be hot dogs. So we want to look at how it's laying in the body.

Okay?

Where is that deficiency coming from? And at what age are you looking? Are you seeing it? Is it premature aging? Is there graying? Like my pug Ronan, who had an abscess way up in his. His ca. Sinus cavity, and it affected the roots of some of his teeth. How he got that, not a clue. His face didn't swell, so his immune system was handling it, but not enough. And he had some deficiency after he had his extraction and during. We saw graying hair, we saw thinning hair, we saw lethargy. And then after he had his. His oral surgery, after the infection was cleared up, he started playing with his toys again. He started running around, he started getting cray cray. Not so deficient anymore. I hope this is helping you. Okay, we want to look at, you know, energy levels, we want to look at appetite, we want to look at how the dog sleeps. You know, the physical signs of deficiency.

Okay?

The physical signs of deficiency. Now, since we are a podcast about an herbalist life who's gone to the dogs, it wouldn't be a good podcast if we weren't giving some herbal solutions. So for deficiency, I would look at different types of herbs. So if it's more of lethargy, you know, you might look at ashwagandha. It's warming, so your dog might be cool. Nettle leaf, which is neutral. It's a restorative. Milky oats, if your dog is more on the warm side and they get deficient, okay? Because they can be warm or cool for deficiency. Milky oats, avena sativa, nettle leaf, ashwagandha, which is more warming. And then we have deficient blood. You know, if your dog is anemic, if they have poor circulation, we can do organic alfalfa, small amounts, or dandelion root and leaf, or wee, wee, wee, bits of yellow duck.

Okay.

Or burdock root. These are things that help with deficiency in those areas. Then we have things like shatavari, which is asparagus, rasmosis, marshmallow root and These are deficiency in the gut.

Okay.

You could use those two. They're also cooling. And then we have when dogs get cold, they're sluggish, they're weak, their energy is going down, they're on the cool side. Ginger root. Okay. Ceylon cinnamon. Those are two. I love ginger. Ginger turmeric we can use, but ginger is my. My go to. So maybe a little ashwagandha and ginger root as a tea. I'm just thinking I did mention nettles if your dog is more cool. Holy basil. So you can make a tea out of that. And then a neutral one is very neutral. Supports the liver and deficiency in the liver. Milk thistle deficiency for dogs that have a heat cycle. Raspberry leaf deficiency for dogs that I would say have a nervous proponency. That's balanced would be reishi mushroom and lion's mane mushroom. Those are very good for deficiency. Now, Ryan, this is a short. So I spoke about deficiency. And the next short will be about excess.

Okay.

And I'll answer your question about excess.

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