Healthy Animal Update August 2014           

Slightly late for August and full of good information. September and October will have reports from the homeopathy and holistic association conferences I am attending soon.

Please continue to let me know what you would like to learn about, how I can best help you heal your animals and yourselves while healing our planet. Prior newsletters can be found on my site, www.MyHealthyAnimals.com

The RSS feed should be now working on my web site. It does not seem to work on this newsletter page.  Go to any page of the website and click on the RSS icon. Then when I make posts to my blog, you will  be notified.  

August 2014 index

1.     Classes

2.     Holistic Perspectives and Treatments

3.     News

Classes

We had great fun at the 6 day Introduction to Homeopathy for Animals class in Gaithersburg Maryland. Stephanie graciously loaned her home and Kristen helped me immensely with all the details, like last minute certificates of attendance. Nick Albano of Veterinary Holistic Care of Bethesda, Janet Isherwood of the Catonsville Ophthalmology Practice and Mellissa MacFarland of Cape Horn Veterinary Practice in Red Lion, PA joined other healers and pet parents becoming grounded in how animals become ill and how they heal. They left with a lot of homework to learn more about homeopathy. Host a class in your town by emailing me. You need about 20 people and it can be a 2-6 day long class.

I do suggest everyone find a Reiki Instructor/Class and become Reiki attuned as this can be the most useful of any 100% safe treatments. It can also "take the bad" out of treatments you may be doing like Heartworm Preventative, Rabies vaccine, or if you are travelling and are concerned about the food or water you are giving. Most families have times of stress, even fun holiday times and Reiki can help with emotional upsets. My cat continues to ask for Reiki on his throat - maybe I am preventing hyperthryoidism.

Check www.Brighthaven.org if you live in California (Santa Rosa area) for acupressure and Reiki classes.

In the Maryland area in September and October are several Reiki and animal communication classes taught by Kathleen Lester and Terri Diener, both of whom I strongly recommend. One is September 6, so check it out today.

Other classes are offered across the country for many 100% safe approaches to health you can use regularly for your animals. Acupressure; massage; Tellington T-Touch, Healing Touch for Animals (HTA), applied kinesiology or dowsing, Bach Flower Therapy for animals (you can even get certified to practice this) are the most readily available.

The Gurney Institute of Animal Communication is offering classes in CA, UT, HI, MD over then next 5 months. She offers the Heart Talk Certification Program; Introductory Animal Communication Workshop; and the free monthly teleconferences. There is something here for everyone.  Encourage your veterinarian to join you.   

Holistic Perspectives and Treatments

What can be cured and when to start
Please read the July 2014 newsletter for a great overview on starting now to build health, seeing a great holistically minded or at least gentle conventional veterinarian yearly and how to be prepared for illnesses.

Often people contact me to treat their animal's illness when it is very severe and their veterinarian has said they can do no more to help..."end of the line". Can holistic approaches help? Almost always they can help at least a little. My peers and I definitely have treated animals in "hospice" who then lived for another 1-5 years - regardless of the presenting complaint. Cancer, renal failure, degenerative myelopathy, diabetes, Cushings, Addisons, stomatitis, and more have all responded and even been completely cured in some animals with various different treatments. Number ONE, then, is to never give up hope until your pet decides she has had enough.  Anything can be cured, just not in every person or animal.

My own cat was an example of this. She was ill from birth, eventually settling into a chronic upper respiratory problem. While her life was generally good, she sneezed clear mucus everywhere. I used homeopathy to the best of my ability, then consulted peers for homeopathy, then acupuncture, herbs, Reiki and more. She was still active and eating but not happy with her sore nose. By age 8 she was no better and no worse. I came home one day to find her dying, and she passed within an hour. Communicators agreed that she "felt I could not fix her, so she decided it was time to go get a new body." Not every animal can be cured of the physical ailments in this lifetime and often death is part of the cure.

One lesson for us to learn is acceptance, and joy in every moment. This is what our animals are teaching us. When, at any age, they choose to die, we need not have any guilt about what we did or did not do, rather honor our relationship by remembering all the fun times, the challenging times and what we learned from living with this animal.

We do not, however, want to accept illness without trying to cure it. I meet people with older animals who say "she is doing great - she limps and has warts but eats really well, so I think I will not contact holistic vets yet." The time to start holistic care is NOW. Please do not wait until your pet is getting sicker. Yes, I know you love your current veterinarian. They are sweet and gentle, come to the house, are beloved by your pets. That is good, but not enough. You may want to continue working with them (but research anything they suggest - heartworm, fleas, ticks, vaccines, treatments, diagnostics, etc) and begin some holistic approaches (diet, no vaccines, Reiki, flower essences, etc) until there are none of the Early Warning Signs of Internal Imbalance .

 If your pet is not 100% healthy right now, start holistic treatments rather than waiting. Learning (see old newsletters, articles on my web site, some of the many great holistic health care books for animals, internet, etc) how any living being responds to different treatments will help you decide when it is time to try another approach or practitioner.  Keeping a journal will help make these decisions much easier.

The very best, of course, is to begin approaching every animal now, while healthy, as a unique individual who may thrive with different foods, lifestyles, exercises, etc. Use the Early Warning
Signs to know if you are finding what is right for them.

Treatments for arthritis

One reader asked for breakthroughs for arthritis and last year I promised a report on new technologies. Many of the breakthroughs are for pain relief and arthritis. Because the conventional veterinary profession is focusing now on pain relief, you may need to say no a lot. Do not use the conventional drugs if any other method can help as they have many side effects. First we will review the holistic approach to any ailment. For those of you who are not yet working with an integrative veterinarian, many of these therapies are being used by conventional veterinarians and you can evaluate the efficacy through your knowledge of holistic principles and keeping a journal.

 What is the goal of holistic medicine - eliminating symptoms or rebalancing the energy field glitches that are causing the symptoms or both? While you may use some of the following therapies for symptom relief, your pets will benefit from concurrent deeper treatments. Many of you have been trying your best to prevent any illnesses by following the 7 keys to health, so your animals will not show "aging" symptoms. You may be offering Reiki daily, using flower essences for any emotional issues, herbs, acupressure or homeopathy for acute problems or many more healing approaches. You may be working with veterinarians who do chiropractic, homeopathy, TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) or more.

 None of us want our animals to suffer, or even be very uncomfortable. However, sometimes that is part of deep healing - allowing old symptoms to resurface, letting some lameness persist (if they are acting happy) while the deeper healing occurs. When tracking results to treatments in a journal, it is always important to note improvements in activity level and emotional state, even if the current symptoms are the same or mildly better. When past symptoms recur briefly and the Early Warning Signs of Internal Imbalance resolve, you know the current treatment is working at the deeper level.

 7 of the approaches to joint pain relief are covered by Dr. Canapp in the Animal Wellness Magazine.

 Homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic and botanical treatments

These are still, to me, the best approaches for any stiffness - muscular, skeletal or neurological.  Many veterinarians doing these modalities can also coach you in using acupressure, massage, Reiki, Healing Touch for Animals and other self cure methods.

 Exercise and Laser Therapy

Dr. McCauley covers the benefits of both in the IVC journal .  Increasing numbers of veterinarians are offering Physical Therapy with exercises, swim pools and more. The best is to find one with an integrative perspective. Next best is to learn the integrative perspective and use what they offer as long as it helps your dog or cat. Laser is stimulation of tissue with low energy light to achieve a therapeutic effect.

The effects at a cellular level include changes in ATP production in the cells, ATP release from the mitochondria, enhancing cell respiration by affecting mitochondrial nitric oxide synthase (mNOS), generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) to become secondary messengers, and changing the cellular calcium ion balance.

 Stem Cell Therapy

While not the newest around, new ways of using this effective therapy are continually being explored. In several articles in IVC Journal, Dr. Canapp covers the benefits and uses of this modality that more and more practitioners are using for joint health and much more. These regenerative cells initiate change in many ways:

1. Anti-inflammatory
2. Help T-lymphocytes proliferate.
3. Support tissue remodeling and regrowth of tissue and blood vessels.
4. They can migrate to sites where needed.

There are different sources for the cells, so do some research before selecting your veterinarian.

 Ozone therapy

One of the most exciting therapies now becoming popular is getting more oxygen to the tissues. In 1856, just 16 years after its discovery, ozone was utilized to sterilize instruments in a health care facility.  Then it became a major part of pain relief, detoxification and general healing. Over 40 countries today have active ozone organizations, though it is more popular in Europe than the USA. Ozone gives the body the extra oxygen needed to heal itself.

 It can be infused in the ears, rectum, vulva. It can be inhaled. Fluids or blood can be treated with it then used to flush wounds, inject under the skin or in the veins. More and more clinics are seeing such benefit that every ill animal receives ozone treatment in addition to other therapies. Read more at MASH vet, IVC journal, Animal Wellness magazine, and Oxygen Medicine

 Biophotonic therapy

A scientist, Emmitt K. Knott of Seattle, WA ran some experiments in the late 1800s.  By exposing blood to UVC rays he was able to successfully treat a woman critically ill with sepsis.  After several more years of experiments, Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation (UBI) or biophotonic therapybecame a very popular and successful method of treating infections and other ailments.   One study showed that graft versus host reactions in bone marrow transplants were reduced in dogs treated with UBI.

 O3UV - ozone and UBI together

Newest is a procedure combining the two approaches. A small amount of blood is withdrawn from the patient, mixed with saline, treated with ozone gas and then re-infused past the UV light and back to the patient.  

1. Inactivation of bacteria and virus
2. Oxygenation and increased circulation
3. Promotion of antioxidant buffering enzymes
4. Anti-inflammatory properties
5. Immune Modulation

 Whole body cryotherapy

OK - this was a big stretch for me to think about freezing dogs!! Well, not quite. Whole body Cryotherapy is rapid exposure of the body to extreme cold for a brief period. It originated in Japan during the late 1970's and has seen increasing use in human athletes and for health conditions.  A probably explanation is the cold "shocks" the neuroendocrine pathways, releasing of anti-inflammatory mediators ( IL-10, IL-4) and decreasing pro-inflammatory mediators ( IL-2, IL-8 ) . The feeling of "well being" is likely a result of endorphin release. The vasodilatory phase results in increased perfusion of injured tissue and skin to decrease itching and improve healing.

 In 2013 a study was done on dogs, using a canine cryotherapy chamber.  The purpose of this study was to determine safety and feasibility of WBC in dogs while simultaneously providing initial information on efficacy. Twelve dogs of various breeds and sizes were trained to be comfortable sealed up (with head out) in a box that exposed them to temperatures between -90°C and -110°C for three minutes.  Dogs were divided into four groups, each group receiving two treatments per week with one week of no treatment randomly assigned over a four week period.  Blinded owner assessments were used to evaluate response to the therapy. 

 All twelve dogs completed the study with no adverse effects and no owner compliance issues.  This study concludes that Whole Body Cryotherapy can be safely applied to canine patients.  It was well tolerated since none tried to exit the chamber, all were active and excited when leaving the chamber and on subsequent visits were not loathe to enter the chamber.  Itching and pain decreased in some of the dogs and some showed increased mobility. 

 News

GWAHVA (Greater Washington Area Holistic Veterinary Association) is meeting again (It is now in its 3rd incarnation). If your veterinarian in this area has any interest in exploring holistic approaches to health, encourage them to attend our monthly meetings. The first meeting was July .....For now the meetings will be in Germantown - contact DrK@hotmail.com (Dr. Kitty Raichura)

 Also, there is a wonderful new holistic veterinarian website and organization in New York State. Encourage your open minded conventional veterinarians to check that out.

 Next month New Therapies will include Fecal transplants and piezoelectric treatments.