A belated Happy Halloween. I loved all the care people took designing costumes that made their pets feel comfortable yet funny or endearing.
Please 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
October 2014 index
- Classes so you can heal your
animals
- Holistic Perspectives and Treatments – aggression and eyes
- News
1. Classes
None of my classes are scheduled at this time. If you are getting the RSS feed, I will be passing on information about classes
as I hear of them.
The Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy is committed to encouraging veterinary students and veterinarians with some interest in homeopathy to attend our annual conference. For that reason, the 2015 conference in June will be in Lynchburg, VA with a very low tuition and dorm rooms available for low price (with kitchens). Please encourage your veterinarian to
attend and let any students know about it.
Schools I recommend to empower you to heal your animals:
Acupressure – Tall Grass Acupressure School - www.animalacupressure.com – based in Colorado, they offer online classes and in 2015 hands on classes in AZ, Ohio, Colorado, England and in 2016 – Florida. Healing Touch for Animals - http://www.healingtouchforanimals.com/.
They offer level one classes in 2015 in Alaska, AZ, CO, FL, IL, MD, MN, NC, OH, NC, PA, TX, VT, VA, WA, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, Massage – Nine schools are listed on the animal massage organization page, with classes in FL, NY, TX, OH, WA, CA, and OH
And of course, Reiki to be found in your own town, which, as you know, I think every person should
learn.
2. Holistic Perspectives and Treatments
I was surprised not to get a lot of comments on last month’s coverage of fecal transplants!
Nothing so radical this
month.
Possible cause for aggression on raw meat diets
Steve Brown, author of See Spot Live Longer and Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet has been doing even more research. He has made a correlation between feeding a too high fat diet with aggression in some dogs. In his second book there
are many tables comparing the vitamins, minerals and nutrient content of processed foods, raw food diet recipes and the wolf diet. Often we are feeding a 60% or 70% lean ground beef diet. 70 % provides much less protein than NRC levels for puppies and not quite enough for adults. It also gives over the safe upper limit of fat. Even if liver and vegetables were added, the diet still would exceed standards for total fat, and would be well short of minimum recommendations for protein for puppies.
Most importantly, 70% lean provides only 50% of the tryptophan recommended and a lack of tryptophan can definitely cause aggression. Even adding fatty ground meat to a commercial food will produce lower levels of tryptophan than recommended.
Since every dog and cat are different, some will be fine with the lower tryptophan and others will not. If you have a genetic
susceptibility to aggression, the bitch is fed a fatty diet, the puppies are fed the same and the new owners are too busy to do excellent training, aggression may result.
More reading and research need to be done.
For now, Steve Brown
recommends feeding 85% lean ground beef for adults, and 88% lean for puppies. Rotating ruminant and poultry is best. One can rotate two relatively inexpensive meats, 80% lean ground beef (which on its own lacks tryptophan) and chicken necks with the skin and separable fat removed (on its own has too much Ca and P), to produce an excellent base. Rotating ruminant with poultry, one day beef, next day chicken, helps balance the fats, minerals, and amino acids.
I do recommend avoiding ground meat at all (higher incidence of bacteria, does not clean the teeth nor strengthen the jaw) and using big chunks, but now we want to pay attention to behavior changes and manage the fat content. I am still researching the different premade raw food diets (like the BARF world diet on my site) for balanced fats and amino acids like
tryptophan.
Nutrition Panel Discussion
Eye health
I had a question recently
from a former student about vision impairment in her older dog. Acupuncture and chiropractic was keeping her mobile, but she was stumbling over steps and had a cloudy eye. She worried it was glaucoma.
The most common old dog white eye issue is nuclear sclerosis. The layers (constantly being laid down) in the center of the lens (oldest) harden, turning blue. This usually does
not affect vision a lot, but it can affect depth perception, cause hesitation on steps or in the dark. Conventionally there is no cause for this and no breed predisposition.
Cataracts, which many people think their dog has when it is sclerosis, will eventually cause blindness because the clumping of proteins causes a crystalline structure that is impervious to light.
There are many contributing factors to cataract formation – diabetes, vaccine reactions, toxicity, generally weak vital force during aging and genetics (often in cockers, poodles, huskies, schnauzers, Goldens, Labradors, Maltese, Terriers). Personally I see them most in miniature poodles and Yorkies.
Glaucoma can be breed related (primary), often in basset hound, chow, cocker spaniel, Jack Russell, Shih tzu, and Huskies
and can occur at any age. Any eye problem that blocks the normal flow of aqueous fluid can cause secondary glaucoma. The key symptom is pain. You may notice lack of desire to play, pawing at the face/eye, squinting and a dilated pupil. Because you are keeping a journal and doing a physical every month or so you would notice this dilated pupil. Sometimes you can tell that the eye is bulging or seems larger or that one eye seems smaller (that would be the normal one). Loss of vision occurs toward
the end of the deterioration of the eye, so it is important to catch this early, as holistic can possibly restore vision, but not easily.
Treatment
Nuclear sclerosis usually does not need specific treatment. Cataracts have been a challenge to resolve holistically. There have been many individual success stories,
but each seems to respond to different treatments. Cineraria maritima, in various forms, seems to be the most common treatment, but until recently it was in preparations that burned a bit, so compliance was low. Surgery may be necessary if the dog is completely blind. Glaucoma is treated first holistically then, if needed, with conventional drugs or surgery to remove the eye. Now, I am treating my cataract (early) with Natural Ophthalmics Rx eye drops for Cataract and it does not burn at
all. Ocuglo is another company with reported success. I would, of course, also be treating the entire animal with homeopathy, TCVM, Reiki, and any treatment to balance the energy field and restore health in general.
Building eye health
There are some supplements that do specifically address eye health, so good to
use in susceptible breeds as well as regular eye exams by yourself and at your annual physical with your wonderful integrative veterinarian.
- Weight management is important – though balanced diet (fresh) and exercise.
- Strongly avoid toxins – house cleaners, yard, vaccines, flea chemicals, chemicals in general.
- Antioxidants,
specifically vitamins C and E, scavenge free radicals.
- Bilberries are an excellent source of flavonoids and have antioxidant properties as well.
- Beta-carotene, lutein, glutathione, rutin, super oxide dismutase, and alpha lipoic acid..
- I have written before about the need for harnesses and not collars for walking your dog. Dr.
Karen Becker commented that a collar or even too tight a harness increase inter-cerebral or intraocular pressure.
3. News
The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association’s annual conference was good news for those of you wanting holistically trained veterinarians with whom to work. Over 400 attended and many sat in for a day of the Academy of Veterinary
Homeopathy Conference that began a few days before the AHVMA. The Introduction to Homeopathy evening packed the room as veterinarians heard of the power of even one dose of a homeopathic remedy to cure cancer and remodel a jaw. We all know these deep cures do not always happen. Just knowing they can keeps us going.
A dream of mine is now happening. Veterinarians (so offer to
help your holistic vet get started doing this) can enter EVERY case they begin to treat with homeopathy into a web data collected program, then put follow up treatments and results. If we all do this, we can collect enough data to nourish many effective studies which will make the state boards more open to allowing you access to the holistic medicine you want. www.CuredCases.com. They do NOT need to be cured before entering.
If your pets, past and present, have been helped with holistic approaches, please enter them on the Holistic Foundation web site. Vets can’t – only you! www.AHVMF.org While there, think of making a contribution which is being used to fund education in the veterinary schools and research. Please let me know if you submit a case, so I can be sure they are getting posted. Also, you could ask your vet to post your success on the www.curedcases.com and could also send to me for publication on
the Integrative Veterinary Care Journal Website. www.IVCjournal.com
