Natural Dogs Health – Keeping Canine Cancer Away

Evgeni Dinev

Canine cancer. A single word can turn your entire life upside down. But cancer is not the dreaded disease it is made out to be. Neither does it have to end in death.

Let’s look at health in general first. Good health is all about a healthy immune system. It is not about controlling disease. If your dog has a healthy immune system, he simply won’t get a disease, or it will only be a mild one, of short duration.

There are several factors that are important in keeping your dog’s immune system strong, including:

company
shelter from the elements
access to good water
lots of exercise
nutritious food

Dogs are pack animals. They need company. If you are out all day, then they need the company of at least one other animal. It doesn’t have to be another dog. But it does have to be another animal who likes your dog and who your dog likes.

Dogs dislike being out in stormy, windy, wet, freezing or extremely hot conditions. They will always seek shelter when free to do so. So if your dog is an outside dog, make sure their shelter is warm, comfortable, doesn’t leak and is not noisy. A tin roof may frighten the living daylights out of a sensitive dog when it rains, or worse, hails.

Any water is preferable to no water, but good water would have no chemicals in, no fluoride. Rain water, filtered water, or pure spring water are all healthier than water straight from the tap. Cold water is often preferred in hot conditions. This can be obtained from using a ceramic dish, in an all day shady spot.

Dogs need exercise. Depending on their size and level of health, they need probably a lot more than you provide. If your time is limited, then teaching your dog to chase after (and return) a tennis ball throw with a racket in a safe environment, could be the answer. Two walks a day are the minimum, even if they aren’t very long. It’s also more healthy for you to get out a lot more than you may be doing.

By virtue of the frequency of meals, properly nutritious food is one of the most important aspects of dog health.

If you fail in any of these areas, your dog’s immune system will be too low to maintain good health. When the health of your dog deteriorates and you have him treated with veterinary medication, you will further lower his immune system. Veterinary medication doesn’t treat the cause of disease, it deals with the effect, often just suppressing the symptoms.

Every single dog (and every other animal) will try their hardest to survive. Giving a dog an immune suppressive drug will not necessarily have an immediate impact on his health. Systems spring into action to try to overcome this extra burden. But over time, they prevent your dog’s inbuilt survival mechanism from working. And so opening the door for canine cancer to develop.

This means, that you can also reverse the process, depending on how far developed it is, and what medication he has received.

You can reverse canine cancer. It is a man made disease. It is created by getting many important parts of a dog’s natural life wrong.

Apart from addressing the above factors, homeopathic treatment can be highly successful at restoring your dog’s immune system to its former glory.

Start feeding your dog nutritious food that will improve his immune system.
Naturally Healthy Dogs.

Natural Dogs Health – Human Salmonella From Commercial Pet Food

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There has been a recent outbreak in various states of the United States of people infected with salmonella poisoning. It is thought that it comes from contact with dry pet food. It’s not the first time a commercial pet food brand has been found contaminated with salmonella and it probably won’t be the last.

Reports don’t go on to reveal the harm done to the pets fed this food.

Salmonella enteritidis is a bacteria that causes intestinal infections. It is very common. It is commonly present in raw meats, eggs and dairy, but at a level that rarely causes problems. Food poisoning normally occurs when the food that is eaten has been kept too long, which allowed the bacteria to spread rapidly.

Cooking destroys the bacteria.

Now, bearing in mind that most pet food comes from rendering plants, which have to comply with few if any laws, and you can begin to make a connection. The raw material may come from the waste from slaughter houses, butchers and commercial kitchens but also from road kill, euthanised animals from veterinary clinics, zoos, small laboratories, farms, stock markets and so forth.

So the source of the pet food is already old. Its transport is not refrigerated. The carcasses or meat waste is often left outside or in unprotected areas, until the plant is ready to use it.

This means the origin of most pet food is likely to be highly contaminated with many bacteria, including salmonella.

However, the processing of this food, if you can call it that, is under very high temperatures and pressures. This is why there is little concern for the bacteria to be active in the end result.

For the end result to be infected, it must indicate that there are further questionable procedures at the plant, that allow for the cross contamination of the waste and carcasses with the end result.

This is unsurprising, given the nature of the plants. What is surprising is that it doesn’t happen more frequently.

Salmonella poisoning normally lasts around a week, with diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting and abdominal cramps. It is unpleasant but not fatal, unless the immunity of the host is badly compromised.

Medically, it is treated with antibiotics. But there are some highly effective holistic treatments that not only deal with the infection, but raise your level of immunity at the same time.

Homeopathic treatment, for both the infected human and the animal can make very short work of the whole process. Homeopathy works by matching your individual symptoms with those of the curative remedy.

And a better way for the future is to avoid commercial dog food altogether. Making your own dog food can be not only healthier for you but also healthier for your dog. You remain in control of the quality of the food.

Naturally Healthy Dogs shows you how to make this a simple and healthy option.

Natural Dogs Health – Dog Crates

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One of the worst punishments for humans is to lock them away, particularly in isolation. Yet this is what many otherwise caring people do to their dogs, and other animals, on a daily basis.

Crating a dog seems to be a normal habit for many. Yet it denies them freedom, access to companionship and encourages muscle atrophy and constipation, at the very least.

Dog crates can have a purpose. When traveling, particularly by plane, a dog must be confined. Sometimes it is best to use a dog crate when introducing a new animal into the family, at least for the first few minutes to establish if there is likely to be conflict.

Crating a puppy at night allows you to have him in your bedroom without creating a mess. This is better for the puppy than confining him in isolation, in the laundry. Other uses for crating a dog for very short periods can be useful.

But to confine a dog to a crate all day, while you are at work, is nothing less than extreme cruelty.

Dog are highly active animals. In the wild, dogs can travel many miles in a single day. It is not for nothing that some dog breeds are used for herding sheep or cattle, for pulling sleds or even for hunting. All these pursuits, whatever you think of them, need dogs who have stamina and endurance. Most dogs have both.

Dogs are highly social animals. They are pack animals. They need companionship. Without at least one other pack animal (be it another dog, any other animal or you), they are miserable. They may adapt. They may compensate for the loss. But they will never be happy. Or balanced.

The triple wammy of no freedom, no room to move and no companion will lead to untold emotional problems and a myriad of physical health problems.

If you cannot have a dog without crating him for long or regular periods, you would be much kinder not to have a dog.

Some breeders crate their dogs as they mature. This is even worse, as young dogs need to have a lot of exercise to physically mature. They also need to be in the company of other dogs to learn how to socialise.

If you buy a dog, you are wise to know if they have ever been crated for long periods. If they have, you are risking taking on an emotionally and physically disturbed dog.

Such a dog is likely to be fearful of open spaces, at least to begin with. Muscle tone will be undeveloped, so care needs to be taken not to overdo the exercise initially.

They will probably have no social skills. Punishing them will enforce the fear. The best way to socialise such a dog is with another dog up to the task. Patience, a gentle approach, but also using language that dog understands, rather than human language, will all go a long way to bring such a disturbed dog back.

Crating a dog (or any other animal) for any length of time should be illegal. Don’t fall into the trap of doing it to make your life easier. Think of your dog first. You asked him into your life. You make the changes. You adapt.

Natural Dogs Health – Perceived Values

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Perceived values have nothing whatever to do with real value. The perceived value, of say a hard backed book, is much greater than that of a paperback. Both may contain the same information, but our humanness perceives one to be of greater value than another.

That may be because a hard back book will last longer. But the contents, the information is exactly the same.

Price is another area where real value has nothing to do with perceived value. Marketers spend much time tweaking prices to find the one that sells the most. Low prices are usually perceived as low value, while high prices are perceived as having high value.

In the case of established systems, medical and veterinary care is often perceived as having higher value than alternative health. It is often only experience that changes our minds.

Many years ago I adopted a kitten who had been found in a lay by. He was small and very thin. He also has a serious problem with his hips. He looked as if he was a Persian or part Persian. Perhaps he was inbred. He may have been injured. Or it may simply have been a lack of nutrition during his formative months.

After getting his weight back up, I took him for a vet’s visit. This vet was one of the old school. He was wise and knowledgable. He knew the limitations of his discipline. He said there was little he could do. The old school of vets knew when to leave things alone.

Greylion could get about very well, but couldn’t jump or run. He didn’t appear to be in any pain, and seemed quite happy in every other way.

A few years later I had to consult another vet, a more modern vet who suggested surgery, as there had been so many recent advances. It seemed a good idea at the time. But it was a disaster. I should have remembered the first vet’s advice. After the surgery, the cat could no longer walk at all, and died not long afterwards.

Not long after that experience I started on my homeopathic journey.

A few years ago, I adopted a dog who had been run over. The damage had affected his spine, leading to incontinence in both departments, weak back legs and a tail that didn’t wag.

Toby has only had homeopathic treatment. He is far from perfect yet, but he is active, happy, races after his ball, rather lopsidedly, but the speed is there. He is still a little incontinent, but there does seem to be more sensation. His tail sometimes wags now, but involuntarily.

Homeopathic treatment is non invasive. The worst thing you can do is to get the wrong remedy. In some situations, that can cause problems. But these are short lived and of a temporary nature. No lasting harm can be done.

People, or animals, who have been given the death sentence by their doctor or veterinarian, often turn to homeopathy as a last resort. And in many cases, it can turn the problem around completely.

Being human, we do tend not to think much. We are often too busy to give due consideration to important issues. Until we are confronted with the ultimate.

I suggest we need to stop following the herd and start to follow our feelings and gut instincts. Often we are persuaded to do something against our better judgement, because of the perceived value of the person or product.

The herd is not always right, for either the herd or the individuals in it. Everyone is different. Every situation and circumstance is different. These differences should be honoured and respected, not ridiculed.

This is exactly what homeopathy does and is just one of the reasons I am so happy to have found it. There is nothing that homeopathy can’t treat, because it treats the individual, not the problem. And it is the individual who is out of natural balance that creates the problem.

Natural Dogs Health – Natural Pain Relief

image by Grant Cochrane

Pain is not something well tolerated by most people. So, when it comes to their dogs in pain, most caring people want to help the dog. However, the common use of veterinary analgaesics can be damaging to your dog’s health. Natural dogs health is all about supporting the health of your dog naturally and effectively and pain relief is no exception.

First of all, it’s important to understand where the pain is coming from. Then what you can do to eliminate it. For example, the treatment of the pain of an injury is very different from the treatment of the pain of a chronic illness.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of this topic, let’s examine humans and their reaction to pain. Humans have learned to expect pain relief. Most of us grew up on fixing pain. In any way, almost regardless of the consequences. Pain is looked upon as a negative condition.

But pain is a very valuable condition to have. For example, when we have been injured, often the best thing we can do is to go to bed and rest. The pain will often disappear when we do this. This gives our body a chance to heal.

But humans want to keep going, so they take an analgaesics and don’t stop, hindering the healing process.

Animals are much more sensible. They will go somewhere quiet, curl up and go to sleep. In a healthy dog, this may be all that is necessary to trigger the immune response to start healing.

Veterinary analgaesics come at a price. They are liver toxic and lower the immune system. They don’t help healing in any way, as they simply suppress the pain. This can lead to further harm being done. Analgaesics are often over-used as we interpret dogs pain in the same way we feel it ourselves.

Having said that, it is always better to alleviate pain than to allow suffering. Luckily, there is a way to do just that without harming your dog.

The best natural pain relief, the best pain relief, comes by treating the source of the pain. If this is an injury, then the best treatment to stimulate natural healing will also alleviate the pain.

If the pain comes from a chronic illness, say arthritis, then the best treatment for this pain is by treating the source, the arthritis.

By treating the source of the pain, the pain will disappear, because now it is no longer necessary. Now the healing has begun.

The best natural pain relief, no the best pain relief, is undoubtedly homeopathic. If you have ever experienced curative homeopathic treatment for a painful condition, you will know how effective it is. There is no dulling of the senses, there is no suppression of the symptoms. Curative homeopathic treatment of a painful condition tends to cure the pain first.

It is wonderful to know there is a highly effective system of health care that does not harm, that is fast and that quickly relieves pain as it cures the source of the pain.

However, you may not be able to take your dog to a homeopath. They are, as yet, not as plentiful as veterinarians. Few vets are homeopathically trained, although that is changing slowly.

There are two other options open to you. You can study homeopathic home prescribing, so you learn to use some of the common homeopathic remedies yourself. This is invaluable and can help save you much anguish and many $$.

The use of the Bach flower essence, Rescue Remedy can be usefully employed in many situations while you work out what to do. Rescue Remedy has a broad scope of dealing with pain and anxiety from a variety of causes. It will help trigger a healthy healing response, without any toxic side effects. In some situations, this is all that is necessary.

Click on the high lighted words for to learn about the common homeopathic home prescribing remedies.