3 Simple Tips to Help Your Hypothyroid Dog

3 Simple Tips to Help Your Hypothyroid Dog

by | HA! Endocrine, HA! for Diseases, HA! for weight gain

The Problem

Beau walked slowly into my office a few months ago and he obviously had a problem. A BIG problem. He was so obese that he looked like an engorged tick with a little head and legs sticking out from a huge body. He had no hair. He could barely get up after lying down.

Beau’s energy level and willingness to go for walks had been decreasing for a few months. At the same time, he was sleeping more and it was often difficult to rouse him from sleep. He was no longer greeting his family members when they came home from work.

He was also gradually losing hair from both sides of his body. It was just falling out. He wasn’t itchy, and didn’t have any skin abnormalities like hot spots.

Beau’s concerned guardians had taken him to their local veterinarian for an exam and blood tests. Aside from his obesity and alopecia (missing hair) everything checked out OK physically. The vet suspected that an underactive thyroid was causing a decreased metabolism, along with all of his signs and symptoms. 

Blood tests confirmed barely detectable thyroid hormone levels. It also showed that he had a mild anemia and elevated cholesterol, which are also commonly seen in hypothyroidism.

The vet prescribed vitamins and a prescription weight reduction diet. 

Lifelong Drugs?

During their follow-up appointment, Beau’s vet rechecked him and reported the results. Despite the vitamins and prescription weight reduction diet that he had prescribed, Beau had not lost a single pound or regrown any hair. Only one option was offered for the resolution of Beau’s hypothyroidism. Daily synthetic thyroid hormone.

These should help Beau’s clinical problems but would not solve the problem. These artificial hormones would therefore have to be continued throughout his life.

Lucky for him, Beau’s guardians were holistically minded and did not like the idea of giving drugs every day. They consulted with the seemingly omniscient “Dr. Google” and found that indeed there were other options for is treatment. Despite what they had been told by their family vet.

The Solution

The following 3 simple lifestyle and medical modifications allowed full resolution of Beau’s clinical symptoms with no need for synthetic drugs. His weight is back to normal, his coat has fully regrown, and he has regained his zest for life.

hypothyroid dog, holistic pet careHERE IS HOW:

  1. Constitutional homeopathic treatment. “Constitutional” means it’s unique to each individual and is selected based on lifelong symptoms and characteristics. This treatment addresses all of the imbalances in his body, not just the low thyroid hormone.
  2. Fresh food with no processed, carbohydrate-laden dry or canned food. This means primarily raw (or cooked) meats and some steamed vegetables fed in moderation and variety.
  3. Supplementation with thyroid glandulars, trace minerals, soluble Coenzyme Q10, etc.

All of Beau’s physical problems resolved and his blood test abnormalities continue to improve. Biochemical changes often lag behind the outwardly observable improvement. Successful homeopathic and holistic treatment can normalize the blood values as well. 

Lifelong daily thyroid hormones can be avoided with homeopathic treatment. Even better is the resultant higher level of health and happiness that our devoted and beloved companions deserve.

Is the Food you Feed Helping or Hurting Your Pets?

Is the Food you Feed Helping or Hurting Your Pets?

by | HA! Nutrition, HA! Staying Healthy

Food has been used as a safe and effective medicine for thousands of years.

Living food is vital and gives our pets the nutrients and energy they need to survive, thrive, and heal. The freshest foods promote wellness and speed this healing. fresh and vital foods help healingProcessed pet foods have most of their vitality removed.

The high heat and pressure used during manufacturing destroys most of their living parts and healing properties. These de-vitalized foods then need these essential nutrients added back to them.

Dry and wet dead foods can predispose your pets to nutritional, allergic and autoimmune dis- eases. Even fatal poisoning from toxins in the ingredients.

Most of our pets love food and live to eat. They have to eat whatever we give them and rely on us to feed them well and deserve better than this.

Fresh, living (vital) food is ideal and what their bodies crave. If you feed kibble or canned foods try mixing in some fresh food with their next meal and see what gets eaten first.

Real food is known to help resolve diabetes and obesity, mouth and dental dis-eases, skin and ear problems, inflammatory bowel and heart dis-eases etc.

The freshness of the food we feed our companion animals directly influences length and quality of their lives.

Help your pets today. Feed Fresh Food.

Here is the food vitality scale. Where does your pet food fall on it?

vitality scale, dog food, pet nutrition, cat food, raw food, holistic actions

 

Practicing Proactive Prevention and Treatment to Best Help Our Pets (Brain Tumor Case)

Practicing Proactive Prevention and Treatment to Best Help Our Pets (Brain Tumor Case)

by | HA! for Diseases, HA! Holistic Medical Decision Making (HMDM)

Seemingly without warning, your beloved companion animal develops a life-threatening illness.

Sue and Bear’s story can help you decide what to do.

Bear is a playful eight year young Bulldog. All of a sudden he started having seizures.

His worried guardian brought him to a neurologist who ran diagnostic tests that showed a large brain tumor.

Why did this happen?

Sue had tried to do everything right. She fed local raw meats in variety, minimized vaccines and drugs, didn’t use any flea or tick poisons, etc.

Important Questions – HMDM Method

What happened and what can Sue do now?

Her HMDM (Holistic Medical Decision Making) STEP 1 goal is to get Bear as healthy, in any way, for him to have the best quality of life for as long as possible.

That brought Sue to HMDM STEP 2. Investigate the problem and learn all of the possible treatments.

Her neurologist laid out the current conventional options. These were steroids and other chemotherapy, surgery and Cyberknife (radiation). None of them would save Bear’s life, but they might buy him a few months.

This didn’t seem like much time. Especially considering all of the side-effects and quality of life lowering limitations of each.

So Sue quickly (she didn’t have much time to help Bear) moved on in her research. And learned more about everything from special diets, nutritional supplements, acupuncture, etc. that were claimed to help seriously ill dogs.

Bear had already tried some of these holistic treatments prior to skin tumors had been removed. None of them seemed suited to this dire situation.

A week went by and Bear was getting worse. It was time to move on to HMDM STEP 3.

The Answer and Holistic Action!

During Sue’s research, Bear’s guardian learned more about the holistic and homeopathic perspective. One that was not currently accepted conventionally, but which could help.

The brain tumor might have resulted from a subtle internal energetic imbalance.

The idea being that the imbalance first resulted in seemingly minor problems like his skin tumors. Even though they were removed, the underlying cause persisted.

It therefore made sense to address this underlying problem directly. Even if most US veterinarians said that it was not “real”. As Bear’s guardian learned, this was not the case elsewhere.

She therefore chose to find a veterinarian who could treat this way and work alongside her neurologist. Her veterinary team was complemented by holistic practitioners of massage, Reiki, flower essences and other gently supportive methods. Everything possible to give Bear the best possible life.

Fine-tuning the Vital Force

Sue was then introduced to the homeopathic concept of regaining health by listening very closely to Bear’s body. Apparently it had been “talking” to her all along. Through the externally visible and internally measurable symptoms.

They could then be used to treat him. Veterinary and MD homeopaths had hundreds of years of successful clinical outcomes. Even in critical cases and during otherwise fatal epidemics.

Treating and monitoring Bear using this approach required commitment on Sue’s part. She started keeping a daily journal of symptoms and responses to treatment.

In order to best use this seemingly unrelated information she touched base with her veterinary homeopath every few days.frequent short checkins with your homeopath will help your pets

That way, she was best able to help. By frequently evaluating symptom changes, both the underlying energetic balance and any side-effects from conventional treatments could be reduced.

At this time, Bear’s story is not finished, but he continues to be a happy boy.

You can also learn to help your pets as Sue did. The free resources on this site will get you started. If you’d like to go even further, Holistic Actions! Academy is here to help.

How to Decide if Allergies Should Be the Focus of Your Treatment

How to Decide if Allergies Should Be the Focus of Your Treatment

by | HA! Allergies, HA! for Diseases

Sophia is an adorable rescue pup safe and warm with her adoptive parents in Mexico.

Her history includes hepatitis and elevated liver enzymes, a luxating patella (dis-locating kneecap), allergies and some emotional ”issues”.

Are Sophia’s allergies really the main problem?

They are prominent and problematic. But are they really what needs to be fixed?

Sophia’s case is a great example of the benefits of observing and describing all of the symptoms. Especially in dogs and cats that have multiple health challenges.

Not focusing just on the most prominent and obvious symptoms.

Sophia had gone to the vet many times to try and help her itchy skin and rashes. The other problems were not considered to be related to her allergies.

It’s a big mistake to treat allergic symptoms as separate from the whole individual.

It was only during Sophia’s holistic evaluation that the other problems were even mentioned. They weren’t the focus of attention for her guardian or her veterinarians.

Treating one set of symptoms and diagnosis will not permanently resolve the underlying problem.

In this case, Sophia had been diagnosed with allergic skin disease related to environmental and food allergies. Many potential allergic triggers were found through extensive (and expensive) testing.

Special diets, fatty acids, anti-histamines and eventually steroids were used to control her itch. She didn’t itch while she took the steroids. As soon as she stopped them however, the itching returned.

When taking the steroids Sophia drank so much that she urinated all over the house. These treatments affected her quality of life. In addition, they only helped temporarily because they did not look in detail at the specific symptoms.

General symptom descriptions like “itching” or “a rash” only allow partial treatment. The underlying imbalance needs to be individualized to acieve the best outcome.

Because Sophia’s current treatment method was not working, her guardian started looking at other approaches. Ones that both looked closer at her specific symptoms as well as the rest of her life.

Holistic treatments are based on Sophia’s total symptom picture including her lifestyle, environment, and all physical and emotional symptoms.

The whole-istic approach takes into account the totality of symptoms. Sophia’s liver, joint and behavior issues were important parts of her totality. Not just her skin symptoms.

When they were considered within the context of her total being the drugs and supplements were eventually able to be stopped. Sophia’s itching didn’t return. Thanks to her new found internal balance.

Sophia was now fine when exposed to triggers that used to cause extreme itching. Her diet no longer had to be restricted. She ate a varied fresh food diet and remains itch free years later.

Not only that, but thanks to Sophia’s new holistic lifestyle her liver abnormalities resolved, she’s walking better and is calmer and not as anxious. She is having a richer and happier life!

You can also learn how to approach dis-ease treatment holistically. Proactively prevent dis-eases and manage them more effectively.

That’s what we do every day in our supportive Holistic Actions! Community. Join use below.

Be well.

Dr. Jeff

Can My Pets Eat Tofu?

by | HA! Nutrition, HA! Staying Healthy

Amy (my wife) asked about giving her uneaten Tofu to Vanya (our pup).

My short answer? “Absolutely!”

The less satisfying and longer answer is “it depends”.

Ideally you want to consider these factors before you try Tofu:

  1. Feed tofu ONLY if the soy is certified organic or not from genetically modified (GM) soy.
  2. Minimize or avoid tofu as a nutritional source in some cases (based on context). For example, if the mild synthetic estrogenic effect of the tofu is contraindicated (ask your vet if you’re unsure).
  3. Tofu and soy are actually beneficial for managing incontinence. Because of the effect mentioned above. Tofu will help tighten up the urinary passage and reduce, and even stop, urine leakage. Especially In female dogs that were spayed when immature.

Bottom line?

Tofu is usually fine to feed. Just not large amounts. As part of feeding variety.

Variety. Moderation. Fresh. That’s almost always the answer.