Vital Animal News: September 22, 2024
Dog knees; Gorillas lead the way; Dog Day in Nepal; Organic or Schmorganic? Bad breath tips and More.
If Your Dog Gets “Knee-zles”
Man Copies Gorilla
Nepal Honors The Dog
Organic or Faking It?
Tasty Tips: Bad Breath!
Along the Natural Path
My Dog Blew Out his Knee!
If you haven’t run into this disease, you may well at some point, depending on how much time and money you spend on conventional medical procedures.
The disease I’m talking about is cranial cruciate ligament injury, CCL for short.
The blame usually gets placed on your dog. Wrongly.
“Must have stepped in a hole, I dunno. All of a sudden he was carrying his left rear leg.”
I wrote a post about how that blame needs to be redirected to where it properly belongs: Cruciate Cruciate Rupture: Missing The Big Picture
It’s actually our old friend, “prevention.”
Oh oh. Vet visits that aim to prevent illness but in fact create chronic disease?
I’m afraid so.
Click on the image to discover the connection.
I was reminded of this reading an article in Veterinary Practice News, “Using integrative rehab for optimal outcomes in cranial cruciate ligament disease cases.”
The author must be hearing a falsehood frequently, as she’s calling out a phrase calling the butchery surgery called TPLO the “gold standard.”
She, like I state in my article, points out the common problems with this “gold standard,” including but not limited to:
Huge expense
Rarely offering long term relief
Likelihood of the opposite limb blowing in the future
Bone cancer all too common at the site of the surgery later on
So, if your dog suddenly comes up 3-legged lame, sits with that hind limb sticking oddly out, and your vet finds a “drawer sign,” and wants to sign you up for a TPLO surgery, don’t blame the hole no one saw.
And if you want to prevent this all too common orthopedic mess, it’s time to rethink the prevention machine that cranks this and many other long standing problems out on a daily basis.
Self-medicating Gorillas
Gotta love it when we humans humble ourselves enough to follow the lead of animals in treating our illnesses.
A recent study tracked gorillas (gotta love their Latin name, too: Gorilla gorilla gorilla!) who live in Gabon and selectively consume four herbs.
The scientists, with their penchant for complication, call the study of this self medicating by animals “Zoopharmacognosy.”
Whatever.
The cool part is that the local humans have learned from the great apes that these particular herbs have great value!
In this case, all four are tree barks, but from different species of plants.
The researchers found that the bark of all four plants had antibacterial activity against at least one multidrug-resistant strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli. The fromager tree showed "remarkable activity" against all tested E.coli strains.
All four plants contained compounds that have medicinal effects, including phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins. However, it's not clear if gorillas consume these plants for medicinal or other reasons.”
Herbs and homeopathy
I’d been impressed with herbal medicine reports from early on in my holistic vet journey, begun while I was still in conventional practice in the late 80’s.
Like many seeking alternative therapies, my initial path of formal training was acupuncture.
After a year of sticking needles into various animals, I learned of the first homeopathic certification training for vets1, and I was enamored.
So much so that, even after my first module (of 5 over a year’s time), I set about applying remedies to my patients.
Herbs were still interesting, and I had a few combos in my clinic, but one of the things I loved about homeopathy was its inherent safety.
If a toddler happened on a tube of homeopathic pellets and found their sweet taste of interest, and ate the entire tube, there’d be no chance for a poisoning!
The remedies of homeopathy are “ultra-diluted” and yet very effective, as my animal patients showed me over and over.
My hat is off to the herbalists of the world, it’s just not my cup of tea, heh heh.
That’s not to say I don’t take some myself, but I trust the herbalists’ to lead me on that.
Dog’s Day of Honor
This is pretty remarkable.
When I visited Nepal, I was fortunate to stay with a lovely family there. Father, mother, and two teenage kids.
The kids and I would go for after dinner walks and I’d learn about their country and Kathmandu, the city they called home.
They told me about this special day where dogs are honored.
How cool is that?
Where I live in India, that’d be unheard of.
Most here are either dismissive of dogs or fear them or minimally, don’t want to touch them for fear of germs.
Two neighboring countries, easy passage for residents of either to cross the border, but widely different values.
Both populaces are predominantly Hindu, and this is a Hindu festival.
While we Westerners spend like crazy on our dogs, in the Nepali world, they get a special day of honor and worship!
Finding True Organic
You’ve probably noticed that the O word garners a higher price, and when ever that happens, cheaters do their best to jump on the bandwagon, hoping to cash in.
When I was in Austin, I knew of a huge factory dairy in the northern part of the state making outlandish claims, like “low heat pasteurization” to capture the co-op shoppers who trusted that hype.
Then, there are dairies and egg factories that claim “pasture raised” who are anything but.
Luckily, we’ve got a great outfit that keeps track of the genuinely organic vs the cheaters: the Cornucopia Institute.
One of their many resources will help you shop for the real thing, in dairy, eggs and meat and more, thanks to their free scorecards.
As expected, they run on donations, so if you find value, help them out.
Happy chickens, awesome eggs
In a similar vein, one of my past clients is heading a chicken farming group dedicated to marketing eggs from truly pasture raised, non-stressed, non-crowded birds.
If you’ve never experienced eggs like this, you owe it to yourself to check them out.
These are the ones with deep orange/yellow yolks that stand up when you crack them into your pan.
Or onto your pet’s food!
You know that’s a great upgrade to just about any diet you’re feeding dogs or cats who you call your own, right?
Especially if you’re still feeding a kibble of any sort.
That raw egg is the example other proteins are measured against.
And that raw egg adds the often missing ingredient to an otherwise deficient food: LIFE!
And, in case saturated fats have scared you, it’s worth knowing umpteen studies have failed to show that eating those fats (or cholesterol rich foods) have any negative effects on your health, heart included.
In other words, eating cholesterol doesn’t raise your blood cholesterol.
Nina Teicholz has the low down for you.
Tasty Tips: Bad Breath!
Margaret asked this week:
My 14 1/2 yr old cockapoo’s breath is awful! Any suggestions?”
Any guesses if wolves or lions have awful bad breath?
I can’t speak from personal experience, as the closest I got in my St. Louis Zoo rotation in vet school was still behind bars in most cases, but I’d hazard a guess:
No way.
A great place to start is a mouth exam at home.
Think that’s too hard? It really needn’t be.
Rather than struggling to open an unwilling mouth, just use your finger to pull the upper lip up and back, giving you a view of the teeth and gums.
You should be able to see if there’s dirty looking teeth and/or flaming red gums (pink is normal, white teeth ditto).
If you see discolored teeth and/or gums (or really, even if you think they look pretty okay), the next step is bringing “Nature’s toothbrush” to bear.
That’s aka raw bones.
If you’ve never done this, here’s a post to help you do it right, kick any fear to the curb and get ‘er done: Common Sense in the Mouth
I’d be willing to bet that bad breath will wind its way out over the next few weeks of regular offerings of raw bones.
That’s what the wolf and lions use of course, and have forever.
Way better than any toothbrush and your animal will thank you (as will the rest of the family when that breath sweetens up and the teeth start to shine again).
I originally wrote this post in response to hearing way too many clients tell me they were dreading a teeth cleaning that’d been recommended.
I’d look in Sadie’s mouth and see nothing that warranted an anesthetic and an entire cleaning procedure!
Rx raw bones, and the problem cleared up!
Try this at home, kids! It works!
And remember: you can’t go wrong using Mother Nature as your example to follow.
She’s wise and her strategies have been time tested. Over, well… millennia!
Along the Natural Path
More hints of an early Fall here in No. India. Fingers crossed as these few cool mornings are truly heartening. Morning shadows are lengthening as well, so I know the days are shortening and the intensity of summer is nearing its end.
I realized cycling the other morning at 80º and 87% humidity that moist air, at least when the temps are moderated by early hours, is quite soothing to me. Revelation. Felt good breathing it in. Would the “hot but dry heat” of Arizona feel the same? Probably not for this body.
I chanced upon a couple of very out of place langur a couple mornings back, after I’d cycled through my favorite tiny village.
A first sighting of these here for me, though they were a semi common highlight of my mountain hikes in Uttarakhand. One of the wise ones, with 6 foot long tails, not bothered by much, and not trouble makers like the urban nightmares of Vrindavan, the macaques.
Those monkeys will steal your glasses and hold them for ransom up a nearby tree. Toss a pack of biscuits or a fruit juice box to the perp and down come your glasses.
A question one has to evaluate a bit more often in India: “Who’s got the right of way here?”
Sometimes it’s more obvious than others.
Second only to their apparent docility, these wandering bulls amaze me at how they build muscle so well, from grass alone.
In the US, they’d be eating corn and soy (likely GE, ruining their microbiome). Life is simpler in third world countries.
Finally, a major third world resource I’ve long admired.
Long term source of building materials, from fence posts to rails, to housing material and even a green bridge over the road.
Where ever you find yourself wandering on this amazing globe spinning through space at unfathomable speed, be sure you’re regularly drinking in Nature’s bounties. Good for you, good for those who you call your own.
Till next time,
Will Falconer, DVM
Vets interested in homeopathy, please consider this training. It was world changing for me.
Having used veterinarians who have taken Pitcairn's courses, it has become my belief that the vast majority of "veterinary homeopaths" are simply allopaths who use remedies allopathically. Independent thought does not survive the indoctrination of veterinary school (or med school) for most. Your pal and podcast guest Todd Cooney is a great example. I was told to repeat a 10M remedy daily as needed. Of course my dog's symptoms worsened - he proved the remedy! No, there needs to be a mass of "lay people" learning constitutional homeopathy, getting their CCH credential and treating animals along with people. We need to take back medicine from the corrupt veterinarians and doctors!
Thank you Will more great info, my Dog did his cruciate lig chasing a deer, when he was 11 years old but homeopathy, laser acupuncture and red light therapy then hydro came to the rescue with massage inbetween. Had I have gone to a vet he would have wanted to use surgery, my dog is now 15 years old and v happy thank you.