Over the past 30 years we have learned so much about taking good care of our pets, right? We feed them “premium” high dollar pets foods, give them tasty packaged treats, vaccinate them yearly, bathe them with expensive shampoos, give them heartworm preventative, use flea collars or flea and tick preventative, brush their teeth, and get yearly checkups with our vets.
Then why are our pets not healthier? Why, instead, are they getting more and more humanlike diseases such as allergies, diabetes, thyroid problems, cancer, and on and on? Why are their coats not so shiny anymore, and they seem to scratch and itch all the time? Why are they so lazy and sleep all the time? Why do they still smell bad, have waxy ears, and bad plaque on their teeth?
The biggest problem points to nutrition, or lack thereof. But I feed my pet a high premium pet food recommended by my vet you might say. Exactly - that, however, is the problem. These so-called premium foods are full of “byproducts”, corn meal, and many other things our pets were never designed to eat nor utilize in their bodies. The preservatives alone are not allowed in human products so how could our pets be expected to digest these toxins without repercussions to their health? The “byproducts” are things that should just be destroyed and not used for anything let alone pet food.
Another problem is exactly the thing you thought were protecting them: yearly vaccinations. This is a huge problem because the rabies vaccine is the one that is mandated by law and it the very worst one for your pets. These yearly vaccinations are not only not necessary but could be a major contributor to the diseases that are plaguing our pets. Vaccinosis is the result of all this over vaccinating and possibly even the culprit behind all the diagnosed diseases resulting in the decline of the health of pets.
Combine poor food, over vaccinating, with the toxins from flea collars, pet toothpaste, packaged treats, and preventative medicines and you’ve got unhealthy, immune suppressed pets that lack the energy to do much more than sleep.
Okay, so now what? Fortunately there are solutions and the best one to start with is food; preferably raw. If that doesn’t appeal to you there are other solutions and answers to help you help your pets on the road to wellness. There are now pet foods on the market that have human grade ingredients without all the toxic preservatives and byproducts. Here are a few to get you started:
http://www.canidae.com
http://www.pets4life.com/
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petfood.htm
http://www.holistichorse.com
http://www.herbsnbirds.com
There are solutions to protect your pet in lieu of vaccinations and still comply with the law. Holistic veterinarians have alternatives to help you in this area:
http://www.altvetmed.com,
http://ahvma.org
When a pet has a healthy immune system, they won’t smell bad, have waxy ears, and cruddy teeth. There are alternatives to using toxic flea collars and preventative medicines for your pet. Use the resources provided in this article and you will find the best solutions for you and your pets. You can lower your vet bills and your pets can live longer, healthier lives.
Kim Bloomer operates a home and internet business in wellness for both people and pets! She also publishes a pet wellness newsletter,
Aspenbloom-WellPet. Go to http://KimBloomer.com for details on
all her business ventures.
I’d like to talk to you about pet vaccinations. I cannot tell you legally what to do since I’m not licensed but I can share with you what I do with my own pets - or in had done!
I actually believe several things happened to my own dogs due to the practice of overvaccinating…
My previous dog, Fridge - a big, beautiful golden retriever boy - was an amazing and wonderful dog. I got him as an 8 week old puppy from a client of the veterinarian I was working for at the time. During that time parvo virus was really wrecking havoc on our dogs and puppies, so the vaccine was being further developed and supposedly made better.
Well, since I was so entrenched in the “traditional” medicine idea that you use preventatives, vaccinate, and feed kibble, then vaccinate some more, I proceeded to REALLY vaccinate Fridge. He got a good series of puppy vaccinations because I was taking him with me to work on a regular basis. I wanted to make sure he was really “protected”. Well, I may have ended his life early by overdoing it.
You see, Fridge started having seizures shortly after I started his regimen of vaccinations. I never equated the two either. He always had so many allergies to so many things. I was using regular fertilizers, cleaners, and pesticides on top of it all. It never occurred to me that Fridge was most likely suffering from heavy toxicity due to all the chemicals he was encapsulated in, including the overvaccinating.
Poor guy, I wonder if things would’ve been different if I had known the truth. I think so. He’s one of my primary reasons for publishing AspenbloomWellPet. Shadrach, my Neapolitan Mastiff, is my other primary reason. I want to help pet owners NOT go through what I’ve gone through with my two special boys.
My husband and I got Shadrach as a rescue. Not a traditional rescue but a rescue nonetheless, meaning my cousin rescued him and we ended up with him. I was a bit further along in my knowledge of a natural approach for humans, in fact much further along but not as savvy on pets, YET. Shadrach has been implemental in my discovering and continuing to discover the way to true wellness for pets using natural remedies, products, and approaches.
I vaccinated Shadrach, a couple of times, normal puppy shots. I didn’t overdo it but Shadrach’s system was already compromised due to the fact he had been abused and nearly starved to death prior to coming to live with us. He needed raw food, natural care, not more toxicity to battle. He was not well the first year and half we had him and now I wonder if the vaccinating and preventatives (pesticides really) were compromising his system further. I was still feeding “premium” kibble. I used flea and tick shampoo. I used the heartworm preventative. During all this time I also painted my house - more toxins for Shadrach to battle AND my husband and I.
Shadrach had continuing health problems, especially allergies and skin problems. He contracted Bordetella from a dog friend of his. He was so sick for nearly 3 months. He got 2 full courses of antibiotics and got skinny all over again. It was agony for us to see this young dog so sick and we thought we were doing all the right things. In fact, I vaccinated him for Bordetella a few times after his illness thinking I was further protecting him when in reality I was most likely further compromising his system.
Thank God, I started researching things. I thought, “if we can do natural for us, why not our critters”. I discovered this whole world of holistic natural care, and you are now reading my findings. I found a couple of great holistic vets willing to help educate me. Now, at 5 1/2 years old, Shadrach is fully “natural”. He’s healthy and I believe that’s why he is healthy. I am hoping that I didn’t shorten his sweet life by my unknowing “care”. I’ve met some wonderful people in the holistic industry who’ve guided me and helped me learn. Now I’m going to be further educated and certified so I can help as many others as are willing to learn. My hope is that many more animals will be spared the harm that was done, albeit unwittingly, to my poor boys.
Animals have always been my passion and now coupled with the need to share natural care, I hope many will be spared unnecessary pain and suffering - critters and their owners.
Kim Bloomer of Aspenbloom is a preventative pet care consultant and also publishes a pet wellness RSS channel, Aspenbloom WellPet and Aspenbloom Pet Products. Go to Aspenbloom Pet Care for details. Coming soon - “All God’s Creatures” audio preventative pet care classes in Pet World Of Interest.
Tags: holistic health, natural care, pet care, pet health, pet nutrition, pets, vaccinationsEvery day, people by the millions pour food from a package into their pet’s bowl. Day in and day out, meal after meal, pets get the same fare. This strange phenomenon is not only widely practiced, but done by loving owners who believe they are doing the right thing. Why? Certainly because it is convenient, but also because the labels state that the food is “complete and balanced,” “100% complete,” or that the food has passed various analytical and feeding test criteria.
Furthermore, manufacturers and even veterinarians counsel pet owners about not feeding other foods such as table scraps because of the danger of unbalancing these modern processed nutritional marvels. The power of the message is so great that pet owners en masse do every day to their pets what they would never do to themselves or their children -offer the same processed packaged food at every meal.
Think about it: Our world is complex beyond comprehension. It is not only largely unknown; it is unknowable in the “complete” sense. In order for nutritionists and manufacturers to produce a “100% complete and balanced” pet food, they must first know 100% about nutrition. However, nutrition is not a completed science. It is, in fact, an aggregate science, which is based upon other basic sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and biology. But since no scientist would argue that everything is known in chemistry or physics or biology, how can nutritionists claim to know everything there is to know about nutrition, which is based upon these sciences? This is the logical absurdity of the “100% complete and balanced” diet claim. It is the reason a similar venture to feed babies a “100% complete” formula has turned out to be a health disaster.
Claiming that anything is 100% is like claiming perfection, total knowledge, and absolute truth. Has pet nutrition really advanced that far? Does a chemist make such a claim? A physicist? Doctor? Professor? Did Einstein, Bohr, Pasteur, Aristotle, Plato, or any of the greatest minds in human history make such claims? No. Has the science of pet nutrition advanced to the point where everything is known about the physiology, digestion and biochemistry of animals, or that everything is known about their food?
Certainly not.
The fact of the matter is that the “100% complete” claim is actually “100% complete” guesswork. At best, one could say that such a claim is the firm possibility of a definite maybe.
Each time regulatory agencies convene to decide how much of which nutrients comprise “100% completeness,” debate always ensues and standards usually change. This not only proves that what they claimed before was not “100% complete,” but this should also make us highly suspicious about what they now claim to be “100% complete.”
Additionally, consider that in order to determine the minimum requirement for a certain nutrient - say protein - all other nutrients used in the feeding trials must be adequate and standardized. Otherwise, if vitamin E, for example, is in excess or is deficient, how would you know if the results of the study were because of the effects of protein or due to something amiss with the level of vitamin E?
If the minimum requirements for all 26+ essential nutrients were all set and absolutely etched in stone, then there would be no problem. But they aren’t. They are constantly changing. This means each time any nutrient requirement is changed, all test results for all other nutrients using the wrong minimum for this nutrient would then be invalid. Most nutritionists simply ignore this conundrum, feeling like cowboys trying to lasso an octopus - there are just too many loose ends. But they continue to perpetuate the “100% complete” myth, and excuse themselves by saying they make adjustments when necessary.
The point is, don’t believe the claim on any commercially prepared pet (or human) food that it is “100% complete and balanced.” It is a spurious unsupported boast, intended to build consumer trust and dependence on commercial products - not create optimal health.
Unfortunately most people think animal feeding is a mystery. It is not. Animal nutrition is not a special nutritional science to which common sense human nutrition principles cannot be applied. Use the same common sense in feeding your pets that you use for feeding your family. Nutrition is not about some special ingredient or the absence of some boogeyman ingredient. Fresh foods fed in variety are always superior to processed food artifacts.
If you feed processed foods, use discernment since just about anyone can create a commercial pet food. The pet food industry has hundreds of brands with officious and beguiling labels, all stamped with the approval of the FDA, USDA, State Feed Regulatory Agencies and the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). Business profiteers and the occasional movie star are the most common force behind the labels. All one needs is a little money and they can go to any number of toll manufacturers and have them slightly modify a shelf formula. Dress it all up with a fancy package, a clever brochure and some advertising and voil