Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (54 page)

The feeding of a natural diet is really important as part of the treatment. Part of the problem is the inability to conserve sodium, while potassium levels become excessively high. Adding salt will help to balance this. In addition, careful homeopathic treatment can bring back adrenal function.

These animals need frequent monitoring of their blood levels to determine what their needs are, so after using a natural diet for a few weeks with added sprinkles of salt, have the blood test done again and see if adjustments need to be made.

Don’t try to treat this yourself. Work with an experienced veterinarian to wean off drugs while doing other treatments.

AGGRESSION

See “Behavior Problems.”

ALLERGIES

An allergy is an abnormally intense reaction to something that is usually harmless to the body—wheat, house dust, or plant pollen, for example. A reaction against some part of the body itself—like the skin, pancreas, or thyroid—is called an auto-immune disease.

The incidence of allergies and immune disorders has greatly increased since I first entered practice 40 years ago. Now these are among the most common conditions we are asked to treat.

Allergies present themselves differently in dogs than they do in cats. Dogs typically have itchy skin and eruptions, especially on the lower back near the base of the tail. However, these eruptions can occur anywhere and everywhere on the body. Other commonly associated symptoms are inflamed ears, excessive licking of the front feet, digestive upsets (gurgling, gas, and a tendency toward diarrhea), inflammation of the toes, and an irritated rear end (anus, genitals), with licking and dragging of the rear on the floor. Though other symptoms can also occur, this is a typical picture.

Like dogs, cats can also have skin eruptions, often called miliary dermatitis. Cats are more prone, however, to cystitis (bladder inflammation) and digestive problems. Oftentimes, there is no visible eruption on the skin,
but cats will be greatly annoyed by stinging or biting sensations of the skin so that they are always jumping around, frantically licking themselves and pulling hair out in clumps. They act as though fleas were causing it (which of course can sometimes be the case).

Two similar immune disorders that occur—hyperthyroidism and inflammatory bowel disease—are chronic and serious conditions that require careful treatment. In my opinion, the major causes of these immune disorders are the frequent use of combination vaccinations, feeding pets commercial food diets, and overuse of cortisone drugs to suppress symptoms—all of which together have greatly weakened the immune system of animals over several generations.

Whatever the causes, once established, the problem is very difficult to eliminate. Successful treatment can be accomplished with the approach outlined in this book, but it takes a long time, usually a year or more.

In mild cases, actions you can take yourself may be sufficient. For instance, some research suggests that about a third of all allergies are caused by substances in foods. You can identify the immediate trigger by switching to a simplified diet for a while. If the symptoms subside but return when you go back to the original diet, you can assume that your pet is allergic to one or more of the ingredients in the daily diet.

Try the following diets as a test. They omit the most common food allergens: beef, wheat, milk, cheese, eggs, nuts, fruits, tomatoes, carrots, yeast, and various spices and additives. When given in sufficient doses, vitamin C acts like a natural antihistamine to control allergies. The B-complex found in the pet supplements is also very useful to that end.

CAT ALLERGY DIET

• 2 cups brown rice
  
• 2 pounds (4 cups) raw lamb or mutton (lamb preferred)
  
• 1 tablespoon Group I bone meal*
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon cod liver oil (or equivalent)
  
• 10 days’ dose of a complete vitamin-mineral supplement formulated for cats, made without yeast.
  

Vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate powder (500 milligrams daily)

* See chapter 4 for information on the bone meal groups.

Bring 4 cups of filtered or spring water to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes. Meanwhile chop or grind the meat. When the rice is done, thoroughly mix all ingredients except the vitamin C. Give the C fresh each day. (I recommend sodium ascorbate powder because it isn’t very tart.) If you use one of the Group II bone meals, double the amount of that ingredient in the recipe. (Total amount of calcium in the recipe added by bone meal = 4,300 mg.) I specify vegetable oil in the recipe, but you can use a variety of oils, even animal fats. There has to be a source of essential fatty acids in the diet, and this is
provided by the cod liver oil (or another source of fish oil) and vegetable oils such as corn oil (especially liked by cats), safflower, sunflower, evening primrose, or borage oils. Animal fats, such as poultry and pork, contain essential fatty acids. Beef and butter do not provide sufficient quantities (unfortunate, as cats do prefer the taste of beef).

The recipe is approximately 30 percent protein, 30 percent fat, and 40 percent carbohydrates.

Yield:
Feeds an average adult cat for 8 to 10 days. Freeze about ⅔ of it to prevent spoilage
.

Substitutes: Instead of rice, you may use 2 cups of millet (cooked for 20 to 30 minutes with 6 cups of water until soft) or 4 cups of dry oats (cooked for 10 minutes with 8 cups of water until thick and soft). You can also use other meats like turkey or chicken. Turkey is not very fat, so an extra source, like lard or beef fat, is appropriate to add in.

DOG ALLERGY DIET 1

• 4 cups brown rice
  
• 3 pounds (6 cups) raw lamb or mutton
  
• 2½ tablespoons Group I bone meal*
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (such as corn, safflower, sunflower, evening primrose, borage oil)
  

Complete daily vitamin-mineral supplement formulated for dogs, made without yeast

Vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate powder (give 500 milligrams daily, less for the very small dog).

* See chapter 4 for information on the bone meal groups. Group II bone meals should be doubled in amount.

Bring 8 cups of filtered or spring water to a boil. Add the rice, cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, trim any excess fat off the lamb or mutton (if you wish to have a lower fat diet); chop or grind the meat. When the rice is done (indicated by tender, firm grains), thoroughly mix all ingredients except the daily supplement and the vitamin C. Add these at the time of feeding.

Recipe is approximately 27 percent protein, 24 percent fat, and 47 percent carbohydrates. The amount of calcium provided by the bone meal = just over 1 gram (1100 mg).

Substitutes: Instead of rice, you may use 4 cups of millet (cooked for 20 to 30 minutes with 12 cups water) or 8 cups of dry oats (cooked for 10 minutes with 14 to 16 cups water). Cooked grains should be soft and mushy. For an even higher protein feed, you may reduce the amount of grain to 3 cups dry rice or millet (or 6 cups oats).

Yield:
Produces 5,600 calories, enough to feed a small dog for 7 to 9 days, a medium dog for 3 to 4 days or a large dog for a couple of days. Freeze any of this food that can’t be eaten in 3 days
.

DOG ALLERGY DIET 2

• 6 cups millet
  
• 3 pounds (6 cups) raw turkey
  
• 2½ tablespoons Group I bone meal*
  
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
  

Complete daily vitamin-mineral supplement formulated for dogs, made without yeast

Vitamin C (give 500 milligrams daily, less for a very small dog)

* See chapter 4 for information on the bone meal groups. Group II bone meals should be doubled in amount.

Bring 9 cups of filtered or spring water to a boil. Add the millet, cover, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until soft and fluffy. Thoroughly mix millet with all ingredients except the vitamin C and daily supplement. Feed these supplements fresh each day, as in the prior recipe. As specified in Allergy Diet 1, use vegetable oils that provide essential fatty acids. Recipe is approximately 23 percent protein, 18 percent fat, and 57 percent carbohydrates. The amount of calcium provided by the bone meal = just over 1 gram (1100 mg).

Substitutes: Instead of millet you may use 5 cups of brown rice (cooked with 10 cups of water for 40 minutes or until grains are tender, firm and separate) or 10 cups of dry oats (cooked with 18 to 20 cups of water for 10 minutes or until grains are soft and mushy).

Yield
:
Makes about 5,900 calories, enough to feed a small dog for 7 to 9 days, a medium dog for 3 to 4 days, or a large dog for a couple of days. Freeze any of the batch that can’t be eaten in 3 days
.

Be sure to use filtered, spring, or other non-chlorinated water. To give this diet an adequate chance, keep your animal on it for at least two months—and be strict about it. If the problem clears up or improves, slowly reintroduce the omitted foods one at a time to find out which one or ones are causing the problem. By determining which ingredients are causing a reaction, you may be able to switch to a quality kibble that excludes the problem food. This is especially helpful with a large dog, where cooking in such quantities can be challenging. Your best bet would be one of the lamb-rice kibbles formulated for dogs with skin problems. Read the label carefully.

If your pet’s condition has not improved after a couple of months on a restricted diet, the cause of its problem may not be a food allergy. Bear in mind that allergies can be triggered by a variety of environmental factors, such as chlorine and other contaminants in water, household cleaning chemicals, release of gasses of formaldehyde and other chemicals from furniture and buildings, synthetic carpets and upholstery, plastic food bowls, certain plants or grasses, regularly administered drugs like heartworm preventive medicine or flea chemicals, and, of course, flea bites. Also, while many people have heard that they can be allergic to their pets, few realize that their pets can be allergic to them!

Determining exactly what substances are causing an allergic reaction can be difficult. Certain diagnostic procedures can be used, but I haven’t found them very helpful. They do not always correlate with the clinical situation.
Also, if you do find some offending substances, it may not be possible to eliminate them completely anyway.

The approach that works best for me is to put the animal on an organic natural diet (which by itself clears up a lot of problems) and to use homeopathic treatment to remove the underlying allergic tendency. In many cases that I handle, allergic tendencies can be greatly mitigated or eliminated completely.

The things you can do that will be most helpful are to use a strictly home-prepared, raw-meat diet (raw meat does not cause the same allergic reaction that cooked meat does). Several of my clients have also found that organic meat is tolerated just fine, but feeding meat from the usual supermarket sources sets off their symptoms.

Also stop vaccinating (or greatly reduce frequency). Animals with allergies do not respond well to vaccination, and I find that it accelerates the intensity and frequency of allergy symptoms (see “Vaccinations” for further advice on this). See “Skin Problems” for specific advice on dealing with that aspect of allergy disease.

ANAL GLAND PROBLEMS

Difficulties with the anal glands are primarily canine problems. Dogs have a pair of small scent glands on either side of the anus, under the tail. Similar in structure to the scent gland of the skunk, they contain a strong-smelling material that is apparently used to mark territory or to express extreme fear.

Problems manifest either as abscesses that form within the glands themselves or as what is called impaction, in which the glands become inactive and overfilled with secretion. In the latter case, the dog will often “scoot” along the floor or ground in an attempt to empty these glands, which have exceeded their normal capacity. Some of the factors that may play a role in the development of these problems are:

• Frustration in trying to establish a territory, perhaps from being crowded with other animals or from having inadequate space for exercise and exploration.
  
• Constipation or infrequent bowel movement, especially as a result of not being allowed outside frequently. Many an indoor animal will hold its urine or feces to the very limit rather than soil the house and displease its people.
  
• Toxicity because of poor food and inadequate exercise. In such a case a disorder of the skin or ears frequently occurs as well (also see “Allergies”).
  

P
REVENTION

Make sure your animal has adequate exercise, the opportunity to go outside and have frequent bowel movements, and psychological “space.” Good nutrition is important also, as it is in most conditions. Especially useful are those nutrients that help promote healthy skin: zinc, the B complex,
vitamin A, lecithin, and unsaturated vegetable oil.

Olive oil is a good source of unsaturated fatty acids and, by promoting muscular contraction of the bowels, has the advantage of being a slight laxative. Flax oil (fresh, refrigerated) is an even better source.

T
REATMENT

Anal Gland Abscess

Homeopathic
—First use the remedy
Belladonna
6C, using Homeopathic Schedule 2 (
view
). See if it looks better the next day. If not clearly healing, then give
Silicea
30C using Homeopathic Schedule 3 (
view
). Belladonna helps with the initial inflammation and Silicea promotes the discharge of pus and encourages healing. Also apply warm or hot calendula solution (see “Abscesses”) twice a day for at least five minutes each time. Continue the calendula treatment about three days, though a longer period is fine, if necessary.