Our good friend and co-host on Animal Talk Naturally, Dr. Jeannie Thomason, wrote this pawsome article!!!

by Dr. Jeannie Thomason
www.thewholedog.org

Where did it all begin? Is caring for our pets “naturally/holistically” something new; does it really work? Will my pet really need a veterinarian less? How can this be?

Is feeding our carnivorous pets a raw meaty bone diet just a passing fad? What about salmonella or e coli? Will our dogs and cats get all those diseased if we DON”T vaccinate them? What about fleas, ticks and heartworm, surely we need to use man made chemicals to ward these parasites off, right?

Natural or holistic pet care as it is often called is nothing new, it is not at “fad”, it is simply going back to the beginning, back to God created nature to learn how to keep the animals in our lives healthy, how to prevent them from getting the dreaded diseases we all seemed plagued with today. Our pets as well as ourselves have all been fearfully and wonderfully designed to resist disease and heal ourselves.

Just as the world is filled with disease-causing organisms, God filled the animal’s (and our own) body with defenses to resist them. In fact, no matter what your pet is confronted with, his/her body has been well-designed to fight back on its own. Studies have shown, for example, that cats that have suffered serious nerve injuries can recover complete muscle function. When pets take medications (or eat things foreign to the body), the liver will produce extra enzymes to help detoxify them. Even something as minor as a pulled muscle is quickly addressed with an increase in blood flow, which brings additional oxygen and nutrients and carries off wastes. The main reason a pet ever gets sick in the first place, is that something is interfering with or suppressing the body’s own natural healing powers.

What we all have within us to heal self is a strong defense or immune system, which protects dogs, cats, horses, birds, etc. (and of course ourselves) from everything from flu germs to cancer cells. A weak immune system plays a key role in causing disease. Antibiotics are given to fight infection and kill the bacteria taking over the system, but they don’t affect whatever weakened the immune system in the first place. We need to focus a little less on the things that cause diseases and a lot more on those that affect the body’s natural defenses.

When the immune system is functioning properly or as the natural, built in energy is flowing freely, our pets and ourselves have an awesome ability to resist disease. But when the immune system’s energy is blocked or unbalanced due to such things as poor nutrition, toxic overload, stress or injuries, our pets become vulnerable to illness. Once they get sick, the energy becomes even more unbalanced, making it much harder for them to recover.

Everything our pets experience, from the quality of afternoon sunlight to an upsetting afternoon, can actually affect their immune balance. In particular, things such as diet, stress and the environment they live in, play the biggest roles in determining whether pets get sick or stay healthy even when exposed to a dis-ease.

Our pets/animal companions may look like different animals than their wild cousins but they are NOT! Dogs and cats are predators and carnivores. Your cute little toy poodle or Siamese kitten may not look like a wolf or a tiger on the outside but INSIDE, they are identical. Open your animal’s mouth…Look at the teeth. What you are looking at are teeth specially designed for grabbing, ripping, tearing, shredding, and shearing meat (Feldhamer, G.A. 1999. Mammology: Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. McGraw-Hill. pg 258.).

They are not equipped with large flat molars for grinding up plant matter. Their molars are pointed and situated in a scissors bite (along with the rest of their teeth) that powerfully disposes of meat, bone, and hide. Carnivores are equipped with a peculiar set of teeth that includes the presence of carnassial teeth: the fourth upper premolar and first lower molar. Hence, dogs do not chew, they are designed to bite, rip, shred, scissor/crush and swallow.

However much, we humans have done or continue to do to tinker with and change the dog’s body design (resulting in varying sizes and conformations), we have not been able to do anything to change the internal anatomy and physiology of our carnivorous companions. “Dogs (and cats) have the internal anatomy and physiology of a carnivore.”
(Feldhamer, G.A. 1999. Mammology: Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. McGraw-Hill. pg 260.).

So, why are feeding our house wolves and lions processed, cooked, grains and rendered meats in a bag or can? Why are our pets developing diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, periodontal disease, Thyroid problems, etc. that do not exist in their wild cousins?

How many wolves do you see lining up outside the local veterinarian’s to find a way to have some flea treatment applied or to get a vaccination? Or how many lions have you ever seen sitting around the camp fire cooking the gazelle they just took down?

What about vaccines? Don’t they prevent my dog and/or cat from getting the disease? In short, the answer to that is NO, the immune system is what prevents your pets from getting any disease!

The vaccine works on the theory that if the animal is exposed to the disease, the immune system will create antibodies and not succumb to the disease if exposed to it at a later date. That theory is correct. The problem with vaccines is that firstly they bypass the dog’s primary line of defense which is the mucous membranes in the nose and mouth. As in the wild, dogs can and should build up their immunity naturally by sniffing and walking in areas that other dogs have been. This way they will receive microscopic amounts of the disease into their system the natural way. Their body mounts a defense and the dog develops a natural immunity without becoming ill in any way. This is called “street immunity” and holistic veterinarians, veterinary naturopaths and long time natural rearing breeders (no caps on these words unless they begin a sentence) agree that in preventing disease this is at least as effective as vaccines are, possibly more so.

The second problem is the other ingredients in the vaccine. Cells from such creatures as monkeys, cows, sheep, ducks, chicken and rabbit are completely foreign to a dog’s bloodstream but are contained within vaccines. Other more dangerous ingredients are also contained in vaccines, such as mercury, formaldehyde and antifreeze. Combination vaccines assault an animal’s body with a variety of diseases at one time. A dog would never naturally come in contact with 5 or more diseases at the exact same moment in time.

Many concerned people fear their puppies will come down with parvo virus or distemper (again no caps on these words) if not vaccinated, that is what the veterinary pharmaceutical companies and many conventional veterinarians will tell you, right? But let’s investigate here, where did canine parvo virus (no caps) come from in the first place? It is NOT a “wild” disease. It was created when the wild-type feline parvo virus (no caps) was adapted to canine cells during the production of a live FPV vaccine for cats. This disease was created because of vaccine-production. As regarding distemper, Dr. Ron Schultz Ph.D. (professor and chair of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine) is reported as having said that distemper would have died out years ago if we hadn’t vaccinated our dogs for it in the first place.

So, let’s go back, back to nature, back to our pet’s beginning which will provide a future for our pets by improving their health and prolonging their lives. We need to help strengthen their immune systems, not compromise it by vaccinating them, feeding them processed foods and applying chemicals to them and using chemicals around them.

Alternatives
So what can we do to prevent disease if we don’t vaccinate? How can we build up and balance our pet’s immune systems instead of weaken and suppress them?

First and foremost, make your dog the healthiest dog he can be. Feed him the best species appropriate diet you can, keep them toxin free which means no chemicals in, on or around him.- no harsh chemical flea or tick preventatives, wormers, it means not using lawn chemicals or harmful cleaning products near them, when bathing is necessary, use a gentle, chemical-free, natural shampoo. Stop vaccinating (except rabies which is required by law). Feed supplements and treat your pets constitutionally when and as needed by a holistic veterinarian, veterinary naturopath or professional classical homeopath.

There is a huge wealth of information on the internet, in books, etc. Research, ask questions, find answers and remember to look back to nature for our pet’s (and our own) healthy future.
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Copyright © 2008 Dr Jeannie Thomason, The Whole Dog, All rights reserved.
No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the Author.
This article is for educational purposes only. The decision to use, or not to use, any information is the sole responsibility of the reader.
http://www.thewholedog.org
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To learn more about pet vaccines, natural pest control, & proper nutrition for our carnivore pets check out these audio programs from Animal Talk Naturally:
Pet Vaccines: What You Need to Know
Nutrition for Our Carnivore Pets, Vol 1
Nutrition for Our Carnivore Pets, Vol 2
Pest & Parasite Control, Naturally!

Have a pawsitively tail waggin, naturally healthy day, WOOF!

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