1. Is coconut water a great way to rehydrate?
It is a great way to rehydrate if that pet can still drink because it does contain a lot of electrolytes and things of that nature. The reason Gatorade has so much sugar in it is that sugar does help drive all of the electrolytes into the cell. There is a little bit of sugar in coconut oil and for that reason, that seems to really help quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s as good as IV fluid if you’re to the point where you need IV fluids. But for a short – term situation where you need to rehydrate, it’s a great way to do. When we’ve had GI episodes where things are just coming unhinged if you will, that’s been one of the quickest ways to rehydrate and then to stay hydrated. Hopefully, that helps.
2. What are the best diagnostic test for your pets?
The vet can send lab results out to either Antech or Idexx, those are the two common reference labs that veterinarians use. At any rate, it is not cheap but it is a potential option because a rare number of dogs will end up having things like c – diff, campylobacter and things of that nature. There are a whole host of other things that can cause a loose stool, so you got to decide if that’s worthwhile or not. The other option is to do food sensitivity testing. If you’ve been feeding broccoli or something like that for a while, stop it and see if it helps things get better. If it doesn’t, then kind of go to one or the other. It’s worthwhile to know that it is not a problem.
Now, if you’ve not done food sensitivity testing, then that is something I would look at. Glacier Peak Holistics does a life stress scan sensitivity test and this is nice because it is a food, environmental toxins and a couple of other bits and pieces test. They have their own way of solving thing, some of which I think are great and some of them haven’t been so effective. The thing is that this test is like 112 dollars versus 250 or 300 dollars for Dr. Dodd’s Nutra scan test and about the same amount of money for Heska blood test. To be honest, I found it to be as effective a road map as anything else so I think that one is definitely worth looking at. That’s a pretty cheap way to find out what your pet is likely to be having a problem with.
3. Loose stool and lab results: Things you should do to keep everything back to normal
While you are working through that identifying the best diagnostic test, what I would suggest is taking the results of that test and then turning that into a rotation and elimination diet. What that would mean is creating three different batches of food that your dog does not show as sensitive to on this test and then feeding that every 24 hours. The goal there is to reduce the amount of antigens so that it is much less likely that your dog will continue reacting to it. That test is super easy because it is literally some hair and saliva. You get the kit and get it sent to you, and then you send it back in. It is based on bio feedback essentially, so the energetics which are in the saliva itself. And as I said, I found it to be as effective a road map as any of the other tests. It’s been one of the tools I’ve been using to do food sensitivity testing because it has been really effective.
4. How much should be used with the curcumin product?
What I would say is start with the recommended dose for your pet’s weight and then kind of go from there. Sometimes people will end up using a much higher dose and sometimes the label dose is plenty. What’s kind of in per tablet are turmeric, BioPerine, and coconut oil. The dosing for 1 to 10 pounds is a half a tablet, a half to one and so on and so forth. What I would do is start with the lower end and kind of work your way up. Also, it says not to exceed 2 tables per day because turmeric is a pretty profound anti – inflammatory which is why you want to use it, but it can impact the ability of the platelets to do their job and create a coagulation. We do have kind of a top end of the dose on this one. I hope that makes sense.
I think that’s it for today. Until next week. You all take good care and we will see you. Give everybody a big hug and all that good stuff. I’m Dr. Ruth Roberts, your pets’ ally. Thanks much!
