1. Affordable water filters
So, for water filters that are affordable, check out Berkey because they take out
everything. That’s something we’ve been travelling with for 3 and ½ years now. They do an
outstanding job at taking out all of the junk so check that one out because that may be
worthwhile. They’re like 300 bucks, and I think we have to change the filters every year or so.
2. What should you do when you suspect your pup’s anal glands are impacted?
Do make sure they’re not impacted. Assuming she’s only scooting for 10 seconds most
mornings, it may be that she’s slightly irritated and then she goes to the bathroom, passes a
bowel and that may be taking care of the ana glands too. You can do warm compresses. The
other thing too is that you can use quercetin if it’s truly irritated.
3. Spirit diet update
It turns out for Spirit that his stool quality is better with beans and so the question we’re
trying to answer is does it make a difference with which protein is used? I think what you feed
consistently that does not create problems is the bison and so frankly I would do that. Add in
some beans with that as well to keep things kind of calm and then go from there. What I would
do since you’re going out of town, do bison and a little bit of beans to help keep things all happy
hunky – dory and then when you get back, try a batch of salmon. Try rotating your fiber sources,
so one day do bean, one day do chia, one day do turnips because I think all of those things were
helpful. If you can rotate between them, hopefully, it will prevent you from having bad days in
between.
4. Should you eliminate Holistic Total Body Support if your pup is allergic to beef?
would because it is beef based and what you need to do is take everything out of the diet
that is beef based so you’ve got a clean answer. Pork is good as far as digestion, and then what
you will need to do is to find two other protein that do work so you can make up ideally a routine
and elimination diet. I didn’t realize that Great Lakes has a pork gelatin, so I would use that in
place of the collagen. Unfortunately, like you say the collagens are all beef – based. And as far as
is there a fish – based collagen, I think that’s something you’ll have to do some digging on.
5. Is it okay to add more taurine in the diet?
Theoretically, dogs don’t need additional taurine but what happened with the grain – free
diets were really interesting. Again, grain – free commercial diets are going to be 65% to 75%
carbohydrate but in this case, the carbohydrate is beans. Because you are feeding a more
balanced diet as far as like 30:30:30 split between protein, fat and carbohydrate, this should not
be an issue. But if your pet has heart disease, I would consider adding some in, and if she’s 25
pounds, then somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 milligrams. As far as the vitamin, I would
use the two – a – day.
6. What is the idea behind rotation diet?
The idea with the rotation and elimination is that you’re going to do this for somewhere
between 45 and 60 days and then once you’re sure that everything is really good and there are no
more issues, and you’re starting to see improvements in SLE symptoms, then start introducing
things and starting them. Beef would be of the first things you would test. What that means is
that you would give somewhere in the neighborhood of about a half a tablespoon per meal for
three meals and then wait a total of 72 hours to make sure that has not created a problem. If
that’s okay, the try feeding beef a little bit more frequently. But if it’s a no, then no, you would
not be able to reuse Holistic Total Body Support.
7. What is a good substitute for carb source for Spirit?
You can try plantains for carb sources if they are not red but because you are going to be
using beans, I think you’re in good shape. With the plantains, I would get them fairly ripe
because they are high in resistant starch when they are uncooked and that can create unhappy
tummy issues. The things with plantains are that they are lower in sugar than bananas but they
are going to be pretty high relative to beans so I would check it out with beans, see what’s up,
and then go from there, and try reintroducing grains once you’ve gone through that whole
rotation diet.
8. Willie update:
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s maybe getting a little lime or something going on there if
it’s shifting legs, so check that out. It may not be unreasonable. And if his lesions are getting
worse and super itchy, I would try using quercetin at a fairly high dose. For Willie, that might be
400 milligrams up to 4 times a day because that’s looking pretty rough and it sounds like he’s
uncomfortable too which is not good. If he's super itchy, that’s just miserable.
Ozone, I think, will be quite helpful. I’m not sure. I mean, you can look at fecal transplant
and see if that helps just because it’s going to help get the good guys back in there. It’s going to
be interesting how that will work with the palladia though, that would be my concern. I’m not
sure how that will affect the gut microbiome. Thank goodness for Mr. Willie who’s still happy
and thank goodness for you who’s still plodding through and finding other options for him.
I’m glad everything is back on course, so that’s what I’ve got for you this week. We’ll
get you the link for my conversation with Angela today and then we will have another tomorrow
about the pemph loops. So, until next week. Give everybody a big hug and we’ll talk soon.
