1. Spirit’s stool inquiry:
What I would suggest doing is if you have seen a normal stool for Spirit for more than 3
weeks, then you start incorporating other foods but regardless, your process is going to be similar
as far as testing foods so I would suggest doing another 3 batches. What I would do is keep doing
the rotation diet but start testing foods. What that’s going to be is probably a tablespoon and a
half of whatever you want to test for three meals in a row and then wait for 72 hours. This is
where you really need to do some sort of a journal because it’s like it’s too much information and
if you don’t write it down, you’ll kind of lose track of what’s what. Also, I would definitely go
forward with cooking another round of batches and pack it into the 8 ounces meal. Just take it
piece by piece.
2. What is the Myco – Pawz product?
Myco – Pawz is a whole mushroom extract or product. What we’ve done is take the
individual components and then we’ve had a manufacturer that’s been able to break them down
into the whole product. Again, we’re going after the entourage effect that’s in so many of the
plant – based medicines. The mycelia, I think, are more than just the roots running through the
earth. This would be the harvested mushrooms from on top of the ground or on top of the tree
depending on what they’re typically grown in.
3. What causes Pica in dogs, and what to do?
Often, it is because of mineral imbalance or their tummies just don’t feel good. Suppose
you’ve had your pup on a lot of supplements for a long period of time, what I would suggest is
periodically, if you find your pets are on a lot of supplements go through and leave in the things
that you think are essential and stop everything else for about a week and 10 days and then make
it earn its way back in. Are you seeing a big difference? Are you finding that there’s an issue as
far as there’s a lower quality of life? Did some of the symptoms return and things of that nature?
And if that’s the case, then you want to start adding things back in one by one and giving it a
week to determine if it is working or not working and then kind of go through it piece by piece.
4. What product is helpful in reduce tartar in the mouth?
The other thing people have use is a specific species of kelp that has been shown to
change the bacteria in the mouth to help reduce the amount of tartar and plaque that accumulate.
There is a bunch of different ones and clinsodent is what keeps coming to mind but I don’t think
that’s right. You could also look at deer antlers as far as chewing on that and also the Bye – Bye
dog breath. That’s really been helpful too. I kind of started steering away from the kelp products
because there is some evidence that too much iodine can do some weird things to the thyroid too.
Bye – Bye Dog Breath is Andrea’s product. She is just the sweetest lady and really has done a lot
of good stuff. The other thing that’s sort of on the horizon too is a product called Biodent by
Standard Process.
Standard Process’ adult dose of Biodent product is five products per meal. We’ve got
wheat germ, carrot, beef, spleen and things of that nature in there and it’s kind of weird
sometimes that these ingredients make sense and sometimes don’t. But the idea is to help provide
partly a balanced gut so that the bugs that tend to get produced in the oral cavity that create
problems don’t get a chance to really do that. I hope that’s helpful.
5. Is it okay to crush the melatonin and give it to your pups?
It is perfectly fine to crush the melatonin and give it to your pups. Some of the extended-
release product though, just kind of be mindful of this, the way they stay extended release is
because of the coding that comes over the pill and so sometimes it’ll work and sometimes it
won’t. Now, because it is a medication that works with the nervous system, it may not be a great
idea. And when you’ve got a pacing dog, it’s just not fun so that may be something to consider
for stopgap measure. The other options out there prescription wise, are trazodone and things like
that. There’s a new product that’s come out from the microbiome labs called ZenBiome Sleep
and they’ve got two; one is for anxiety and one is for sleeping. The thing that’s interesting is that
they keep drilling down on specific forms of various microbes.
Also, we have something called 1714, which is a strain of Bifidobacterium longum. I’m
going to try this product and also try it for Hiyo because she does sleeps well when she’s in the
bed with us and is doing so much better with her anxiety. I mean, it truly is astonishing. But there
are days when she’ll just start spinning and be anxious which we don’t understand why. I know
that I have to give her a much higher dose of probiotics, like she has to take a whole MegaSpore
capsule every day for her stool to stay normal and so what they’re seeing is that this particular
form of Bifidobacterium can help kind of get you to chill out by supporting NKFB signaling and
so this is really important mechanism in brain function as far as having normal levels of
neurotransmitter, reducing pro – inflammatory molecules like interleukin – 10 and cytokines that
will help support sleep helping and reduce the ones that are going to promote inflammation and
keep your mind wound up.
6. What is Qing Ying Tang?
I think that one is more of a mover so we’ve got a lot of heat clearing. This does have the
potential to really create some diarrhea. It clears heat, cools the blood, pull the blood nourishes,
and nourishes the Yen. This is a pretty cold formula that has more effects of heat clearing. Many
of these are used in formulas for early colds interestingly enough as well like flus and things of
that nature. It will help with inflammation but what you may consider once the diarrhea is under
control; if you’ve kept him on this formula at the full dose, once you back off of the
metronidazole, if the diarrhea comes back, then consider dropping the dose down to a quarter
and kind of gradually bring your dose up because this is pretty cold and moving and that tends to
create diarrhea especially in pets that have had a lot of gut issues.
Suppose your pup is in spleen Chi deficiency then this is going to make his gut
susceptible to these cold moving formulas. Kind of see how it goes. You may have to use a
different dose and talk to Dr. Lisa or Dr. Chris about that. What I would do is a quarter dose for
24 to 48 hours, and if that’s all good then go to a half dose 24 to 48 hours, three quarters dose for
48 hours and then full dose and see how it goes. Just be cognizant that if the diarrhea pops later,
then this may be part of it as well. I think once you get 2 to 3 weeks of this under your belt then
hopefully, what you’ll be able to see is that everything is all hunky – dory and you don’t have
any further issues.
7. When should you use milk thistle? And is it good to use milk thistle post – vaccination?
You would want to use milk thistle post heartworm prevention or for kind of a monthly
clean up if you will. But what you’re looking for is actually thuja for vaccinations. You would
want to use a drop for 10 pounds twice a day for 5 days. I would use this immediately post
vaccine – rabies all of them.
What we ended up observing in clinical practice was that I didn’t see any vaccine
reactions with this and both short – term, so this has really created a lot of protection as far as
preventing vaccine reactions. The other situation where I would use this is if you suspect that
your pet has a long – term health issue related to a vaccine some time ago, especially rabies
vaccine, then I would use this daily at the same dosing – one drop or 10 pounds twice daily for
21 days and that does seem to clean out the majority of the rabies vaccine issues. We finally have
a direct connection with Wise Woman Herbals because they kept running out on our distributor.
Check that out.
8. How much turkey tails should be used?
For turkey tails, it depends on what you’re using it for. If you’re using it for cancer; for
small dogs, then you’re going to start somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 milligrams per day.
I have not seen a terrific amount of issues with reactions to turkey tails. If your goal is more
general immune support, then that’s where a combination product comes in. I used turkey tails
quite often especially with things like hemangiosarcoma. Osteosarcoma’s a more solid tumors so
there’s no reason to think that there wouldn’t be a benefit all the way around. Start with around
200 milligrams per day. You may want to divide that into two meals and kind of go from there.
Let me run through.
9. Are mushroom powder okay for dogs?
If you’re not sure whether your pup is sensitive to things like Shiitake, and Reishi
mushrooms, you can test it and see if there is a problem with the response to it. I think you can
buy a small amount of Shiitake or Reishi mushroom in many of the health food stores, so check
that out.
The four- loop clover rover product, I think is a good one too but this is why I kind of
waited to find something that incorporated more of the cognitive function mushrooms because
that has become such a problem. Again, it’s something I wish I could take but unfortunately, I
react to mold and it just makes me blow up. Strangely, if dogs are going to have an allergic
reaction to Shiitake mushrooms, that’s the one that is going to create the most histamine reaction.
If you know that your dog has problems with molds, then this is probably not going to be a good
choice.
I think I’ve got all your questions answered. Until next week, take good care of
yourselves. Remember, your pet’s best health starts in the bowl. Many thanks!
