1. What is fruiting body and mycelium?
I know there’s a lot of people that divvy this out and want to do everything fermented but
what I found is that taking the whole plant, in my research, was more effective than any
particular plant. That’s kind of what I found. The extracts that are in the micropause are full plant
extracts. I hope that makes sense.
2. How to treat demodex?
Unfortunately, at 15 years old, demodex is a concern. What you can do is a skin scrape
done to see if there’s demodex presence or not. I would not use Bravecto, which is an oral chew
that’s given and works for about 3 months. The other thing that gets used for demodectic mange
was ivermectin at high doses but the problem is that because ivermectin is a GABA inhibitor,
which is a neurotransmitter, that can really be a problem as far as creating neurologic issues
secondary to the medication. Additionally, we used to use Goodwinol. As you can see, the main
ingredient is rotenone which is pretty bizarre. Rotenone is a growth producer for plants. The
majority of this other ingredients are frankly to smother the mange, so you can check that out.
But this is one of the old – fashioned ones.
For older dogs that are developing demodectic mange, it means that there is an immune
dysfunction at the level of the skin and so one of the things you may consider using is Immune
Support by Standard Process. I’ve used that pretty successfully with some of these older guys,
and then you’ll definitely want to double up on your probiotics as well. But these are ways you
can approach treating it without creating problems within the gut.
Other things like skin infection, allergies, autoimmune type disease and things of this
nature can be considered. But if this is relatively new and there’s something else going on, then
demodex, sadly, is a choice to think about. Now, if it’s not demodex and you get several negative
screens scrapes, it could be a bacterial infection which is where you could use some of the CBD
products that our friends at CBD Dog Health make. They’ve got one for itchy skin and then also
soothe. I think the soothe version would probably be your best bet as far as the CBD products go.
Again, because CBD helps to support the immune system function, this is going to help correct it
at the level of the skin so check that out too.
3. How to treat mast cell tumor?
Mast cell tumor are pretty common unfortunately, in the Bully breeds and especially in
the Boston Terriers so we get that checked out if it’s raised. If it looks like it’s draining stuff, I
would do Epsom salts and then sort of pack it with your favorite topical antimicrobial. You could
use a CBD salve. If you’ve got some mupirocin, you can use that topically, just keep things
clean. Hopefully it will drain out and more do not develop. Hopefully, it’s just a wound and
something got packed in there. I hope that is helpful.
4. How do I immobilize my dog to cut his nails?
Personally, what I ended up doing with nail trimming in several of the dogs in the office
is to actually trim their nails under anesthesia because we all know it’s going to hurt, that way I
would give an intravenous infusion of propofol and they’d go down very fast. We’d cut
everything off, remove broken nails that were kind of loose at the level of the nail bed, get the
feet flushed up, put a little light bandage on and they’d walk out the door much happier.
5. Is Nutramaxx Welactin Advanced a good product?
I’ve not seen really good results with this. It’s very expensive so I think you’re better off
buying a good collagen product that’s going to help with the hair and nails. Great Lakes is a
good brand but again, I would consider using Dr. Axe’s. I think it’s called Ancient Nutrition
Collagen – a multi collagen powder, which we use personally for the cat and the dogs. The
interesting thing is this is one of the few that I found that includes type 2 and 3 which is for skin
and nails, and then type 2 for joints. He also includes type 5 and 10, which evidently are part of
the scaffolding that’s needed to actually use those other three types of collagens.
However, if your pup is sensitive to chicken, I’m going to tell you not to use this because
it does include some chicken proteins. If he does have some chicken sensitivities, then look for
Great Lakes. This is another super high-quality product. It’s all bovine in origin so as long as
there’s no beef sensitivity, you’re golden. We use this one for a long time personally but what I
found is that the Dr Axe stuff just works substantially better. We can see it for ourselves
personally but also for Hiyo and Pepe, we see them having better hair and I think that’s not an
unreasonable thing to do.
6. How to deal with the side – effects of prednisone?
This is where we used to say the pred does not only elevates the alkaline phosphatase but
in reality, it can elevate ALT so if you’re going to go with liposomal glutathione, I would give a
teaspoon twice a day because that’s going to get you to the right dose. Now, if you got a THC
combo product with CBD, I think that’s okay. Again, the 0.5 milligrams of THC are where you
want to start. If you got one of each of these, that’s great. I would try the indica because this is
going to have more effects as far as the body goes. The CBD dosing though is going to be low so
you would want to shoot for a patient with cancer somewhere between 35 and 50 milligrams per
day. See what you’ve got. If this is a relatively inexpensive way to use the CBD, go for it but if
not, then I would consider looking at the CBD Dog Health products.
With the THC, if that’s making your pup feel better, what you might consider is a half a
milligram of sativa in the morning so just shy of two drops that’s kind of hard to do and then a
half a milligram of indica in the evening which will help more with sleep. Now, if he’s getting
super itchy even on the pred; If you haven’t, I would try adding more quercetin because it sounds
like he’s reacting more with the histamine. So, you could give him quercetin of up to 400 to 800
milligrams up to 3 times a day. That’s bordering to that dose where we start to worry about the
kidneys a little bit.
All right! We got it. We’ll be talking about PICA in pets for next Ipet’s Ultimate and that
will be on the 28 th , and then I’m going to share information about the Omega 3 on the 28 th as well
and we’ll go from there.
Alright! You all take good care. Until next week. Give everybody a big hug and a kiss for
me. I’m Dr. Ruth Roberts, your pet’s ally. Thanks!
