Our companion animals are part of our family. As we continue to discover a more holistic attitude towards our own health, we naturally want to extend that outlook to our pets.

Improve your pet’s diet

A holistic approach to health has to include nutrition. Food is broken down and used in the renewal of tissue and blood and for fuel and regeneration. The quality of that food will reflect on the quality of their lives.

Most animals’ owners are blissfully unaware of what really lurks in most commercial pet food. This is probably the most loosely regulated food production. The list of ingredients only has to include the quantity, not the quality, of each of its elements. “Meat by-products” are the by-products, or rejects of human meat production – considered too inedible for our own consumption. This usually involves what are called the “4D’s”: The dead, dying, disabled or diseased. Cancerous tumors, moldy, rancid or spoiled flesh can, by law, be included – as well as long dead “road kill.” But most disturbing of all are instances where euthanized pets are gathered and rendered (boiled at very high temperatures) with the other dubious meat sources. This not only contaminates the food with the poison used to put the animals to sleep – but it is unsettling to most pet owners not willing to regard their former friends as a recyclable food commodity.

This food is then filled with a variety of chemical preservatives (most of which cause liver damage) to achieve an unnaturally long shelf life; addictive flavorings and simple sugars to hook your friend onto this junk food; and artificial coloring to give the results an unnatural (and misleading) red, meaty glow. Even “high-end” pet foods, well known and endorsed by vets, can include these substances. Ethoxyquin, for instance, is a very common chemical preservative. It was originally developed in the production of rubber and is implicated in numerous illnesses in pets, especially dogs. Check your labels. If they contain any of the following, look elsewhere. Your pet can only benefit.

AVOID: propylene glycol, potassium sorbate, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, sucrose, propyl gallate, ethoxyquin, BHT or BHA, sodium nitrate, red, yellow or blue dyes.

Also, don’t allow your pets to “graze” all day, Dogs and cats are hunters and scavengers and aren’t meant to have food constantly available. It slows down their metabolism and invites a host of degenerative problems.

DO include fresh, whole meats, eggs and whole grains. When relying on prepared foods, seek out those that offer human grade ingredients and no artificial preservatives or coloring. Consider adding enzymes for that “spark of life” missing from even the best of prepared food. Providing the least processed food available should be the goal. Always make clean, filtered water available – chlorine, fluoride and heavy metals from the tap aren’t any better for them than for us.

Seek alternatives for flea treatment

Despite the manufacturers' assurances, conventional flea remedies are poisons and harm more than just fleas. The labels clearly advise that humans avoid skin contact, yet we bathe or drop this same substance onto our pets. This includes the most recent variety of topical drops, which are not supposed to migrate further than the fatty tissues. Some vets have noticed incidences of increased liver damage on pets that have been treated. This constant barrage of chemicals will wear down your pets’ immunity. Fleas love a weakened host and so the “cure” encourages a vicious cycle. Better to increase your pets’ resistance through a healthy lifestyle:

Add nutritional yeast and garlic to their daily diets. The taste and smell seems to repel fleas and other pests and the garlic bolsters immunity.

When infested, bathe pets in natural shampoos that include herbs such as citronella and tea tree. These substances also discourage pests.

Use essential oils, such as rosemary and eucalyptus, on their fabric collars, instead of chemical drenched flea collars.

Check for roundworm and tapeworms (carried by fleas), that can further weaken your pet.

Treat your carpets with boric acid derivatives (such as Flea Busters) – mineral salts with low toxicity, it attracts developing flea larvae.

The Veterinarian’s Guide to Natural Remedies for Dogs/Cats, by Martin Zucker