Veronica Eng asked:


As I believe in improving health naturally, it is crucial to boost our pet’s immune system to prevent illnesses and allow their body to heal itself.

Here are some things we can do to boost our pet’s immune system.

• Regular optimal amount of Vitamin C. Though dogs produce their own vitamin C, it may not be sufficient to maintain optimal health. Vitamin C is safe and there is no harm in overdosing Vitamin C as excessive amounts will be flushed out of the body. Personally, I prefer powdered form Vitamin C as I can add it into their meals easily without stuffing tablets in them. Solid gold has powdered Vitamin C or you can purchase the human version of vitamin C from pharmacy. Just go slow when introducing Vitamin C and keep to the optimal level amount daily. Too much at one go can cause diarrhea onset as the body purge the excess Vitamin C. If you cook or warm your dog food, add the vitamins & supplement last after the food is cooled and ready for feed. (Avoid microwaving your dog food to warm it as it will destroy the goodness of the foods. I prefer to give my dogs chilled food rather then microwaving it. All I need to do is boil some water quickly and pour some hot water into the food to make it at room temperature, than add the supplements accordingly.

• Healthy meals. Cook for or feed BARF diet, buy fresh meats and vegetables. Daily healthy fresh foods selection is essential for good health. Instead of giving dog treats which can be laden with chemicals and sugar, give your dog fruits and dried meats as treats instead.

• Fatty acids (e.g. Flaxseed oil/powder). Purchase flaxseed that is organic and bottled in dark container. Alternatively, quality supplements such as Missing link for Canine has all the essential vitamins, minerals and omega oils a dog needs. Missing link for Canine supplement is a balanced supplement encompassing omega oils, minerals and vitamins. If you purchase this, you no longer need any additional supplement. When buying any supplements, ensure your pet is not allergic to any of their ingredients.

o Purchase your pet supplies including Missinglink from this site Pet Rescue Petstore. 10% of all purchase goes to animal rescue purposes. Purchase Missinglink with joint support if your pet is elderly or if she has joint problems. Otherwise, the regular Missinglink is good enough for most dogs.

• Colostrums are cows “pre-milk” that is secreted prior to producing milk. Colostrums are given as supplement to provide antibodies, nutrition and to strengthen the immune system. Purchase children’s version of colostrums that is chewable. Dogs love the taste and give them once a day on empty stomach for better absorption.

• Filtered water is preferred. Ensure water bowls are changed, washed and refilled daily.

• Fresh air daily. . Bring your pets to the park regularly to ensure the fresh air and greenery. Going to natural environment has higher levels of anions in the air which inevitably help boost your pet’s immune system and improve blood circulation thus higher level of oxygen in their body. It is necessary to avoid high traffic areas as fumes from the vehicles are bad for their respiratory and can accumulate toxic buildup in their respiratory track. At home, ensure the home is well ventilated. If you are unable to walk your pet daily at natural environment, consider purchasing air purification system or use Lampe Berger (a century old product from France) to ensure good air surrounds the whole family. With daily good air therapy, it aids in boosting your family and pet’s immune system.

For more precious health care tips for pets, visit my site and subscribe to the newsletter today! www.dogcarezone.com

Veronica Eng @ www.dogcarezone.com

www.dogcarezone.com/blog

P.S. No amounts of the information should be duplicated in any website or ebooks or books without the author’s permission. Email to pets.for.life@gmail.com if you want to do so. Alternatively, include the author’s website www.dogcarezone.com as a reference site to your book or article. Thank you for your kind co-operation

Brenda Skidmore asked:


As a proud pet owner, most people naturally want the very best for their furry, four-legged friends. It is likely your emotional investment began the moment you, and your new found companion, looked into each others eyes for the first time.

If you happen to be a stickler in keeping high, physical health care standards for yourself and your family, then ensuring that your pet has a safe, healthy, and happy life is certainly going to become a top priority too. With a return to summer, which everyone enjoys, including our pets, it can also bring to mind some seasonal health concerns regarding our extended, family members.

This does not have to wreak havoc on your personal finances, however, as five important common sense strategies can head off several unnecessary, and expensive trips to your veterinarian. These natural approaches should leave everyone in the household feeling happier, especially your pet! And, they are economical in the long-term.

Safety Tip 1

Keep pets cool

Hot temperatures combined with high humidity interferes with an animal’s natural ability to pant, which is how they cool themselves. This kind of weather is very hard on your pet. Unlike humans, who can cool themselves by sweating through pores in the skin, canines and felines only have sweat glands in noses and paw pads. Hence, a dry nose is a warning sign of a feverish or dehydrated animal.

Always provide your pet with a daily, fresh water supply. This applies to any season, but it is especially important in the summer months. If your pet is recovering from surgery, illness, or has become severely dehydrated, there is even special electrolyte-enhanced water available for dogs. Search for those in larger pet or health food stores.

Your pet will be happier, and much more comfortable, being left at home on a shopping trip. If you feel you must take them out on a hot day, never leave them in a vehicle with the windows down, even for a few minutes.

Getting wet in a creek, lake, or child size wading pool can help keep your dog cool. Be mindful, though, to rinse off your dog’s fur after a swim in the ocean, or a chemically treated pool.

Long-haired animals need daily brushing or combing to avoid heat-trapping matting or tangling of coats. Regular hair cuts or trimmings during hot weather, can help keep pets cooler. Just be careful, if your doing it yourself though, don’t shave the animal. Skin that has never seen sunlight will burn easily!

Safety Tip 2

Pest control

Stinging, biting, and blood ******* insects can affect your pet’s health, happiness, and behavior. A bee sting can inflict as much pain and swelling on your pet as it can you. Pull stingers out with fingernails or tweezers. You can dab the affected area (except around the eyes) with a diluted solution of half apple cider vinegar or tea tree oil, water mix. Exception: do not use these disinfecting mixtures on a small dog, puppy, or cats.

When it comes to repelling, and protecting, your pet from common parasites like fleas, ticks, lice, mites, and mosquitoes, look for safe non-toxic products containing ‘neem’. Most of these products are a bottled liquid mixture. There are several creative ways of using them from mixing them up to use as a dip, mix in your dogs shampoo, or even soaking a cloth collar can repel the health hazards of external parasites, naturally.

Safety Tip 3

Exercise

Both owner and pet benefit, tremendously, from a mentally and physically active lifestyle. Regular physical interaction with your pet provides not just physical benefits, but emotional ones as well. All kinds of physical activity can be incorporated as game playing with your pet friend. It will promote healthy muscle stimulation, and sharpen cognitive mental functioning.

Just remember, in hot weather months, use the keep your pet cool rule. Schedule these types of activities in the cooler parts of the day.

Safety Tip 4

Control ear infections

Ear infections can be a common problem in the summer with long-eared dogs, or water loving ones. Most ear infections are caused by yeasty types of bacterias.

An ounce of prevention technique, that works rather in humans too, is mixing up a solution of equal parts of white vinegar and isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Store in a dropper bottle and dispense a few drops into each ear after water exposure to the ears. The alcohol helps dry out the ear canal, and the vinegar lowers the pH, making the inside of the ear a less than ideal environment for bacteria to thrive in.

Safety Tip 5

Improve Diet

Whether you wish to increase an older pet’s energy and vitality, get better control of internal (worms) or external parasites, or relieve problem allergies, all of these can be done from the inside out through diet improvement.

Powdered probiotic and enzyme supplements can be added to your pet’s food. There are several quality brands available, exclusively, for dogs and cats. Both, good bacteria and enzyme nutrition supplementation, help to strengthen your pet’s immune system and stimulate better digestion, assimilation, and elimination.

Most commercial brands of processed pet foods, either dry or canned, provide a minimal amount of basic nutrition, due to over processing or are missing many different nutrients entirely. The same is true if you are feeding your pet home prepared food. If you are going to feed your pet real food, it will be much better tolerated if it is fed raw. Raw meat, milk, or eggs is best.

Many alternative health care strategies that are available to humans, also exist for pet health. Health care specialties such as acupressure, massage, and spinal manipulation, that work well for people, can also help your pet, just search for a practitioner who specializes in animal therapy.

Several of these, seasonal, all-natural safety tips just make good common sense to be implementing on your pet year round. As a responsible pet owner, remember, your pet solely depends on you to keep them healthy, happy, and safe. And, now you know how to do this just a little bit better.

Wishbone asked:


Shiny coat is a sign of healthy pet. Dogs can have all sorts of skin problems and they range in severity from benign to very serious. As Winter approaches and the temperature begins to drop, you notice a new behavior with your dog: he is constantly scratching, biting or licking his fur. As each day grows cooler, his behavior worsens. Winter is also a time when we experience dry hands and feet, and as such we require extra treatment during this time to keep our skin moist and healthy. Any dog can have dry skin; it is not an exclusively human condition. Just like us, dogs need good skin care to prevent itching and flaking.

Is your home dry in the winter? If so, this could be causing dry skin itch. Use a room humidifier to moisten the air. Also, try a moisturizing shampoo from the pet store. Do not bathe your dog too often; keep his coat clean but that is all–this will help with the scratching and, also, keep them from being uncomfortable during winter months. Water and winter do not mix well with your pet. When you must bathe your dog, be sure to use a dog shampoo. A dog’s ph level is different from our own and human shampoos can be harsh on their skin. Instead, buy a dog shampoo that can offer moisturizing effects. Besides providing moisture, many shampoos can also offer flea and parasite protection, which can also help lessen scratching. Some of the more promising cures are herbal extracts such as horsetail, dandelion, spirulina, and fucus, which can help maintain skin and fur health, improve digestive health, and promote general well-being in dogs and cats. Brush your dog often to remove dead hair and dander; if possible, a quick brushing every day will help your pet immensely. Healthy skin, ultimately, reflects a dog’s lifestyle. By using quality foods and adding fatty supplements to their food (oil, etc), you can guarantee your dog to have a flake-free coat.

But when your dog skin is flaky, red and irritated or some noticeable bumps, rashes or other unusual inflammations, this could be a sign of something serious. Others see some open sores in dog body or dog’s hair is falling out excessively, your dog needs to see his vet. He could just be allergic to his fleas or something in your home. It’s important to get some sort of flea control. Your vet can help you determine and eliminate any other allergens that are causing your dog trouble.

Also dog hotspots are very common, they are typically a bacterial infection. They might have started out as just an allergy, but as the dog scratched, he broke open the skin and introduced bacteria into the sore with his dirty paws. The bacteria grows and causes further irritation to the skin. The vet will want to clear up the initial allergy as well as treat the new infection. He may also prescribe a pain reliever. Most of the time, your dog’s skin troubles can be solved using a variety of treatments. Some are topical like creams and shampoos. Others are pills or injections. Be patient though, not all dogs respond similarly to treatment. It may take a while to find what works.

Common tips to prevent and treat dog skin allergies is to give the right and healthy food. Premium dog foods like Wellness, Royal Canin and Science Diet are balanced nutritionally, with less grain and more meat. One way to determine the quality of a dog food is to look at the first few ingredients, which should be a meat, rather than a grain. Fresh foods like meats and vegetables are high in nutrients and vitamins, which will help to improve a dog’s skin and coat by improving overall health. Consider adding fresh meats, and vegetables and fruits like carrots, celery, broccoli, apples (with no seeds), and greens like kale to each meal. Always introduce new foods gradually to avoid stomach upset. A dehydrated dog is going to be prone to dry skin, among other health problems, and some dogs simply don’t drink what they should. Provide extra fluids by serving wet food or by hydrating dry food. Add hot water to kibble, allow the kibble to sit for about ten minutes – this should cause the kibble to swell with water, providing extra fluid with each meal. Fresh vegetables also have high water content, aiding further in providing moisture to the dog’s body. Oils can greatly improve the condition of a dog’s itchy or dry skin. So once daily, soak one or two pieces of bread with olive oil and serve with each meal. Or add the oil directly to the dog’s meal by providing a teaspoon of olive oil for each 15 pounds of body weight.