5 Best Holistic Cures For Doggies

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Guest author Tara Rupani, www.hobostripper.com -

For hundreds of years people have treated themselves, and their animals, with the wild plants growing around them. Today we have other options: doctors and veterinarians can run sophisticated tests on blood, kidneys, even your brain. If your dog coughs, vomits, or limps, your veterinarian can prescribe chemicals that have been isolated and combined into drugs. These drugs, tests, and doctors can treat things that were previously un-treatable, and save lives that would be lost without them. Somewhere along the way, though, we’ve lost our ability to treat the little things. A common cold, or our dog’s hot spot. We’ve lost the common wisdom of our grandmothers.

In the spirit of old wisdom and people’s medicine, here are some common herbal remedies that I’ve used with my Border Collie, Bro:

Wounds and Splinters

Obviously if your dog has a big gaping wound or a festering infection you need to take her to the vet for some stitches or antibiotics. But for wounds that don’t require emergency medical care, weeds are your friend. That’s right, weeds!

Plantain

Do you recognize this plant? It’s called Plantain, and it grows almost everywhere people live. It especially loves the edges of driveways, lawns, sidewalks, and forests.

In addition to being great at helping skin and tissue to repair itself, Plantain is an anti-inflammatory and a great drawing agent. I’ve used plantain to draw out the tips of porcupine quills that had broken off under the skin, and to draw out big chunks of wood that were stuck in wounds.

Dip a few of the leaves in hot water, lay them on the wound, and wrap with an ace bandage. I generally leave it over night and then re-assess, but in an acute situation you may want to check and replace every three hours. If you are in the woods you can make a quick plantain poultice by chewing a leaf slightly and then sticking it on the wound.

Garlic

If there is any infection, or possibility of it, you’ll want to also give your dog a clove of raw garlic two to three times a day. Garlic is such a great antibiotic that it was used exclusively after they ran out of chemical antibiotics in WWI. I’ve used it on myself to reverse blood poisoning, and I’ve even seen it used on serious cases of gout where the doctors were recommending amputation. Of course, you should not use it in such serious situations without the supervision of a veterinarian or herbalist.

Lavender

Depending on the type of wound, you may also want to use lavender, which I’ll discuss below.

Hot Spots

At first you just notice your dog itching a spot on his rear. Next thing you know it’s hairless, raw, and practically festering. You could go to your vet for antibiotics and steroids, but maybe you’re reluctant to do that just yet.

Lavender is the best treatment I’ve found for hot spots. Its astringent action dries up any pussiness. At the same time it reduces or completely gets rid of the itchy painfulness and kills any bacteria.

The best way to use Lavender is as a tincture. It is never safe to use an essential oil in a spot that your dog could lick. Tinctures use alcohol and/or glycerin to extract the medicinal qualities of the plant without the volatile oils. To use lavender tincture on a hot spot mix one dropper of the tincture with about one half cup of olive oil. Put it in a spray bottle and spray the hot spot thoroughly. You will be amazed at how quickly your dog forgets about it and leaves it alone. Keep spraying every 3-4 hours at first. Typically within 24-48 hours you’ll see a significant improvement and you’ll only spray occasionally or as needed.

You may not be able to find lavender in tincture form at your local health food store. You can purchase it in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs and make your own tincture, or you can buy already made tincture from Blue Turtle Botanicals.

Diarrhea

There are two things that cause diarrhea: excess liquid in the gut, and stomach spasms that mash everything into a liquid and expel it. Both things can have a myriad of causes, of course, from stress to Guardia to bad food.

Ginger

The first thing to reach for is ginger. Ginger is a powerful antispasmodic that will stop the stomach spasms in their tracks. One or two slices of the ginger root should be enough, but extra ginger is not going to hurt anything. It can be hard to get the ginger into your dog. First try mixing it in with treats in your hand. Wrap it in lunchmeat. If all else fails, open your dogs mouth and place the ginger as far back on her tongue as you can reach, then hold her mouth closed and stroke her throat softly until she swallows several times. Ginger is a circulatory stimulant and a diaphoretic. It should not be used if your dog has heart problems, and you should be aware that it can cause a slight rise in temperature.

Lavender

When it comes to excess liquid in the gut, lavender tincture is great for drying it up, as well as acting as a slight anti-anxiety. Give one dropper for dogs over 30 lbs and one half dropper for dogs less than 30 lbs. If the diarrhoea continues, give one more dose an hour later. If it hasn’t worked by then, liquid is not your whole problem. Do not exceed 3 doses in a day, it will cause constipation.

If you’ve used ginger and lavender, and the diarrhea has returned or continued, you are probably dealing with a bug, like guardia. If your dog has recently been playing in a lake with beavers, you should just assume guardia and skip to this step.

Wormwood

Wormwood is the best stuff in the world for killing bugs in the gut. You can buy it in tincture form at your local health food store. You’ll want to follow the instructions on your bottle closely, giving ½ the human dosage to a dog over thirty pounds, and ¼ to a dog less than thirty pounds. Wormwood can act as a nervous system depressant if taken for longer than four weeks (though there have been studies that say this is not true). You generally need to use it for at least three weeks, even if the diarrhea has stopped, to catch the full life cycle of the bugs.

Vomiting

Often vomiting is a good thing. If your dog has eaten something bad, vomiting is the body’s way of getting rid of it. Preventing the vomiting can make your dog sicker, so generally I think you should let vomiting run its course as long as the dog is not becoming dangerously dehydrated.

Vomiting can be caused by blockages in the stomach. If your dog has recently gotten into the trash, and is now unable to keep food down, you need to go to the vet immediately to check for obstructions.

The exception is vomiting that comes from motion sickness or extreme stress (like flying in the belly of an airplane). In those cases a piece of ginger is a great treatment and preventative.