18/09/2024
ITCHY DOG CLINIC NEXT FRIDAY...
Got an itchy dog? Come for a chat next Friday lunch time (1pm BST, recording will be made available for those that miss it).
We get a lot of chronically itchy dogs here, so we have some ideas to share that you may not have considered to date.
I see chronically itchy dogs as little houses on fire. While the conventional veterinary approach seems to focus entirely on all the smoke coming out the windows and chimney, using potent, monthly prescriptions of anti-inflammatory meds, which have a place, god knows we don't want them suffering, the holistic approach is to wonder where all the smoke is coming from. The holistic approach is get the hose inside and then look around after, see what damage remains.
Itch, outside of parasites which we will discuss, is a bioindicator all is not well. It's a smoke alarm. Don't just knock it off with a big stick and go back to bed.
I feel most of you know this already but the frustration can set in when you set about trying to find the source of the fire.
More often than not, it's the gut. Even when you tell me it's a bacterial or fungal infection on the surface, I'm wondering HOW and WHY. How and why did your dog's skin flora let this happen?
More often than not, if you're looking for the source of the fire, you should first start in the gut. 80% of your immune system is around your gut as that's the entryway to the body. It requires massive surveillance.
It happens that when it goes wrong, when you poke that beehive, you get a lot of inflammation and Helsinki University showed us it takes around a year for that inflammation to pop up on the skin and just 6mths later, the ears. It's why a common age for people coming to us with consults is around 18-24mths of age.
In this clinic, I'll show you how we approach chronic itch. I can tell you it work for perhaps 75-80% of itchy dogs, completely curing many and greatly helping much of the remainder, at least reducing drug need, which in itself is a success as these cases are too often in very bad shape by the time they get to us - years into the process, many vets consulted, heavily medicated. The damage accumulates, the finances plummet and the client is quite often in tears.
Some cases we can't seem to fix but that's what natural vets are for as they have a variety of other dark arts to explore in these troubled cases.
Best of all, my advice can be done in conjunction with your current veterinary advice (though bear in mind that advice has thus far done nothing to FIX the issue)...
I will cover:
🤓 First, we need to put the fire out. I show you how to get the gut flora back in line using real food.
🤓 I will run through your natural supplement options - from probiotics (less bacterial, these days) to some cooling topicals and natural antihistamine ideas.
🤓 But sometimes this doesn't fix it, so we take a quick trip through the yeast conversation which I believe is accounting for at least 1 in 4 chronically itchy dogs (based on us now recommending more and more internal yeast protocols for those dogs we're struggling to resolve.
🤓 We'll cover potential parasites and then, for those dogs where the above did not completely heal, discuss what else could be driving itch in your dog and how you might test for them.
It's a live chat, so I'll talk for 30mins and then I can chat about your dog and answer questions after.
The clinic is free to members. Monthly membership is cheap as chips and you can cancel after, meaning you'll get the advice for the price of a sandwich.
If you know of a dog with chronic itch, please send them this on. A new road is needed.
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Coming up in the membership
👉 Next week in the Beginners Academy we have "dealing with vets as a raw feeder", detailing how to approach, questions on safety, shifting blood parameters etc.
👉 In October we will begin our Intermediate canine nutrition academy. For the nerds we will be bringing a series of deeper 30min live lectures into nutrition, biology and physiology.
As ever, if you're looking for more, all my longer seminars are free to view for members.
