Herbs for dogs !

As part of the  8 month herbalist course, I incorporate health for pets into the course. When I got my masters degree in herbalism, I did my thesis on herbs, nutrition and supplements for dogs.

I have worked with remedies for my dogs for many years. I learned a lot of this from hands on experience with 2 of my aging dogs back in the late 1990’s.

It is nice to be able to ease their pain with herbs.

I also learned a lot about feeding them. My 2 dogs that I have now eat a raw food diet and have done very well on that. I don’t think it is a good idea to switch a dog of any age over to raw food right away. Just like people, they need a transition time.

Older dogs are probably best just left on the diet they are used to. You can incorporate herbs into their diet to make them more comfortable. I used herbs for helping with pain issues, anxiety, and constipation for my older dogs.

Younger dogs may do well on raw, there’s many ways to go about this, but keep in mind that dogs are like people, they all have different needs with food, supplements & herbs. If you want take my 8 month distance learning herbalist course you can learn much more about this.

CANINE FORMULAS: Below are examples of more formulas just to give an idea of the scope of support that herbs can give. Herbs used are going to depend on matching the energetic needs of the dog to the right herb. I teach how to custom blend forumulas during my herbalist course.

Digestive System Support: chronic constipation, healing to digestive tract, aids digestion, stomach upset, gas . Contains: slippery elm, goldenseal, milk thistle, licorice, wormwood, peppermint, chamomile. May require fiber, probiotics, digestive enyzmes, diet changes

Immune System Support: fleas, hot spots, recurring illness, infections. Contains: garlic, echinacea, goldenseal, cleavers, yellow dock, burdock, red clover. use for 2 - 3 months

Pregnancy & Nursing Support: pregnancy tonic, helps with labor and birth, enriches and increases milk supply. Contains: nettles, oatstraw, raspberry leaf, alfalfa

   

Pain Support: joint pain, injuries, muscular pain, post surgery. Contains: mullein, crampbark, willow bark, ginger, lobelia, licorice, lemon balm. I used this formula for several years with my aging Schnauzer who had terrible arthritis due to injuries, it kept him comfortable & increased his lifespan.

 

Pre-Surgery Support: reduces risk of bleeding, boosts immune system, calming. Contains: echinacea, nettles, rescue remedy, lavender Don't use blood thinners such as willow bark or ginkgo

Senior Dog Support: for aging dogs, calming, heart support, helps brain circulation and memory. Contains hawthorn, motherwort, cayenne, lemon balm, ginkgo

  

Urinary Tract Support: infections, to prevent recurring infections. Contains: dandelion, nettles, echinacea, goldenseal, marshmallow, buchu

  

Relax 1: barking, restlessness, can't sleep, travel. Contains: hops, california poppy. Use Vibrational Essences too, these can be mixed into the same formula.

Relax 2: barking, restlessness, can't sleep, travel. Contains: lemon balm, lavender, oatstraw .Use vibrational essences too.

  

Respiratory System Support: cough, respiratory problems from allergies, pollutants, viruses. Contains: licorice, marshmallow, mullein, echinacea, chickweed

  

Antioxidant Support: protects the body from free radical damage. Contains: green tea, ginger, thyme, tumeric. Use supplements & diet changes

 Heart & Circulatory Support: use for as a tonic for heart and circulation problems. Contains: hawthorn, nettles, cayenne, garlic

  

Yearly Cleanse: to help cleanse the liver, skin, immune system, parasites, toxicity, aggression, bad breath, bloating, skin problems. Contains: milk thistle, dandelion, cleavers, Oil of Oregano, garlic. Some dogs may need to use this for several months or longer

Spayed Female Support (people use hormone support after surgery, so I believe dogs should too, I've have really good success with these formulas). To support hormones, adrenal glands, and thyroid . Contains: licorice, wild yam, ginseng, oatstraw, nettles, vitex. Use once a week or daily  until old age.

Neutered Male Support (people use hormone support after surgery, so I believe dogs should too, I've have really good success with these formulas) To support hormones, adrenal glands, and thyroid. Contains saw palmetto, licorice, damiana, ginseng. Use once a week or daily until old age.

DOSAGE & ADMINISTRATION OF FORMULAS

Formulas should be added directly to your pet's food, and stirred in well. Once a day should be fine for most formulas. If you are using the Relax Formula for helping your dog to sleep at night, you should give the formula is a very small amount of food right at bedtime. 

If your dog will not eat the food with the formula in it, try offering the dosage in a small amount of tuna or sardines, these foods smell strong & will mask the smell of stronger herbs. As a last resort, you can administer the formula using the correct dosage in a plastic syringe (not the glass dropper that comes in my dropper bottles). I find this method traumatizing to the dogs, so it is better to give the formula in food when possible.

Dosages will vary with factors other than weight, so it is best to use less for a day or 2 to test your dog’s reaction to the herbs. For example, one of my dogs only seems to require 2 - 3 drops of a formula to relax him, while my other dog uses 40 drops of the pain formula daily for arthritic pain, they both weigh 25 lbs. 

This is a general guideline, but remember it is best to start with a very small amount and build up from there, and make sure the remedy agrees with your dog:

100 lb. dogs = 20 - 30 drops

50 lb. dogs = 15 - 20 drops

25 lb. dogs = 5 - 15 drops

5 lb. dog = 3 - 5 drops

As I will discuss during the herbalist course, often just a few drops of an herb are needed if the correct herb is chosen. 

Please contact your veterinarian for serious problems or to get a diagnosis. Any information presented here is for informational purposes only and not intended to take the place of diagnosis and treatment by a veterinarian. Please remember that dogs, like people, can have sensitivities or allergies to foods and herbal remedies, try only a small amount of a new food to make sure it agrees with your dog. These formulas are not suitable for cats!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Signs of candida overgrowth in the body, part 1

CANDIDA EVALUATION

1.        ANTIBIOTIC USE

2.       MUSCULAR, JOINT PAIN, STIFFNESS, WEAKNESS

3.       HEADACHE

4.       DEPRESSION

5.       INABILITY TO CONCENTRATE

6.       FATIGUE

7.       INTESTINAL UPSETS

8.       ACNE

9.       CRAVINGS FOR SWEET FOODS, SUGAR, ALCOHOL

10.    CRAVINGS FOR BREADS, PASTRIES

11.      ANXIETY

12.     SENSITIVITY TO PERFUMES, TOBACCO, CLEANING AISLE AT THE GROCERY STORE

13.     FUNGAL INFECTIONS

14.    SKIN PROBLEMS: ECZEMA, HIVES, ITCHING

15.     CONSIPATION &/OR DIARRHEA

16.     GAS, BLOATING

17.     FORGETFULNESS

18.     RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS

19.    ITCHING IN EARS OR NOSE

Most people could benefit from doing a candida cleanse once or twice a year. Imagine how nice it would be to no longer crave sugars or breads, have clear thoughts, more energy and no more skin problems, bowels problems or joint pain.

A good candida cleanse requires an overall approach, using supplements that are anti-fungal, building up your body’s digestive system, cleansing the bowel and lymphatic system, toning the liver and not eating foods which feed the candida.

In my next posting we'll look at a program for lowering candida levels in the body.

Acid Alkaline Balance, part 2

To alkalize the body, and get acidity out of the body (and your joints--causing joint pain, gout, arthritic pain)


You should eat 75-80% alkaline foods and a of 20-25% acid forming foods.

 Cut back on, or eliminate:

• meat
• dairy 
• coffee
• sugar
• sodas  
• alcohol

Its really not as terrifying as it sounds. Start with one item on list, such as meat. Stop eating red meat, switch to other meats that appeal to you that are somewhat healthier: such as chicken or fish.

With dairy, you might choose to start with cutting out drinking milk, then cut back on cheese (ouch, that's hard one). Try yogurt, it at least has some probiotics in it that makes it easier to digest. Its ok to start with flavored yogurts if that's only way to do it. Then if you want to take a big leap, try rice milk or coconut milk. (not soy please - its hard to digest, not the best choice).

As cut back on a few things, add more nutritious foods. Add ones that appeal to you, you don't need to be hating what you eat!

Use some supplements:

1. Take a full spectrum digestive enzyme
2. Use a greens product, spirulina or cholorphyll, or Greens+ or something similar to that
3. Use trace minerals in liquid form such as Himalayan Crystal salt sole
4. Instead of regular salt use an alkalizing product such as Himalayan Crystal Salts
5. Detoxify the body: I offer online workshops on this on my forum
6. Use Alfalfa tablets 6 - 9 per day for several months, then cut back to 3 per day. These do an amazing job at getting acidity out of the body.
7. Calcium, magnesium supplement.
8. Instead of ascorbic acid, choose a Vitamin C supplement that alkalizes such as calcium ascorbate.

As your body even gets a hint of feeling cleaner & is becoming less acidic you will find you just naturally begin to let go of foods that were contributing to your health problems & you begin to want healthier foods. If you suddenly switch back to old habits, you can also suddenly experience a recurrence of your health problems, which makes you realize how much the changes in diet are helping you!

On my website article on this same topic, I have a chart listing acid & alkalizing foods that can help you decide what types of foods you could be eating more of.

A raw food diet is very alkalizing.


If you'd like to learn more about reiki & chakras, I offer distance learning (not for attuning students for reiki, but for all the additional learning that I teach my students)  Course work is posted on my forum. Much more info on my website. 
www.dragonflyherbals.com 


Or sign up her for the 8 month herbal, other herbal workshops held online, and reiki & chakra healing workshops:


http://dragonflyherbals.proboards.com/index.cgi

Acid Alkaline Balance, part 1

Over acidity, can become a dangerous condition that weakens all body systems, is very common today. It gives rise to an internal environment conducive to disease, as opposed to a pH-balanced environment which allows normal body function necessary for the body to resist disease.When access acids must be neutralized our alkaline reserves are depleted leaving the body in a weakened condition.
When alkaline reserves in the body are exhausted, even more acidity occurs; metabolism becomes inefficient and acid builds up even more in the body tissues, further weakening the body.

Note that a food's acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end-products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so lemons are alkaline-forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming.


How did my body become acidic?


The standard American diet can get over 95% of its calories from acidifying foods. Acidity comes about from eating too many acidic foods, such as animal products (meat, dairy, eggs), salt, cereal, coffee, sodas, and alcohol. Smoking is very acid producing. Physical exercise acidifies the blood with lactic acid. Deep breathing exercises alkalize the blood.

Acidity in the body can cause such problems as:


• Joint pain, aching muscles and lactic acid buildup.
• Low energy and chronic fatigue.
• Slow digestion and elimination.
• Yeast/fungal overgrowth.
. nervous disorders
•arthritis, gout
 • Cardiovascular weakness, including the constriction of blood vessels and the reduction of oxygen.
• Weight gain, obesity and diabetes.
• Bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones.
• Immune system weakness.
• Acceleration of free radical damage, possibly contributing to cancerous mutations.
• Hormone concerns.
• Premature aging.
• Bone demineralization: osteoporosis; weak, brittle bones, fractures

So many people are dealing with health issues like that & have no idea that herbs & correct diet can help to bring their body back into balance & relieve these problems.

We talk a lot about the link between proper nutrition & health problems in my herbalist course. Anyone can benefit from taking this course,  to empower themselves to begin to heal health issues that are stopping them from living a healthy & happy life.

It is often so simple for someone to starting making a change with their eating habits, add a few supplements & herbs & start to see chronic pain go away, anxiety & nervousness go away, and start to feel healthy again & enjoy life.

I have worked with my own health problems, & those of my family, friends, clients & pets over the last 30 years & have seen how much difference a few changes can make, which then often inspires to person to continue to make changes. It doesn't have to be all done at once.  Long lasting change in lifestyle is best achieved by a period of transition where you add in more healthy foods & change your mindset as old habits just begin to slip away. The body detoxifies, the mind detoxifies & everything changes.

Learning to channel reiki is another way to empower yourself to begin your own path in healing yourself, and healing others if you choose to do that. You learn to channel reiki by being given an attunement at a workshop, which opens your chakras & energy field. Your healing process begins at this point, as your energy field releases old behaviors, old energy patterns, old emotional & physical issues that no longer serve you.

Another way to inspire yourself to change is to get David Wolfe's Sunfood Success book.

More on Acid Alkaline balance in my next post.

The body is a self sustaining, wonderfully regenerating organism

that wears out due to high levels of physical, mental, emotional & spiritual toxicity.

This toxicity comes through

diet

negative thinking

poor quality relationships

and disempowering belief systems.

Detoxification (letting go) at all levels heals all things.

by David Wolfe

Sunfood Diet Sucess System

If you'd like to learn more about reiki & chakras, I offer distance learning (not for attuning students for reiki, but for all the additional learning that I teach my students)  Course work is posted on my forum. Much more info on my website. 
www.dragonflyherbals.com 


Or sign up her for the 8 month herbal, other herbal workshops held online, and reiki & chakra healing workshops:


http://dragonflyherbals.proboards.com/index.cgi

Keeping Your Blood Sugar Balanced, part 2

If you read part 1 on Blood Sugar Balance posted a few days ago & feel like you do have issues with that, you can eat foods that will help to keep your blood sugar in balance.

One important thing is eating at regular intervals. Skipping breakfast or any other meals makes this worse, and also contributes to weight gain. If you eat wholesome foods at regular intervals your body will have a regular source of fuel.

Eating foods high in sugars, (high glycemic) such as bagels, any foods containing sugar, most store bought cereals in a box, pretzels, some types of rice, potatoes, fruit juice. There is a long list. Research glycemic index to find foods in the low range that will help keep your blood sugar balanced.

Hummus is actually a great food to help keep blood sugar balanced. Use raw veggies to scoop it up. These are more 'mainstream' type ideas in my realm of thinking, that anyone can apply to their diet.

I eat mostly raw food & have found the raw & living foods to keep my blood balanced, I eat quite often & eat foods that give me a steady source of energy.


Snacks that help to keep blood sugar balanced:

1. swiss cheese and celery (swiss cheese is lactose free, so those who can eat dairy may still be able to eat swiss cheese, or small amounts of swiss cheese)

2. Marinated tofu squares (marinade in your favorite dressing for salad, or lemon, soy sauce, garlic, dried herbs, olive oil, etc) with red yellow and green pepper bits.

3. Rye crackers with tahini

4. ½ an avocado

5. leftover brown rice with finely chopped spinach and green onions

6. left over homemade soup with lots of veggies

7. bean salad: a mixture of black beans, red beans, chick peas, onion, green beans, grated carrot and celery and dressing (like #2)

8. wraps: whole wheat with flax wrap with refried beans, onion, swiss cheese, salsa

9. pita bread with falafel, tahini, sprouts

10. celery and almond butter

11. tofu spread (mash tofu with lemon, garlic powder, finely chopped celery and onion, flake yeast and your favorite herbs). Use this to dip veggies in, or spread it on rye crackers

12. baked yam and salad

13. egg salad on bread, rye crackers or in a pita with chopped spinach

14. hummus spread with veggies and rye crackers (you can find a hummous recipe online)

15. yogurt and hemp hearts

16. Greens+: vitamins, minerals, gently detoxifying, alkalizing, contains probiotics, balances bloods sugar, helps increase energy levels & memory, source of fiber. Stir into water or rice milk or yogurt. Don't use milk, or fruit juice.

Keeping Your Blood Sugar Balanced, part 1

Another part of good health is keeping your blood sugar balanced. Sometimes we go too long in between meals caused blood sugar to become imbalanced, which you can feel as sudden exhaustion (often felt mid afternoon), feeling shaky or mood swings. Don't just grab coffee or something sugary. Eating food that help to keep your blood sugar balanced will prevent this from happening.

As part of my consultations with client, I ask the following questions:

BLOOD SUGAR EVALUATION

In between meals, in the afternoon, or at night do you get any of the following:

1. shaky
2. tired
3. irritable
4. nervous
5. cold
6. confused
7. craving sugar
8. can’t concentrate
9. exhaustion in mid afternoon

Check off the ones that apply to you. I will be posting ways to keep your blood sugar balancing in an upcoming post.

I do teach my herb students quite a bit on nutrition, more on my distance herbalist course is on  my website. Dragonfly Herbals 

Reiki and the attunement experience, part 2

Remember that in learning reiki you are learning to heal yourself, which means remembering ways to care for yourself:

• Eat more whole foods, eliminate or cut down on red meat, junk food, alcohol, sugar. Fresh vegetables, fruits & grains hold the highest vibration. Seafood & poultry the next highest vibration. Meat from animals with hooves (beef, pork) slow the metabolism & lowers our vibration. Water helps to conduct energy, remember to drink lots of water from now on to keep your vibrational level high.

• • Take time to yourself
• 
  
• • Use vibrational essences (they are on my website, I can mix you a blend at no charge)
• 
  
• • Meditate
• 
  
• • Walk in nature, yoga, exercise of any kind
• 
  
• • Journaling
• 
  
• • Take salt baths with 2 cups of any combination of epsoms salts, baking soda, sea salt or Himalayan rock salt & essential oils, put a couple drops of your vibrational essence in your bath water.
• 
  
• • Do reiki self treatment daily, make it part of your day, it is easy to place a hand on yourself & channel the energy
• 
  
• • Do the centering & grounding breathing methods
• 
  
• • Remember you are clearing these physical & emotional issues from your body & aura, so it is healing!

After the 21-day cleansing cycle is complete, the energy continues working within our being, on a much larger scale. The attunement helps to connect you with the bigger picture. The Reiki will always be with you and will direct itself through your life, always guided by your higher source. Things that are detrimental to you will begin to slip away and the dreams and visions of your highest self will open doors to a new approach to life.

Everyone is different and everyone's experience is unique. Reiki does not act alone, it is guided by your higher self and all that is. The Reiki energy only works for our highest good and there will be no changes that you cannot handle. As we face these fears and issues that are brought up during this cleansing, we undergo enormous personal and spiritual growth.

There is no area of life that Reiki will not change and effect:


• It brings healing as a result of raising our vibrations closer to that of the original design.


• It will assist in bringing goals and desires into manifested form.


• It will work at healing relationships, between people or objects; wherever there is disparity and imbalance, the energy will reinstate order and stability.


• Reiki energy can be used to heal and balance anything in the past or the present, and Reiki can be sent to any situation that will occur in the future, to insure the best results possible (to be balanced and harmonious).


• Reiki will bring healing to situations that you may not yet be aware of.


• When an area of life is healed, the altered energy will bring change to all other areas of your life.



Repeated attunements mean repeated cleansing, and really opens you up to being a clearer & stronger path for the reiki energy. It accelerates your personal healing.


Reiki is a pathway of continual illumination, love, light, peace, & compassion. We intuitively know how to use it. It is one of the easiest & most natural forms of healing there is. Reiki opens up a greater flow of life energy.

In today’s fast moving pace, it is far more important to deal with holistic wellness than to cure things after they have taken place. Each reiki attunement & each degree will take you to a place of brighter illumination so that your unique light energy is clearer, more powerful & more beneficial to all life forms.

The increase of universal life energy through reiki affects more than your physical & emotional health, reiki brings spiritual growth as well. Follow the happenings of life, they will lead you to places and people who will promote your inner growth. Focal points or priorities of your life will be altered. More and more you will find a quiet honesty about your actions and your lifestyle.

In learning reiki be prepared to experience growth, expansion of consciousness, spiritual healing & strength

Remember that the more you use reiki and keep reiki in your consciousness, the more you will receive.