Hearty Texas Heelers
Why Holistic?
Many that know me see how raising my pets, as well as my family, holistically is such a passion of mine. Health is a big importance for us when raising our pets and I have always been the kind of person to learn as much as I can about something before making any decisions. Over the years I have learned there is no drug without side effects. No medication that only has a positive effect on the body. Here I will go over some of the most common used drugs and why we do not use them.
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Antibiotics
Antibiotics and steroids suppress the immune system. Which in most situations is the last thing you want to do. Antibiotics also destroy our as well as our pets gut bacteria when taken orally, and these bacteria are very important. It can take years to regrow this gut bacteria if proper steps are not taken. On average it takes about 6 months for a human.
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"The gut microbiome plays a very important role in your health by helping control digestion and benefiting your immune system and many other aspects of health. An imbalance of unhealthy and healthy microbes in the intestines may contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and other disorders.' -healthline.com
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Antibiotics destroy your gut health because they kill all bacteria, good and bad. This is also true for topical antibiotics. Which is why if you have a dog with chronic ear infections your vet keeps proscribing antibiotics to, they will likely keep coming back. Once the good bacteria has been destroyed in your dogs ear, it cannot properly fight off the bad bacteria, leading to reoccurring infections. Please visit our natural antibiotics page for a natural antibiotic you can use that will kill only the bad bacteria, and leave the good.
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So why then would my vet recommend such a drug you ask? Well simply put, most cannot sell natural alternative. And considering antibiotics cost about $25-30 a bottle, while the equivalent dosing of raw apple cider vinegar costs about $1, there is not much of a market for it.
Heartworm medication/dewormer
No drug comes without side effects, and this one is no acception.
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"Heartworm preventatives can cause serious side effects in some dogs, including depression, lethargy, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, dilation of the pupil, loss of balance, staggering, convulsions, and hy-persalivation. Some dogs are especially prone to side effects from ivermectin, the main ingredient in one of the most widely used heartworm preventatives. Also, some of the preventatives are combined with drugs aimed at killing other pests such as fleas, mites, roundworms, and hookworms." -Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com web site. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her dog Piglet.
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Instead of using drugs to prevent heartworms and parasites, we use our natural parasite tincture made by Herbalist Tim Davis(My Father). We will soon be attaching his products to our website so our Puppy families, as well as any other pet lovers, can easily have some delivered to their door. This parasite tincture kills and/or repels all parasites/worms at all lifestages. Unlike traditional dewormer that only kills specific parasites at specific life stages.
Chemical flea&tick prevention
Pesticides are a chemical we would never consider using on our pets, ever. Not only are they toxic and harmful to our pets, they are also harmful to us, our children, and our environment.
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The CBC Marketplace discovered that more than 2,000 animals are reported to have died in North America between 2008 and 2014 as a result of exposure to flea and tick treatment products. 2,000 unnecessary deaths!
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Researchers are also concerned that pesticide exposures from flea treatments could have consequences for humans, especially small children.
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“It’s one of those things that is incredibly unfair — it’s unfair for families, it’s unfair for their pets, it’s unfair for kids. And the truth is, there are better options, We don’t need to put our kids at risk, don’t need to put our families at risk, our pets at risk.” -public health scientist Miriam Rotkin-Ellman told Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson.
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“There’s mounting evidence that pesticides can be really harmful for kids at low levels,” says Rotkin-Ellman.
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She goes on to say, “Flea collars are designed to release a toxic substance that kills fleas on the pet’s fur,” she says. However, she says, “it also can get on the bedding, it can get on kids’ hands, it can go all sorts of places.”
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Instead of using these chemicals we turn to natural preventatives, which there are an abundance of.
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There are natural topicals(Sentry's natural defense), natural tablets(Only Natural Pet Brewers Yeast and Garlic Tablets), and even natural flea collars made from organic amber.
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So why do we choose holistic?
Well to put it simply, because we do not like the negative side effects of drugs and do not find them necessary when there are natural options that work better with no side effects. Of course we do understand in emergency life or death situations they may be necessary to save a life. If put in such a situation we would do what was needed. We want what's best for our pets health and will always take the extra step to be sure they get it.