Dog Health Blog

Author: Valentina Bellicova

With the advent of warmer weather and longer daylight come games
of Frisbee and catch ball with your doggie at the park or perhaps
a hike in the backwoods. It’s marvelous to go out and smell the
fresh air, watch the greening of the trees and hear the chirping
of busy birds as they fly to and fro, gathering material for their
nests. But the warmer weather has its nasty side as well - mosquitoes
and other bugs that delight in making a meal of you and your furry friend.
Never fear! Tea Tree oil is here!

Tea tree oil, often referred to as the “wonder from Down Under”
is a wonder indeed. This amazing essential oil from Australia
should be in every first aid kit. Indeed, when I was in
Australia last year, no decent Aussie household would be found
without a vial or two in their medicine cabinet. If there ever
was such a thing as a magic potion, then tea tree oil would have
to be it.

Identified as having no less than 48 properties, it has been
scientifically proven to be an antiseptic of extraordinary
strength, it is at the same time non-toxic and a non-irritant
and proven to be soothing and healing.

The use of tea tree oil by the Australian military in the second
world war is legendary. Australian Soldiers fighting in the
jungles of the Pacific were less susceptible to tropical
diseases and their infantry had the healthiest feet (very
important if you are in the infantry) of all the allied forces.
The reason being that mosquitoes and other bugs apparently are
not fond of tea tree oil so these disease bearing insects moved
on to other armies for their vittles.

Why so? Well, the Australian soldiers sprayed themselves with a
solution of water and tea tree oil thus ensuring that they would
be found to be unappetizing to those pesky bugs. They also
bathed their sore feet in water to which drops of tea tree oil
were added. This cleansed their feet, soothed them and promoted
a quick healing process for any cuts, sores or abrasions.

So before heading into the great outdoors, buy yourself some
good quality tea tree oil, add a few drops to a spray bottle of
water, and spray both yourself and your dog. Be sure to get your
dog’s underbelly done - this is where our pets are most
vulnerable. Now you can rest easy that you doggie won’t be
coming home with any bites!

Another good tea tree oil item to have on hand is an antibiotic
cream or gel. A scuffle for that ball or long hike up rough
mountain terrain can mean scrapes and cuts to your dog’s feet.
Bathe the feet and wounds with a solution of tee tree oil and
water, pat dry, and apply the cream to promote quick healing.

Fleas! To prevent them from making a home of your dog simply
spray just like you would against other bugs. If your doggie has
somehow inadvertently picked up a squadron or so, rub tea tree
oil all over his body - those fleas will literally flee. Using a
doggie shampoo with tea tree oil is good too, and the side
benefit is that your dog’s coat will take on a super healthy
shine and his skin will be silkier and softer too!

What I like about using tea tree oil, especially against bugs,
is that it has none of the harmful effects of other insect
deterrents. I know that when I buy a good quality tea tree oil
and put it to use on my dog that no harm will come to him.

About the author:
Valentina Bellicova is a world traveller, an author and a
speaker. An ardent student of life and a lover of animals, she
observes how every human is bettered for having had a dog in
their life. To subscribe to her newsletter BooBoo Speaks!
click on http://www.sitbooboosit.com/signup.php

Author: Lisa A.

Our lives are so faced-paced. We are constantly on the go. We
want to be healthy, but who has time to cook healthy foods? And
our pets’ lives mimic our own. They can’t cook their own healthy
treats and we certainly don’t have the time to do it for them!

We would love to be able to cook natural healthy treats for our
dogs. But who has time? Millions of us drive thru McDonald’s for
our own treats. If Carl’s Jr. made dog treats, their business
would go through the proverbial roof. All dogs seem to have the
right corporate mentality for Carl’s Jr., of “don’t bother me -
I’m eating!”

We know that we should eat right. And we know that we should
treat our dogs with something that is healthy. But it is easier
not to. Isn’t it?

Not anymore!

Now there are products that make it EASY to treat our dogs to natural healthy treats.
It’s as quick as opening a Ziplock bag! Some natural healthy dog
treats are 100% natural, low in fat, high in protein, and low in
cholesterol. They are various kinds of treats - all in playful
shapes and sizes.

All the dogs we tested loved the taste of these treats. All of
their owners were so happy with the fact the treats are natural,
healthy, quick, and easy.

We are still on the lookout for human food that is as quick and
easy while being 100% natural and healthy like the dog treats we
have found. For now, we can definitely alter our pets’ snacking
habits. No more junk food for man’s best friend!

So many of us are rescuing doggies from the pound. We want to
treat them to the best.

Quick and Easy, Natural and Healthy

Now if they would only start selling natural and healthy fast
food for humans, then the proverbial roof would explode with
excitement.

But wait, all of these dog treats are human grade, so . . .
perhaps?

About the author:
Lisa M Andrews is a dog treats expert. She loves spending time with her 3 dogs and assisting dog lovers with finding the right treats for their pets’ needs.

Author: Patrick & Katie Moran

Okay, great. But which brand of high quality pet food do I buy?
There are quite a few out there.

I feed my fifty-five pound female lab mix Wellness (Senior Dry
Formula). Just look at the ingredient list. It looks like a
grocery list: human grade whole chicken, apples, blueberries,
tomatoes, spinach, etc. There is nothing you cannot recognize;
nothing chemical, all natural and healthy, and everything is
geared to be ultra highly digestible so your pet gets every bit
of nutrient assimilated into his body.

The list includes a veritable rainbow of powerful antioxidants.
They add chelated vitamins and minerals. Wellness takes the
extra step to chelate them because that process makes them
highly absorbable. They’ve got a beneficial ratio omega 3 and 6
fatty acids (flaxseed).

Wellness is also one of the only dog foods to include probiotic
bacteria (healthy gut bacteria), which aids in digestion and
helps to inhibit the growth and activity of disease-producing
organisms.

Oh, here is a nice thing for us humans - they add yucca
schidigera. A plant extract that while providing a healthy
environment for good gut bacteria in your pet, it binds to
ammonia thus reducing fecal odor and gas, which makes it a lot
more pleasant cleaning the yard. My husband loves that!

The senior formula I feed my girl is a thoughtful blend of
ingredients that support the special needs of older dogs. They
reduce the fat and phosphorus so aging hearts and kidneys don’t
have to work as hard. They also put in natural glucosamine HCL
and chondroitin sulfate from New Zealand Green Mussel and Sea
Cucumber which helps maintain cartilage in aging joints.

They also have quite an array of other formulas including a
Whitefish and Sweet Potato for very allergic dogs.

Wellness is oven-baked and human grade, and it never contains
corn, wheat, wheat gluten, dairy, egg, ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT,
by-products or anything artificial. I wish I ate this healthy!
My girl is eleven, and everyone thinks she is two or three!
Where can I buy the stuff?

You can run around checking the local pet stores to see if they
sell it or… You can click on the link below and you will
discover as we did an amazing company that not only sells
Wellness pet food but can customize and pack pre-measured single
serving dog or cat meals with your pets name on it AND pack the
exact single dose of whatever medications or supplements your
pet needs! This simplifies feeding time for your kids, the
sitter, and you! And it makes traveling with your companion a
breeze! Check them out! And get this¦ they only charge a flat
rate $6.95 for shipping no matter what you buy (yes, even dog
food!) and no matter how much you buy, whether it’s one bag of
dog food or twenty bags of dog food. Unbelievable. My girl and I
swear by them!

May all your four-legged children be healthy. And remember, no
chocolate, no onions, no raisins, no grapes, and one I just
learned about is no avocados.

End of Article.

About the author:
Patrick & Katie Moran
Pet Food & Supplements
www.monstergiftstore.com

Patrick and Katie have been around dogs
all their lives. Patrick is an ex-musher from Canada who has had
to turn dogs into four-legged athletes. Katie has always lived
surrounded by 4 or more

Author: Patrick & Katie Moran

Human grade meat v. non-human grade meat

Pet grade meat is meat not fit for human consumption. Well what
does that mean? What is in there that might make me sick? I
don’t know, but I sure don’t want my girl eating it. It could
include the diseased-ridden (e.g. salmonella-infected) rejects
or the dreaded 4D animals (dead, dying, diseased, disabled).
They were only recently banned for human consumption and are
still legitimate ingredients for pet food. How scary is that?

Meat and meal vs. by-product and by-product meal

By-products are just that — the excess that is left when the
entire usable product is taken. They are ground, rendered parts
of the carcass of slaughtered animals, such as necks, beaks,
feet, udders, heads, hooves and intestines. Yes, that is all
technically protein, but very low quality and is all unfit for
human consumption.

Ethoxyquin, BHT, and BHA vs. natural tocopherols.

The USDA lists ethoxyquin as a pesticide. Need I say more? BHT
and BHA are carcinogenic. Need I say more? But I shall anyway!
These chemical products may also be associated with dry skin,
allergic reactions, dental disease, poor health and degenerative
organ dysfunction. What you do want is to see the food preserved
with natural tocopherols.

But it’s so much more expensive!

I use the analogy of a consuming a small power bar versus a
whole fast food meal. High quality pet foods are so densely
packed with good bioavailable nutrients that you feed your pet a
fraction of what it would eat of lesser quality food. And a
bonus to this to those who clean up after our babies. Less going
in means less coming out. Their little bodies just suck in all
the good stuff, that there is not much excess that is left over.
And it smells less too!

What about this Raw diet?

Honestly, I’ve never tried it nor do I know anyone personally
that has, but I must say the thought of feeding my girl any raw
meat makes me a little queasily nervous. Weren’t we always
taught that raw meat was a breeding ground for bad bacteria
(salmonella, e. coli, etc)? So it may be okay for others, but
not for me.

End of Part 2

About the author:
Patrick & Katie Moran
Pet Food & Supplements
www.monstergiftstore.com

Patrick and Katie have been around dogs
all their lives. Patrick is an ex-musher from Canada who has had
to turn dogs into four-legged athletes. Katie has always lived
surrounded by 4 or more

—————————————————————————–
Real Dogs Dont Eat Kibble! This Book Is About The Natural Raw Diet For Dogs And Why It Should Be Fed To Create Optimal Health For Your Dog. Good Book Due To Pet Food Recall!
Click Here!

—————————————————————————–
by Patrick & Katie Moran

Totally confused about what to feed your pets? Don’t know whom
to trust anymore? You want to give the best possible food, but
how do you know what is good for them? What are good
ingredients? What are bad ingredients? Is it all just chemical
gibberish on the back of the bag? You’re not alone. Here are few
helpful hints about what you want and don’t want to see listed
on that pet food bag. (Obviously at this point in time I would
suggest staying away from wheat gluten, rice protein, and corn
gluten.) They say, oh your dog can eat anything. It’s a dog
after all. Well, actually a dog’s intestinal tract is pretty
short, so it doesn’t have a great amount of time to absorb
nutrients. So we want to have food that is easily digestible
with nutrients that are highly bioavailable for our dogs.

Oven baked ingredients vs. extrusion

You want to look for food that is oven baked. Baking changes
the hard-to-digest molecules of “raw” starches into easy to
digest dextrines. This process acts as a “pre-digest” of the
kibble food, resulting in less strain on the dog’s digestive
system and produces a greater degree of food absorption. A dog’s
intestinal tract functions in the most efficient manner when the
food is concentrated and can be quickly digested. Lower quality
pet food uses a cooking process called extrusion. This process
involves rapidly steaming the food, then extruding it under
extreme pressure through a metal die. This process expands the
food with air (air?! yes, air) and does not produce the highly
digestible food that your dog’s system requires. This extruded
food, because it is cooked in a very short time is usually
almost “raw” and requires the addition of chemical preservatives
(ethoxyquin, BHA, and BHT, see below) to maintain a reasonable
product shelf life. These altered proteins may contribute to
food intolerances, food allergies, and inflammatory bowel
disease.

First couple of ingredients on the list

You want some kind of meat whether it is chicken or lamb. You do
not want the first ingredient to be corn or some grain or a
by-product. (We all know what happens when we eat corn. It tends
to not be digested too well, because we end up seeing it again,
don’t we?)

End of Part 1

About the author:
Patrick & Katie Moran
Pet Food & Supplements
www.monstergiftstore.com

Patrick and Katie have been around dogs
all their lives. Patrick is an ex-musher from Canada who has had
to turn dogs into four-legged athletes. Katie has always lived
surrounded by 4 or more