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I’ve Been Attending Conferences

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Dear reader,

I’m sorry I haven’t had the opportunity to post any articles lately but I have been in Queensland for two weeks attending conferences and seminars. In order to keep up with the latest scientific knowledge in naturopathic medicine, it is necessary for me to travel fairly regularly to find out about the most effective treatments for various conditions in dogs and humans. Now that I am back and have almost caught up with heavy consulting commitments, I will post an article soon in relation to a natural cancer cure: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

Yours in Great Health,
Sara Rooney BHSc., DC., ND., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS.
www.HealYourDogNaturally.com www.AnimalNaturopath.com.au

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Arthritis in Dogs

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Along with inflamed skin conditions in dogs and digestive system disorders, arthritis is another condition that I often get asked to treat as more people are becoming aware of the potentially harmful side effects of pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory and analgesic medications and are seeking safe and effective alternatives. Although dietary changes can often help reduce inflammation, when a dog is suffering from the pain of arthritis, changes to the diet are not usually sufficient on their own. In these cases, herbal and nutraceutical anti-inflammatory treatments are usually required. Although many people rely on glucosamine and chondroitin to treat arthritis, I find a particular liquid cartilage product* to be much more effective as it has been shown to have a far better absorption rate in the body. Thus, only small amounts are usually required to achieve the same or better results. I have been prescribing this formula for many years and achieve very good results, whenever pain relief and an anti-inflammatory action are required. The other issue with products like glucosamine and chondroitin are that many of these products are synthetic, which is hardly natural, and a number of the products on the market are in compounds that are not very bio-available to the body (and therefore pass straight through with no or little benefit). A further concern relates to many of these products being manufactured cheaply overseas, often in countries that do not have the same stringent production guidelines that Westernized countries do.

In the case of arthritis in dogs, depending on the individual case history of the pet and depending on how severe their symptoms are, I may also prescribe herbal treatments such as Curcuma longa (Turmeric), Boswelia and Olea europaea (Olive leaf) and other herbal medicines, in conjunction with the liquid cartilage formula described earlier. Herbs and nutrients, such as glutamine, Aloe vera and probiotics, which support the dog’s gastrointestinal system may also be used, if digestive system problems are involved in the condition. However, these should only be given under professional guidance.

*This product is only available through registered, qualified practitioners. Please contact our centre at: info@animalnaturopath.com.au if you want to organize an online health assessment for your dog, so that this product can be prescribed.

Case Study:
Arthritis in Dog, Chronic Limp and Weakness in Leg
Gracie is a 6 year old Golden Retriever/Labrador X that had suffered from a limp in her back leg since she was a 6 month old puppy, along with trembling and weakness in the same leg. This problem was diagnosed as arthritis and lack of joint mobility by a veterinarian. In the past, Gracie had been given omega 3 fish oils, glucosamine and chondroitin by the owner with no success, as Gracie would not take them due to the bad taste. Gracie’s owners then contacted me for advice.

After an online assessment of Gracie’s health was completed, I prescribed many of the products described above for Gracie’s treatment. Gracie’s owners were then able to easily access these (direct from the manufacturer of the naturopathic medicine company from where I prescribed them).

2 weeks into Gracie’s treatment I received this email from her owner:
“I wanted to let you know that Gracie is doing well. We do not expect the limp to remedy quickly (due to her having it since she was 6 months old) but she has sparked up tremendously and looks a lot happier, wrestling with ‘Emma’ the Labrador and playing like a puppy again. Her fur seems softer and she has a shine in her eyes again. Other people have also noticed. The best part is that we have no trouble adding the supplements to the food. I was expecting a battle but she happily eats it.”

6 weeks into treatment we received this email from Gracie’s owners:
“I am happy to report that the limp is nowhere near as pronounced as before and there are times when Gracie is walking normally again. For the past 10 days or so she has been spontaneously jumping in and out of the van and has been taking longer walks and runs around the lake. We are now confident that in due course the leg will not be the chronic source of pain for her anymore”.

10 weeks after starting Gracies treatment:
“Our dog walking friends took them out on Sunday and they were gone a full 45 minutes and Gracie was still tugging the lead when they got back. For the first time ever, they were worn out before the dogs. Johnny had not seen them for a while and could not get over the difference. The best part is that the next day, there was no limp or stiffness visible in Gracie’s leg at all.

Kind regards
Karen and Max Mitchell
Goolwa Fish Café
Goolwa, SA

Gracie Mitchell

I just thought I would share this case report with you. I hope you enjoyed it.

Yours In Health,
Sara Rooney BHSc., DC., ND., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS. Naturopathic Physician & Research Scientist

www.AnimalNaturopath.com.au www.HealYourDogNaturally.com

Tags: anti-inflammatorys, arthritis, arthritis in dogs, dog arthritis, dog nutrients, fish oil supplements, fish oils, joint disorders, joint supplements, nutrient therapies, nutrient therapies for dogs, omega 3's, pet health
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Vitamin D - Is Your Dog Deficient?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

robbieincurlers All nutrients play an important role in your dog’s body and therefore we should try to avoid them becoming deficient in any vitamins, minerals, amino acids or essential fatty acids. However, vitamin D is one of the nutrients that has an effect on their whole body, so it is really important to ensure they are not deficient in this vital nutrient.

Optimum levels of Vit. D3 have been shown to help prevent cancer and to positively effect the following conditions:

* Obesity
* Heart Disease
* Diabetes
* Dementia
* Skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis
* Gum disease
* Teeth cavities
* Bone disorders
* Hormonal imbalances
* Depression
* A number of autoimmune disorders
* Many other health disorders

Is your dog deficient in this vital nutrient?

Well, that depends on whether or not there are adequate levels in their diet. Unlike humans, dogs (and cats) cannot synthesize adequate levels of vitamin D3 through their skin. Therefore, if you believe that your pooch wouldn’t be vitamin D deficient because they are always outside and receive plenty of sunshine, this may not be the case at all as dogs are reliant on the dietary intake of vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is the form of vitamin D which is of animal origin and is the most beneficial to dogs. Vitamin D2 is of plant origin and can still be useful, but vitamin D3 is required in larger amounts.

Sources of vitamin D3

Good sources of vitamin D3 for your dog include oily fish such as sardines, salmon and herring. Veal, beef and egg yolks also provide good amounts of vitamin D. If you feel that your dog requires supplementation for vitamin D3, you may like to try a high quality cod liver oil supplement. I give our dogs and cats a few drops of a pure, cod liver oil liquid once a day, mixed in with their food just to be sure. If you decide to give your dog cod liver oil, just make sure that the one you buy is guaranteed to be free from toxic heavy metals such as mercury and lead, as there are many cheap products out there these days that are far from healthy and your dog would be better off without these.

Avoiding nutrient deficiencies is one of the best ways to prevent many illnesses and conditions in your dog – don’t wait for disease to develop. Take action and ensure you practice preventative health for your pets by identifying vitamin D deficiency and treating it.

Yours in Health

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS. www.animalnaturopath.com.au www.healyourdognaturally.com

Tags: animal nutrition, disease prevention in dogs, dog hormones, dog vitamins, dogs bone disorders, dogs hormones, inflamed skin in dogs, natural diet in dogs, Vitamin D, Vitamin D in dogs
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Skin Conditions in Dogs

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Itchy, inflamed skin in dogs is one of the most common conditions that I am asked to treat these days. Atopic dermatitis, which used to be called eczema, is an inflammatory condition of the skin, and can be caused by a large number of factors, such as incorrect diet, hormonal imbalances, gastrointestinal flora imbalances, essential fatty acid deficiencies and several other potential causes. I cover this topic comprehensively in my book ‘Heal Your Dog Naturally’ and help readers to identify the causes of their dog’s skin problems, because I think it is really important to treat the underlying causes to help treat the skin disorder properly and help prevent the condition re-ocurring. Not only that, the most popular mainstream veterinary treatment for itchy, inflamed skin usually involves cortisone-based medications which are not without the risk of severe side effects. Consequently, identifying the underlying cause of this common condition and treating both the condition and the cause, are really the only way your dog will have the opportunity for a 100% recovery, rather than suffering from recurrent episodes.

Yours In Health

Sara Rooney BHSc., DC., ND., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS.

Naturopathic Animal Services www.animalnaturopath.com.au www.healyourdognaturally.com

Tags: atopic dermatitis in dogs, dogs skin conditions, dogs skin problems, eczema in dogs, inflamed skin, inflamed skin in dogs, itchy skin, itchy skin in dogs, veterinary medicine
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Fish Oil Supplements for Dogs

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

I often get asked whether dogs can benefit from fish oil supplements or not as there are many people supplementing their dogs diet with fish oils these days. Omega 3 fish oils are the most popular essential fatty acids (EFA’s) and they are called ‘essential’ as it is essential that the body derives them from the diet (or supplements) as it cannot produce these fatty acids itself. EFA’s are really important as they have a large range of benefits for your dog’s health - and scientists are recognizing new benefits all the time. Some of the benefits we already know about include increasing cardiovascular health, optimum eye health, helping itchy and inflamed skin and arthritis, due to their great anti-inflammatory actions. EFA’s are also needed for optimum neurological health and can help with cognitive ability - in fact, they are absolutely essential for normal brain development in puppies. EFA’s can also help in the treatment of obesity, along with the correct diet. There is another major benefit that many people are not aware of about EFA’s - certain forms have been shown to inhibit tumour development more effectively than the conventional drugs they were compared with in scientific studies. As a research scientist, I came across these clinical trials last year when I was researching natural anti-inflammatory herbal medicines and nutrients for companion animals and I found clinical trials that provided substantial evidence of tumour growth suppression (i.e. Able to stop tumour growth and shrink the tumours). I also found a number of scientific trials on plant medicines that had been equally effective at stopping tumour growth in animals but more about that in another post. Suffice to say that there is now a lot of cutting-edge, scientific research that provides substantial evidence of significant benefits of the use of certain herbal medicines and nutrient therapies in the treatment of cancer.

A Warning About Giving Your Dog EFA’s in Supplement Form:

Many of the EFA capsules and liquids being sold around the world for human and animal use are nothing more than toxic time bombs! Unless the supplements you purchase state otherwise, you can be almost guaranteed they will be contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury, aluminium, lead, cadmium, and other nasties. Cheap sources of fish which are used to manufacture ‘cheap’ supplements are usually laden with these potentially harmful substances and do not usually undergo the strict filtering processes of higher quality supplements, so be careful what you are purchasing. You are really better off avoiding EFA supplements if you can’t afford to purchase the brands that ‘guarantee’ their fish oil products to be 99% heavy metal free. Unfortunately, when it comes to supplements of any kind, there are a lot of inferior products out there - produced by companies that are just trying to ‘cash in’ on the nutrient supplement revolution. It’s true that most of us do require added nutrients to supplement our diets these days and equally true that our pets do too - but only if we are relying on high-quality, natural supplements and not inferior, synthetic supplements that may contain harmful additives and contaminants such as lead and mercury.

Feeding Fish To Your Dog

When feeding your dog fish (or yourself), try to avoid large fish such as tuna, as these are more likely to contain significant amounts of toxic heavy metals. Instead, try to purchase smaller fish such as sardines as these usually have much smaller amounts of heavy metals in them. When sardines are mashed and fed with their bones, they also provide a great deal of calcium to your dog too.

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Zoology), MATMS. www.animalnaturopath.com.au

Tags: anti-inflammatory, arthritis, EFA's, essential fatty acids, fish oil supplements, fish oils, inflamed skin, itchy skin, omega 3 fish oils, omega 3's
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Why Do We Need Nutrient Therapies For Dogs?

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Animal naturopaths often use nutrient supplements to help treat certain conditions in animals. Based on many years of clinical experience and research, I believe that to achieve 100% optimum health we all need a full range of nutrients and so do our dogs. If we are deficient in even one vitamin, mineral, amino acid or essential fatty acid, the body cannot function at an optimal rate and some, if not many, physiological functions will be compromised. The nutrient-deficient body may be able to function for a while as it tries to make adjustments in order to compensate for the lack of essential nutrients, but eventually disease will almost certainly begin to take hold as the body gives up the battle.

It’s a bit like a process line in a factory: If some of the staff don’t turn up for work one day - it puts a bigger stress on the remaining staff to try to function optimally - and that’s what it’s like inside the body when there are some nutrients missing (in people or animals) - pretty soon the staff (other nutrients) can’t cope any longer and the whole process begins to break down. All living organisms require a certain amount of each of the nutrients to function properly and to continually not receive the required nutrients sets the organism up for disease development. It’s that simple!

Although there are certain nutrients that can be produced by the body, minerals and essential fatty acids cannot and therefore need to be derived from either the diet and/or supplementation. Given the right conditions, the body can produce certain vitamins and amino acids but other nutrients need to be provided to the body, in order to function optimally.

So, Nutritional Medicine, or Orthomolecular Therapy as it is sometimes called, relates to providing the right nutrients in the correct amounts for each individual human, dog or other animal. It’s no good just guessing what your dog needs - different dogs require different nutrients at various stages of their lives and that’s where a well-trained practitioner who understands nutritional science really well, can be extremely helpful to your dog’s health.

In nature, animals inherently know that they require additional minerals. An example of this are the elephants in certain areas of Africa - they put their lives on the line by travelling really long and often dangerous routes to access a wide variety of minerals that they derive from specific caves. In fact, it is well documented that they have been carving out these minerals from these caves for millions of years.

If we took more notice of the lessons that nature provides and acted on this information, our health and the wellbeing of our pets may be much better.

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Zoology), MATMS.

Naturopathic Animal Services

www.animalnaturopath.com.au

www.healyourdognaturally.com

Tags: animal nutrition, dog minerals, dog nutrients, dog vitamins, nutrient therapies, nutrient therapies for dogs, nutrient therapy
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What is the difference between being a Naturopathic Physician, Research Scientist & Zoologist and being a Veterinarian?

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I Help People and Dogs Achieve Optimum Health, High Vitality and Longevity and I’m a Qualified Naturopathic Physician, Research (Health) Scientist and Zoologist but, when I’m working with dogs, I often get asked what’s the difference between what I do and what veterinarians do. So I will try to explain:

There are a number of similiarities between studying Zoology and veterinary medicine as well as significant differences. Zoology is the science of studying animal biology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, biochemistry and other subjects involved with the animal sciences. Therefore, zoology covers a wide variety of areas specific to the biology of animals. Consequently, the similarities between zoology and veterinary medicine would be that both fields of study cover the physical animal sciences such as biology, anatomy, etc. However, a big part of Zoology is studying and understanding the animals natural behaviour - which can be very important when treating them in a holistic manner - which takes into consideration their natural behaviour patterns such as their natural diet and so on. This allows you to understand WHY the animal acts as it does which, in turn, can help you to better understand how to treat each animal species in terms of their natural diet, their natural behaviour patterns and so on….this understanding fits in with the philosophy of Naturopathic medicine as it involves working with nature rather than against it.

Veterinary medicine involves studying surgical procedures and a large amount of study relating to pharmaceutical medications - something that zoology doen’t cover at all. This is one of the reasons that I chose the field of Zoology, as performing surgery on animals doesn’t interest me at all, as I prefer to help prevent disease from occurring in the first place, where possible - preventing the need for surgical intervention. In addition, as a well-trained Naturopathic physician, I have studied pharmacology (drug actions, interactions, etc) comprehensivley but decided many years ago that natural medicines were my preference. I feel that they have a much higher level of safety, when professionally prescribed, and can be just as effective in the treatment of most conditions. They also have a much longer documented history - for example, plants have been used for thousands of years to effectively treat diseases and there is plenty of evidence of this.

As a research scientist, I am currently involved in researching chronic, systemic inflammation and the best herbal medicines and nutrient therapies to treat this serious and damaging condition. Sadly the conventional anti-inflammatory treatments are not without potentially dangerous side effects and therefore, I felt it was important to research natural alternatives and identify the most effectives ones available. The research has shown some very interesting results and I now feel that there are certain natural substances that can be used just as effectively as conventional anti-inflammatory drugs but without the potentially serious side effects, which is really exciting.

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND, DC., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS. www.healyourdognaturally.com www.animalnaturopath.com.au

Tags: animal behaviour, anti-inflammatory, inflammation, natural diet, prevent disease, veterinary medicine
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Why are people seeking natural therapies for their animals a lot more nowadays?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

I think people are becoming a lot more educated these days when it comes to their health and the health of their pets. People are now realising the potential dangers involved with surgery and the side effects of many of the mainstream drugs used on animals. A large number of people are seeking safer options for their much-loved pets and are realising that many of the natural remedies available through qualified practitioners today can be every bit as effective as conventional drugs but without the side effects and long-term effects. Plants, nutrients and medicine have been connected since primitive times and herbal medicines and nutrient therapies are just as important today as they were in times gone by - both for the prevention and the treatment of disease.

There is an enormous amount of scientific evidence nowadays to support the safety and efficacy of correctly-prescribed nutrient supplementation and herbal medicines in the treatment of disease so I think that people are starting to realise that well-trained animal naturopaths can really help their pets with almost all health disorders, usually with great success. More and more people are consulting animal naturopaths for help with treating their dogs and other animals for conditions such as degenerative joint disorders, inflamed skin conditions, recurrent infections, low immune function, auto-immune disorders, cancer and many other diseases.

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Zoology), MATMS.

www.healyourdognaturally.com

www.animalnaturopath.com.au

Tags: Add new tag, animal naturopaths, auto-immune disorders, cancer, health disorders in animals, inflamed skin conditions, joint disorders, natural therapies, natural therapies for animals, pet health
Posted in Uncategorized | 41 Comments »

Naturopathic Animal Medicine

Monday, May 25th, 2009

What is Naturopathic Animal Medicine and why is it different to conventional veterinary medicine?

The naturopathic philosophy to animal health involves looking at each individual animal as a ‘whole’ - the animal’s mental, physical and emotional aspects are all taken into consideration - not just their presenting symptoms. As a scientist as well as a naturopathic physician, I realise that the animal’s symptoms are just an expression of an underlying imbalance in their body and therefore I always aim to identify the underlying causes of the animals symptoms or health disorder, rather than just treating their superficial symptoms. This method of healing helps ensure that there is a complete recovery of disease, rather than just short term suppression of symptoms. The body usually has a wonderful ability to heal itself, even from serious diseases such as cancer - when given the right conditions for healing. However, when the body is in balance it doesnt usually suffer from cancer or allergies or heart disease or skin conditions or diabetes or thyroid disorders in the first place - these are all signs that there is some kind of imbalance in the body. Identifying the cause of these imbalances so that you can help reverse the damage they are causing to your pets health and helping to ensure these imbalances are prevented in the future, is an integral part of naturopathic animal care.

Sara Rooney BHSc., ND., DC., DASc., GDSc. (Hons) Zoology, MATMS. www.animalnaturopath.com.au www.healyourdognaturally.com

Tags: animal health, animal medicine, natural health, naturopathic animal medicine, veterinary medicine
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