Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (60 page)

The usual causes for the buildup of calculus are misaligned teeth, overfeeding, poor-quality food, lack of hard, chewable things to exercise the teeth and gums, and frequent nibbling. Once the deposits have formed, they are rock-hard and can only be removed adequately by your veterinarian (under anesthesia) using careful hand-scraping or an ultrasonic cleaner. Often the infected and loose teeth must also be extracted and hemorrhage controlled.

After any dental work at the hospital, you can do a lot with follow-up care to both promote rapid healing and prevent recurrence. The gums will be very sore and inflamed. Certain herbs will be very helpful. Pick one of the following that seems best suited (or, if indicated, you may use both the goldenseal and the myrrh, ½ teaspoon of each).

Herbal
—Purple coneflower (
Echinacea angustifolia
): This is useful where teeth were found to be infected and the animal is thin and run down. Boil 1 teaspoon of fresh-smelling rootstock in 1 cup of water for 10 minutes. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep for an hour. Strain and apply this decoction directly to the gums with a swab or use it as a mouthwash. It promotes saliva flow, so don’t worry if your pet begins to drool.

Herbal
—Goldenseal (
Hydrastis canadensis
): This herb is antiseptic and helpful for new gum tissue growth. Steep 1 teaspoon of powdered rootstock in a pint of boiling-hot water until cool. Pour off the clear liquid and use it to flush out the mouth and gums.

Herbal
—Myrrh (
Commiphora myrrha
):
Myrrh is indicated for loose teeth. Steep 1 teaspoon of the resin in a pint of boiling water for a few minutes. Strain it and paint the infusion on the gums, or flush them using a syringe or turkey baster.

Herbal
—Plantain (
Plantago major
): This herb helps when the condition is not serious enough to require major cleaning but when you see minor deposits on the teeth and the gums are inflamed. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Turn off heat and add 1 tablespoon of the leaves. Steep for 5 minutes. Strain and use as a mouthwash.

General directions for herbs: Whichever herb you pick, use it twice a day for 10 to 14 days. Alternatively, use the herb in the morning and apply vitamin E (fresh out of the capsule) to the gums with your fingers at night. (This treatment is very soothing.)

Homeopathic treatment as an alternative to herbal:

Cats—A dose of
Calcarea carbonica
30C given once a month for 3 months will greatly improve the condition of the mouth for many cats. Vaccinations generally make this condition worse in cats, so minimize these.

Dogs—The remedy
Silicea
30C given once a month for 3 months will help many dogs to have a healthier mouth.

The Importance of Nutrition

Diet is also extremely important in the period
after
teeth cleaning. Without proper nutrition the gums can’t repair themselves or maintain necessary resilience. Emphasize those vegetables rich in niacin, folate, and minerals—leafy greens, broccoli, asparagus, lima beans, potatoes, and lettuce. Also, serve fresh liver twice weekly for its folate, vitamin A, protein, and other richly supplied nutrients. Other good folate sources are eggs or plain peanuts (which can be given as unsalted peanut butter).

Also add ⅛ to ½ teaspoon (depending on size) of bone meal powder (for extra calcium and phosphorus), 100 to 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C twice daily, and a B-complex tablet or capsule with the major vitamins at the 5to 10-milligram level (amounts depend on the animal’s size). Use these extra supplements for the next three weeks.

Also give your pet its own natural “toothbrush”—either bones or a hard raw vegetable like a carrot. For dogs, I advise that one day a week you feed nothing but one large raw bone. There is no better natural cleaner for teeth. But avoid cooked bones (which splinter) and small or easily splintered bones from chickens and turkeys (with dogs). These can be dangerous. These small bones, however, are OK for cats.

Some dogs that have trouble digesting bone fragments get irritation and either diarrhea or constipation; this is usually a result of weak stomach acid from improper feeding. Good diet and a B-complex supplement will likely clear up the problem. For the first few weeks, limit bone chewing to 30 minutes a day and watch to make sure that large pieces are not swallowed.

Cats can be given small raw bones as well, but do not really pick up on this practice unless
they are started quite young. Somewhat more accepted is to feed part of a raw game hen once a week instead of the regular meals. Unfortunately, having lost their natural instincts, many mature cats will not adapt to this. It is worth trying, however, because it will keep their mouths quite clean and healthy.

Tooth Decay

This is primarily a problem in cats that develop decay along the sides of the teeth (near the gums) or in the roots. This is an increasingly common problem and, in my opinion, is a direct outcome of generations of eating commercial foods. There is little that can be done to reverse this once it happens. Often, the affected teeth need to be removed. Prevention is essential and the advice given in this book about nutrition is most important.

Post-Dental Treatment

A very excellent treatment program to use after dentistry (don’t give these before as it will increase the amount of anesthesia needed) is to give
Arnica
30C on picking up the cat or dog from the veterinarian’s office (or at home). This will reduce pain and swelling in the gums and pain where teeth have been removed. The next day give
Hypericum
30C once, to remove any residual pain, especially from extraction of teeth.

One more thing: If you’re about to select a new pet, look for one with properly formed teeth and jaws (and parents with the same). See chapter 9 for information on hereditary defects.

DERMATITIS

See “Skin Problems.”

DIABETES

Seen in both dogs and cats, the type of diabetes animals get is similar in most ways to the diabetes seen in humans. It has now been determined that human diabetes is an immune disorder in which the body attacks the pancreatic cells that make insulin. It is likely this same process that destroys the insulin-producing ability of our pets. Most of these immune problems we see in animals are made worse by vaccination or can come on after being vaccinated, so be aware of this link and be cautious about vaccinating animals in this condition (see Vaccinations in this section).

This failure of the pancreas to secrete insulin does not allow proper use of blood sugar. Instead of reaching the body tissues, the increasing levels of blood sugar spill over into the urine and are lost from the body. Thus, despite adequate caloric intake, the tissues are in a condition of semi-starvation all the time.

Thus, the animal eats a lot, but still gets thinner and thinner. The continuous presence of sugar in the urine also causes fluid loss. That’s because the sugar must be dissolved in water to be eliminated, so it carries the water out with it. As a result, the animal is abnormally thirsty and passes large volumes of urine.

There is apparently more to this condition than just lack of insulin, however, because even if insulin needs are carefully met with injections of this hormone, there are still progressive changes and weaknesses that may persist. These sometimes include recurrent pancreatic inflammation, formation of eye cataracts, and an increased susceptibility to infection (particularly of the urinary tract).

T
REATMENT

The usual treatment consists of strictly regulating sugar intake and using daily injections of insulin (derived from the glands of other animals). Feeding is usually restricted to canned food fed once a day, about 12 hours after the insulin is given (when its activity is highest).

The diabetic dogs I have treated have generally done well on the basic fresh and raw natural food diet given as two or three meals during the day, rather than one large one. Their insulin needs seem to stabilize, rather than going through erratic ups and downs from day to day. You may need to experiment with your animal to find the best frequency of feeding, also taking into account the advice of your veterinarian.

Above all, avoid the soft, moist dog foods that come in cellophane bags and don’t need refrigeration. These products are very high in carbohydrates like sugar that are used as preservatives, as well as artificial colors and other preservatives.

A supplement that is quite helpful is glucose tolerance factor, a natural chromium-containing substance found in yeast. It can assist the body in using blood glucose more effectively. I always recommend supplementing the natural food diet with this element. Give one teaspoon to one tablespoon of brewer’s yeast with each meal.

Vitamin E is also important because it reduces the need for insulin. Give 25 IU to 200 IU of this vitamin each day.

In addition to the nutritional advice given here, see that your animal gets lots of exercise, which has the effect of decreasing insulin needs. Erratic exercise could destabilize the insulin needs, though, so a regular, sustained program of exercise is best. It is also important for your pet to maintain a normal weight. Obese animals have a much harder time with this disease.

Severe Diabetes

The more severe cases need stringent dietary regulation. If your animal is not responding to the above program or is already quite ill, and stabilizing its condition is difficult, then the following will be helpful.

Dietary guidelines: The main goal of a special diet to control diabetes is to reduce the stress placed on the pancreas. That means strict avoidance of foods that contain sugar as well as a low fat intake (because the pancreas produces a number of enzymes particularly involved in the breakdown of fat). Therefore, use the natural diets given in this book, but avoid fatty meats and give only half of the fat or oil called for in the recipe.

Certain foods are particularly beneficial for diabetes, so emphasize them in your selections—epecially millet, rice, oats, cornmeal, and rye bread. Excellent vegetables are green beans (the pods of which contain certain hormonal substances closely related to insulin), winter squash, dandelion greens, alfalfa sprouts, corn, parsley, onion, Jerusalem artichoke, and garlic (which reduces blood sugar in diabetes). Garlic also stimulates the abdominal viscera and increases digestive organ function. Use it regularly in some form (fresh or in capsules).

Milk and milk products are helpful because they are alkalizing (as are vegetables and most fruits), which helps to counter overacidity. They are best fed raw, as are meat, eggs, fruits, and some vegetables, because uncooked foods are much more stimulating to the pancreas. Fruits in season are fine, if acceptable to your animal; the natural fruit sugar (fructose) can be used by the diabetic animal. Feed them separately from other foods.

Cats, being natural carnivores, will sometimes revert back to normal if they are fed large amounts of fresh meat and avoid significant amounts of grain or vegetables (small amounts OK). If you have a cat with this condition, just feeding mostly meat with a pinch of bone meal added to each meal for a few weeks may make a huge difference. After that you can use the natural recipes given in this book, but increase the amount of meat in the recipes above what is recommended to maintain the improvement.

Specific treatments for diabetes include:

Homeopathic
—
Belladonna
30c given once when first diagnosed. Then put on the diet program described above. Wait a week and then give:

Homeopathic
—
Thuya
(or
Thuja
) (arborvitae) 30C, using Homeopathic Schedule 4. If after a month diabetes persists, then look at the treatments suggested next. If the problem is resolved, then no further homeopathic treatment is needed.

Homeopathic
—
Natrum muriaticum
(salt, sodium chloride) 6C. Those it is suitable for usually have appetite problems (usually excessive) and a marked weight loss. Sugar will be detectable in the urine, and there will be a tendency to anxiety and fearfulness. These animals do not tolerate heat well. Use Schedule 6(b) (
view
).

Homeopathic
—
Phosphorus
6C. These animals have always been thin, have outgoing personalities, love attention, have ravenous appetites though vomit easily, and a thirst for cold water. Often there is a history of pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). Use Schedule 6(b) (
view
).

DIARRHEA AND DYSENTERY

Diarrhea, though common, is not a very specific condition. That is, many things can cause diarrhea, and yet the clinical appearance (frequent, soft, or fluid bowel movements) is about the same. The gastrointestinal tract has one major defense against irritants of
many sorts, which is moving its contents along more quickly than usual. The cause of the irritation may include worms, bacteria, viruses, spoiled or toxic food, food sensitivities (see “Allergies”), bone fragments, or indigestible material like hair, cloth, or plastic.

The body’s primary response to these irritants is to increase bowel contraction (called peristalsis) in order to flush them out of the system. Because the intestinal contents move along so quickly, the colon does not absorb the amount of water it usually does. Thus, the bowel movement is abnormally fluid.

Depending on what part of the tract is irritated, you may see certain additional symptoms. If there is inflammation and bleeding in the upper part of the small intestine, near the stomach, then the bowel movement will be very dark or black from digested blood. You also may notice a buildup of excess gas that causes belching, a bloated stomach, or flatulence. The animal in this pattern usually shows no particular straining when passing a stool.