As we enter into flea, tick, and mosquito season I have the very same worries as every other dog owner out there. I don't want my dogs to get sick from some parasite carrying disease. As many of my readers know, I do not believe in giving my dogs any sort of pesticide. We should not have any sort of chemical as strong as pesticides anywhere near our living, breathing family members. I don't want my furkids to eat it, wear it, lick it, or smell it. Does this mean that my dogs live in danger? I don't believe so. I believe the harm that pesticides make is certainly more dangerous than the chance of my dogs contracting heartworm, rocky mountain fever, Lyme's or any other parasite disease. Here's a great article to read about how difficult it is for your dog to actually get heartworm. Let's think logically. Let's make information driven decisions, not fear driven. Let's think about how many times you've been bitten by a mosquito. I can think of hundreds and hundreds of mosquito bites I have endured throughout my lifetime. I am 31 and still heartworm free. I have never been tested. I have never taken any pesticide preventative. I have never gotten heartworm. Why do we think this is such a threat to our dogs?
Heartworm Article
In previous years, I have ordered blood tests for my dogs twice a year to ensure they are heartworm free. This year, I plan to reduce that to just once a year. My Kind Vet and Holistic Vet BOTH ensure me that if we catch heartworm with the blood test, heartworm is very treatable. My dogs are not going to die. They may be sick but they can be treated and will recover. And that is IF they contract heartworm. Do I really want to give my dogs a pesticide orally every month of their life for nothing? Definitely doesn't seem worth it to me. I cannot imagine putting a pesticide into my body that is strong enough to work for an entire month (and 3 months retroactively) every day of my life. And we wonder why our pets are dying of cancer?
I know I'm sounding a bit preachy and getting up on a soapbox but one of the goals of this blog is to slowly help my readers make sound, educated decisions for the health of their beloved pets. Riley is my teacher and I owe it to him to tell everyone about the lessons I have learned from him. I'm not saying my method is what you should do, nor what everyone should do. I just want you to think about why you make the decisions you do for your pet and if it is truely right for you.
Showing posts with label heartworm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heartworm. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Annual Review
A few days ago I brought Sabrina and Riley to see the Kind Vet for their annual checkups. I used to do this with Riley every spring and fall ensure we were healthy going into tick season and that we were healthy coming out of tick season. But now I'm content to just test him once a year. We are going on 3 years without any type of flea/tick control, yay!
The vet did a blood panel on both kids and ran a Snap test on each too. The Snap test tests for heartworm, Lyme's, Ehrlichia, and something else I can't remember. Looked like a pregnancy test. Good thing they came out all negative considering we had a real mild winter where the temps stayed warm enough for the ticks to survive. I have been feeding the furkids minced garlic in their meals the past couple of weeks and will be running tick checks when they return from running in the woods. If it starts to get really bad I will have to dust them with DE to take care of any buggers in their coats.
On educating my allopathic Kind Vet:
Last week I brought Mei Mei and Little Li to see the Kind Vet for their annual checkups too. I was concerned about their teeth. Everything checked out A-OK with them except that Mei Mei had a case of tapeworms much to my surprise. Where did that come from? Well, apparently the type she had was from ingesting a flea. Perhaps a lone critter that came home on one of my dogs that jumped on her. Who knows. And while grooming, she accidentally ate it.
So the vet offered me two choices, an injection of stuff I've never heard of or two large pills she had to swallow twice a day. Uh...can you say no thank you and no thank you? So I told her I would call my holistic vet and I was sure there was a natural way to eliminate these worms. We aren't talking a life or death situation here so I opted to wait to hear from Holistic Vet. She was highly intrigued and wanted me to let her know what the outcome was.
In the back of my head, I was already thinking what I could use if it were my dogs (grated carrots and ground raw pumpkin seeds) but I wasn't so sure about cats and whether I could get her to eat carrots and pumpkin seeds!
It turns out I was right. I checked in my bible Dr. Pitcairn and Mei Mei's been treated. Now my vet wants a copy of this book so she knows more natural ways to treat animals. Isn't that just grand?! I'm so happy to have found a Kind Vet who doesn't think she knows everything and is willing to learn. It really doesn't get any better than this.
The vet did a blood panel on both kids and ran a Snap test on each too. The Snap test tests for heartworm, Lyme's, Ehrlichia, and something else I can't remember. Looked like a pregnancy test. Good thing they came out all negative considering we had a real mild winter where the temps stayed warm enough for the ticks to survive. I have been feeding the furkids minced garlic in their meals the past couple of weeks and will be running tick checks when they return from running in the woods. If it starts to get really bad I will have to dust them with DE to take care of any buggers in their coats.
On educating my allopathic Kind Vet:
Last week I brought Mei Mei and Little Li to see the Kind Vet for their annual checkups too. I was concerned about their teeth. Everything checked out A-OK with them except that Mei Mei had a case of tapeworms much to my surprise. Where did that come from? Well, apparently the type she had was from ingesting a flea. Perhaps a lone critter that came home on one of my dogs that jumped on her. Who knows. And while grooming, she accidentally ate it.
So the vet offered me two choices, an injection of stuff I've never heard of or two large pills she had to swallow twice a day. Uh...can you say no thank you and no thank you? So I told her I would call my holistic vet and I was sure there was a natural way to eliminate these worms. We aren't talking a life or death situation here so I opted to wait to hear from Holistic Vet. She was highly intrigued and wanted me to let her know what the outcome was.
In the back of my head, I was already thinking what I could use if it were my dogs (grated carrots and ground raw pumpkin seeds) but I wasn't so sure about cats and whether I could get her to eat carrots and pumpkin seeds!
It turns out I was right. I checked in my bible Dr. Pitcairn and Mei Mei's been treated. Now my vet wants a copy of this book so she knows more natural ways to treat animals. Isn't that just grand?! I'm so happy to have found a Kind Vet who doesn't think she knows everything and is willing to learn. It really doesn't get any better than this.
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