Dog lovers find natural ways to keep their furry friends healthy

BY LINDA BICKFORD • lbickfor@visalia.gannett.com • June 30, 2008

Dog lover Valinda Marston of Visalia thinks there's a time to take a pet to the veterinarian and a time to do something else.

For Marston, as for many others, the "something else" includes prevention of illness with good nutrition, along with herbal or homeopathic remedies when a pet does become ill.

Nutrition is where it all begins, for pets as well as for humans, she says.

"Nine years ago a friend asked me why I fed my dogs dog food," Marston said. So, she started doing research. "If you find out what's in dog food, you wouldn't feed it to a rat. It's really bad."

Marston started mixing raw meat with her German shepherds' food, then gradually ditched the dog food and now feeds them raw meat, which she buys from a supplier, with raw vegetables — mainly the pulp left over from the juices she and her husband make for themselves.

Her dogs, Konig, 9, and Dallas, 3, also get raw organic eggs, avocados and raw bones. She says the dogs are never sick.

That hasn't always been the case, though. When Marston first got Dallas, the breeder had already given the 9-week-old pup two vaccinations.

"We brought her home, and two weeks later she came down with parvo," Marston said.

The vet told her there was a good chance she would lose Dallas.

"She couldn't even lift her head up," Marston said. "I had to make a decision: Did I want to put what I had been reading into action?"

She opted to bring Dallas home.

"I thought it would be better — if I am going to lose her — to make her comfortable and give her love and not just leave her at the vet's to die," Marston said.

She spent the night on the floor next to Dallas. She knew from her research that dehydration is a big factor in parvo.

"Any time she stirred, I gave her water," Marston said.

Marston says at 5:30 the next morning she felt the pup's fever break and by 7 a.m., Dallas was able to lift her head.

"She has never been sick since," Marston said, adding that her dogs don't have fleas, ticks or heartworm.

"The fleas aren't interested," she said. "They would rather go to a dog with a weaker immune system, just like any other kind of parasite."

Do the research
She encourages others to do research and to be comfortable with their choices.

"I may have had a whole different opinion if I had lost that puppy," she said. "But that success led me to look into more [holistic] things."

Marston advises people to key the letters "BARF" (bones and raw food) into a search engine for a whole host of Web sites on nutrition and natural healing for pets.

Another fan of using the Internet to research holistic remedies for pets is Woodlake resident Mary Hornback.

"Frontline [flea medication] is spooky to me because it's got all those chemicals in it," she said.

She is currently researching the use of diatomaceous earth instead.

"It's silky in your hand, but when you put it on your dog, it's like razors to the fleas," she said.

Molly, Hornback's 13-year-old Bassett hound-Labrador mix, and Texie, her 7-year-old golden retriever-Bassett hound mix, get their ears washed weekly with a vinegar solution, various recipes for which Hornback found on several Web sites.

According to the vet, Molly had an ear infection and Hornback checked to see if there was something natural she could do for the pooch to augment what the vet recommended.

She says the vinegar solution keeps the infection from recurring.

One recipe for the solution lists equal amounts of rubbing alcohol, vinegar and water and another has just vinegar and water. Hornback uses either, depending on whether she wants the drying effect of the alcohol.

If a dog has an active infection, she mixes the solution daily in a measuring cup, pours a little solution into the dog's ear, then folds the ear closed and massages it to spread the liquid around. Then she wipes the ear all over inside with a soft paper towel.

For prevention or maintenance, once a week she dips the towel into straight vinegar and wipes the inside of the ear.

Both processes end with Hornback letting the ears fold back into their normal position.

"The fumes go down the canal," she said. "It keeps bacteria and fungus from growing."

Hornback says she can tell when either of the dogs' ears are itching because they shake their heads and rub their ears on the ground or floor.

Human health tips
Certified herbalist and iridologist Marene Mayer of Visalia works on humans, but her friends and acquaintances often ask her about her experiences when their pets are ill, and she is happy to share with them what has worked for her own pets.

Mayer became interested in treating her pets in 1989 when her 6-year-old dog, Sheena, developed lymphoma.

A doctor from a cancer clinic in Mexico suggested she try red clover, and within six weeks Sheena's lumps started disappearing. The dog lived to be 13, Mayer said.

"I like working on animals because they just take their supplements and get better," she said.

Continuing her research and networking with animal practitioners, Mayer says she "read until I was blue in the face," and learned acupressure and chiropractic adjustment for her animals from a Santa Cruz chiropractor.

A Dinuban's story
Sharon Lehner of Dinuba called Mayer a couple of months ago when her dog had a fungal infection.

Mayer told her that when her own dog had a fungus, she gave it the herb pau d' arco, and the fungus cleared up. So, Lehner decided to try it on her shih tzu, Hallee, 9.

In about a week, Lehner could see a difference. Hallee's appetite returned and she had more energy.

Cynthia Martinez, who works in the College of the Sequoias nursing division, went to see Mayer for her own health situation.

When she saw photos of Mayer's pets, she told Mayer about a problem one of her dogs, a 7-year-old German shepherd named Cassy, was having with hairless patches on her hip.

Veterinary treatment during 18 months had failed to improve the condition, Martinez says.

The hip was becoming so painful that the dog's mobility was affected.

Martinez ended up giving Cassy an herb orally and using a paste of coconut oil mixed with an herb on the patches.

She says it wasn't long before Cassy was playing like a puppy again.

"It takes perseverance and effort to stay on [a holistic] program," Martinez said. "Every morning and every evening you have to mix these herbs in with a bit of soft food.

"If I have to do that to keep them healthy so that I can enjoy them, and they can enjoy life more, it seems a small price to pay."