The cost of things: May 2013

Tags

allergies, budgeting, goat's milk, heartworm, honest kitchen, iverhart, joint supplements, pet finances, petmeds, soloxine, sparkle, wapiti labs

This is my third year of tracking our pet finances here at the House of Two Bows. This is an ongoing effort to get a practical sense of what it costs to keep two 20 ~ 30 pound adult dogs in an area of the US with relatively high costs of living. Previous posts in this series can be found under the category of finances.

The Cost of (Pet) Things for May 2013:

• Food: $67 [previous month, $66]
• Treats: $16 [previous, $11]
• Grooming: $0 [previous, $7]
• Accessories and misc: $0 [previous, $0]
• Vet & Medical: $54 [previous, $0]
• TOTAL: $137 (running average for 2013 ~$158/month)

For food and the Bows’ daily diet, aside from the usual yogurt and fresh meat here and there, this month was mostly about supplements. A free shipping offer from The Honest Kitchen allowed me to stock up on a couple canisters of Sparkle at a reasonable price. I added this skin, coat, and digestive supplement to their daily meals around this time last year — right at the cusp of Bowdu’s spring coat blow, and into the summer allergy season. Though he’s got some patches of black skin on his legs now (as has been typical for the past few years), he got through last summer quite nicely, so I’m implementing the same regimen again.

The Honest Kitchen also sent us a complimentary grab bag of supplements to try out, including a couple packs of their brand new goat’s milk supplement, Pro Bloom. I’m trying to dig up info on goat milk for dogs, which they are selling as a formula rich with digestive enzymes and probiotics. Will report back in due time…

One last biggie purchase also came at a significant discount from the Pawalla shop — a 30 gram bottle of elk velvet antler extract from Wapiti Labs, which I’ll be alternating with liquid glucosamine supplements for a while. I prefer joint supplements in additive forms, as opposed to tablets or chewable treats, because it seems easier to add the amount I want directly to their meals.

Treats included a round of Honest Kitchen Beams and a couple pounds of chicken hearts and gizzards for the dehydrator. This is one of RJ’s favorite thing to do for the Bows… and by this point, I believe the dehydrator has finally paid for itself!

Finally, for medications, I stocked up on another 250 days worth of Soloxine (0.4mg pills broken into two halves, twice a day) for $20 via PetMeds. They’re usually slightly more expensive than that, but PetMeds does have a price-matching guarantee that they’ve always been good to honor, when I point out that Drs. Foster and Smith sell the same pills for less.

I also seriously considered stopping heartworm medication for the Bows, given the very, very low incidences of heartworm in our local microclimate. Basically, as my vet explained when I was discussing this option with her, the nightly fog that creeps over the area drops temperatures below a level that allows mosquitoes to propagate. However, we had a couple heat waves, and the buzz of a single mosquito one night made me paranoid… So I figured that if I were to take the Bows off heartworm medication, summer is not the time to do so.

I got Iverhart. It was cheap. Cost is a concern at the moment… which is why budgets are necessary.

Next up: Reporting on the Novato Shiba Picnic 2013!

Comfortis: monthly flea protection in an oral dose

Tags

ADE reports, advantix, adverse drug experiences, allergies, bad reactions, Center for Veterinary Medicine, comfortis, drug reactions, drugs, elanco, FDA, flea allergies, flea dermatitis, flea preventatives, fleas, frontline, milbemycin oxime, spinosad, trifexis, veterinary medicine

When Bowdu was battling his summer of extreme allergies, I became adamant about the need for continuous flea control. In the past, we’d used monthly topicals with apparent success. It was difficult to see any bugs camping out in Bowdu’s thick fur forest anyway. But in the process of trying to deal with his allergies and improve his skin condition after his hypothyroidism diagnosis, our vet — a new one to us, at the time — recommended that we bathe Bowdu a little more frequently during allergic months, and give him an oral flea preventative to complement that measure. She recommended Comfortis (spinosad), which we’d never tried or heard of before from any of our previous vets. We started using it in October 2010 and have been satisfied with its effectiveness.

There are several disadvantages to spot-on topical flea treatments like Advantix and Frontline. The application process itself isn’t an issue, but I never liked the smell — and if I dislike it, I can only imagine how the lingering scent assaulted Bowdu’s sensitive nose. They leave an unnatural residue, I couldn’t bathe let alone touch the dogs for days after application, and even when instructions were followed to the letter, fleas seemed to return well before a whole month had lapsed… as we found out when we got Bowpi, whose short fur made them easier to detect.

The Bows are active, outdoorsy, and relatively social. If we do nothing, they will pick up fleas, and the last thing we need is an infestation in the house. So it’s critical for me to keep them on some kind of flea preventative — Bowdu in particular, as I fear that a single bite could trigger an itch that would cascade into another summer of dermatitis hell.

So Bowdu gets his flea meds pretty much every month here in the California Bay Area, the land of eternal spring. Fleas never seem to go dormant here, and I’d rather Bowdu be on prevention than deal with the aftereffects. I am more conservative dosing Bowpi for a number of reasons.

For one thing, she really hates the taste. Comfortis claims their product is a “chewable, flavored tablet” that is “readily consumed by dogs.” If it tastes like it smells, it must be rich with the flavor of… medicine. Blechk. We learned just how adept Bowpi can be at spitting out pills because of this drug, which she will NOT ingest unless it’s split up and well hidden in a flavorful, sticky meal. Since you’re supposed to administer this with food, luckily this is not a huge issue.

Secondly, Bowpi’s short fur makes it not only makes it easier to find, but also to eliminate fleas by hand. I’ll often let her go without the drug until I do happen to see a bug. Then I snatch it off her white belly or wherever, she gets medded at next meal, and the problem is quickly resolved. It is startlingly fast and effective; one time, I just happened to find a dead flea on her two hours after dosing her. The package claims that one dose will start killing fleas in 30 minutes, and it remains effective for an entire month. I do not exactly understand the internal mechanism by which the drug spinosad works, but it’s obviously potent!

The main reason I take it easy with Bowpi is because of her weight. She ideally hovers around 20 pounds, give or take half a pound. But the first time my vet sold us the drug, she automatically prescribed the same dosage for Bowpi as 30-pound Bowdu. This makes it easier for us to just buy one box specified for dogs 20.1 ~ 40 pounds that we can give to either dog as necessary, instead of having to purchase two separate boxes.

HOWEVER, I do not give either dogs a full pill. I generally break each tablet into four quarters as evenly as possible, and give Bowpi the equivalent of half a pill while Bowdu gets three-quarters.

I do this for a couple reasons. Elanco’s product label for Comfortis states that the 10.1 ~ 20 pound dosage contains 270 mg of Spinosad per tablet. The 20.1 ~ 40 pound contains 560 mg of Spinosad per tablet, or just a little more than double the amount of drug in the previous weight range.

Recommended minimum dosage for the drug to be effective is 13.5 mg/pound — so each dose actually contains just a little more than this baseline amount for the top end of the weight range to ensure the drug’s effectiveness. Bowpi for example, if at a full 21 pounds, would need at least 283.5 mg (50.6% of a pill) and Bowdu at 30 pounds needs at least 405 mg (72.3%). The drugmakers expect the dogs to be able to tolerate some overage, and indeed, my dogs never seemed to have any problems the two times I gave them the full pill.

Unfortunately, many others do. I first noticed an alarming number of online reports of negative reactions to Comfortis collected in the comments section of an entry by Dr. Patty Khuly dated March 29, 2008 on Fully Vetted, Comfortis, the flea-killing wonder drug, and the general state of flea drug resistance. It was introduced to veterinary use that year, and Dr. Khuly was singing its praises. The comments piling up under that post, however, seemed overwhelmingly negative — now at 139 comments at the time of this post and still accumulating, including the top voted comment about a Shiba Inu’s bad reaction. I have seen no followup on Fully Vetted or on Dr. Khuly’s new blog at VetStreet.

And then I started noticing handfuls of Shiba and Basenji people on my breed-specific forums reporting and asking about bad reactions to Comfortis and its sister drug, Trifexis (which contains both spinosad and milbemycin oxime for heartworm prevention). I got curious and asked about specific weights and dosages, and noticed that everyone who reported issues had pets that weighed in the lower 20-something pounds, but were giving full pills for 20.1 ~ 40 pound dogs. In one case, a Shiba owner followed up with a call to the company hotline, and was told that her specific cluster of symptoms (laying in “contorted positions,” being unresponsive, trembling, having difficulty maintaining balance) had not been reported before.

Unfortunately, the company representative was flat-out wrong. The FDA has actually collected pages and pages of documented Adverse Drug Experiences for both Comfortis and Trifexis — cumulative reports available in .pdf form here (search by drug name, not product name). So make no mistake — it is a controlled substance, and no drug is “perfectly” safe, as the full document made apparent to me.

That said, my own dogs have not had any problems with it, especially not after I began minimizing and fine-tuning the dosage on my own. My own conclusion was not that the drug itself was inherently evil, but that it remains important to monitor my pets for their own, individual sensitivities. Because the Bows have not reacted badly, and for us, the benefits outweigh the [unseen, to us] risks, I do plan to continue using Comfortis. Nevertheless, knowing that my specific breeds (and of course, others) commonly fall in that lower 20-pound danger zone, where they seem most susceptible to the possibility of overdosing, I will continue to suggest splitting up the pills as a precaution. No, the drug is not “guaranteed” to be blended evenly throughout the pill, and it’s not scored for ease of division. But this works for me until Elanco decides to fine tune this particular dosage jump.

Note: a similar problem applies in the difference from 40.1 ~ 60 pounds (810 mg) and 60.1 ~ 120 pounds (1620 mg), but the change is most pronounced in the size upgrade I’ve been discussing.

In summary…

Comfortis PROS:

• Highly effective, fast-acting, consistent
• Leaves no smell or residue
• Lasts a whole month
• Allows pets to be bathed as necessary
• Relatively easy to administer with food, though picky pillers may need some tricks

Comfortis CONS:

• Noxious smell and taste may make it unpalatable to some dogs
• Must be prescribed by your vet
• More expensive than topical treatments (approx. $60/box for spot-ons vs. $90/box for a 6-pack of Comfortis)
• Does not take care of ticks
• Poor customer support from company (based on my own experiences in addition to anecdotal information above)
• Potential for adverse drug effects not fully acknowledged

Finally, if you do find that your pet has experienced an adverse reaction to this or any drug, please ask your vet to help you fill out an Adverse Drug Experience form to send to the FDA. Internet anecdotes and the advice of well-intentioned non-professionals such as myself should always be taken with caution. Ultimately, the relevant regulatory agencies also need to be notified through the appropriate channels.

Adverse Drug Experience form: http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm055305.htm
Comfortis website: https://www.comfortis.com/
Trifexis website: https://www.trifexis.com
Elanco Pet Health (makers of Comfortis and Trifexis): https://www.elanco.com/products-services/pet-health.aspx

Edited to add more relevant links to anecdotal information as I stumble across new info:
Trifexis Toxicity in Dogs: Charlie had a Scare!

A lick granuloma bud and pink paws in bloom

Tags

allergies, betagen, foot licking, lick granulomas, vet

Bowpi had a vet appointment last week to take a look at a pimple or wart-like bump on her front left leg that’s been there since September. We really hadn’t thought much of it because it was small, didn’t seem to be growing or changing color, and it didn’t appear to be hurting her or itching. Occasionally she would lick it, but since it was usually quite easy to distract her, we figured she was bothering it simply because it was there. At any rate, we weren’t alarmed. Neither was the last vet who took a look at it.

However, allergies have kicked up in the last month for both Bows. As Bowpi’s been licking the tops of her toes, she’s also gravitated more frequently towards that bump, to the point that it did start to swell and look angry. This time, we had the vet poke it and look at the cells, which didn’t reveal any cause for alarm. She called it a lick granuloma, which I hadn’t thought to call it since Bowdu’s previous lick granuloma had looked so much worse. But indeed, that describes the little pink bead — a lesion with a thickened layer that’s basically sitting on the surface of her skin, but it’s not growing into her or anything.

We got a 60 mL spritzer bottle of Betagen (Gentamicin Sulfate with Betamethasone Valerate), an antibiotic and light topical corticosteroid/anti-inflammatory to put on just this spot. Yup, turning to a prescription drug to chase away this one spot that wasn’t going away on its own.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busting out the baby wipes and Honest Kitchen Sparkle to deal with the Bows’ other pink parts.

Her toenails are permanently warped thanks to her previous owner(s) who didn’t trim her nails or walk her enough. We are still in the process of training back her quicks, which has been a lot easier since we got the Dremel. Anyway, the tops of her toes and both her front legs…

… and her back legs have been licked a bit raw lately. Currently, lots of new things are in bloom, so I’m hoping it’s a seasonal affliction that will soon pass.

Holistic treatments for pet allergies

Tags

allergies, bovine colostrum, digestive enzymes, essential fatty acids, holistic veterinary care, nettle, skin and coat supplements, supplements, vitamin C

Last year during April, we initiated some preemptive measures to stave off the onset of spring and summer allergies. March showers bring a profusion of April floral activity here in the Bay Area. Even I have been sniffling more than usual, indicating that something is already in the air. So last year around this time, we started giving Bowdu a Benadryl tablet every other day to block those histamine receptors before things really had a chance to go nuts. During the peak of summer, he was still getting Benadryl just about every day, though he was on no prescription meds. We got through last summer rather smoothly, but as a complex and chronic concern, I’m always looking to find out more about allergy treatment options.

A preliminary disclosure: I’m no expert; I’m just presenting the notes I collected from a talk I attended. I think I maintain reasonable skepticism of veterinary practices in general, though my own background and experiences have made me far more sympathetic to holistic care. I grew up with two scientist parents who have been employed for decades by a major pharmaceuticals company (mom works in their animal health department — there are many clinical trial reports floating about the internal document library that were edited by said employee’s teenaged daughter). Yet our entire family has frequently turned to traditional Chinese medicine than manufactured drugs to alleviate our own chronic ailments.

Which just goes to say that I don’t necessarily advocate any one “school” or type of medicine over another. As long as one is willing to counterbalance the information they receive from professionals with their own research, I think there is merit in exploring new ideas.

Dr. Anne Reed addresses the crowd at her allergy talk.

At the end of last month, I attended a talk on “Holistic treatments for pet allergies” hosted by a local pet boutique and headed by a well-respected local holistic veterinarian, Dr. Anne Reed. You can check her website for her credentials, as I did before I signed up for the event. The talk was booked to capacity, and the crowd consisted primarily of women, age 30 and older. Many attendees were already familiar with Dr. Reed’s services. I was not. Despite rave reviews and a decent network of resources in our area, we have not yet made the costly plunge into holistic veterinary care (for example, Dr. Reed’s current rates are $210 for a first intake, or $265 for a first house call). The $10 entrance fee to this event seemed a mere pittance in comparison.

Dr. Reed began by laying out the differences between Western medicine and holistic medicine (a term which she used interchangeably with “Chinese medicine”). As she explained it, the default position with Western medicine regards the allergen — the pollen, dander, food in rare cases of true food allergies as opposed to intolerances, etc. — as the problem. Treatment options are thus focused on eliminating the offending allergen by figuring out what to avoid (hence, the costly tests that still often register false positives), or eliminating the body’s response to allergens through specialized diets of “food-like substances” (hydrolyzed protein prescription diets), immune suppressing drugs (Prednisone and prednisolone, antihistamines, cyclosporin), or complex immunotherapy (which remains prohibitively costly and time consuming for most pet owners).

The problem is that the immune system, when suppressed for such long periods of time, relishes the opportunity to get back to “work,” so allergic reactions frequently tend to get worse over time. When your pet is taken off those drugs, the immune system kicks back in overdrive mode, so future allergic responses tend to get more extreme, or last longer, or branch out to new allergens that were never a problem before. Dr. Reed confessed to dreading the patients who come to her as a last resort because the drugs that have been prescribed to them for years no longer work; it takes a significantly longer time to undo the damage than the temporary relief of prescription drugs, and for this reason, she recommends that pet owners do everything in their power to stay away from these drugs in the first place.

Holistic medicine, on the other hand, is not concerned with identifying specific allergens, because it takes the body as the foundation for all improvements, not external factors. If the body is healthy and balanced and everything is working properly, it should be well equipped to handle the stressors of living and functioning as natural beings in a normal environment. Not so much to expect our bodies to behave, right? Well, as dog people know, ideal behaviors come through consistent and steady training, and our bodies can be conditioned in a similar way.

As a holistic practitioner, she doesn’t really look at or consider allergy tests. In her experience, the results frequently have a demoralizing effect — how is it fair, after all, that a household pet can or should be allergic to human dander or grass? The best that the tests can do, in her experience, is buy some time as she works to strengthen the body’s immune response through holistic means.

To that end, food is her essential starting block. She briefly debunked the idea rehashed by many pet owners that some common proteins are inherently evil (chicken, beef, and lamb are oft-named culprits) or that any specific breed typically does not do well with any particular protein. If certain breeds seem predisposed to reject specific types of proteins, she’s more likely to ascribe the problems to genetic factors and how the pets were bred, not necessarily what breed they are. She did not spend much time on this point, but she did allude to grave concerns that generations of kibble-fed dogs have resulted in generations of modern dogs that are ill-equipped to adapt as nature intended.

At the same time, Dr. Reed was very pragmatic about acknowledging that a fully home-cooked or raw diet is not possible for many homes. To that end, we can only do the best that we can, but there is nothing like a good diet of fresh and balanced food to start your pet off on the right foot. She spent some time talking about the differences between home cooking and raw food. One note that I jotted down which resonated with past knowledge is that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners actually don’t advocate a diet of exclusively raw meat, because too much “cold” food (and “cold” means more than temperature here) can be damaging to the spleen and other vital organs. If your pet tends to be energetically “hot,” and allergies are symptomatic of such a state, then a raw diet can certainly help. However, bodies and metabolism do not remain stable over a lifetime, so you should be prepared to adjust as necessary. If nothing else, TCM reminds us that natural systems are constantly in flux. We may strive for perfect balance, though we cannot assume permanence!

There is much more to be said on the intricacies of traditional Chinese medicine, but rather than stray too far from her main topic, Dr. Reed recommended that interested parties do their own research. She recommended Four Paws, Five Directions: A Guide to Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs by Cheryl Schwartz as a good starting point for pet owners. Personally, I’ve had a look at this title in the past and found it problematic in many ways, but that’s a post for another time. Dr. Reed praises the book for giving a broad, if someone dizzying overview of TCM in current practice.

Next, she turned to specific allergy treatments that pet owners can work with. I’ve tried to organize and represent the information based on notes to the best of my ability. If I have made any transcription or factual errors, I will follow up and correct the information.

• Omega-3s.
  Functions: to decrease inflammation, build cell membranes, help joints, etc. Omega-3s and Essential Fatty Acids are widely touted, so you can look up the benefits with little problem.
  Use: Look for a DHA/EPA number between 50 ~ 100 mg/kg, a capsule of about 1000 mg / day is a good maintenance dose.
  Issues: In the past, vets could solve lots of problems fairly efficiently by giving pets just Omega-3s, but this no longer seems to be as effective because commercial pet foods are now supplementing with their own essential fatty acids. Consequently, pets need more Omega-3s in order to counterbalance the Omega-6s in commercial diets. Also, just because everyone sings the praises of fish oils and because this is a “holistic” approach doesn’t mean that there are no side effects. Too much Omega-3, for example, has been associated with increased clotting time (so animals may bleed easier and keep bleeding) — a concern if your pet is going in for surgery. Clean and sustainable sourcing of fish oils is an ongoing concern as well, so make sure to monitor the quality of your product.
• Digestive enzymes.
  Functions: to help “rest” the digestive tract and allow associated organs some relief while promoting nutritional absorption and decreasing intestinal inflammation
  Use: Pick a simple, plant-based enzyme (she likes Standard Process Multizyme and Prozyme), typically added at about 1/4 teaspoon per cup of food.
  Issues: Digestive and skin health are closely related in holistic medicine. You want your pet’s skin looking and feeling as healthy as possible. Paw pads shouldn’t be crusty, but rather, feel “like a pair of fine driving gloves,” even though they meet concrete and ground every single day. The best way to improve skin is through digestion, and if your pet’s skin and coat are looking good, everything else is probably reasonably in balance.
• Vitamin C
  Functions: to serve as a natural antihistamine, to strengthen cellular bonds, to serve as a “cooling” agent
  Use: about 500 ~ 1000 mg per day, once a day, for a 50 pound dog
  Issues: I didn’t get a chance to ask whether this was a temporary measure or a more permanent supplement, as I’d read conflicting information about whether or not this is necessary, or potentially harmful for pets. If i get a chance to follow up, I will update here.
• Bovine colostrum
  Functions: to promote digestive health by “sealing up” the cellular walls of the intestinal tract, aiding in better digestion, among other functions
  Use: look for it in powdered form, follow recommended dosing information
  Issues: She didn’t get much time to talk about this one, so I may be missing some details. This is a “quick” and more short-term fix that she seemed enthusiastic to endorse, though she doesn’t use it over the long run.
• Freeze-dried nettle
  Function: as a homeopathic remedy particularly useful for inhaled allergies
  Use: about 1/4 tsp per 50 pounds of dog
  Issues: It may cause several days to a week of itchiness or irritation until you see improvement. However, she has found this particularly effective to ward off seasonal allergies just as they are appearing. She did not say how long one should keep feeding the nettles (over a whole season?). This is also meant to be a short term remedy.

At this point, Dr. Reed started running out of time, so she blitzed through the potential uses of apple cider vinegar (messing with pH is controversial, but she recommends 1 Tbsp/50 pounds of dog in certain situations), green tripe (a “miracle food” loaded with enzymes), and green leafy vegetables (good for the liver). On Vitamin E, she has not found it absolutely necessary to add this in combination with fish oil, as some years she has recommended it, and some years she has not, yet has seen no difference either way. She thinks that pets are compensating for the supposed depletion of Vitamin E in other ways, particularly if they get a good mix of organs in their balanced meal.

IN CONCLUSION: patience and perseverance, and staying away from prescription allergy meds, puts your pet on the right track to long-term health. You may not see immediate results with the approaches that she outlined, but in the best cases, you will be able to look back after some time and account for significant differences. I know that has certainly been the case for us here at the House of Two Bows.

REVIEW: Honest Kitchen Sparkle, an herbal skin and coat supplement

Tags

allergies, burdock root, dandelion, dr. pitcairn, herbal remedies, herbs for pets, holistic veterinary care, honest kitchen, nettle, rose hips, skin care, sparkle, supplements, tilford & wulff, yeast

Product: Honest Kitchen Sparkle herbal supplement
Quantity: 3.4 oz
Price Paid: $11 [via the HK online store]
Ingredients: Dandelion leaf, rosehips, burdock root, nettle leaf, yeast flakes
Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude protein: min 18.00%
Crude fat: min 0.50%
Crude fiber: max 10.26%
Moisture: max 11.00%
Potassium: 2.24 ~ 2.49%
Magnesium: 0.29 ~ 0.34%
Iron: 140 ~ 170 mg/kg
Manganese: 59 ~ 74 mg/kg
Zinc: 46 ~ 54 mg/kg

Country of manufacture: Not clear, though the company claims that all of its ingredients are 100% human grade, a claim that has been cleared by the FDA
Company information: The Honest Kitchen; 145, 14th Street; San Diego, CA 92101; tel: 1-866-437-9729 / (619) 544-0018
Web presence: TheHonestKitchen.com, on Facebook, etc.

When Bowdu’s system was thrown out of whack owing to his hypothyroidism, one of the most obvious physical signs was his recurrent skin issues and out-of-control allergies. Last year’s summer of suffering has inspired me to explore alternative dermal health remedies, especially options geared towards long-term and holistic maintenance.

The Honest Kitchen was also founded on a philosophy of good health through optimum diet and natural care. For a number of reasons, including their high standards of quality, accountability, size of the company and apparent transparency, HK is probably one of my favorite pet-related companies out there. When I saw that they offer a skin supplement, Sparkle, I was happy to give it a go.

Here’s the product description from the website:

Proper pet nutrition is the first step to improving your dog or cat’s skin and coat health. For additional nutritive support, we offer Sparkle. After using this natural herbal supplement, all your friends will be in awe of your pet’s healthy, shiny coat!

Sparkle is an herbal nutritional supplement made with a selection of natural herbs, designed to support healthy skin and a shiny coat for both dogs and cats.

I was unable to find more specific information about the ingredients on the company site, so I consulted Gregory L. Tilford and Mary L. Wulff’s Herbs for Pets: the Natural Way to Enhance Your Pet’s Life (Second Edition, Irvine: Bowtie Press, 2009). I claim no expertise or special knowledge in herbal nutrition, and certainly not because I happen to have a couple relevant books in my personal library. This is just one ready reference that I like having on hand (though they could use an updated list of references, even if they are one of the pioneers in this subfield).

Anyway, here are some relevant passages from Tilford & Wulff related to the selection of herbs in this blend:

Dandelion leaf:

Dandelion is a “classic” and extremely common herbal remedy with a large range of benefits, including boosting the liver and optimizing waste elimination (aside from regularizing digestion, it can act as a diuretic). With long-term use, the whole plant is reputed to offer medicinal effects without taxing the body with harsh or excess chemicals and minerals. As far as its immediate benefits, I thought this was interesting:

In addition to providing your animal with many of the nutrients she needs, the leaves have what the herbalists call a bitter tonic effect: the body’s metabolism is ‘warmed up’ before the digestive system is forced to go to work. When a small amount of a bitter herb is taken into the mouth, the recipient immediately experiences a sudden increase in salivation. As the bitter herb reaches the stomach, bile and other digestive agents are then triggered into production. The result is more efficient digestion, reduced indigestion, better absorption of nutrients, and increased appetite.

Tilford and Wulff, pp. 95-6
In other words, dandelion leaf works primarily by maximizing the effects of an already-healthy meal; as with any dietary supplement, you have to start on a solid foundation. Dandelion is not an immediate choice for improving dermal health, but it would be a first resort if the aim, as described by the Honest Kitchen, is to detox and offer “nutritive support.”

Rose hips:

Rose hips, the heart of the bloom

This is another common herbal remedy known for being rich in Vitamin C and ascorbic acid (ibid., p. 172). All the better when it’s sourced from such a cute little fruit. This is hardly an obscure vitamin so I’ll trust that we all understand its many functions, and move on…

Burdock root:

Burdock root is a specific treatment for chronic acute psoriasis or eczema; it has a strong affinity toward the treatment of flaky, oily, or inflammatory skin disorders that can be traced back to liver deficiencies or a general overload of toxic substances in the body (usually the result of a poor diet). It is also useful in the holistic treatment of arthritis, rheumatoid disorders, inflammatory kidney and bladder diseases, and virtually any other type of metabolic disorder that may be the result of poor waste elimination. Adding to all of this is a diuretic action that helps in the elimination of waste materials from the body. In simple terms, burdock helps clean the body from the inside out.

ibid. p. 68
By this description, this herb is the most explicitly indicated for dermal care. Many of its functions overlap with that of dandelion, so again, it’s aiding in overall gastrointestinal health.

Nettle root:

Although the theories behind the medicinal actions of nettle are varried, we believe that part of the basis for nettle’s antiallergenic usefulness may lie in the plant’s histamine content, which may work in a like-versus-like manner similar to the concepts of homeopathy. What we mean is that by introducing a substance into the body that acts mildly as an allergenic antagonist, the body is triggered into protecting itself from what it believes to be an inevitable, all-out attack of allergens. In short, nettle may prompt the body into preparing itself. For animals with predictable seasonal occurrences of allergies, dietary supplementation with dried nettle leaf may help.

ibid., p. 154
This same principle applies to allergy shots and immunotherapy, but instead of injecting the body with a number of specific, targeted allergens, just nettle is used to increase the body’s tolerance to potential environmental irritants.

Nutritional yeast (yeast flakes):

Tilford and Wulff provide no information on this ingredient. However, nutritional yeast is the primary ingredient in Dr. Pitcairn’s “Healthy Powder” mix which is an essential component of the recipes in his book [cf. Richard & Susan Pitcairn, Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2005) p. 53]. In this blend, I think these flakes add mere traces of additional vitamins and minerals.

1/2 tsp of Sparkle (that’s a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, and 1/4 tsp pile below)

For 11 ~ 30 pound pets, the recommended daily dose is 1/2 a teaspoon twice daily (roughly consistent with recommended doses in Tilford & Wulff), mixed or sprinkled onto the food. That seemed like enough to significantly alter the taste of the food, which usually backfires when it comes to Bowpi. I ended up giving less than recommended — about three pinches per meal for Bowdu and two pinches for Bowpi, which amounted to about half of the suggested daily intake. It seemed reasonable to lean on the lower side of the spectrum, since too much of a couple of these herbs might trigger too much of a diuretic effect or overly loose stools, at worst. When the pups got raw meals, I would either sprinkle this into a side dish of pumpkin or mushed up sweet potato (preferred) or coat the meat as if preparing an herbal dry rub.

At this rate, the container lasted us about two months, a fair stretch of time.

What I like about Sparkle is that the ingredients give me a different set of dietary “tools” to work with by improving the skin in an indirect fashion. Sparkle works through the internal organs by improving modes of circulation (waste processing, nutrient delivery and absorption), instead of building the epidermal layer on a cellular level. Since we’re talking about a cumulative effect, I expected the results to be a little more subtle, prompting me to look a little harder.

Now the thing is both Bows already have fairly nice coats, so I can’t really proclaim any drastic changes. For Bowpi, who came to us with some dandruff and dry patches, improvements were especially dramatic when we started boosting her Essential Fatty Acid intake with fish oil (and Vitamin E) supplements at dinnertime and olive oil drizzles with breakfast. If you’re looking for a quick and observable improvement, load up those EFAs and you’ll definitely know there’s been a before and after.

4 October 2011

We crossed that threshold with Bowpi’s coat some time ago. Though she’s already pretty soft and glossy, I guess she does seem even plushier these days. Her skin is clean and supple. The rash that had broken out on her upper arms, already slowly on its way to improvement once we took her off the suspected culprit food, completely cleared up after we started using Sparkle. Most significantly, her injured eye has been less watery, an improvement I was not anticipating.

As all these observations have coincided with our continuous use of Sparkle, I will be generous in my assessment and say that it could be due to this supplement’s benefits — though it could also be due to other factors like seasonal and environmental changes.

With Bowdu, the only noticeable recent change has been in the scent of his skin and coat. He generally doesn’t have much of an odor anyway, but lately he’s been even more nuzzleable than ever.

Again, this could be due to seasonal changes, and my own desire to huff Shiba fur as the weather gets chillier.

Here at the House of Two Bows, where academic habits inevitably bleed into blogging, we typically stamp reviewed products with an A ~ F letter grade. Given all that I’ve written above though, it doesn’t seem fair to assign a letter grade. I know I’d like to give Sparkle an A grade based on how much I respect the company and how much I want to trust in the efficacy of a holistic approach. But honestly, I can’t say that even my own observations justify the high marks.

Would I purchase and use this supplement again? Sure! I think if we started the daily supplementation at least a month in advance of allergy season, that would be a more serious test.

Is Sparkle a required part of the daily diet for the Two Bows? Here, I’d have to say no. And since it’s not part of the core menu here, maybe it’s better to grade it on a pass/fail basis. Thumbs up or thumbs down.

To summarize —

PROS:

• high quality ingredients from a trustworthy company
• offers a natural, holistic alternative or complement to EFA supplementation
• attractive and handy packaging
• fair price for amount of product (especially if used conservatively)
• good for dogs AND cats!

CONS:

• results may not be immediate, demands consistency and patience over long-term use
• some animals may not enjoy the taste
• best when mixed into moist food, which not every dog gets all the time
• calling this a “skin and coat” supplement is somewhat misleading when the operating premise actually seems to be gastrointestinal management which ultimately results in healthier appearanaces

FINAL GRADE: PASS / SATISFACTORY

[Edit 9 April 2012: Related post, “Holistic treatments for pet allergies“

Fluffy and fit

Tags

allergies, hot spots, lick granulomas, pododermatitis, skin care, weight

I managed to get Bowdu onto a scale this week, and was shocked to find that he weighed in at…

28 August 2011

… 28.7 pounds. In other words, about 4 pounds less than his peak plumpness last year (33 pounds), and right at what I consider his ideal weight of 29 pounds, +/- 1 pound. I thought he’d been looking pretty good lately, but damn, I hadn’t realized just how fit he is. Fluffiness can be deceptive; I was still figuring his weight at over 30 pounds. In the above picture, I scrunched up a handful of fur on his hindquarters to indicate the thickness of his coat. You can also see his hotspot/lick granuloma on his front left leg, which is the worst it’s gotten all summer.

1 September 2011

12 September 2011. Flared up a little and got worse, but it’s going away again.

Compared to this time last year, the difference is pretty stark.

21 August 2010. His feet are oozy and bloody in a few places.

And again, another one from last year:

27 August 2010. His head is in a cone to keep him from mutilating himself.

It’s not just the effect of a better camera. It’s the result of better diet, better grooming, and more careful (and limited) medicine.

Allow me this moment to bask in feeling like a pretty good dog owner, as I haven’t always known what I’m doing in this regard. Right now, both Bows are in great shape, and I am flush with pride. And relief!

2 September 2011

Health update: allergies under control

Tags

allergies, canine atopic dermatitis, canine hypothyroidism, grooming, hot spots, skin care, supplements

This is a quick log of Bowdu’s dermal health, and to compare his summer allergies with almost the exact same time last year…

I’m happy to report that there’s not much to report.

24 July 2011

This year…

• Raw and home-cooked meals make up at least 50% of his diet.
• He’s on thyroid support (Soloxine).
• He gets more daily nutritional supplements (in addition to the ones we were already using last year) like yucca, grass/pollen combatants, Vitamin E, etc.
• He’s NOT on any prescription allergy drugs (though he’s been getting OTC antihistamines 1 – 2x a day).
• He’s NOT in a cone.
• He’s not licking his paw pads.
• He’s still licking the same spots on his front “wrists” and the top of his back toes, though the spots are a lot smaller.
• He still hates getting topical ointments rubbed on his parts, unless he’s in the car.
• His paws are wiped down after every walk through grass and dirt.
• He’s less smelly and his skin is less greasy.
• He’s gotten 3 or 4 baths since the beginning of summer, purpose not being to drench him but to wash away allergens and loosen some undercoat.
• He’s been brushed a lot less, though I will manually remove fur as I pet him, and I’m doing a lot more sweeping.

In summary, he’s doing really well, and is infinitely more manageable this year. The pictures show that he’s not in perfect condition, but again, compared to last year… wow.

However, August has typically been his worst month. He’s also due for another thyroid check, so I’m still holding my breath until we get through the dog days.

I’ll have another update on Bowpi’s skin breakout later. She does appear to be getting better, but progress on her has been a lot slower than anticipated.

REVIEW: Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix

Tags

allergies, dehydrated dog food, dog food, food allergies, pet store a, sojos, sweet potatoes

Product: Sojos Complete Dog Food Mix
Quantity: 2 lbs/907 grams (package says it makes 10 pounds of food)
Price paid: $15.99
Ingredients: sweet potatoes, turkey, whole egg, broccoli, celery, apples, flax meal, pecans, tricalcium phosphate, pumpkin, cranberries, basil, dried alfalfa, ginger root, dried kelp, zinc sulfate, vitamin E acetate, vitamin D3
Guaranteed analysis:

Crude protein: not less than 22.0%
Crude fat: not less than 8.0%
Crude fiber: not more than 5.1%
Moisture: not more than 12.3%
Calories per cup = 480.8 Kcals

Country of manufacture: USA
Company information: Sojourner Farms; 1723 Adams Street NE; Minneapolis, MN 55413; tel: 1.888.867.6567
Website: Sojos.com, also on Facebook

Based on our success with our first attempt at dehydrated dog food, I decided I would grab a full box when I next went to Pet Store A. Unfortunately, they don’t stock the brand I was looking for, so I purchased what I thought was an equivalent product, a 2 pound bag of Sojos turkey recipe.

Thus I learned that not all dehydrated foods are created the same.

While the other brand was a great success, even with a fairly quick transition, this one failed. Frankly, this is probably the biggest gastrointestinal failure we’ve experienced this past year, and that’s saying a lot for The House of Two Dog Foodies who are actually fairly happy to try new things.

To prepare the food, Sojos instructions say to soak the mixture in an appropriate amount of filtered water and allow it to reconstitute for an hour at minimum, overnight in the refrigerator for optimum results.

So here it is after about an hour. Note that the ingredients are still pretty chunky, which gives the impression of heartiness (as opposed to the powder-turned-paste of the previous brand that we tried). However, as I found out, the chunkies are not to be desired.

For the first few dinners, I served it up similarly to how I prepared the other brand. I mixed the reconstituted Sojos with a home prepared blend of raw turkey and supplements, with Sojos making up about 1/4 of the meal. Both Bows were quite enthusiastic about their New! Food! as they usually are.

Then I bumped the ratio up to 1/2 Sojos, and that’s when trouble became evident. Perhaps I transitioned them too quickly. Sojos FAQs recommend a transition time of 2-3 weeks, but so do most foods that I switch over a shortened period. I gave this some thought and based on my inspections and observations, I’m not sure a longer transition would have made that much difference.

Both of their poops were pretty densely populated by orange and yellow chunks in the days following the introduction of this food. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, so I gave them a break one day for a full raw meal. Then the following morning, Bowpi threw up. All that was in her vomit was bile and undigested chunks of Sojos potatoes. The stuff had been sitting in her stomach for over a day before her body finally surrendered it.

Before you add water…

Sweet potatoes in and of themselves are not typically a problem. Both Bows have had potatoes in various dog treats without any digestive upsets, and I frequently bake sweet potatoes to add to their meals. However, I usually mash it up a little, and I never include the skins, whereas Sojos does.

This is also problematic because the ingredient seems to take a long time to fully reconstitute. Even after soaking for the recommended amount of time, many of the potato pieces feel quite hard. I know this because I started picking them out, piece by piece.

This human loves potatoes with skins. The Bows? Not so much.

Picking out the potato chunks after rehydration seemed to create a lot of waste, so I started picking out as much as I could while it was still dry.

This led me to observe that there are a LOT of potatoes in this mix. It is, after all, the very first listed ingredient. I assumed that even though turkey is listed second, this was due to the fact that it had lost some weight in the dehydration process. However, as Mike Sagman at the Dog Food Advisor points out, the published ingredients do not specify dehydrated turkey, but “USDA turkey” (which is also slightly different from just “turkey” on the packaging). Even if reconstitution increases the relative weight of turkey, all the ingredients would be rehydrated as well, and this would not change the fact that the ingredients are, by law, listed in order of weight before cooking.

I’m not sure how that shakes out if the ingredients are supposed to be raw, as the front of the bag claims the complete mix is made with “FREEZE-DRIED RAW turkey”. For those that are curious, there’s also some discussion of the relative nutritional value of freeze-drying raw versus air-dehydrating cooked meats in the comments section of the Dog Food Advisor link above, including a very recent comment from the company owner. It doesn’t definitively answer the question of proportions, but it does show that the company holds itself responsible for what people want to know about their food.

However it’s calculated, there’s still a buttload of sweet potato in this mix, probably more than I really have the time to pick through. But I am picking through it because I’m a cheap-ass, and I can’t stand the thought of throwing out something that I’ve paid good money for, dammit. I’m not exactly proud of how much energy I’ve spent de-tubering each pile of Sojos, but the process does seem to make the ingredients less, um, discernible on the way out.

With the formula thus compromised, I ended up using dollops of Sojos only to supplement up to 50% of their meals. Their poops were no longer nearly as colorful, and Bowpi didn’t throw up potato chunks anymore.

However, something else started to happen to Bowpi. She started to nibble and lick at her forearms, as well as the tops of her toes.

28 June 2011

This could be entirely coincidental, or even a result of environmental allergies and not food-related. There’s a section of text on the bag that addresses my concern:

Q: What if my dog has allergies?

Because Sojos isn’t processed into a pellet or sprayed with synthetic additives (which can burden the body with toxicity), your pet shouldn’t experience allergic reactions like they might with traditional pet foods. (Sojo’s bag)

Okay, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. Considering that Bowpi had such problem-free skin and fur last year, and because the location of her itchy spots is so oddly dispersed (despite appearances, she’s actually NOT licking her belly any more than usual)… well, I’m leaning towards this being a reaction to some ingredient in the food. Maybe pecans, a protein that she hasn’t previously been exposed to? At any rate, no more Sojos for Bowpi, and I’m monitoring her skin in the meantime. I’ll return to edit this review if her condition does not drastically improve several weeks after quitting Sojos.

Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on your pet’s particular food sensitivities. Bowdu hasn’t been breaking out like Bowpi, so he is still getting the de-potatoed mix. But I’m throwing out what feels like a quarter of the contents to make this work for us. This wastefulness, in addition to the inconvenient reconstitution process (which has me serving cold food, not something I prefer to do except in summer months), is why I doubt I’ll be trying this brand of dehydrated dog food again.

Final Grade: B-

A long day for a whole lotta nothin’

Tags

allergies, skin care

14 June 2011

Hot days impede productivity. Makes Bowdu sprawl out on the hardwood floors and do a whole lotta nothin’.

Of course, “hot” here is… oh… a high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hey, I’m not complaining, just takin’ it easy.

On this day, the first day of summer, I thought it’d be worthwhile to step back and assess Bowdu’s dermal health.

Last year:

29 May 2010

He had already been on Temaril-P for a couple months when these pictures were taken.

And this year:

1 June 2011

eyes seem a little rimmed and crustier than last year, but they’re not too bad

While I don’t expect his skin to be perfect this summer, whatever we’re doing seems to be keeping last year’s skinrot at bay. If nothing else, we’re at least months ahead of where we were last year. I’ve been babywiping his feet after every romp through grassy spots since March. And he’s had NO need for prescription allergy drugs! I have, however, been dosing him with Benadryl (no more than once a day for the past couple weeks).

LINK/VIDEOS: Dr. Karen Becker interviews Dr. Jean Dodds

Tags

allergies, canine hypothyroidism, health tests, hemopet, rabies challenge fund, vet, veterinary endocrinology

from Youtube channel MercolaHealthyPets