dogs are individuals dryness draft 1
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Rita Hogan: [00:00:00] Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals Podcast. I'm a clinical canine Herbalist, and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Hi. Rita, here we are in store for another short, and this question is coming from the podcast contact, which [email protected], under podcast contact.
Jennifer wants to know about dryness. So before we talk about dryness, let's just talk about our sponsor Real Dog Box. The kind and generous people at Real Dog Box are part of our sponsorship that makes this podcast possible. I've got a lot of good feedback on the podcast. People are loving the podcast and I really appreciate it.
This is a short, so I'm gonna make [00:01:00] this quick. I promise you guys, a long time ago if you listened to some of my past podcast, To talk about one of my favorite products at Real Dog Box, and that is the meatballs. My dogs are goo gaga over this. They have Turkey meatballs and then they have pork meatballs and beef meatballs.
So we tried the Turkey and the beef meatballs. We've got Turkey breasts, Turkey gizzard, beef, green tripe, pork, kidney, beef, liver, chicken, feet, anchovies, rabbit fur, all mixed together in these little balls and. Oh my God, my dogs, I think they would knock me over for them. And the way that you find them on their website is you go to real.dog, you sign up for one of the boxes, you can, I think you can sign up for as little as $10 a month and you'll be able to see and pick your products and.
The meatballs are part of those now. The beef meatballs have beef, backstrap, neck meat, green tripes, [00:02:00] spleen, liver, chicken, feet, anchovies, and rabbit fur it's like 78% muscle, 12% bone, 5% spleen, 5% liver. Really good treats and. I like to see that low liver treat in these meatballs. So anyways, check 'em [email protected] for real dog box.
Okay, let's talk about dryness. I know this is a short, so we don't have a lot of time, so we are gonna just talk about what does dryness mean. For those of you that don't understand what I'm talking about, check out my energetics [email protected]. Okay. In the dog, it's ecosystem model, which I talk about a lot.
Moisture rules the environment of the dog, just like it does in nature. So everything that we see in ourselves and our dogs, we can see in nature, we can see it happening, we can see it playing out. Water is critical and we don't want too much moisture and in the dog as ecosystem. Body moisture is more than just water.
It's fats, [00:03:00] oils, plasma and lipids, and of course H two O. And these types of things make up our cells, like lipids make up the membranes in our nerve cells and. That's a really important part of the dog's ecosystem because the nervous system is everything. It controls so much of the body. It helps control our heart, our kidneys, our liver, our bladder.
All of that relates to the dog, and we wanna make sure that the moisture element is too, isn't too much and isn't too little. We want a good balance of that, and we have to look again at moisture balance and. I mean, it basically permeate, permeates every cell. And so looking at that in your dog is something a lot of people don't pay attention to.
And it's not how much your dog is drinking. Okay? That's not what I'm talking about here. But if we look at like moisture in the form of fat, It's really important in cells in general because it's how they [00:04:00] communicate with other cells and absorb nutrients. Each cell has a fat layer and without proper moisture, those cells dry up and the nervous system gets dried out.
I was just talking to a client today about their dog, and we figured out that they were very, and had some bladder stones, and we want to add more moisture to that dog's ecosystem so that their nervous system isn't as dried out as it normally is. We wanna balance that out, and we're also working on those stones.
So dryness affects organ function too, like the pancreas and gallbladder and digestive fluids. and it really controls nutrient absorption. I know that a lot of you have heard me talk about the lymphatic system and dryness can have a negative effect on the lymphatic system as well, and that's where we get our fat soluble vitamins.
So moisture's really important and I think that. Getting into the mindset of looking to [00:05:00] see how dry or moisture dog is can be something new for people. It's really important because water and fat soluble components like vitamins, minerals, hormones, are dependent on moisture and the right level of water, fats and oils, and When we start to look at that, things start to get clearer.
So figuring out your dog's energetics is very important, and the nervous system is very moisture dependent, and it conducts elec electrical signals that are also moisture dependent. So a dried nervous system often leads to things like anxiety and restlessness and heightened anxiety, which a lot of people complain about with their dogs.
They're too anxious. Finding true answers to anxiety can be looking at the dog's ecosystem and figuring out moisture levels. We wanna look at our dog's bodily patterns, and when we start paying attention, it starts to become clear again. When you're assessing moisture, you wanna think more [00:06:00] than H two O.
and if you have a cat, it's really important to look at moisture because dryness can affect their kidneys and it's one of the main reasons why cats die so early of kidney disease is because we're feeding them dried food. And they are not meant to eat dried food. They're obligate carnivores, they eat meat and lots of it.
They get their moisture from meat, they get their nutrition and moisture from blood, and it's. Harder for a cat to absorb water by drinking it, it usually gets it in its prey. So cats should eat moist food and moist food only In my op opinion, you can disagree with me, no big deal. We can disagree with each other and still like each other.
A lot of people don't realize that, but it is true. Dry, energetic, co-factors. I talk a lot about cofactors and these are like symptoms where you're looking at, huh? How many? How many? Symptoms do, does my dog have? So some co-factors of dryness include well, anxiety, dry [00:07:00] tongue cracking joints. Of course, dry skin.
Dry nails. Not all dry skin is dryness. It can be from dampness, but we'll get into that smother time. A dry nose, it's not pharmaceutical related. Dry stool. Big indication there. Endocrine disorders, hypothyroid, excessive heat or excessive. If you don't know what it that is, again, check out my energetics course on canine herbalism.com lethargy, nervousness, nutrient deficiency, the inability to gain weight prone to allergies if you know how to take your dog's pulse, a rapid pulse, a sensitive skin.
Stiffness in the joints. I think I already said that though. And weakness or undigested food in the stool, that is excessive dryness. Dryness can be associated with both heat and cold conditions, and it can result from like underlying. Conditions, like the body not absorbing or producing fluids like moisture depletion, and too much heat.
So if your dog has too much heat [00:08:00] in their body, it can slow down and bake down those fluids, and then you get dryness. So it's important to figure out dryness because bodily fluids are cooling and without enough bodily fluids, your dog can have a hard time cooling itself and you can have a.
Level of blood circulation and lymph circulation. And when that happens, heat increases. And if heat increases, then dryness can increase. Okay. Heat builds, it definitely builds. And so dryness can lead to like things like low digestive enzymes pancreatic secretions. , it can cause undigested food in the stool.
Like I said, food sensitivities, hyperimmune function, definitely hard stool and constipation and anal gland, Condit. . I think the endocrine system in general is pretty sensitive to oil and moisture balance, so it's a good thing to figure out, is my dog dry? I can't say that a lot of dogs are more [00:09:00] damp than they are dry.
The nervous system has a lot to do with dryness in general when it manifests in the dog's ecosystem. So if your dog is like hyper anxious you might wanna look, Hey, is my dog. because that nervous system is so dependent on good moisture levels. The nerve cells have a conductive layer of oil that is really like integral to having a healthy communication system in all the nerves in your dog's body and the nerve cells are.
Protected by what's called the My Lithian Sheath, and that sheath is oil dependent on the nervous system. And the nervous system can't really work very well when we don't have enough oil. And then you get exhaustion or kinda like you can get the inability to recover from exercise. You can get dogs that completely like fall over.
And have like an episode when their nervous system is too dry. I see this a lot in [00:10:00] dogs that are working, dogs that are always on the job, their nervous system can be dry. They're not getting enough essential fatty acids. They're not getting enough moisture in their diet, and they can get too much adrenaline and too much adrenaline.
can cause dryness. So that's a little bit about dryness. I mean, I could talk for a very long time about dryness. There's different levels, there's different, a different spectrum of dryness. But I can say if you figure out your dog's energetics, you wanna figure out, is my dog warm or cool? They're usually born warmer.
Cool. Somewhere in between. And. Then you wanna look at what the moisture level is in your dog, and some good herbs for dry energetics, depending on if your dog is warm or cool. But like Astros and Burdock root. Burdock root really is good at helping your dog's body deal with fats and oils. Chickweed, cleavers, marshmallow root.
Milky oats, mullen, plantain, [00:11:00] violet. Those are good places to start. Licorice root, which is nice and neutral. You wanna do de glyceride licorice root for long term. It's not safe in the long term. I mean, licorice is not safe in the long term. De glyceride licorice, which adds a lot of. Can be used long term.
As long as you use the Diglyceride, you can get animal essentials. Greg Tiller's line, he does a nice licorice glycerin. Okay, so if you have any questions for me on the podcast, go to canine herbalist.com, check out our store, get, go to the. Podcast contact and send me a question and I will answer it here on the podcast.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love dogs or individuals podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so [00:12:00] much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much.
Thanks to Resident Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show. Go to canine herbalist.com, click podcast, contact in the menu, and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Our Individuals podcast, and I'm gonna talk to you in our next episode.
The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian, or healthcare provider first before starting anything new, and that includes herbs.
I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support, educat. Only regarding any products I may [00:13:00] suggest. The statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research.
These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All inform. Presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.
