dogs

A Balm for Winter🐾

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Here in the Seattle area, 2021 is going out with a bang. This summer we had record breaking heat and in the fall we had record breaking rainfall. Now, this winter is serving us a record breaking cold snap. Maybe 2022 will take it a little easier on the record breaking weather, but in the meantime my dog and I are walking over the snow and ice for two outings a day, and although she’s invigorated by the cold air at first, her paws would start to bother her after walking on the hard ice and having the snow pack into her pads. Someone told me about a balm they put on their dog’s paws before going out in this weather, so I decided to make one for Bailey and see if it helps. Sure enough on the first walk we took where I’d slathered her specially-made-balm on her paws she did great the entire walk! She didn’t stop, lie down, and lick her paws once, and we went for a slightly longer walk than her usual one. The balm is so easy to do too! I didn’t put any essential oils in it because dogs’ noses are just too sensitive for essential oils. If I’d had time to make an herbal oil and turn that into a balm, I would have used lavender buds, rose petals, and/or plantain, but just the oil and beeswax balm worked well. Here’s the (so easy!) recipe:

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Dog Paw Protective Balm

2 oz almond oil (you can use another oil such as grapeseed or olive oil)

1/8-1/4 cup beeswax (the more wax you use, the harder the balm)

Mix the two together in a double boiler set-up. I use a measuring cup in a pot of water. Turn the burner on medium, making sure the water never boils. Mix the combo occasionally with a chopstick until the beeswax is all melted. Pour into a container and let it cool before capping.

That’s it! For a vegan balm, substitute the beeswax with carnauba wax or use a butter instead, such as shea butter or cocoa butter. The final balm will be softer if using the butters and the waxes provide a better protective barrier so use those if you have them.

Look how cute they are! Little gifts for all your friends with pets next year!

Happy New Year Everyone! 🎆May it be a healthy, joyous year of growth and fulfillment for you and all those you love! ✨(Including your furry friends and family, of course🐶🐈🐰).

All-Natural Animals

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I have the feeling we just do our pets wrong, at least here in America. I’ve felt this way ever since we got our first family first dog about seven years ago. The first thing that bothered me was the flea prevention because it was either a liquid that you put on their skin that leaks out for a month or multiple months which my dog hated. Considering how important smell is to dogs, and how conscious they are of their own scent, I imagine this really does a number on them, plus, where is it being stored in order to leak out over time? The liver, I assume, which seems like a heavy load for a dog’s liver. The other flea prevention option is to give them a pill which also stays activated in their body for 1 to 3 months so again, this presumably is stored in the liver and is taxing it that entire time. The next thing we are told to do is put a microchip into their body, literally into their body, often at the same time we routinely get them spayed or neutered. I did not do the microchipping (this causes some to gasp, “but what if she gets lost?!” to which I reply, we will find her by her tag, or not, but if someone can’t read her tag then how would they manage to read her microchip??) but I did get her spayed at a young age. This is something that I didn’t question at the time but I’ve since met a woman from Germany who told me that it is not routine there and that they do not have a problem with hordes of unplanned puppies. She said it’s widely understood there that those parts of a dog do more than merely create more puppies and by taking those off/out of the dog, you are throwing their hormones and therefore their entire body out of whack. I’ve since heard other dog lovers voicing the same concern, and I must admit, it makes sense. As someone who’s looked into human health from a wholistic point of view, I can attest that hormones play a huge role in the balance of all bodily systems. (But also there are WAY too many dogs here so I’m not recommending NOT spaying/neutering until we, as a society, get the population under control in some other way.)

When my dog started limping, we were immediately given strong pain killers and anti-inflammatory pills and told she’d either need them forever or an invasive surgery. I didn’t hesitate to give her those pills since I was worried she was in pain and felt terrible that she couldn’t tell me exactly how much it hurt. Next was surgery with multiple pills afterwards and now she has a metal something or other in her leg which I am told usually means she will burn out her other leg and need the same surgery on the other side. She’s only seven years old but every friend that I have who has dogs also has a slew of health issues they deal with on the regular and they are all the same age or younger than my dog. I remember talking to my ex-sister-in-law about how every dog nowadays is “put down” at some point, if they even live to old age that is. She said that while growing up in Japan in a farming area, her family dogs would live to a healthy old age and then one day they’d wander off to go die in some safe place alone because that’s what dogs prefer. I found that fascinating. It surely has to do with how we feed and care for our animals, and it’s sad.

I’ve never had a cat but I imagine it’s a similar story for them, especially because I know people with cats who have to give them treatment for diabetes. I would love to give my dog all-natural care but I don’t feel like there is a support system for that, and I’ve also made choices thus far that seem like to place me on a path that makes it hard to switch gears. I’m relying on prescription food that promises the right pH to avoid more bladder stones, which she just had removed, and I don’t want to take her off the antibiotics for her uti or the anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals for her post surgery leg pain. It’s like we are stuck on an unnatural highway and I don’t like it. At all.

What is your experience with pets? I’d love to hear how you have handled pet care, especially if you live in a different country or if you live in the U.S. and feel good about your pet’s life and care. I’d appreciate the broadening of my vision on what’s possible and how.

🐶💜🐱💜🐤