How Can I Care for My New Pet Holistically to Minimize Future Health Problems

If you have been thinking about exploring the path of alternative health for you and yours, this may be the perfect opportunity to take that first step. I have found that often people come to better health care practices for themselves and their family because they have seen the results of these same practices in their pets.

I I I have also seen folks who are deeply committed to non-conventional health care for themselves and their family but who have never considered the same option for their pets.
Now is the time to consider how you are going to approach your pet’s health care. Now is the time to be proactive, rather than waiting for a medical crisis and the failure of conventional medicine before you consider alternatives.

Think about housing and the pet’s integration into the family. Think about what is best for the pet from an evolutionary and developmental stand point, not from a convenience stand point.

Think about nutrition. Do the multinational industrial pet food complexes really have your pet’s best interest at heart or is their main concern making a profit for their stock holders? Maybe a varied diet of fresh and raw/home prepared foods in the proper balance for your pet’s species would promote better health than feeding the same over-processed, sterilized food from the same can or bag every day. A bit more trouble perhaps but well worth the effort in the long run.

Think about parasite control. Do you really need to put toxic chemicals in or on the pet to prevent fleas and ticks? Or can you use biological and environmental controls to prevent infestation? What about heartworms? Do you really need to apply a chemical which will stay in the body for a month or more or are there other, less obtrusive means of control available? Are parasites really a problem or merely a reflection of the health status of the pet?

What about vaccinations? Multiple doses of every antigen available, repeated mindlessly annually? What about researching the diseases which are a potential problem in your area and to which your pet will be at risk and only vaccinating for those and only during the age of greatest susceptibility?

What to do in the case of an illness? Antibiotics and cortisones, conventional medications designed to suppress the symptoms, superficial therapies designed to mask the results of the disease and not to address the root cause? Supportive, nurturing therapies seeking to correct the imbalances which have resulted in the illness? Seeking less manipulative, less invasive ways to relieve the pet’s pain and suffering?

Now is the time to think and research and prepare – not when there is a crisis. Look at your options – see what resonates with your beliefs, what feels correct. Talk to other people who have pets and who are approaching their pet’s care creatively.

A little time spent now in fostering health will pay big dividends in the future in preventing the degenerative diseases common in our pet population today.