Thieves® Household Cleaner – one of Dr. Forsyth’s Favorite Things! January 30, 2013

For floors countertops and soooo much more.  Thieves® Household Cleaner is quickly becoming one of my favorite things that I use in my veterinary practice.

Thieves Household Cleaner and several other awesome products from the Thieves line.

 

This cleaner is a suspension of safe surfactants (wetting agents) and Thieves® essential oil (a proprietary blend of 100% pure Young Living Therapeutic Grade™ essential oils of clove [Syzygium aromaticum], lemon [Citrus limon], cinnamon bark [Cinnamomum verum], eucalyptus [E. radiata] and rosemary [Rosmarinus officinalis CT cineol].

 

The first time I used it was for fleas. This cleaner is great for bathing animals that have a flea problem.  It quickly kills any living fleas and does it all in a manner that is nontoxic – this stuff is so safe you can even drink it. If diluted, Thieves® Household Cleaner can even be used as a leave-on dip that will help to continue repelling fleas from a pet.

 

Chin acne in cats can also be treated with Thieves® Household Cleaner. I have mixed up a very dilute solution of the cleaner (about 1 capful of the cleaner mixed with distilled water in an 8 ounce spray bottle) combined with some other essential oils like Lavender and Copaiba to make a spray that can safely be used several times a day to help prevent those blackheads on the chin that cats are so prone to develop.

Can you find the scar? This wound healed much faster than usual with using the Thieves Household Cleaner – and there is barely a mark left after 3 weeks.

 

Most recently I used Thieves® Household Cleaner to treat a severe bite wound on a dog – my own dog, Seaweed. This wound was on his chest and there was a deep hole into his muscle accompanied by some skin that had been pulled away from his body wall. Now my chihuahua is a very sensitive guy and he screams with just the anticipation of pain so I was prepared for the worst the first time I used it.  I diluted the cleaner until it looked like weak lemonade and proceeded to flush his wound – not a peep – I was amazed.  Clove which is one of the ingredients in the cleaner has been used by dentists for ages to help control dental pain and it’s this ingredient that I think made the wound flushing tolerable.

 

It’s also important to note that this is an excellent household cleaner. So many of the products we use are toxic to us and even more toxic to our pets. This happens in part because they are essentially walking around in bare feet and constantly having there skin exposed to the chemicals we use in our everyday cleaning. Thieves® Household Cleaner can be used for degreasing, floors, walls, upholstery, fabrics, carpet spot cleaning, general carpet cleaning, glass, pots & pans, hand cleaner, etc … .  I even use it for my fruit and vegetable cleaning now.

 

To sum it all up, no home should be without Thieves® Household Cleaner. It’s good for keeping everything clean and good for your and your pet’s health.

Peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

Jennifer Forsyth, VMD

How To Decrease Stress Naturally When Traveling With Your Pet July 25, 2012

By land or by sea or by air, traveling can be stressful!

Some great pet products that can help with relaxation during travel (NaturVet Naturals Calming Aid Chews, Rescue Remedy, Cat Nap, Chill-Out)

 

Summer is the time for vacationing and catching up on some much needed R & R.  However, traveling can cause some unwanted anxious behavior in dogs and cats should we decide to bring them along on our journeys.  There are a number of safe and natural ways to help our four-legged friends enjoy vacationing as much we do.

 

Aromatherapy

I personally don’t leave home without my Aromadog Chill Out spray.  My dog, Margaux, gets anxious on long car rides when I head back to Pittsburgh to visit with my folks (which incidentally is where I’ll be headed next week).  Aromadog’s Chill Out contains Chamomile, Lavender, and Marjoram and it really does the trick for helping Margaux to relax on a car ride.  These three herbs when used as aromatherapy can help with anxiety and make it easier for your pet to relax and catch some Zzzzz’s.  They can even help with the nausea that some pets get from motion sickness – win, win!  I spray the Chill Out about once every hour or as needed.  For cats, check out the Aromacat Cat Nap.

 

Water Therapy

I always take plenty of fresh water for my pooches when I travel.  Some dogs like to drink a lot of water when they are experiencing stress so limit their water to avoid increasing their chances of vomiting during travel.  When I fill up the bowl with water I add about 10 drops of Rescue Remedy.  Rescue Remedy is a Bach Flower Remedy.  Bach Flower Remedies are made from wild flowers and these remedies are particularly helpful in situations where there is an emotional imbalance – they can help to replace bad emotions with good.  Rescue Remedy is terrific for airplane travel where you won’t be able to give your dog or cat a spritz of Chill Out or Cat Nap periodically (it is a good idea to spray the crate before your pet has to enter).  The night before heading to the airport, add the water with Rescue Remedy  into one of the bowls for the crate and put it in the freezer.  This way they can have a longer time with access to the Rescue Remedy water.

Who doesn’t love to snack while traveling?

All of my dogs love NaturVet Natural’s Calming Aid soft chews.  They contain Chamomile, Passion Flower, Thiamine, Ginger, and L-Tryptophan.  Beyond travel, these treats are also great to use during thunderstorms and fireworks.  I give these to my dogs 30 minutes before a car ride to help them relax.

 

I hope that these tips can help you and your furry friends to enjoy all of life’s adventures to their fullest!

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

Natural Flea & Tick Prevention April 15, 2012

Some examples of natural flea and tick preventions.

 

Spring is here and so are fleas and ticks.  Protecting your pet naturally from fleas and ticks is not only possible but also very important.

 

Fleas can transmit tapeworms to your pets and fleas are also the source of a much more serious problem, Bartonella (Cat Scratch Disease).  Bartonella can cause serious illness no only in cats but it can also affect dogs and you and your family.  Bartonella can cause oral diseases, respiratory diseases, eye problems, intestinal diseases, and many other things.  If you’d like more information on Bartonella the National Veterinary Laboratory has the best information.  If you would like to have your cat or dog tested give us a call at Marmalade & Mobile Vet (856-375-1314) and we can schedule an appointment for an examination and testing.

 

Ticks can also transmit serious diseases to cats and dogs.  Lyme disease is the best known tick-borne disease here in the northeast USA but there are many other diseases that are caused by ticks.  Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis (carried by the deer tick) most commonly cause dogs to develop lameness, fevers, anorexia, and lethargy.  The lone star tick and dog ticks carry diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichia, and Babesia that can affect your dog’s platelets and red blood cells causing problems including anemia and abnormal bleeding.  If you’d like more information about ticks, tick identification ,and tick-borne diseases Scalibor has a nice interactive website.

 

There are so many natural flea and tick preventions out there in the market and I can’t personally comment on the ones I haven’t used.  The products that I’m mentioning here in this post are only the ones that I have personally used and found to be effective.  If anybody has a product that they love that I didn’t mention please feel free to post in in the comments section.

Buck Mountain Parasite Dust

 

Cedar Oil from the Cedar Oil Store is the main product that I use for my dogs when it comes to tick control.  My experience has been that fleas are much easier to prevent than ticks and my best success with tick control has been with cedar oil.  I live in what I call “tick central” because I have a lot of tress, shrubs, wild grasses, a stream, etc … .  This is what I do to in the war against ticks.  Once a week during peak tick season (spring and fall) I mix up a solution that I make from the Nature’s Defender Vet’s Choice concentrate (2 oz. of concentrate to a gallon of water) and “dip” my dogs.  I sponge it over my dog’s entire body, being careful to avoid the eyes.  This dip procedure helps to repel the ticks for up to a week and it can be especially useful for dogs that have a long coat and are difficult to spray.  For my daily regimen I use the Dr. Ben’s Paws & Claws treatment or the AromaDog Flea Flicker to kill any ticks that might have made it past my “dip” procedure.  If you don’t live in a high tick area you might be able to skip the “dip” step and only use the once a day sprays.  The AromaDog Flea Flicker is an awesome product, especially for small short haired dogs.    I also really like Buck mountain’s Herbal Gold Parasite Dust.  The parasite dust uses Neem and diatom flour which can be sprinkled on your pet’s back and combed in against the grain of the fur. The only reason I don’t use Flea Flicker or Parasite Dust as my primary products is because I have 4 mastiffs and 1 Chihuahua so the large spray bottle for the cedar oil is more convenient.

 

For cats there are two products that I recommend.  The first is the Ectopamine spot on which is convenient because it lasts for 3-4 weeks (the Ectopamine also comes in a spray that can be used for dogs).  The other product I like is AromaCat’s Scat! No Fleas Please.

Ectopamine for Cats

 

One of the most important things to remember with any parasite control program is that a high quality diet is very important.  When you feed your pet with high quality ingredients they will be healthier and less attractive to parasites like fleas and ticks.  Foods that are rich in B-vitamins like sea vegetables help to make your pet less likely to pick up parasites.  Small amounts of garlic (I don’t recommend using garlic for cats as their red blood cells are much more sensitive to potential toxicity) in the diet can also help to deter fleas and ticks.  The two supplements that I love for adding into my pet’s food are Animal Essential’s Green Alternative and Wholistic Pet’s Wholistic Sea Blend with Garlic.  Never feed a food that has by-products, artificial preservatives, food colorings, animal digest, propylene glycol, or grains that aren’t whole grains.  Home prepared diets are a wonderful option.  You can use the recipes in a book like Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats or if you are short on time you can have somebody like Loreen at the K-9 Pet Chef cook for you.  And if you feed kibble, support a local natural pet food store like Daminger’s Natural Pet Foods.

 

 

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

My favorite essential oil products January 27, 2012

My Favorite AromaDog Products

There are a lot of wonderful and safe products that utilize essential oils.  My favorites all come from AromaDog.  They also have terrific cat products (AromaCat) that utilize hydrosols instead of essential oils which are much safer for use in cats.  Aromadog has been creating their amazing products since 1998 and they care so much about the quality of their product that they even give the bottles some Reiki before they are sent out so that they are instilled with good intentions.  (Just a little aside about how our intentions can affect water: This video shows some of the crystal patterns produced when Masaru Emoto subjected different water samples to both good and bad thoughts – fascinating stuff)

 

To help my kids smell better, I use Ladies Man or She Devil.  Both come in sprays and soaps and they smell delicious with the one for the gents being spicy and clean while the one for the ladies has delicate floral notes.  And neither have that annoying (to people and pets) overwhelming perfumy smell.  For those unwanted doggy odors in my house or car I use I Don’t Stink So.

 

For parasite control I use Flea Flicker (the cat product is Scat! No Fleas) every day when the weather is warm and there is a potential for my dogs to get fleas or ticks.  And if my dogs do end up with a tick, I put a drop of Lyme Blaster on at the site where I removed the tick once a day until redness and swelling is gone (I usually only have to do it once on the first day).

 

And let’s not forget about our pet’s oral hygiene and take care of their teeth.  I use Bluto’s Yummy Gum Brush (the cat product is Purrly Whites) to keep my dogs gum tissue healthy and it really makes them all perfect for smooching.

 

Two products that I love to use while I’m at work are Chill-Out for the dogs and Cat Nap for the kitties.  These sprays really help to relax all of my nervous patients before they get their exam – and my clients swear that it also helps them to relax.  I use Chill-Out for my Dogue de Bordeaux, Margaux, during long car rides where she has a little bit of anxiety.  And it definitely relaxes my Chihuahua, Seaweed, during his thunderstorm phobia.  This would also be appropriate to use for dogs that have to deal with separation anxiety or other stressful situations.

 

For skin issues I use Hot Spot for any moist and red lesions that my dogs develop.  For minor cuts and scratches, my alternative to triple antibiotic ointment is Quick Fix for the dogs and Meow Ouch for the cats.  And there is also I Itch Not which helps with can help relieve itching – especially itching related to allergies.

 

As a veterinarian, I see a lot of coughing puppies and snotty kittens.  When I was raising a litter of puppies (their mom was dumped at the local animal shelter a week before she was due to whelp) they developed a mild cough.  Cough Drop saved they day for my coughing snotty nosed puppies and saved me from having to put them on antibiotics.  Immewnity Chest is the equivalent for my feline friends.

 

A cautionary note: if you have a sick dog or cat, always have them examined by a veterinarian as these products are not a substitute for proper diagnosis and treatment.

Essential Oils – a cautionary tale January 22, 2012

Essential oils can be a wonderful natural way to treat your pet, but only when used appropriately.  Undiluted 100% essential oils can have powerful, and many times unwanted affects on your dog or cat.  Never use an essential oil that hasn’t been diluted without first contacting a veterinarian.  The following paragraphs cover the most commonly used essential oils that can be harmful to our furry friends.

Riley, fully recovered from tea tree oil exposure

This is Riley, he came in to see me on Friday after having 100% Australian tea tree oil (Melaleuca oil) applied to his back on Thursday night.  Tea tree oil is often found in shampoos and other skin treatments as flea repellant and for itching.  Riley soon became nauseous and developed a problem with his hind legs where he was no longer able to walk.  This is a typical toxic side effect of this oil, and it can also cause low blood pressure, low body temperature, dehydration, nervousness, tremors, seizures, coma, liver problems, and electrolyte abnormalities.  Fortunately for Riley, a bath in Dawn dish detergent and some fluids returned him to normal by Saturday morning.

Citrus oil and Pennyroyal oil are two other essential oils commonly used for flea prevention and treatment.  Citrus oil causes the same types of neurological problems as tea tree oil and is particularly toxic to cats – causing death in several cats that used an “organic” citrus oil dip according to the label directions.  Pennyroyal oil can cause severe problems in dogs.  It can cause problems with red blood cells and is extremely damaging to the liver.

Wintergreen oil is sometimes used to treat muscle aches and pains because it contains salicylates.  Salicylates are similar to active ingredient in aspirin.  Cats are very sensitive to salicylates and if they are exposed to wintergreen oil they can develop vomiting, diarrhea, and problems with their liver or bone marrow.

Camphor oil is another oil that is used to treat itchy skin.  It can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, tremors, seizures, and it is also toxic to the liver.

For my next post, I’ll cover my favorite essential oil products.  And if you ever have questions about the safety of an essential oil (or any other product) ask your veterinarian – we are here to help you and to protect the health of your pet.

 

The following is a list of toxic and potentially toxic essential oils from Small Animal Toxicology (Peterson and Talcott).

Toxic: Boldo leaf, Wormseed, Mustard, Armoise, Pennyroyal, Tansy, Thuja, Calamus, Wormwood, Bitter almond, Tree wormwood, Buchu, Horseradish, Lanyana, Southernwood, Western red cedar

Potentially Toxic: Wintergreen, Cornmint, Savory, Clover leaf, Basil, Hyssop, Sassafras, Myrrh, Birch, Bay leaf, Oregano, Tarragon, Tea Tree, Savin.