Immune System

The Healthy Bark

The immune system, it is the life force to the body's well being. Over the years I have seen pets with a very bad immune system trying to fight off the smallest of imbalances in the body, however what I hear time and time again is all the meds these poor animals are on. None of which are boosting the immune, instead they are suppressing the immune system.

A suppressed immune system is not a healthy immune system. You have to nourish and balance it with support. Antioxidants, herbs, and diet play a key roll in keeping the immune system working at optimal levels. First it feeds the body what it needs to thrive. If you are feeding the equivalent of "fast food" to your pet, than the body is not getting proper nutrition. In order for food to work it must be what the body recognizes as something it needs and can use. Secondly if you are feeding a diet that is not whole foods than your pet must try and digest what it eats, this can take up to 12 plus hours, with most people feeding their pets twice a day this means your pet is in a constant state of digestion. The body is using its energy to digest with no time to rest, rest is when the body boost its own immune system, remember most of the immune starts in the gut.

Medications that suppress the immune system may relieve the symptoms, but they do not address the cause. Unhealthy skin, ear infections, sores, arthritis, and many other diseases are from the immune system not working at its best. Yes even topical flea treatments, over vaccination, and oral pest control cause a severe breakdown on the body. These are known to have neurotoxins in them. These can wreck havoc on your pets immune system.

There are natural ways to do things, we have just forgotten about them since nature does not run commercials on social media. 

There are many ways to boost your pets immune system and help make your pet more healthy. Herbs were one of my favorite things to include in their diets. I always rotated my supplements as I went through each canister. As each kind I used added a little something new to keep the immune system on its toes. 

Ways to support the immune system:

• Feed species appropriate foods
• Limit their exposure to chemicals
• Rethink your vaccine protocol-(I will do a blog on vaccines in a few weeks)
• Support the body with supplements
• Stimulate and strengthen the immune system

Herbs and supplements that help stimulate and strengthen the immune system. There are many that can help, but this list below contains some of the most powerful.

• Echinecea
• Suma
• Par D'arco
• Astragalus
• Tumeric
• Beta-Glucan-(In the cell walls of yeast)
• Spirulina
• Colostrum

The ones I used where Dr. Harvey's E-mune Boost and Wholistic Pet Organics Colostrum
Others I rotated in were Wholistic Pet Organics Canine Complete and Wholistic Pet Organics Spirulina  
 All of the above are on my shopping pages. A lot of these come in Cat or Dog, but also can be used for both. Check labels to see if you have multi-pet household.

I love both these companies for their purity, their sourcing, and their ethics. You can also get Colostrum from the Raw Goats Milk by Answers.


Next up in the series:Smelly Dogs/Skin Problems