How do you naturally detox your dog and cat?
Have you ever noticed a change in your pet’s energy on certain foods?
Or maybe you’ve noticed your dog or even your cat seems less interested in their food?
What about chronic conventional medications, like flea and tick preventatives, thyroid medicine, or heart disease medication?
You want the best for your pet, and I know you’re willing to do whatever you need to so your pet can feel its best.
There’s nothing better than your furry family member greeting you at the door after a long day at work.
Pets make our lives so much better and happier, but there’s a lot of potential toxins that could be lurking in your pet’s environment.
Make sure to watch this video to learn more about how to detox your dog and cat, and to learn when and how to do it safely.
Your pet is potentially exposed to over 85,000 toxins every single year.
Where do these pet toxins come from?
Pets are potentially exposed to environmental toxins ranging from:
Accidental ingestion (like ethylene glycol in the wintertime)
Outdoor toxins (weed killer, chemicals on the grass, motor oil on the street)
Indoor toxins (air fresheners, laundry chemicals, cleaning products, drinking water)
Toxins produced in your pet’s body (GI imbalance, microbe dysfunction)
Unfortunately, toxins are everywhere.
Do you feel like your pet could be exposed to one of the above?
If your pet comes into contact with one of these (or even all of them), how does their body handle the toxin?
Your pet’s immune system is a powerful system and typically will do an amazing job at recognizing, detoxifying, and clearing the toxin from the body without leading to disease.
The immune system ramps up and will lead to inflammation, even diarrhea, or vomiting, which is the body attempting to get rid of the toxin.
However, when the body is overwhelmed or does not have the ability to deal with the toxin at that time, then the body will store the toxin, usually in the fat cells.
When toxins are stored this will lead to symptoms like tiredness or you may notice that your pet is always battling some type of infection (skin disease, upper respiratory, or sensitive GI tract).
Thus, over time if the toxin is not eliminated, pets will develop other abnormalities like tumors or cysts and impaired organ function.
Have you ever had a pet that has chronic liver value elevations but your vet can’t find the cause?
Your pet was most likely dealing with a toxin overload.
Let’s discuss how you can help your pet detox safely and effectively.
The four main systems that need to be optimized to ensure your pet can properly detox when coming into contact with these toxins are:
Liver
Gastrointestinal system
Skin
Kidneys
Here are five ways to help your pet’s detox safely and effectively:
1) Upgrade your pet’s food, treats, and water
The pet food industry is highly unregulated. There are numerous chemicals, artificial ingredients, flavors, and colors that are added to pet food and treats.
If your pet is nutrient-poor, detox pathways will not be supported.
Have you learned how to read a pet food label to know if the pet food you’re feeding is helping or potentially harming your pet’s health?
Just because the pet food bag shows beautiful, healthy vegetables and fruits does not mean that those foods are present in high enough concentrations to help your pet.
Here’s more information to help guide you: How to Assess the Quality of Your Dog and Cat’s Food
But don’t forget about the drinking water.
Numerous chemicals like fluoride and chlorine are added which can affect your pet’s good bacteria in their gut, leading to dysbiosis. This dysbiosis in the gut is wreaking havoc on brain health, skin health, and even the hormonal system.
Make sure to watch the video to learn more on how to assess what chemicals are added to your local drinking water.
2) Support your pet’s liver
So how do you do a liver detox for your dog and cat?
A fresh, whole food, biologically appropriate diet is the foundation, but it may not be enough.
If you’re currently feeding a processed kibble diet, start by adding in organic vegetables and fruits, like blueberries and asparagus, that are high in antioxidants, glutathione, and phytonutrients.
Foods like broccoli sprouts and asparagus are high in sulfur compounds and glutathione which are essential for your pet’s detox pathways. As your pets age, they become less able to make molecules like glutathione that are essential for the detox pathways to run efficiently and effectively.
These chemical compounds are very important, especially for senior pets and pets on chronic medications.
By using food and supplements that contain antioxidants and support for the liver, your pets will be better able to clear the toxins from the body.
The liver detoxes in two phases to transform fat soluble toxins into water soluble toxins so that they can then be removed from the body through the kidneys and GI tract. If there are not enough nutrients, like B vitamins, glutathione and silybin, those phases do not function well and the toxins then get stored in the body.
Here’s a handy resource for which safe and healthy foods to add to your dog’s diet: Safe and Toxic Foods For Dogs To Eat And Avoid To Achieve Optimal Health
In addition, some of the supplements that can help your pet’s liver detox better can be found here: https://us.fullscript.com/protocols/thenaturalpetdoctor-liver-support
3) Support your pet’s gastrointestinal tract
Most toxins once processed through the liver, will then be eliminated through the GI tract.
Many pets experience anxiety and this can be directly related to the health of their GI tract and an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the microbiome.
About 70% of your pet’s immune system is present in their GI tract and is called the enteric nervous system. There is a direct connection from your pet’s enteric nervous system to their brain through the vagus nerve.
If dysbiosis is present, your pet can show signs of anxiety.
One of the reasons for this anxiety is because 90% of the body’s serotonin is made in the GI tract from the beneficial bacteria. This is an important neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood and anxiety levels.
When dysbiosis is resolved through optimal food, GI support from probiotics and digestive enzymes, and proper detox, the anxiety can go away.
If your pet’s GI tract is sluggish, this can allow toxins to irritate the GI lining leading to disorders like leaky gut.
When leaky gut is present, food, bacteria, and toxins can then pass through the GI lining and lead to an inflammatory cascade in the body that can manifest like skin allergies and other chronic, frustrating diseases which seem completely unrelated.
Learn more about leaky gut here.
Another common disruptor to your pet’s GI tract is glyphosate, more commonly known as Roundup. This is not just a weed killer. It’s also an antibiotic.
Glyphosate has been shown to affect the Shikimate pathway of bacteria, and guess what makes up the microbiome? Bacteria!
The food you’re feeding your pets could be heavily sprayed with glyphosate which will affect your pet’s microbiome. A great supplement that can be used for both dogs and cats is Ion Biome Gut Support for Pets. This product has been shown to heal the leaky tight junctions in the gut cell lining and bind to the glyphosate to remove it out of the body.
So what can you do?
Make sure you’re supporting optimal GI health with probiotics, digestive enzymes, and feeding optimal food.
To learn more about how probiotics can vary, check out our recent blog post: What You Need to Know About Probiotics For Your Dog and Cat’s Health
And to help you get started, here are some of the recommended brands and supplements to optimize your pet’s GI health: https://us.fullscript.com/protocols/thenaturalpetdoctor-digestive-support
4) Support your pet’s skin
Going outside will expose your pets to other environmental toxins such as weed killers that are used on neighbors’ yards or even in public parks.
By giving your pet frequent baths or even just wiping down their paws and fur with a wet washcloth, you can reduce the number of toxins that stay on their fur that will then be groomed off or absorbed by their paw pads.
Your pet can be safely bathed once a week with a safe, pet-friendly shampoo. You can also do quarterly detox baths by making an apple cider vinegar rinse and washing your pets with this.
At a bare minimum though, wipe off your pet’s paws with an unscented baby wipe or wet washcloth after going for a walk to remove additional chemicals they may have come into contact with during a walk.
5) Support your pet’s kidneys
And finally, the kidneys.
The kidneys filter out toxins in your pet’s body up to 70 times a day!
It is very important that this system is supported.
If you’re currently drinking unfiltered water, start here.
By drinking unfiltered water that has chlorine, fluoride, and potentially other chemicals and even heavy metals, these toxins can damage the kidney’s filtration system.
Get a Berkey or another water filtering system to help remove some of these chemicals and toxins to better support not only your health but your pet’s health too.
Another issue is chronic, mild dehydration.
Pets, especially cats, who are on a processed kibble diet need increased amounts of water to stay hydrated.
Using water fountains, bone broths and even raw goat milk can encourage pets to drink more and keep them from becoming dehydrated.
If you have a pet with kidney disease or chronic urinary tract infections, certain supplements can help optimize their health and reduce inflammation.
Learn more here: Managing Kidney Disease in Dogs and Cats with Natural Remedies
There is a lot you can do to help your pet’s body detox naturally and help them feel their best.
By learning about what your pet may be coming into contact with, you can better help support optimal health.
We can’t control everything, but there is a lot you can do easily and without excessive cost to prevent and even treat disease so that your pets can live a longer and healthier life with less vet visits.
To learn more about when and how to safely detox your dog and cat, make sure to watch our FREE webinar to learn more about our blueprint we follow with all of our patients to help them feel their best, reduce vet visits and empower you with the tools you need for your pets to live a long and healthy life.
Learn more here: Healthy Holistic Pet For Life Blueprint
MORE NATURAL PET HEALTH INFORMATION
1. Grab your FREE PDF on the Top 5 Ways to Optimize Your Pet’s Health!
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2. Inquire about our Healthy Holistic Pet For Life Blueprint program for even more guidance with your pets.
You may be spending hours and hours researching what is the best way to raise your puppy and other fur family and feeling lost, stuck and confused on what is the best path forward. Many pets are developing diseases early in life that are expensive, shortening their lives, and are stressful for pet parents to endure watching their pets not feel well. We’ve created a program that guides you through the 5 pillars of health to help you gain confidence in the essential areas of pet health that will help reduce disease from occurring, keep your pets healthy and happy, reduce vet bills and help you feel empowered and confident as a pet parent to tackle anything. The best part is you gain access to an incredible worldwide community of pet parents and weekly 2-hour Q&As with Dr. Katie to gain further clarification and get your questions answered. If you’d like to learn more, make sure to schedule a call with us here: Healthy Holistic Pet For Life Application
*Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your own veterinarian or doctor. The information contained in thenaturalpetdoctor.com is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in thenaturalpetdoctor.com, you are taking full responsibility for your actions. Please consult your veterinarian for medical advice for your own pets. Dr. Katie Woodley cannot answer specific questions about your pet’s medical issues or make medical recommendations for your pet without first establishing a veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Links in the blog are typically affiliate links that let you help support us so we can continue to support and help pets worldwide.