HOLISTIC ANIMAL CARE
My experience with my animals is that holistic care and feeding leads to healthier animals who live longer and have fewer physical problems. Basically, holistic care means feeding a very high quality diet, using natural products whenever possible, rather than chemicals and drugs, and decreasing the number and frequency of vaccines you use.
Here is a link for finding a holistic vet in your area (US only): http://holisticvetlist.com/ Not all holistic vets are good, just like not all anything is good. See if you can find recommendations from your friends.
Some holistic vets don’t do lab work, teeth, surgeries, and other such procedures, so you may need to work with a regular vet as well as a holistic vet.
If you don’t have access to a holistic vet, then work with the best regular vet you can find, and search the internet for information on how to do things holistically. There are many special interest animal care groups in Yahoo that can be really helpful, like the cushings syndrome groups for dogs and for horses. Search Yahoo Groups as well.
THE WHOLE FOOD RECIPE BOOK
Start feeding real, organic whole foods to your dog or cat and see what an amazing difference it can make!
HOLISTIC CAT CARE
In addition to The Nature of Animal Healing, Dr. Martin Goldstein, read: The New Natural Cat, by Anitra Fraser
Holistic Feeding
Cats can eat a raw diet too. Here is a site done by a vet that goes into how to do a raw diet. http://catinfo.org/
Holistic Care
This site has nontoxic flea control for cats and lots of natural supplements for a range of conditions:http://www.onlynaturalpet.com
Safe Space for Cats
It is great to give indoor only cats some safe outside space. Here are two links that show how to do that with cat fencing and cat aviaries:
HOLISTIC DOG CARE
Read this book:
The Nature of Animal Healing by Dr. Martin Goldstein
Dr. Goldstein clearly defines the basics of holistic vet care and explains the benefits of going holistic.
Holistic Diet
One of the main components of holistic care is feeding the best diet you can. Here are some resources on how to feed a real food diet to your dogs
This is the vet who started the BARF Diet (bones and raw food) Diet Dr. Ian Billinghursthttp://www.barfaustralia.com/index.php
Holistic Care
Here is a link to a website that has nontoxic alternatives for flea control and natural supplements for a range of conditions. The site has lots of informative articles too. http://www.onlynaturalpet.com
HOLISTIC HORSE CARE
Big Picture
Horses are really supposed to be moving all the time and eating low carb grasses and forbes on the run, all day long. Instead we feed them rich foods all at once twice a day and make them stand in stalls. So….
Go as natural as you can….
- Feed grass hays and good vitamin mineral supplement
- Use slow feeders – here is a good one from www.purelyponies.com
- Do a paddock paradise to get them moving – read the book Paddock Paradise by Jaime Jackson
- Read about how to safely graze so you don’t cause founder – http://safergrass.org/
Go Barefoot
Here are two great sites for info on going barefoot. You can use easy boots to ride the trails.
- Pete rameys barefoot site – http://hoofrehab.com/
- Dr Bowkers site for barefoot – http://www.coronavistaequinecenter.com/home.html
Read Up
- Here is a link to the site of a holistic horse vet with lots of great articles – http://www.holistichorsekeeping.com/