This is one of my favourite stories so I thought I would share it with all you lovely people.
Who said nutrition can only help humans? What about our favourite furry friends?
Let me introduce you to Fudge my Cockapoo…
I had never even thought about nutrition and my dog, I was too busy thinking about myself and my family until my Cockapoo got very very poorly. (Just a quick point, Fudge is my best friend, the light of my life and I would do anything for her. Anyway, thats beside the point…) So one day when she was two, she started to be sick and have really bad toilet problems, she was really lethargic and not at all her bouncy, happy little self. We were back and forth to the vets and they had no idea what was wrong, after 10 days they decided to operate on her because they thought she had something stuck in her stomach, she didn’t (cost me a small fortune). This continued for a long time. Until another vet diagnosed her with Gastroenteritis, yes the same as humans can get. He told me she may have to be on medication for life on and off, and it can flare up at any point.
At the time I was only a nutrition student but I knew how to deal with gastroenteritis in a human so why not in my dog? So I wrote her a protocol. Every single person in the world thought I was mad.
So I set to work. I took her off her normal dog food and I went back to basics. I thought what would she eat in the wild? What was she designed to eat? Meat! I cooked for her every single night: Duck, chicken, beef, salmon, cod, trout, lamb – carrots, kale, broccoli, spinach, celery, green beans, turnip, cabbage etc.
Fudges Protocol:
Aloe Vera juice first thing every morning
Chicken broth once a day (for the bone marrow benefits)
Garlic with every meal (antibacterial/antifungal)
Probiotics (to repopulate her good bacterias from all her antibiotics)
Relevant supplements to sooth the gut
Even though everyone thought I was crazy, it didn’t cost me much more than her dog food was costing me. I would go to the reduced isle in the supermarkets and bulk buy whatever meats and vegetables they had and froze them. Most days I threw everything into a crock pot, topped it up with boiling water and left it to slow cook throughout the day, and that would last her for a couple of days. Obviously, she was loving life!!
And… her symptoms began to fade away. After a short time she was completely back to her lovely wonderful self, and off her medications! I phased out the cooking, and introduced Lilys Kitchen which is an organic, grain free dog food. Yes, it costs a little bit more but it’s completely worth it because it’s great quality. I am not going to eat organic food and look after myself and feed my dog absolutely rubbish, the dog equivalent of fast food!
At the end of the day she is just like us, whatever you put in is what you get out. I wasn’t watching what I fed her and she ended up with a chronic condition, now I have to be careful as to what she eats. On an occasion it can crop up again so I will take her off her dog food and go back to proper food again and aloe vera juice to sooth her tummy.
But all in all she is a very happy dog, medication free who has grown a liking for all things healthy.
Mission Accomplished!
Rebecca
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