Home Remedies For Dogs

Take A Moment And Think.  Do You Know How To Treat Your Dog?

How much do you really know about taking care of your dog's health?  Do you know what to look for?  Can you handle a canine emergency?  Take a moment and browse through these home remedies for dogs for info you can use to make your dog love you even more.

When Your Dog Has Diarrhea

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It's going to happen.  It probably already has happened.  Most diarrhea in dogs is caused by a virus.  The biggest threat to your pet is dehydration.  The first thing you need to do, besides cleaning up the mess and confining the dog to the outside or in a room with a tile floor, is to take away his access to food.

Make sure there is plenty of water available.  You can even warm up some chicken broth and add a little honey or sugar to help replace the salt that has passed through the body.  Make his next meal something really bland.  I almost hesitate to recommend this because it works too well.  Go to the grocery and go to the baby food aisle and get Gerbers strained rice.  If your dog is like mine, he will gobble that stuff up.  Unfortunately, they may develop a real taste for the stuff and it might be tough to get them back on their regular feed.

If the diarrhea persists, or if your dog is not drinking water, then it's time to see the vet as your pet may have something other than simple diarrhea.

Home Remedy For Those Pesky Fleas

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Fleas typically show up in the summertime but if you live in the Southwest they can be a yearlong problem.  There are a number of chemical treatments like Front Line that will protect your pup, but at $45 a pop why not just buy some herbs and make your own natural repellent.

Go to a health food store and get some eucalyptus, rosemary, fennel and yellow dock.  Mix them in a bowl using equal parts of each.  Use an old spice jar or Parmesan cheese container as the applicator and fill it with the mixture.

Now this is important.  Take the dog outside before you apply this mixture.  This is a repellent, it does not kill the fleas.  When they come into contact with the stuff they will immediately abandon ship.  You want them doing that outside not in your house.

Sprinkle the mixture on your dog and work in down to the skin using a comb or your hands.  If the dog has a collar take it off and make sure you get plenty on his neck.  Also pay attention to his butt, belly and ears.  He ought to be flea free within 30 minutes of the treatment.  Go here for more flea treatment tips.

Homemade Dog Food Recipes!

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.Wouldn't you like to be able to treat Fido to the best?  Who has his best interest at heart if it isn't you.  Wouldn't you like to whip up a favorite dish for your puppy?  Well now you can thanks to a dog recipe book that gives you the step by step directions for the healthiest and tastiest food your dog will ever eat.  Check it Out!

Is Your Vet Ripping You Off?

Well maybe that's a bit too harsh but there are a lot of questionable practices common among most veterinarians and you just have to wonder.  Isn't it strange that we are in the middle of a pandemic flu and the latest polls show that 40% of parents are not going to have their children vaccinated with the new swine flu spray of shot.  My guess is, if they get a notice from the vet that it's time for an innoculation, that same parent who is worried about her kid getting a shot, will bundle up the dog and head down to the vet for a $60 vaccine.  Are they always necessary?  Or is it a source of residual income.  And shots are just one example.

Home Remedy For Your Dog's Upset Stomach

When you can hear Fido's stomach gurgling you know there is something wrong.  Was it the bit of chicken tamale with jalapenos you just tossed him or the left over bean soup you poured over his food?  Human food should be an occasional treat not the mainstay diet for your dog.

A quick cure for an upset stomach is yogurt.  That's really not surprising as it also helps human digestive problems.  However, Fido is going to love it and want more.  For a dog under 30 pounds, a couple of dollops of yogurt should be all he needs to do the trick.

:)

Home Remedies For Itchy Skin And Hot Spots

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Fido is never so miserable as when he has itchy skin that he just has to scratch.  Skin problems actually can be precursors to more serious problems but many times it is simply an allergy, insects, or heat.  Here are a few ideas to help stop the scraching and make your dog's life a whole lot more comfortable.

The quickest and easiest way to stop skin  irritation is peroxide.  You probably have a bottle of it in your medicine cabinet right now.  Just put some in a sprayer bottle (old Windex bottle?) and spray it on the affected area working it down to the skin.

There's another product you can pick up at the drug store called Bag Balm (about $9.00) that has been around since the late 1800s.  This balm was originally designed to treat cow utters that got chapped or scratched but it works great on curing skin ailments on dogs.  Just rub it on like you would any other salve.  Your dog will be utterly grateful (sorry I just couldn't resist it)

Hot Spots are more serious and can progress rapidly.  Hot spots can be caused by any number of irritations including mites, scratches or just excessive licking.  Typically there will be some hair loss and the area affected will be oozy.  Your dog will be miserable and may not want you to touch the area so you may want to get some help.

While there will be some hair loss there will probably be strands that are on the area further aggravating the sore.  You need to shave a patch that will allow the skin to dry.  You can use that old barber standby Witch Hazel as an astringent.  Just dab some on a cotton ball and apply to the area.  If you don't have Witch Hazel, brew up some green or black tea and use the bags as a compress.

Quick Tips From The Doggy Spa

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Itchy Paws?  Fill a bowl with water and Epsom Salts, about 50/50.  Soak the paw for about five minutes.  Just make sure Rover doesn't try to take a sip.

Ear Mites?  Take a cotton ball and soak it with mineral oil.  Gently swab out the ear canal.  Mites will take off but this is just a temporary fix to stop the itching.

Insect Bites?  Water and baking soda.  The same thing you might use on yourself.  Just dip a cotton ball into the mixture and apply to the bite.

Constipation?  Try a couple of teaspoons of canned pureed pumpkin (not the pie filling) to get your dog moving again.  Amazingly, this also works for diarrhea as well.

Chocolate:  I don't care how cute they look when begging, do not feed your canine pal chocolate as it will make her very ill.

Onions:  Same goes for onions cooked or raw.  These things can cause severe anemia in a puppy.

Stinky Dog:  If your dog smells like a...well a dog...add three tablespoons of vinegar to his next bath.  Dogs, espcially the breeds with a lot of folds in their skin are a favorite place for bacteria to grow.  The vinegar will clean them right up.

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Dog Health Problems

Dog Health Tips You Ought To Know

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 Click here to edit.Dog health problems are really dog owner problems aren't they.  Even with all the talk about health care reform, Fido is not going to be carrying a Blue Cross card anytime soon and his primary provider is going to be his vet.  That said, you as the owner have to know when there's something wrong.  Sometimes it will be obvious like dog diarrhea other times it will seem like one thing but be something else like Lyme's disease. 

Nobody expects you to take a night course in veterinary science but you should be up on recognizing symptoms and be able to determine if you can treat your pal at home or have to schedule a trip to the vet.  There are a lot of resources for this information but we recommend Home Remedies For Dogs as a great place to start.  Lot's of easy to understand, practical information for the dog owner.

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