Healthy Tips For Better Life

Pet Wellness – Unsurpassed Allergy Relief For Dogs

When it comes to your pet's wellness you strive for excellence just like you do for your family. Rightfully so, as most pets are a part of the family and seeing them unhappy or ill is difficult for everyone to watch. Of course we look for remedies for the problem by visiting the vet, getting a diagnosis and medication to help the situation. One of the most common of these situations is dog allergies. Pet owners go to great lengths to find allergy relief for dogs with the hopes that something will have a positive effect and provide relief.

Dogs can have an allergy related to food, the environment and even seasonal allergies much like people. These allergies bring on symptoms of itching, often so severe that a dog will spend much of his day scratching himself in turn causing hair loss or even hot spots. Another symptom is sneezing.

Pet owners concerned with pet wellness and providing relief for their dog's allergies often find themselves spending a pretty penny on medication from the vet; often times returning to the vet without much success and taking another medication with the hopes it will work better.

Consider taking another road to get allergy relief for dogs and that road is nature's path - giving your dog relief and comfort, and making the rest of the family relieved from the anxiety of watching an unhappy pet. Pet wellness is all about a happy, healthy energetic pet and using natural or holistic approaches to health problems. This is a very good place to start before spending loads of money on vet bills and medications. Not to mention nature's path is above and beyond safe, inexpensive and successful, and what people used for years before veterinarians became too available.

Here you will find an unsurpassed allergy relief for dogs that will have you wondering why on earth you haven't looked into natural remedies for pets before.

1. Colloidal Oatmeal Bath

This is a very successful treatment; however, about 80% of dogs are allergic to grains so if you are sure your dog is not one of them then this a good natural root to take. I have found it successful with my Saluki, in which it is very common to have dry sensitive skin even without an allergy.

I like to test and experiment with natural products before I write about them so here is what I did. How did I find out if my Saluki was allergic to oatmeal or not? Simple, I made up this colloidal oatmeal from home and used it on a small portion of his skin. I did this for one week, each day checking to see if the area was in any way agitated or if he was scratching. There was no irritation so I proceeded with the bath.By the following day the scratching was lessened by more than half and by the second day he was not scratching at all. With this came an energy increase and a happy, well, back to normal dog. But because I know that many dogs are allergic to oatmeal I sought to find another natural solution. Once again, take care to ensure your dog IS NOT allergic to grains before utilizing colloidal oatmeal rinsing.

In the event your dog is allergic to grains, don't worry there is another unsurpassed allergy relief for dogs but this one comes with a story first.

I have had two success stories of my own with this herbal tea rinse, and I believe it offers an unsurpassed allergy relief for dogs but does not pose an allergy threat.

This is the one I love and not just for my dog. My husband has terribly dry flaky skin that requires he use an over the counter, specially formulated medicine for his shower and then furthered by a all body lotion. He hates applying the lotion because it is thick and takes to much time to put on and leaves him feeling sticky afterward. I decided one day I would see if this herbal rinse would work as well on him as it did my Saluki and low and behold it did. Now he just uses this rinse and applies a normal lotion with natural hydrating ingredients, and no more has the added expense of a special shower gel and body lotion, saves time on the application, and doesn't have to put up with feeling sticky for hours. Plus, this herbal rinse seems to have a longer effect than the over the counter gel and lotion he was using. That is success story number one.

Success story number two involves my one year old Saluki, Mystic Moon and goes like this. Although I knew the colloidal oatmeal bath would work, I wanted to test out this herbal tea rinse that was highly recommended by our holistic vet. I figured I would wait until Mystic Moon needed another rinse for his dry skin. But something else took place that made his dry skin really act up and that was when we went on holiday for a week. Mystic Moon stayed with his sister in the small little privately owned sanctuary we got him from. It made me feel so much better to have him stay in a place where he had his friends he had grown up with, his sister and the owner who actually had tears in his eyes when I first took Mystic Moon home.

The owner of the sanctuary, trying to do me a service and favor, took Mystic Moon for tick dipping so he would be tick free before I came to collect him after my travels, totally unaware that I have a high regard for natural pet remedies as opposed to chemicals, and he was not aware that Salukies naturally suffer from dry skin. Mystic Moons skin was on fire, with hot spots, scratching and often times whining while he was scratching. So this now became my opportunity to try out the herbal tea rinse and see just how effective it was under severe conditions.

It was highly effective within about 24 hours and by 48 hours and he was scratching and whining no more and his hot spots had cooled down by about 90%, and totally gone by the third day.

2. Herbal Tea Rinse

- Add 5 green, chamomile or Tulsi tea bags to 2 quarts very hot water, steep until water is cool (I recommend 3 hours to allow for the maximum amount of polyphenols to exit the teabag and enter the water).

- Remove tea bags and pour the cooled rinse over your pet from the neck down. It is preferable that these rinses are used in the tub as opposed to outside.

- Massage into skin and do not rinse.

You can also refrigerate used tea bags for a soothing topical poultice for hot spots or rashes.

If you notice your dog biting and scratching his paws they could be getting the bulk of the allergy annoyance. A good allergy relief for dogs in this instance is a simple yet effective one.

3. Epsom Salt

Bathe your dog in Epsom salt, allowing his paws to soak for a while in the bathtub. Just take care not to let him drink the water. If you are not able to keep him in the tub for long than do it several times a day for shorter periods. If your dog stay nicely in the tub, will lie down and relax then let him soak his paws until he is ready to come out - it could very well be that just his paws soaking in the salt at that time is giving him relief. How many times you do this depends on the severity of the allergic reaction.

Other things to consider

Altering your dog's diet could put an end to needing allergy relief for dogs. Changing his bedding

It is important to know that many dogs will get allergy relief when their owner takes the time to find out what he is allergic to and makes the necessary changes to bedding, diet or environment, totally eliminating allergy symptoms. This can sometime be time consuming as you make changes to their diet, surroundings, etc and try and narrow down the cause but can you money if you can find the culprit. Or, you can visit your vet and ask him to perform the necessary tests to determine the causes of your dog's allergy.

I previously had an amazing German Sheppard named Mishka for about 13 years, who I recently lost due to old age and joint degenerative disease, of which it became time to euthanize him. During my time with Mishka I was not switched on to natural remedies for pets and used over the counter products for flea and tick assistance. They worked only after about 2-3 applications, which terribly disturbed his skin, gave me headaches and then required that I get more medical attention for him for his messed up skin due to the chemicals in the tick products. If only I had known what I know now, Mishka's experience with tick dipping would have been a whole different story and although he did recover, he did have to go through it each time he needed tick dipping over 12 years and I had to put up with anxiety from watching him suffer for a period of time, which was furthered by vet bills and medications. Not to mention when I was pregnant I could not do the dipping myself so had to pay for it. I actually paid for a treatment that was also doing him harm, which massively frustrated me but I didn't know I had another avenue in pet wellness, which was natural remedies for pets.

So yes, I have learned a lot, experienced a lot, and each time I travel a new road of pet illnesses or discomforts, I always go the natural route first and have never been left unsatisfied. I am not alone; there are millions of us "Pet wellness through natural remedies fans."