Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today on Natural Companions, bumps and bruises.

What do you do when a cat's bite becomes a bear?

What botanical medicine offers new hope for canine cancer?

How did necessity give birth to a healing bomb?

Also, Jeff shows us how to make a flea collar,

and Dr. Pam Shears are always expert advice.

All natural, all coming up next on Natural Companions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Holistic pet care is all about keeping your pet healthy

by supporting the body's functions,

preventing illness and disease in the first place.

But try as we might, things happen.

So what if you pet your cat and discover a mysterious bump?

Or what if your pet suffers an unexpected injury?

Even well-behaved dogs can get into a scuffle

and experience a nasty bite.

Welcome to Natural Companions.

The program where we explore natural and holistic ways

to keep our animal companions happy and healthy.

I'm Amy Rosenthal.

And I'm Jeff Plunk.

Fortunately, holistic veterinary medicine

offers great herbal remedies for those bumps, scrapes,

and bruises that can happen to any pet.

And they're completely non-toxic and gentle.

Well, gentle for your pet, but they

can put up a mean fight against

viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells.

Today, we're going to take a

look at some of those super salves

and high-powered herbs that can keep

molehills from turning into mountains.

First up, we'll meet a cat who's nocturnal adventures,

got him to a little trouble.

When a bite wound grew into a massive infection,

his holistic vet had to take

extreme measures to save his life.

Let's see how he's doing now.

I've had Professor since he was born.

He was born in about 1995.

Professor's always been a tough kitty.

Most recently, he apparently found some cat

he didn't get along with and got in a fight somewhere

around October of '07.

And that fight resulted in an abscess

on his left rear leg that ultimately

led to his current condition, which

has an amputation of that leg.

The cat mouth has very strong bacteria in it.

It's almost like that little mouth that tooth just

injects the bacteria into it.

And the reason they're getting so much trouble

is because the whole clothes is over.

And then the infection just grows underneath the skin.

The amputation.

So we'll check each spinous process.

We're looking for reactions.

And there's a big reaction.

There's another one.

Yes, yes, yes.

We treated him prior to the amputation

with various homeopathic and naturopathic treatments.

But finally in November, she advised me

that the bone had osteomyelitis in it,

in that leg, at the joint, and that

it was just going to get worse.

Osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone.

So myelitis means there's an infection.

Osteomyel means it's an infection of the bone.

And we did do x-rays of a professor.

And the osteomyelitis was very

severe and was into the joint.

I just had the choices of destroying him or amputating.

And of course, we were both getting teary-eyed at that point

in that conversation.

And so we made the decision to

go ahead and do the amputation

and go forward with keeping him around.

And he's been doing great ever since.

I didn't find holistic medicine until about 2000.

And that was when I first began.

But now it's my only approach because it really does work.

I have all those animals, and every one of them

has had some type of holistic

treatment at some point in time.

And they're all healthy and doing wonderfully well.

The really fun thing to me with alternative medicine

is to have lots of options.

We can do acupuncture.

We can do homeopathy.

We can do chiropractic.

All of it's based on good nutrition.

But we've got lots of options that we can try.

He did get some adjustments.

He doesn't come in very often because he's done very well.

But he gets some adjustments.

You're always concerned when you've

lost a limb like that, that the gait has become altered.

And so you have to really be careful and take

care of their back to be sure that

they don't have other problems.

He seemed to really enjoy the chiropractic treatments.

I think all my animals do.

He would arch that back and shake and reach up for stroking

at that point.

I think he did like those.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's today a good day.

Yeah, today's a good day.

He is out and about.

He gets around really well on the three legs.

He jumps up on the window sills.

He jumps up on the bed.

He gets on the furniture if he chooses to.

He moves really well.

He's really adapted.

He's just perfectly normal, except he's just got three legs

instead of four.

Sometimes holistic remedies aren't enough in emergency

situations, but are instead essential partners

in the rehabilitation and healing process.

Even though Professor had to lose his leg to save his life,

there's still much that Cathy can do

to help him adapt to a three-legged lifestyle.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Good dog, Sonny.

That's good.

Yes.

Yeah.

Wow.

Now, sometimes when you're outside,

fleas and ticks can be a problem in something

that's irritated dogs constantly.

Good dog.

Now, there's no holistically

known way to actually cure fleas

and ticks once your pets already got them.

But there are some alternative methods

that can prevent fleas and ticks altogether.

Now, one great way to do this is

to create a natural flea collar.

Now, this is something really

simple that you can do at home,

that you want to get some kind of cloth, natural cloth

that will hold in the oils.

I'm going to use a bandana, but you

can use any kind of organic cloth or even a rope will work.

This is what you do.

Take your bandana or natural cloth or rope.

You want to twist it up.

Remember, it's going to go around your pet's neck.

And you want to use one or more essential oils.

On the bandana.

You want to make sure these are essential oils

and not just scented oils.

Now, some great essential oils

to use is citronella, eucalyptus,

lavender, dranium, and even tea tree oil.

Now, you want to apply the oils to the collar

about once a week for maximum benefit.

Come here, Sonny.

Come here.

Come here, boy.

Good dog.

Come here.

Now, when you put this on, this is not

going to get rid of the existing

fleas that they already have.

But it will prevent fleas and

ticks along with the proper diet

and spraying with natural flea remedies

around your pet's play area and around your house.

For natural companions, I'm Jeff Plunk.

We'll see you next time when I'm on the prowl.

New hope for canine cancer.

Find out when natural companions returns.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING].

Welcome back to Natural Companions.

I'm Amy Rosenthal.

And today's focus is on holistic remedies

for wounds, injuries, and other conditions.

When Katie's guardians discovered a malignant tumor

on her paw, they knew it meant

trouble for their beloved dog.

But could a promising new development in herbal medicine

help them avoid the harsh cancer treatments and amputation?

Let's find out.

We've had Katie for six years.

And she is-- she's a member of the family.

She had a growth on her paw.

And we took her to the vet because it seemed to be getting

worse than it was.

We took her to the allopathic vet.

And they biopsyed it, and it

came back that it was a melanoma.

Well, Katie was diagnosed with a

malignant melanoma on her foot.

The conventional treatment for malignant melanoma

is to remove it surgically.

Amputation, then, is the next alternative

when you can't remove it completely.

There's also some chemotherapy that could be done,

and possibly radiation therapy that could be helpful.

We discussed which holistic vet we were going to go to.

We would never have considered radiation or chemotherapy

because that's not the way we live our lives.

They came to me looking for some alternative treatment.

I had just started using this new herbal product.

And so in lieu of amputation, they

were really wanting to try this to

see if we could make this tumor

go away.

So he was really excited about us being there.

We were his first clients with this particular product.

What we did was to take some of this herbal formula.

It's called neoplasine.

And the herb is blood root.

I injected directly into the tumor

with 1.5 cc's of the diluted mixture.

A week later, the tumor had actually

sloughed out and left an open wedge, just a large gap

in the paw, in the pad.

And two weeks after that, it

had really completely healed over.

Katie was now able to use her

leg while she was walking on it

normally, whereas when I first saw her,

she was holding it up and really

couldn't bear full weight on it.

So the neoplasine or the herb called blood root

interrupts the mitosis of the tumor cells

and actually causes the tumor cells to die.

In the first time, I had really

used it on a tumor like this.

And I was totally pleased with the results.

And of course, the owner just couldn't have been happier.

They had their dog back.

I will always be a believer, supporter of anything

that is more natural and works because that's

my basic philosophy of life.

We can accept responsibility for the healing path

that we take as humans.

And since these guys are in my care,

that's the way I choose to have

their lives be full and complete.

It's estimated that 50% of all

dogs and cats over the age of 10

will get cancer.

But as we've seen, a cancer diagnosis

doesn't have to be a death sentence.

Your holistic veterinarian can select

from an entire arsenal of homeopathic, botanical,

and other holistic remedies to fight cancer

without the harmful side effects

of conventional cancer treatments.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hi, I'm Dr. Pam Montgomery-Fitz,

and I'm here today to talk to you about wound care.

Most pets are going to have some

type of abrasion, puncture wound,

or bite wound through the course of their life.

The most important thing is to

recognize when it's serious or not.

Bite wounds can easily become infected.

An important way to prevent infections

is to take care of a cut or a wound quickly.

It's important to have open wounds

evaluated by a veterinarian.

Remember, the size of the wound

does not denote the severity.

Even the smallest of wounds can be very serious.

Initial treatment can include flushing the wound

with saline or water.

To cleanse the wound, you can use

a very dilute hydrogen peroxide.

solution.

That's about a 1 to 30 dilution or a half of a teaspoon

to a cup of water.

You can also use plain soap.

Abrasion and small cuts need to be clipped and cleaned,

and then apply a slight film of calendula gel.

If there is excessive bleeding, you

can apply pressure with a clean cloth or a bandage

on your way to the veterinarian.

Remember, even the smallest wounds can be serious.

Don't take the risk with your pet's health.

I'm Dr. Pam Montgomery-Fitz.

When natural companions' returns,

we'll meet a woman who created

a healing salve for her horses

and discovered a booming business.

Welcome back to Natural Companions.

I'm your host, Amy Rosenthal.

And today, we're looking at some holistic remedies

that help heal wounds and disease tissue.

There's an old saying that necessity

is the mother of invention.

And in the case of Helen Miller, that's certainly true.

She was frustrated by the sheer volume of expensive remedies

that only treated one specific problem.

So she came up with a universal solution that

could treat just about every problem her horses got into.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Like a lot of girls, I really love horses

and been interested in horses all my life.

I got bitten by the horse bug when I was very young

and always wanted to work with horses

or be involved with them in some way.

Of course, when you live on a ranch,

you also have the usual barn cats, dogs, of course.

We also have livestock here, cattle, and goats.

Boo-boo-goop.

Originally got its name from the Common Everyday reference

to almost any conditioner's injury or a little nacre cut

that a horse might show up with in the morning.

And we do inspections every day.

And as we go through our routine inspections,

we would say, OK, let's put

some goop on this little boo-boo.

And that evolved into, let's put some boo-boo-goop on this.

And over time, as more and more people

started asking me about the salve that I was making,

they would say, well, what is this stuff?

And I said, well, this is my goop for boo-boos.

It's boo-boo-goop.

There's a little place right there

where she rubbed the hair off.

It's not a cut, but she didn't rub the hair off.

So I'm just going to take a little bit of salve

and put it on that spot.

Boo-boo-goop is a universal salve.

And because it uses only essential oils, it's all natural.

It has only olive oil, beeswax, and four really powerful

essential oils that provide the healing.

Essential oils are plant-based.

Usually, they are distilled from the leaves of plants.

Plants really were the first medicines

and still are being used as the basis for most of our

medicines.

The benefits of essential oils are

that you know what the ingredients

are and where they come from.

And you know what the chemical makeup is.

And based on the chemicals that a plant contains,

the essential oils will reflect that.

Gallahad is my test case.

He was the horse that came up with a really bad gash

on his cheek, almost from the corner of his eye.

All the way down his jaw, it was open.

And there were about a two-inch wide gash.

And it was over 12 hours old, so the vet couldn't really

do much about stitching it together.

And also because of its location, it couldn't be stitched.

So I formulated the spray version of this equine product.

And I sprayed him with the wound spray.

And I sprayed it two or three

times a day for about three days.

And within three days, I could see that the little pink

healthy new cells were starting to grow.

But I could see from using this spray that he was not just

getting some relief

from the pain and the itching of it, but it was actually

regenerating these new cells.

After about three days, I started

putting the regular salve on there

every day, twice a day, for about 10 days.

And within six weeks, there was just

the tiniest little hairline scar

on his cheek that you could barely even see that he had ever

had a cut there.

So that was my test case.

It was brand new.

But once I'd had the experience with Gallahad, I knew that I

had something that really did the job.

Like with many holistic remedies, the combination of these

essential oils

are what give it a collective power that's even greater than

the sum of its parts.

Now remember, remedies made from essential oils can be

harmful to cats.

But for everything from bug bites to sunburns, look no

further than nature's

own essences to provide effective and non-toxic relief for

your dog or horse.

When we come back, we'll answer some of your mail.

Stay tuned.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Welcome back to Natural Companions.

Today we've seen some powerful natural remedies for wounds,

scrapes, and even tumors.

And today's mail brings up an important point.

Right, Amy.

Samuel from Lexington, Kentucky writes, "I recently adopted

a golden retriever and was shocked to hear that many golden

retrievers will die of cancer at a relatively young age.

What can I do to help prevent this from happening?"

Hi, Samuel.

Indeed, it is disturbing that the average lifespan of golden

retrievers has gone down in recent years while the cancer

rate has gone up.

While there are no guarantees, probably the biggest thing

you can do to help prevent cancer is to give your dog an

organic whole food diet free of additives, preservatives,

and other food chemicals.

There are also a number of good anti-cancer diets and

supplements that help support your dog's immune system,

which is the key to disease prevention and healing.

Also, avoid the use of chemical pesticides and cleaning

products, and finally educate yourself on the warning signs,

and take your dog to a holistic

vet at the first sign of trouble.

With all cancer, early detection is the key to survival.

Well, that's all the time we have for today.

And we hope you found some useful information here on

natural companions.

And if you have a question that you'd like answered on our

show, just send us an email.

And remember, the better you care for your animal companions,

the more they'll reward you with the lifetime of love.

We'll see you next time on Natural Companions.

[music].