The Power Of Natural Remedies

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Published: Friday, September 25, 2009

The Power of Natural Remedies

The phone rang and the news on the other end of the line was more than a little troubling - Reggie had Parvo. The thoughts began racing in my mind - my dogs may have been exposed, I need to call all the dogs that Reggie was around when I was watching him, what do we do for Reggie now. With my mind whirling I began making the phone calls to tell my friends that their dogs may have been exposed to Parvo. One friend has a 3-month-old puppy in addition to the older dog that Reggie played with. That was certainly a call I didn't want to make. At least we were not solely dependent on traditional western medicine. Some truly amazing things were to happen in the next couple of days.

Just as a little background - Parvo is a virulent viral disease that can infect dogs of any age but particularly puppies. It is very contagious and very prevalent in the environment. It attacks the bone marrow and lining of the digestive system and in some cases the heart. Because it renders the dog unable to absorb nutrients and water the animal can become dehydrated and are very vulnerable to a secondary bacterial infection. The chance of survival is about 50 percent.

Reggie is my son's 8 month old, 50 lb Weimaraner/Greyhound puppy that I had taken care of while he and his wife went on a mini-vacation. Since he is a very energetic dog I scheduled some play dates with friends dogs and walked him with my dogs twice per day. The call came 6 days after he returned home. That meant that with the incubation time anywhere from 3-14 days that we weren't sure if he was infected while staying with me or had already been infected and was incubating.

In my house there are no aspirin, Motrin, Tylenol, antihistamines, or any other over the counter or prescription medicines. I use herbs, enzymes and nutrients for everything. That being said, my son was a little taken aback when he told me that the vet wanted to hospitalize Reggie and put him on IV electrolytes and antibiotics and I said "do it". There are times to judiciously use western medicine. This was one of them. However, we didn't stop there.

Thankfully, my kids keep a supply of Silver Shield (not colloidal silver) on hand for emergencies. Against the vet's advice my son managed to administer an entire bottle of Silver Shield one dropper full at a time on the trip between the vet's office and the emergency hospital. So Reggie was admitted for what the vet said would be a 3-5 day stay. They left an additional bottle of Silver Shield that he, with great trepidation, said he would administer only after Reggie hadn�t vomited for 12 hours. At 11:00 that night my son took a bottle of VS-C (a liquid Chinese herbal combination for viruses) to the hospital. He informed the vet that even though it had not been 12 hours he wanted Reggie to get doses of both the Silver Shield and VS-C every 2 hours around the clock. The nurse on duty was very open to herbs and that helped convince the doctor to give the natural treatments.

Remember that there is nothing medically that can be done for the Parvo itself, they just try to keep the animal as comfortable as possible and prevent dehydration and secondary bacterial infection. So my thought is - what is there to lose - a 50-50 chance isn't that great. Of course, I see the power of herbs daily in my work as a nutritional consultant. You can imagine our jubilation when 24 hours later the hospital called and said Reggie could come home. At that point his energy was about 80% returned and he was well on his way to recovery. In short order he was back to 100%. It would have been great if the vet had said he wanted to learn more about natural treatments so he could assist other animals in a similar manner but, alas, that wasn't the case. In any case, we know that prayer, energy work and natural remedies are a powerful trio - for humans and animals.

For your health,

Denise Norbut

Certified Nutrtional Consultant