Archive for the ‘Pet Health’ Category

Considered a “near perfect antibiotic”, colloidal silver can be an outstanding natural way to deal with many problems suffered by pets (and humans as well but that is story for someone else!). With such a dependence on regular antibiotics in our world, many have seen their dogs become somewhat immune to them.  As certain antibiotics become less effective in your pet, stronger drugs are needed.  Eventually your pet will reach a plateau where no amount of drugs are going to help him.  Before something like this happens to you, it would be wise to explore other alternatives.  Colloidal silver is a substance that may just be the answer to your pet’s problems.

Colloidal silver has been shown to be incredibly effective, not only on bacterias, but also on viruses and fungi.  In topical spray form, it is great for use on burns, abrasions, open wounds, bacterial infections, skin rashes and dermatitis.  It helps to relieve pain, itching and inflammation while promoting rapid healing.  Also great for mange suffers, the uses are many and varied.  Allergy and hypothyroid dogs who are prone to hot spots will benefit greatly from the soothing spray and it is incredibly handy to have around for those all too common nicks, cuts and scrapes that so many of our dogs experience.  The silver essentially suffocates pathogens in a safe and natural way and has a far broader spectrum than individual antibiotics.  While it is not meant as a replacement to antibiotics (as ALWAYS the advice of your veterinarian should be heeded), it can work as a supplemental treatment alongside antibiotics and a replacement for things like antibacterial ointment where the injury or condition is minor enough for home treatment.

The colloidal silver available through APFP is, in reality, even BETTER than most you can find.  Nature’s Farmacy Chelated Silver is perhaps the most useable silver product you can obtain.  More effective than colloidal silver, the chelation process increases availability in use – in the case of the silver, the chelated silver is absorbed and utilized more readily than the colloidal silver.  See the magic even more quickly!

If you prefer to use natural remedies as often as you can, if you are tired of buying sprays and creams and lotions that hardly ever work than check out Chelated Silver.  So great for so many things – rashes, allergy and low thyroid dogs and their inevitable skin issues, bumps, hot spots, cuts and scrapes.  Natural, easy to use, 100% non-toxic – Chelated Silver is something every pet owner should keep in their first aid kit!

In general, the proper ratio of veggies to meat, bones and organs should be approximately 5:1 (meat to veggies).  Now that its YOUR choice you can play with that ratio to find what works best for your individual dog BUT using the 5:1 ratio as a starting point is easy and perfect.

This means that for every 5 parts of meat, bones and organs, you are adding 1 part veggies.  Its not rocket science by a long shot and getting somewhere in that general neighborhood is fine.  Most importantly -don’t stress about it!  Most of the time its sufficient to estimate and throw in a spoonful (what size spoonful depends on the amount you are feeding of course) straight from the container.

In general we recommend dividing your order in the following manner with the following combinations:

• 50# boxes combined with 12# Veggies
• 40# of meat (20 two pound containers) with 8# of Veggies
• 20# of meat (10 two pound containers) with 4# of Veggies
• 10# of meat (5 two pound containers) with 2# of Veggies

These combinations will give you approximately a 4:1 – 5:1 ratio of meat to veggies for your dog’s meals.  We recommend simply thawing out a one pound container of veggies and keeping it on hand in the fridge for easy mixing.  The veggies will last up to a week in the fridge and for most people it won’t even be as long as that before you are through them.  For smaller dogs, partially thaw your veggies as you would your two pound containers of food and keep half out and ready to use while you put the other half back in the fridge.  It won’t hurt the veggies and gives you a more manageable amount to work with.

Some people add veggies to their dog’s tripe.  We don’t find it necessary being that tripe is just about the most complete food that you can give and adding veggies is overkill BUT it won’t hurt to add them and some dogs may eat their veggies better when they are mixed with something as irresistible as tripe.  If you choose to not add veggies to tripe but tripe is part of your order, reduce the number of veggies ordered proportionally and you will still have the right amount of veggies for the amount of meat you have.

In order to make things a little easier for all of our customers we have developed several packages for ease of ordering.  Check out our raw packages page to see if any of these meet your dog’s needs!   If none of these packages are exactly what you are looking for than please give us a call and we will be more than happy to walk you through your order and figure out what is going to work best for you.

Though it may seem daunting to some customers, adding your own veggies is actually one of the best things you can do for your dog.  YOU decide what works best because YOU know your dog the best.  We supply the building blocks and you construct the perfect natural diet to ensure your pet’s optimal health!

A Place For Paws has always operated under the thought that your pet DOES derive beneficial nutrition from raw veggies.  Dogs are opportunistic carnivores and scavengers and often can pick up needed nutrients from a thoughtful veggie mix.

In the past, APFP has offered two different veggie mixes as a supplement to your pet’s diet.  Its now time for a little change!  We decided to make things more basic, more simple, more to the point.  To that end we are blending our two

Nom Nom Nom!

mixes into one succinct product that will address all of your veggie needs!

A brief rundown of the new ingredient list as well as the main benefits of each veggie will make it as clear to you as it is to us that this is THE best veggie mix you can hope for!

Zucchini is a low glycemic veggie that is high in vitamin A as well as vitamin C which acts as an anti-oxidant as well as is touted for its anti-inflammatory properties – great for the joints!

Yellow squash is another vitamin rich veggie (Vitamin A, C and magnesium to name a few) that not only has been shown to help prevent cancer but also to have beneficial effects in heart, bone and eye health

Cabbage seems like such a low cost simple thing…but did you know that it is FULL of vitamin C for superior immune system health as well as vitamin E which contributes to skin, hair and eye health?

Carrots are above all sweet and a favorite of many pets.  In addition they are full of B vitamins, vitamin K and potassium making them helpful in preventing cancer and exceptionally good for heart and, of course, eye health

Spinach is a wonder veggie – anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties as well as bone and eye health from the plethora of vitamins it contains

Celery contains all sorts of nutrients – vitamin C, potassium, folic acid and calcium to name a few.  Did you know that it also is great for urinary tract health, relieving allergy symptoms and aiding in digestion?

Kale is a hidden treasure.  Full of vitamins A, K and C, kale also has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.  It is also integral to helping the body in detoxification.

Parsley is high in vitamin K which bodes well for your pet’s bone and joint health.  It also helps to keep a heart healthy and what can be more important than that?!

In addition to these veggies, our raw “salad” includes olive oil which contains essential fatty acids for beautiful skin and coat and is chock full of vitamins like K, A, D and E.  We also add apple cider vinegar which, in addition to being full of potassium in an easy to absorb form, it further aids in digestion and helps inhibit the growth of unfriendly bacterias.

There you have it – the new and improved Basic Veggies!  Streamlined to be one of the most nutrient packed vitamin rich veggie mixes that you can buy.  Why do the work yourself?  Time consuming and messy to boot!  Supplement your pet’s diet with wholesome pureed ready to eat veggies!