Herbal Help for Humans and their Companions

• Feline - Diabetes Melitis
  
• Canine - First Aid Kit (New Product)
  
• Bovine - Worming
  
• Human - Maddening Cravings
  
• Home Remedies - Evening Primrose Oil
  
• Reader Feedback - Too Many Choices?
  

increased or excessive urination.

Your veterinarian can diagnose the disease by taking into account the symptoms just described & confirmed by tests on the cat's blood and urine.
Feline Diabetes Mellitus occurs in cats of all breeds, ages, and genders, and the exact cause of the disease is unknown. However, it is known to most commonly affect older, obese cats, and males are more commonly afflicted than females. Therefore, attempt to keep your cats at a healthy weight, particularly older cats and males, and take any cat to a veterinarian at the first sign of symptoms.
As a herbalist, we look at diabetes as being more a reflection of a metabolic imbalance than of a diseased pancreas as such and I am able to turn this illness around using herbs which focus on metabolic harmony and tonics for the Liver and Pancreas specifically.

Such is the blend of herbs in my Feline Conditioning Mix to be found on my website on:
http://www.herbal-treatments.com/cat_conditioning_mix.html

As eye problems are often associated with diabetes the addition of my eye wash will assist in reversing this condition by maintaining the health of the eye itself. See link for dosage information:
http://www.herbal-dogkeeping.com/dog_eye_wash.html

Dietary changes are really important as your cat will benefit from eating a raw, natural diet to assist in balancing the blood sugar levels and reducing the weight if obese.
Choose minced chicken, chicken wings, fish, fresh not tinned and keep them small like pilchards, sardines, whiting, liver once a week only for the wonderful vitamins it stores.
Veggies, cook some extra for your cat, mashed sweet potato, pumpkin, creamed corn or put a selection of raw veggies through a food processor and make it more palatable by mixing in a little oil which they find tasty. The other simple food which is helpful in these cases is rolled oats like the porridge breakfast cereal. This may be soaked in water and added to feed which should preferably be raw and consist of meaty bones( prefer not beef) and nothing much else.

No processed food if you can avoid it.

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Canine - First Aid Kit (New Product)

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http://www.herbal-treatments.com/dog_first_aid_kit.html

Alternative medicine is very much do-it-yourself medicine much as was practiced by all those in charge of stock for the past several thousand years. It is only recently that we have been encouraged to leave most of our stock care medical treatments to professionals of one sort or another.

There are many things we can do for ourselves in cases of accident or injury suffered by our animals to provide immediate assistance and to minimise the distress of the incident. This kit has been put together for those who have some experience with herbs and have the confidence and interest to use in an emergency situation.

I have put together a simple and useful collection of some of the most helpful and important first aid materials in a convenient case which should be taken with us whenever moving or attending to our animals. The utility of each of the individual formulations is discussed separately but briefly the kit consists of the following:

Rescue Remedy 25ml: Used as first aid for shock a few drops directly onto the nose and into the mouth of the dog (and the owner) helps to reduce the panic and stress of shock and aid in settling things down much more quickly for the dog and to assist the owner make better calmer decisions.

Antiseptic/ Styptic 25ml: To reduce blood flow and as an immediate antiseptic. For any puncture wound or gash, first wash out with water if possible and pat dry, then apply a squirt of this mixture of Calendula and Yarrow extracts. If it is not possible to wash out the wound then just squirt the mixture into the wound directly. If applied regularly thereafter, whenever tending the wound, it will heal more naturally and quickly from the inside out and scarring will be minimised.

Trauma Mix 50ml: Trauma Mix should be in your first aid kit and carried with you, wherever you go with your dogs.There are major advantages in reducing the shock caused by panic, accident or injury or by any acute illness condition. Homeopathic treatments plus herbal anti-inflammatories and tonics all help the dog recover its physical health quickly from trauma and minimize both short and long term effects on its nervous system. The Trauma Mix includes:- Parsley, Rosehips, Yarrow and White Willow along with the Bach Flower Rescue Remedy. Typically, these drops are given directly by mouth preceeding any surgery or injection or immediately after any other accident or trauma. The dose should be repeated several times over the next few hours depending on the severity of the shock. A few doses over the following couple of days are usually sufficient to finish the course.

Skin Healing Cream 100gm: This simple cream is the first aid for scratches and burns, including rope burns. The has antiseptic and antifungal properties and includes the herbs:- Chamomile, Horsetail, Calendula, Pine Bark, Slippery Elm and Thuja along with Comfrey to speed healing and minimise scarring.

Anti Inflammatory 100ml: Herbal medicine throughout the ages had a large number of herbs at its disposal to treat a wide variety of aches and pains and I have chosen a combination of very reliable remedies offering the possibility of reversing the condition altogether. My Anti-Inflammatory formulation contains Devils Claw, White Willow, Guiacum, Burdock, Pine Bark, Comfrey, Yarrow and Rosehips as well as the Bach Flower remedies Honeysuckle, Vine, Walnut and Rescue Remedy. I find this combination very useful and safe in replacing, fully or partially, dependence on pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory and pain killing drugs. This herbal formula may be used in a competitive environment as it is does not show up in drug testing.

Colloidal Silver 200ml: Colloidal Silver is an antibiotic and may be used externally and taken internally. It is particularly valuable to treat exotic hospital based infections and I recommend that it is given as a preventative whenever your dog is taken to the Vet for any surgical procedures. I normally only use the Silver when the usual approaches to infection via immunity support are struggling, but it is valuable as first aid when infection is a risk.

Eyewash 10ml: This concentrated extract is mixed with water and can be used in any eye accident, injury or infection. It must never be administered without dilution but two or three drops in a small amount of water splashed into your dogs eye can very quickly reduce pain, inflammation and begin to cure infection. The same mix is also equally useful for other animals and human use. Regular treatment with this mix will heal ulcers and any number of chronic eye problems.

The Eye Wash Mix Includes:- Celendine, Golden seal, Rue as well as the Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy and Crab Apple.

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Bovine - Herbal Worming for Cattle

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First a word about chemical worming:

A "pour-on" has to be such a strong poison that it can be absorbed through the skin into the blood stream and still be strong enough to kill worms and parasites. The theory behind the treatment, is that the poison kills worms quicker than it kills cows, and this is just because the worms are smaller. The appeal of the pour-on is its simplicity, no need to drench each beast.

It would be very surprising to me if chemical worming treatments Pour-on or Drenches did not affect a cows vitality. Also, apart from directly poisoning the animal, it does nothing to build up the natural defences a cow has against worms such as a healthy gut lining.

In fact the chemical approach ensures the gut is left weaker and therefore a better host for future worms thereby guaranteeing future sales of the chemicals.

I have treated camels, Stud Bulls and Champion Cows and found the wormer to be effective. I would very much like to refine the program I have used for individual animals to make it a little more user friendly for commercial beef farmers.

Lock the herd up overnight with plenty of access to water, and drench them with the worming mix in the morning 40ml for cows and calves and 60ml for adult bulls.

Cows naturally have much healthier gut linings than horses or camels for that matter. Also their feed (and therefore the herbs) stays for far longer in their systems. Repeat the performance on the second night and do it again twice three weeks later.

There will be no problems with cows in calf at all.

I recommend you drench now with the three weeks follow-up. Then, if you are resting their pasture effectively, there shouldn't be a need to do it very often. Start out at 3 monthly intervals and see what you notice generally.

I would also plant wormwood bushes around the outside of a small timber holding yard and, once this is established, it may be as simple as locking them all in the yard once every month overnight, to let each cow choose for itself whether it needs the assistance of this herb to manage its own worms.

I have a sheep farmer who has a half acre of wormwood in a small paddock and he lets them into it regularly. Sometimes they attack the bushes and sometimes they don't. I also have a horse client on the coast who lets his horses in under the Morton Bay Figs regularly and they seem to manage their worms with the figs alone.

I will be very interested to hear from any one using herbs for worming and ask that you report back with your observations for vitality and condition, as this will allow us to get a little forum going and we will be able to tap into each others experiences and knowledge.

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Human - Maddening Cravings

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Congratulations if you have decided to give up smoking you will feel better sooner rather than later, particularly your respiration and energy levels.

Have a look at the following tonic it will support the processes of elimination & support the organs that have been affected by smoking.

http://www.softwaresolutions.com.au/herbs_smokers_support

Include fenugreek tea to support your lymphatics. Take 2 teaspoons of the seeds into a cup of boiling water steep, strain, drink. Dandelion tea for your liver. The liver is the organ that processes all toxins purchase locally & drink 2-3 cups a day. Reduce your alcohol, caffeine intake & include plenty of fresh air, fresh unprocessed food & exercise. Remember to beat an old habit you need to replace it with a new one. Purchase Dr Bach's Rescue Remedy dose yourself am & pm & especially the times when the cravings are kicking in or if you feel sad , depressed or angry etc.

Try to substitue an activity that will take the mind & body off the cravings like exercise a hobby or activity that involves the hands & brain.

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Home Remedies - Evening Primrose Oil

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The flowers open in the evening and close up during the day and are strongly scented with a delicious sweet perfume which attracts pollinating moths.

Evening Primrose is edible and medicinal and has a long history of use as an alternative medicine . The leaves are cooked and eaten as greens and the roots are said to be sweet succulent and delicious when boiled like potatoes. Flowers are a sweet addition to salads or as a garnish and young seedpods are Steamed. This plant was a staple food for many Native American tribes.

Evening Primrose Oil contains an omega-6 fatty acid called gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Once processed in the body, GLA, exerts anti-inflammatory and other healing actions.

Evening primrose oil is certainly not the only source of GLA; various foods actually contain small amounts of it and the body produces GLA on its own from a number of dietary fats. Interestingly, borage oil and black currant oil offers rich stores as well but their effectiveness and safety for many ailments has not been as intensively examined as evening primrose oil.

The remarkably rich stores of GLA in evening primrose oil are what make it so valuable in healing. Taken internally, the body converts GLA into prostaglandins. These hormonelike compounds help regulate various body functions, controlling inflammation in some cases and promoting it in others. The prostaglandins produced from GLA fall into the anti-inflammatory category. Cell membranes also rely on the presence of GLA.

Specifically, evening primrose oil may help to: