How To Understand Sickness In A Dog

Sick Canine

"A sick dog is a dog out of balance. The disease is a symptom of that imbalance"

Fundamentals of Sickness

A disease implicates the whole body.

Symptoms are local. Herein lies the confusion. Symptoms are important but if they obscure a search for a whole body solution, then they are an obstacle in finding a fundamental cure.

The Diagnosis

The usual approach to sickness is to get a diagnosis. So, a sick dog is examined and from the symptoms and clinical measurements, a disease is assigned. If the presentation is one of diarrhea and vomiting, clinical evidence may point to an irritated bowel. The diagnosis then would be Canine Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Or, canine diarrhea and vomiting, along with clinical evidence may point to abnormal pancreatic function. The diagnosis then could be canine pancreatitis. Whatever disease is assigned to the symptom complex, the course of treatment is determined by the disease.

Focus For Treatment

This process is so ingrained in our culture that it is difficult to imagine any other effective method to treat sickness. Yet, assigning a name such as Canine Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Canine Pancreatitis to canine diarrhea and vomiting and from that determining a course of treatment is only one of several possibilities.

Reality Has Dimensions

Before going on to discuss alternative methods, you need to see clearly what is happening when a disease diagnosis is made. Get ready to be surprised. Diseases do not have an independent existence. Diseases cannot be measured or weighed. They do not have an objective reality. Symptoms exist. Bowels are irritated and pancreases become inflamed and dysfunctional. And there is suffering and pain. Sick canines and humans tell us they are suffering and in pain. There are even pain measurement scales. However, animals and people do not experience diseases. They can't. Diseases are only a focus for treatment. They do not have an independent existence.

The Disease Name Performs The Treatment

A disease diagnosis guides the treatment. Dependent upon what the symptom complex is called, a particular course of treatment is followed. So, if the vet says that the dog has canine IBS, then the course of treatment would be Flagyl, Metranidazole, and other pharmaceuticals designed to treat that "Disease". If the diagnosis is canine pancreatitis, then the course of treatment might include meperidine or butorphanol for the pain. Also, for canine pancreatitis antibiotics are often administered prophylactically to protect against infection.

Another Lens To Look Through

Vets usually start out with abstracted indices, numbers from measurements not ordinarily visible. They want to know how blood cells, temperature, pressure, etcetera, vary from the normal. Wholistic practitioners are different. They start out by looking at the dog rather than a set of numbers. Modern medicine sees the theoretical formulas first. Wholistic healers see the animal and its state of health or degree of sickness first.

This different starting point produces a different course of treatment. Rather than drugs to treat symptoms, wholistic medicine considers what any healthy animal would need to stay healthy. Holistic doctors are interested in the numbers game, but only as an adjunct to a healthy animal. Disease is foremost a deficiency or excess of a substance, not an elevated or reduced set of numbers leading to a disease diagnosis.

The difference is critical. If you believe that canine pancreatitis is merely an inflamed pancreas or that IBS is an inflamed bowel, then you are inexorably led to pharmaceutical solutions. However, if you see the canine pancreatitis, or canine IBS as a dog-out-of-balance, then nature is the source to regain that balance.

Basic Rules

Our basic rules are simple and can be instituted by anyone for any animal or human at any age and in any state of health:

Stop putting poisons in
Get the poisons that are in out
Start putting in high quality nutrition

Our therapeutic interventions are equally simple:

Do no harm
Use only natural substances with long histories of safe and effective use
recognize innate body wisdom as the healer

A New Beginning

Clearly, the previous is a new perspective and one that does not address specific actions. That is a much bigger subject but one that is worth the effort. In the meantime, you need a trustworthy guide. May I suggest Vitality Science?

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