Vitality. Healing. What do they mean and how are they relevant to you?
Every pet’s vitality (energy) is critical for staying well and getting better from dis-ease.
Ask Bram’s and Heat’s guardians.
Bryna asked directly about how much Bram’s body, if properly stimulated, could heal. Not a common question. Yet, a very, very important one.
Most people do not think to ask or know the answer. Even after years of medical or veterinary (or nursing, or chiropractic, or…) schooling. But you can! No medical training (or biology background) required.
Natural healing ability is not part of the medical (or veterinary) curriculum. More of us should be asking the same question as Bryna. Understanding how and to what degree, the body can heal itself is fundamental to helping your companion animals live longer and better lives.
This great question inadvertently raises a fundamental issue. Dr. Richard Pitcairn has said that both veterinarians and pet parents frequently sell the body short. We settle for “some improvement”. Not resolution of the health challenge.
For example, Bryna’s kitty Bram is 15 years young and very vital. But he has hyperthyroidism and kidney failure. And a large mast cell tumor on his face.
“I may look bad, but I feel fine!
With sufficient vitality and healing ability, Bram could still live into his 20s.
Length of life, vitality and healing have marked declined in the past 25 years.
Giant breed dogs used to commonly live into their late teens. Cats? Twenties and even thirties!
The proof is in the pudding.
But you say that without daily pills, radiation or surgery, hyperthyroidism and tumors will not heal. And kidney failure is permanent. Right?
I think Heat would beg to differ.
Heat was diagnosed when only a few months old as having kidney dis-ease. He only has one (most animals have two) functional kidney. His one working kidney started to fail after Rimadyl was prescribed for an injury. The specialist predicted a few months of life for Heat. He was expected to just get worse and worse.
Kidneys are not “supposed to” regenerate. This is just one of modern medicine’s current mis-understandings. It was only a few years ago we thought that the brain can not regenerate or that the immune system and brain do not work together. Wrong, wrong and wrong (oh, and the world is flat!).
But AKC/ASCA CH HighCotton’s Ewe R Ultrahot RN (rally) OA OAJ RS-N JS-N GS-O (agility in both registries) STDs (ASCA started sheep) and 1 leg in AKC Started sheep (aka Heat) knows better!
Treat your pets as if they can heal. Pro-actively tolerate symptoms. Don’t ignore them. They will tell you more than any lab test. Use symptoms produced by the body, as clues. Clues to what’s happening internally. Symptoms are a direct reflection of internal health.
Practice patience whenever you see or treat symptoms. Persevere while treating. Healing can take time. Even when you’re told that “there’s nothing else to do” and despite what you may read on Dr. Google.
Give active healing the space and time it needs.
You might be surprised with the results. Like Heat’s mom.
Be well.
Dr. Jeff