How to give homeopathic remedies to your dog?
This post is going to be controversial.
Because, nowadays, it seems like every homeopathic discussion can generate a heated debate.
But, anyway, between my daughter and I we have five dogs.
We don’t all live in the same house.
But I have the job of treating them all as needed, with homeopathic remedies.
Prior to owning these dogs, we had a 17 1/2-year-old Cocker Spaniel.
Homeopathy, I’m convinced, added years to his life.
So I have a lot of experience with giving remedies to dogs.
There’s a right way and a wrong way.
How To Give Homeopathic Remedies To Pets
The worst way to give a homeopathic remedy to a pet is to put it in their water bowl.
Unfortunately, on social media, I often see people recommend doing this.
But what happens is you have no control over dosing.
Your dog will get a new dose every time he drinks from his water bowl.
So will every other animal in the house.
And so will you when you clean out the water bowl and some of the water splashes on your hand.
If a remedy touches you skin you’ve just taken a dose.
If we believe homeopathic remedies we can cure, we should also believe they’re powerful.
Not just sugar pills.
You don’t want to give something that’s powerful too many times.
Because it can cause what homeopaths call an “aggravation.”
Aggravations are sometimes unavoidable, no matter how carefully we match remedy, potency and dosage.
But you don’t want to invite them, although they are generally self limiting and harmless.
At the very least an aggravation will cloud the case and block the path to healing.
For instance, say your pet needs Phosphorus.
You put a homeopathic pellet in his water bowl and he takes a sip.
Pretty soon you notice your dog is calmer and seems a lot healthier.
The remedy is working.
However, the next day your dog is increasingly agitated.
All of the gains from before have disappeared, and things now seem headed in the wrong direction.
You start to second guess the remedy, and conclude it’s not working.
Yet it probably would have worked with fewer doses.
When taking a remedy it’s very important to only take as many doses as needed.
This is known as The Minimum Dose and it’s just as important today as when Samuel Hahnemann, MD, established the healing technique of homeopathy over 200 years ago.
How To Give Homeopathic Remedies To Pets
So how do you give homeopathic remedies to pets?
There are several ways to dose an animal, while controlling the number of doses.
One is to put a dry pellet in the animal’s mouth.
This is not my favorite way because I prefer water potencies.
These are doses given in water that contains a dissolved homeopathic pellet.
Water doses are often tolerated better, especially with repeat dosing.
Because you gently raise the potency a little bit each time by succussing the remedy container.
(Succussing means you hit the container against the palm of one hand.)
If you do decide to put a pellet in your animal’s mouth wear gloves.
Because you receive a dose yourself if the pellet touches your skin.
Another option is to dip a Qtip into the liquid remedy and put it inside your pet’s cheek.
Only a miniscule amount of the remedy needs to touch a mucus membrane.
But my favorite way to dose an animal is to put some peanut butter or chicken on a paper plate.
Then I pour about a teaspoon of the liquid remedy on a plate and let my dog enjoy lapping it up.
But, but, but…
I thought you weren’t supposed to give homeopathic remedies with food.
Well, I broke the “rules” and they still work.
Even given with peanut butter. Or chicken. Or a few Dr. Marty’s treats.
I’ve done this for years and the remedies work even with food.
I know not everyone will feel comfortable with this method of giving homeopathic remedies to animals.
But it works for me.
I’m sensitive to remedies and I need to avoid unnecessary doses.
Putting the remedies on a paper plate have spared me from countless accidental splashes.
Homeopathic remedies are powerful.
Powerful enough to heal.
So they need to be used carefully and judicously.
