When you look into your furry friend’s eyes, you see a true confidant—someone you can trust never to tell your secrets, and someone who will support you through thick and thin.

So, to learn that your dog is suffering from an ailment can feel like a punch to the gut. You feel helpless yet hopeful that you can make your pet feel better. The question is, how exactly do you go about helping your pets through their ailments?

Fortunately, by taking a holistic approach to your dog’s ailments, you can help your dog experience a better quality of life. Holistic care essentially involves taking a more common-sense and natural approach to pet care while considering both their body and mind. Your goal with this approach is to help heal, rather than treating symptoms.

Here are five ways on how to take a holistic approach to your dog’s ailments this year:

1. Diet  One of the best moves you can make to improve your dog’s health is to give nutritional supplements that will help maintain a strong immune system and healthy weight. After all, being obese or overweight can spark many ailments in pets, just like it does in humans.For example, consider giving your dog fish oil. In dogs, fish oil can be helpful for treating skin allergies. Thus, with fish oil, you could improve the quality of your dog’s coat and also decrease the chance of having to use prescription-strength products for itching. Fish oil may also help dogs suffering from osteoarthritis.

In addition, if your dog suffers from acute idiopathic diarrhea, he may benefit from probiotics. That’s because probiotics have the potential to restore your dog’s digestive balance brought on by situations like stress, medical treatment, or infections.

2. Canine Acupuncture  Another tool to incorporate into your holistic approach to your dog’s ailments is canine acupuncture. This practice involves stimulating pressure points located on your dog’s body using needles. This method helps to release chemicals in your dog’s brain, muscles, and spinal cord, which ultimately stimulates healing. As a result, it can be an extremely useful tool for relieving your pet of muscle and joint pain. It can also help with cancer and diabetes symptoms, as well as encouraging healing following surgery or trauma.

3. CBD for Animals  If you’re having trouble getting conventional medicine to work for your dog’s ailment, consider alternative treatments like CBD for animals.The reality is, dogs with ailments that impact their livers or kidneys may not be capable of handling conventional pharmaceuticals. Likewise, older pets may require alternative treatments, as their bodies might not be operating at 100% capacity. However, CBD has the potential to treat a wide variety of ailments in an affordable, safe, and non-toxic way. These ailments include seizures, arthritis, cancer pain, and even anxiety.

Note that CBD dog products have only trace amounts of the psychoactive cannabinoid known as THC, so you don’t have to worry about your dog getting high while consuming them.

4. Hydrotherapy If your dog loves the water, then hydrotherapy is yet another excellent way to address your dog’s ailments holistically. Hydrotherapy is essentially physical therapy that takes place in water. It is ideal for dogs who need exercise that is low-impact because they are recovering from surgery or injuries, for example.

Hydrotherapy can also help your dog dealing with arthritis or joint issues. In addition, this type of physical therapy is recommended for dogs who are overweight or older and need a cardiovascular activity that is safe.

5. Herbal Medicines  Herbal medicines can also serve as an important component of holistic pet care. For instance, California poppy, chamomile, and Valerian are natural relaxants that can help your dog. In addition, they offer the bonus health benefits of lowering blood pressure, fighting pesky parasites, and helping with asthma.The extract, tincture, and tea forms of these relaxants all work well. However, with Valerian, your dog may only need a handful of drops to experience its health benefits.

Improve Your Dog’s Overall Wellbeing Today! Now couldn’t be a better time to get your dog on track to experiencing better health. The sooner you apply the above mentioned treatment options, the sooner you’ll likely witness the healthier, happier dog you’ve always known. Incorporate these approaches into your daily regimen today to give Rufus the higher quality of life that Man’s Best Friend deserves in the months and years ahead.

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