Veterinarians Guide to Natural Remedies for Dogs: Safe and Effective Alternative Treatments and Healing Techniques from the Nations Top Holistic Veterinarians

by Martin Zucker

The world of veterinary medicine is changing. People are realizing that if alternative medicine is better for them, it's better for their pets, too. Dogs are visiting acupuncturists, chiropractic doctors, and homeopaths. Still, many dog owners are unaware that such simple measures as changing their pet's diet and using vitamins, herbs, and other natural cures can help prevent or heal ailments ranging from excessive scratching to depression to a host of serious diseases.

The Veterinarians' Guide to Natural Remedies for Dogs is both an introduction and a guide to the vast world of natural healing methods, treatments, and foods now available for dogs. Author Martin Zucker offers advice from dozens of holistic practitioners and licensed veterinarians, who share their recipes, insights, and "prescriptions." Here dog owners will find information on everything from nutritional supplements to massage therapy, as well as how these treatments can be used alone or in conjunction with traditional medications and surgical techniques.

Genres: Dogs, Herbs

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2000

About the author

Martin Zucker has been writing for 60 years, the last 40 of them about health, nutrition, and fitness. During that time he has written a dozen book and hundreds of magazine articles. His latest book is about the discovery of Earthing, also known as grounding. In the book, he and his co-authors describe the remarkable health and healing power of planet Earth and how humans are largely disconnected from it and unaware that it exists. Reconnecting is easy, and commonly produces significant results such as reduced inflammation, pain, and stress responses, as well as better sleep and blood flow. Zucker is a former Associated Press foreign correspondent.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed my dogs lives! I cant believe what they put in commercial dog food. I started homemade after reading this book and it has done wonders for Bear and Sadie. This book is very educational and I think anyone who loves their pets and wants the best for them should take a min and read this book~

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is neither as bad as I feared nor as good as I was hoping. Aside from outdated ideas like 50% grain diets for dogs (including such major offenders as wheat and corn!), a lot of the remedies warrant cross checking with other sources who may have a polar opposite view to the ones expressed here. More significantly worrying is the overpowering vagueness at times. "Fresh fruits" is an incredibly broad category that doesn't take into account the need to remove seeds or the fact that grapes are toxic to dogs. There are other examples. A lot of the recommendations was for products rather than actual herb remedies you could put together yourself, which is what I was really looking for (especially considering this book is 20 years old, so a lot of the products don't even exist anymore). And the formatting crimes. This was appallingly formatted, from just giving up on chapters about halfway through to throwing random things into the middle like must haves for a First Aid kit (a pitifully short list of things) just sort of jammed into the alphabetical slot between the health issues of Eye Problems and Fleas. Allergies being in multiple sections was also a little wild.
All of that said, there are remedies in here that I've used with success in the past, and a few products that do still exist out there, some of which I use or started using while in the process of reading this book, with success.
So it's not useless, but could do with a much better design/format and a bit more detail work. And an almost total erasure of the first 80 pages, which are for the most part a complete waste of time except maybe the list of food types and the homemade diets (though most of those see a high level of grain that's generally fallen out of favor these days, for hopefully obvious reasons).

[langa · Rating 3 out of 5]

another very handy holistic pet health book for dogs

[Paula Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've given this book to 10 different dog owners who all swear I changed their lives. If you own a dog this should become your bible!