Rhonda Jewel
Sept 15, 2016
A Naturopathic Approach to Pests and Parasites
Drs. Bloomer and Thomason
What Are The Dangers of Conventional Treatments
For Preventing Pests & Parasites?
1 Let's explore the pros and cons of conventional chemical treatment for pet pests and
parasites, versus the naturopathic approach to pest control.
In today's shrinking world, fleas have become ubiquitous and impossible to avoid. To
many of us, the thought of our pets having fleas is loathsome. However, for me, using
topical flea and tick treatments is not an option. The concept of using a poisonous
pesticide on dog's skin or giving them a monthly flea-killing pill which contains
ingredients so deadly that within hours they wipe out fleas for an entire month is an
abomination to me! My mind boggles imagining what it could do to dogs' internal
organs.
We suffer when our dogs itch and bite at fleas and have their blood sucked. I agonize
over it when any of my dogs are uncomfortable. Most pet owners feel the same way, I
imagine. In some cases, fleabites can cause open wounds where infections set in. These
oozing, infected areas and hot spots are so prevalent that some people consider them
normal. Tick bites are equally horrifying, transmitting some very serious diseases, most
notoriously, Lyme disease.
What can we do about this dilemma without resorting to poisonous conventional
treatments? What are the dangers of relying on the pharmaceutical industry's drugs
offered by veterinarians, such as Comfortis and Trifexis, every time pet itching begins?
Is living in harmony with nature, following the naturopathic model, including flea and
tick control, even possible in our pesticide-laden, parasite-phobic society?
2 Chemical Solutions: A Choice of Convenience over Conscience?
Applying toxic pest control products from the vet or pet store has deep repercussions.
While they do rapidly kill pests, with regular use they can eventually kill dogs and cats
via liver and neurological toxicity. These common flea and tick products definitely
eradicate pests, as well as hundreds of pets. Every year multitudes of pets die from pestcontrol chemicals, and many tens of thousands are harmed.
According to reports from the EPA, owners complain that after application their pets
experience skin problems such as welts, burns and irritation. Pets may drool excessively
or shake violently; their legs may go out from under them as they lose control of their
motor skills. Many have suffered other neurological issues immediately after receiving
their flea and tick medications. The problem seems to occur most often on small breed
dogs and cats: Pomeranians, Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, Shih Tzu’s, Miniature Poodles,
and other small breeds seem to be affected most, according to the EPA. Animals can even
be overdosed when vets neglect to weigh them before calculating exact dosage.
The broad spectrum, synthetic insecticides with Permethrin seem to be a type of
endocrine disrupter and are known to trigger lung cancer, liver tumors and other major
health concerns. The manufacturers of these products deny these claims. They say their
products cause no harm whatsoever to animals or people when used as directed. They
dare to say that their spot-on products are not absorbed into the skin of animals or
3 humans. This seems impossible since every skin cell has digestive ability. A famous
quote tells us “the skin is a mouth”.
Many of these types of pesticides contain what is called an ‘insect growth regulator’.
These are said to inhibit the growth of fleas so reproduction is not possible. Extensive
testing in laboratories has revealed that this can cause liver enlargement and kidney
degeneration in larger animals. Very few people, unfortunately, will ever read the
package insert's cautionary statements and warnings before applying these treatments.
Fleas and ticks are indisputably nasty little critters that can produce major discomfort in
animals. Even worse, they may be carriers of diseases and worms. Unfortunately most
people are not willing to deal with them holistically. In this all-out war on pests, there is a
huge battle raging against fleas, who respond by becoming resistant to the treatments. As
a result, the on-spot treatments, the once-a-month pills, and heartworm meds that have
become an accepted part of pet care and are commonly recommended by most
conventional veterinarians, contain increasingly dangerous chemicals with the
introduction of each “new, improved” stronger version of the medications.
Most people don’t even realize there is any harm being done to their pets as they apply
them. They assume that they're applying a beneficial medication to their pets that will
help them. In actuality, they are treating them with powerful pesticides, often the same
potent chemicals that are being sprayed on crops and lawns. Lawn chemicals have been
highly implicated in the recent increases in pet cancer. Pets' skin and fur does in fact
4 absorb spot-on products like a sponge - whatever is applied to skin quickly makes it way
into the entire organism. Any such substance applied to their skin or fur will soon make
its way into every single organ though the bloodstream.
What is the Best Solution?
Most people detest fleas. We never consider the purpose that they might serve on our
pets. The naturopathic approach is to help the body regain balance by boosting its ability
to work in harmony with nature and not to fight against it. The parasites on our bodies
and those on animals may actually have a reason for being and even perhaps a special
purpose. Fleas are some of nature's parasitic creatures that are only around to do their
work. Consider that the job they are here to attend to the extraction of foul blood from
unhealthy and immune-compromised animals, assisting in the cleanup process. Those
notorious fleas don’t realize that the dog’s blood they are consuming is from your best
friend and companion. These opportunistic creatures only sense that the dog or cat they
are thriving on is a good host. Why? A pet that does not have a healthy immune system to
resist them is their perfect target for an ideal meal ticket.
Bottom line: If you don’t want fleas on Fido, make him an unfriendly environment for
parasites. It is high time we consider working together to balance all creatures of the
natural world, including bugs, germs, parasites and insects (over 90% of bugs are
beneficial), thinking about the fact that all of life has a purpose whose elements should be
able to live in harmony. Unfortunately human creatures have upset the balance. This is a
major concept of the naturopathic point of view I am offering as food for thought.
5 From this perspective, the obvious answer for controlling fleas, ticks and other parasites
is a good prevention protocol. Healthy dogs and cats with strong immune systems are
simply not desirable hosts for pests and parasites.
If your pet has a serious flea infestation it is often a sign that their general health is
compromised. What is the lesson and what is the flea population telling us? If your pet is
being fed a diet of commercial pet food this is the first place to make a change. Kibble is
nutritionally lacking in what the animal needs. Most contain artificial additives and other
harmful by-products, creating an environment within our pets that is filled with the
undesirable bacteria and yeasts -who are drawn to digest such ingredients. The make-up
of the GI (gastrointestinal) tract has been the subject of much scientific research. It has
been found that fleas are only able to finish their full life cycle if they have an
environment where they can thrive on blood and undesirable yeasts and bacteria. It
seems the more toxic their environment, the better for the parasites in general. You want
the thousands of microbial residents in your pet's gut to be good citizens acting for the
higher good of the whole community, not dangerous gang members whose only desire is
to take over and consume everything.
Here is a quote from Dr. Sarah Reagan DVM, from the Coursework Module on Pests and
Parasites:
“What is interesting...is a report by Silverman and Appel (1994) that showed a bloodonly diet for the larvae stage actually results in drastically reduced population levels;
whereas the availability of the combination of blood and yeast or “dog chow diets”
6 allows almost all larvae to mature. This would perhaps indicate that a typical population
survival rate of fleas would occur from the blood meal of the adult excrement. Perhaps
once kibble was introduced into the animals’ diets, resulting in a subsequent increase of
yeast microbes, flea populations increased; an interesting hypothesis.”
Fresh, whole, raw foods are vital because they do not set up an environment of harmful
yeasts and bacteria in the dog’s system. Raw meat provides much-needed digestive
enzymes and vitamins that are destroyed by cooking. Kibble is, for the most part, highly
processed, over-cooked meat by-products baked at high temperatures. By feeding our
dogs and cats a high-quality species-appropriate raw, natural diet, free of additives and
preservatives, we can dramatically improve our pets' health and greatly increase
protection from fleas and all parasites. A healthy, raw-fed dog or cat does not smell or
taste right to fleas.
What this means is that once you start down the road of giving your pet vaccines, using
prescribed drugs from the vet, exposing them to toxic household and lawn chemicals,
including flea control products, and feeding them kibble, your dog’s immune system
becomes compromised, affecting his liver and overall health. This now is a perfect set-up
for him to be an ideal host for parasites, once the flea and tick medications wear off, or
the fleas develop resistance. This vicious cycle goes on and on into a downward spiral of
recurring applications and diminishing health.
7 Advantage, Frontline, Comfortis, and Trifexis are all super-convenient pest control that
many people buy simply because they don’t have to dedicate time to safer methods of
ridding the pet of pests. Chemicals are a quick and easy fix, at least for the time being.
Unfortunately, they are not safe in the long run. All along, better alternatives have
existed. There are proven, successful, non-toxic approaches to keeping our pets and
households free from fleas and other pests. The most effective and safest method for
eliminating parasites is a naturopathic approach.
A recommended flea and parasite control protocol:
•
A raw food, species-appropriate diet: the healthier your pet is, the less attractive
they will be to parasites. A raw food diet creates a resilient immune system.
•
Minimal vaccinations whenever possible
•
Essential Oils
•
Food-grade diatomaceous earth internally
•
Garlic added to the diet
•
Regular bathing when needed
•
Check and lightly groom your pet daily. This allows full-body inspections to
examine for signs of fleas and ticks. A flea comb, or brush for furrier pets, can be
a good tool.
•
Making sure your indoor and outdoor environments are hostile to fleas: use Borax
in the carpets, and diatomaceous earth and nematodes in the yard.
8 The best protection against fleas, and other parasites such as heartworms, is excellent
health care. This includes a raw food diet, good grooming habits, sunshine, filtered water
to drink and a daily exercise routine.
Worms
Dr. Jeannie Thomason says in her book Natural Rearing: “Pests and parasites have been
around for as long as dogs have been around. Wild canines and domestic dogs have
evolved to co-exist with parasites. This co-evolution means that healthy animals are able
to keep parasites in check.”
Allopathic de-wormers for pets are pesticides, which contain some very harsh chemicals
that are quite toxic and often carcinogenic. These chemicals are suppressive rather than
curative in most cases and can be extremely harmful to your cat or dog. The monthly
dose, as in heartworm medications, builds up over time in the body, which has not
evolved an ability to process and eliminate these, and so must store them. These
chemicals are much more harmful to your dog’s immune system than a conventional vet
will admit, producing side effects years later.
Dr. Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, states: "Despite the extensive use of heartworm
preventive drugs, the rate of heartworm infestation in dogs in any geographical part of
America is the same today as it was in 1982. It doesn’t take much contemplation to
realize that the path of continued drug use is a dead-end road.”
9 By using natural de-wormers when needed (herbal or other safe holistic treatments) you
can eliminate the exposure to chemical toxins and disease-promoting drugs. This in turn
is preserving your pet’s immune system, keeping her healthy and more resilient to
disease.
Society has become downright paranoid about worms and germs. But again, what if they
have a purpose? What if these parasites, living in symbiosis with nature, are actually part
of what builds immunity in our pets? Cindy Engel states in her book Wild Health:
“Early exposure to parasites and pathogens may prevent auto-immune diseases such as
diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease from emerging later in life.
An important key in health maintenance is the way animals support gut micro-organisms
that competitively exclude other, more dangerous, pathogens.”
This is worth thinking about. In the naturopathic world view, we must consider that
parasitic life - fleas, worms, insects and “germs” - are all part of the whole and we
cannot simply create sterile environments to rid the world of them without creating
consequences such as drug-resistant bacteria. Most micro-organisms are beneficial
because, as evolution has progressed, humans and animals have developed beneficial
symbiotic relationships with them. Fear of germs is a holdover from times when
knowledge of hygiene was minimal and diseases killed and maimed many people.
Fear of germs is also a useful marketing tool for the pharmaceutical industry who allows
people to believe for example, that all viruses are bad, when the reality is that of the
10 10,000 known viruses, only 150 are dangerous and the rest are helpful. Viruses who are
members of our intestinal community help us to evolve because we are such slow
evolvers and they are very fast evolvers who get us to good places way faster than we
could do on our own.
Worms For Health
Worms have always been considered an enemy of pets, even a scourge. However let's
contemplate the possibility that they might have benefits. This is not to promote wormy
pets. Rather, we are considering nature as a whole while looking at current studies on
parasites.
Research sheds light on a new understanding of autoimmune diseases. Immune
malfunction was the central focus of one of these studies. The scientists involved
confirmed that humans and pets have long lived in symbiotic harmony with most
parasites, bacteria and viruses, depending on these beneficial organisms to help regulate
and keep the system in balance. Very few actually harm us. Worms may actually assist in
regulating the immune system, which helps with autoimmune disorders. Are worms and
parasites actually a type of cleanup service for diseased animals? They are more
prevalent in pets with compromised health. In an animal with a healthy immune system,
they exist in healthful harmony. Because microorganisms evolve so rapidly, they can
assist with functions not yet developed by higher mammals.
11 The bottom line is that everything in nature has a role to play. The role of most parasites
in pets' lives is living in beneficial co-existence. This balance may be disrupted if a pet
contracts worms, but can be easily remedied with safe natural and herbal substances that
are non-toxic to pets.
Can ‘Dirt’ Cause Parasite Infestation?
Burying bones is a common practice in raw-fed dogs, an instinctive habit from their wild
predecessors to keep others from finding their prey. There could be additional benefits.
Burying is said to be a type of natural refrigeration technique, but is also a way of
marinating the bone with soil microorganisms. This marinating system is not harmful to
your dog, whose digestive tract is perfectly designed for meats that have been temporarily
buried. Discoveries confirm that soil organisms are an important part of the intestinal
biome, or microbial population, providing living probiotics. Conventional veterinarians
ignore this, considering it irrelevant. They prefer stressing the hazards of E. coli and other
bacteria found in raw meats and dirt, implying that feeding raw is dangerous for pets and
for humans handling meats.
However, the facts present just the opposite. Dogs have a type of saliva that inhibits any
possibility of these bacteria ever becoming a health risk to them. Additionally, they have
a highly acidic intestinal pH that protects them from being affected by harmful bacteria if
they are customarily fed raw. Kibble-fed dogs' saliva is not as powerful. When dogs eat
grass or dirt, they are likely trying to get soil bio-organisms into their system. Organic
soils and grasses are loaded with protective, nourishing micro-flora and bacteria, healthy
12 probiotics that have a healing effect in the intestinal tracts of animals. This is their natural
defense system against any dangerous microorganisms that they accidentally ingest.
Humanity's Epidemic Fear of Germs
The out-of-proportion fear of germs and parasites has become epidemic. Anti-bacterial
chemicals are appearing in products everywhere, causing bacteria to develop resistance.
Micro-organisms happily exist all around us in spite of our best efforts at worldwide
eradication. They have an evolutionary advantage which gives them the power to infest
and invade us if we aren't conscious of our body's health balance. They squirm and
writhe through life everywhere, mirroring the human fear of being invaded and consumed
by forces we can do nothing about. We are taught (brainwashed) to live in dire fear of
these things, both for our pets and for ourselves. We're influenced to do dangerous things
to kill them as quickly as possible: this is the silver-bullet approach preferred by
conventional medicine. It uses chemical poisons and dangerous preservatives
ubiquitously to eliminate symptoms, but it does not address the root imbalance that
allowed the health problem to arise in the first place. We are pushed into using lawn
treatments that kill all small life, and household chemicals that “sanitize” our homes. We
hope to keep out the “enemy”: germs. We tell children not to play in the dirt when we
should do the opposite to allow them to build immunity. We're fearful of our dogs
sniffing other dogs in case they have “germs”. We have become a nation of worriers about all types of germs, parasites, disease-causing bacteria, pathogens and viruses.
13 All of this misinformation contributes to a constant prejudice against nature, an
unprecedented suspicion of foreigners and third-world countries, and anything messy or
not sanitized. This includes a kind of bitterness toward those who go against the grain of
the conventional health-care system and live in harmony with natural forces.
Alternatively, let’s consider this proposition: what if the body is not necessarily a ripe
environment for the spread of these microorganisms? What if they can co-exist quite
beneficially within our pets and us, not actually ever creating the imagined issues and
infections, and without us even knowing they even part of the equation? The truth is that
our systems, and those of our pets, have ten times more bacterial cells than human or
animal cells. These are almost all beneficial. What then is the point of eradicating them?
Addressing our original proposition concerning the dangers of conventional treatments
against pests and parasites: the dangers are likely worse than we know, as the imbalance
they cause catapults us deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of the unknown into a
purposely programmed fear designed to take us further away from natural solutions
which allow us to live in healthy symbiosis with the whole.
That being said, it undoubtedly makes sense that the distress that germs, bacteria and
parasites have imposed on us throughout the ages has left a deep scar on the human
psyche. Will we ever be able to recover from it as a species? Maybe not; but in the
meantime we can take natural, healthy steps towards living more safely in harmony with
nature, following our proper evolutionary directive.
14 References:
Bloomer, Kim, C.V.N.D, and Thomason, Jeanne, C.V.N.D. "Pests and Parasites
Module." Article Dirt, Parasites, Bacteria and Viruses. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.
Reagan, Sarah D.V.M. “Pests and Parasites module” ACAN Student Audio Chat Session
transcription: Nov 17, 2014 – A New Twist on the Flea or Unraveling the Mystery of
“Parasites” pg 35
Associated Press. "Pet Deaths Prompt Warnings on Flea Meds." Msnbc.com. NBC News
Digital, 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Thomason, Jeanne, VND. "ch.13." Natural Rearing-Breeding & Raising Dogs the Way
Nature Intended. Phoenix, AZ: Earth and Sky Universal Publishing, n.d. 151. Print.
Keim, Brandon. "The Potential Health Benefits of Parasitic Gut Worms."Wired.com.
Conde Nast Digital, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Thomason, Jeanne, VND. "Probiotics, What Are They? Do Our Pets Need Them?"
Editorial. n.d.: 24. Print.
Pitcarin, Richard, DVM-Phd. "Heartworms." Essentials4all. Pat McKay, n.d. Web. 14
Sept. 2016.
Adams, Mike. "Unvaccinated People a Public Health Threat? Nope, People Who Take
Antibiotics Are the Real Danger." NaturalNews. The Health Ranger, n.d. Web. 14 Sept.
2016.
Engel, Cindy. "What We Know So Far- Ch 14." Wild Health: Lessons in Natural
Wellness from the Animal Kingdom. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. 205. Print.
15 Summary of What Plant’s Talk About: The Documentary
What most of us have learned about the plant world usually doesn’t include anything
about “thoughts” or “feelings” of a plant. It doesn't occur to us that they have behaviors
and consciousness. This film brings a completely new awareness to the way humans
consider out relationship with the plant kingdom.
This eye-opening film by University of Alberta professor, plant ecologist J.C. Cahill,
explores how plants do have behaviors and communication characteristics that work in
harmony with entire eco-systems. He proves that plants are very intelligent and
communicate with each other.
What I realized from watching this film is that the entire world of nature is alive,
interactive and working together, whether we are aware of it or not. Could this mean that
plants may show behaviors that are somewhat animal- like? The possibility that they
“talk” with each other, are part of a family network and engage in their environment
really exists. Possibly, plants are able to hunt, cry out, even cultivate their offspring, just
like animal members of nature.
After watching this film I am sure that the plant population actually has social etiquette
and rules by which to live. The more invasive plants disregard the rules, and are the
outlaws of the plant social system. Even though most plants live in a symbiotic harmony,
these outliers are like the ‘bullies’ that evade all the harmonious rules of the system. It
seems every society has its criminal types. What I have come to understand is that the
16 entire planet, Gaia, is alive and teaming with an intelligence and consciousness that most
humans are oblivious to.
My hope for our future is to see the balance return to the natural world, with an
understanding that nature, animals, plants, and humans are all one.
17