I consult with pet owners every day, both in person at my hospital, Paws & Claws Holistic Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas and on the phone with pet parents who don’t live nearby. All of them want me to prescribe supplements to either help their pets stay healthy and try to prevent problems like cancer, or to treat specific disorders in their pets. As I tell all of them, no matter what supplements they give their pets a sound holistic plan must start with a solid diet. Feeding a poor diet will never help a pet stay healthy or get better even if supplements are given to the pet. Therefore, I spend time reviewing dietary recommendations for all of my patients.
There are a variety of diets available for your pet, and future articles will go into more detail regarding specific choices. For now let’s agree that the diet should ideally be as natural and organic as possible in order to avoid potential dangers of feeding pets additives, chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones that are unfortunately present in many foods prepared for people and pets. We must feed ourselves and our pets with healthy foods, not artificial foods and foods loaded with chemicals and deficient in healthy nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
I try to be very flexible when talking with my clients to give them a variety of choices when it comes to selecting diets for their pets. I do have my favorites, such as Benjii’s Complete Nutrition: Chickpeas & Squash but the most important thing is for the owner to feed a diet that the pet loves to eat, that the pet easily digests and absorbs the nutrients in the food, and that it is cost effective for the owner long-term.
Once we can correct dietary deficiencies we can then began to put together a supplement protocol to keep the pet healthy and fight diseases. If we ignore the importance of diet (and so many veterinarians and pet owners do) then we can never maximize the pet’s health. The saying “You are what you eat” (and your pet is absolutely what he or she eats) is still true today when looking at holistic health. Hippocrates stated “Let thy food be thy medicine” as he understood the importance of a proper diet and its role in healing disease and keeping patients healthy. Don’t overlook how much control you have over your pet’s health by choosing the absolutely best diet possible. Feed your pets for health and watch them thrive.
About the Author
Dr. Shawn Messonnier is Benjii’s Chief Medical Officer and a well known expert on holistic pet care. He is an award-winning radio show host and the author of over 25 books on pet health care. His areas of interest include diet and nutrition, cancer, skin disorders, holistic wellness, senior pet care and internal medicine.
