when merrick started sneezing a few days ago, followed by several bouts of inverse sneezing, i initially worried that he might have a grass seed or some other foreign object lodged in his nasal cavity.  being so low to the ground, it’s a solid assumption. but the sneezing didn’t ease up and i could hear he was a little rattley.  my next theory was that he could be in the early stages of kennel cough … given the training we’ve been doing weekly around so many other dogs, it was certainly another valid theory.  but the cough never came.

i checked his temperature — 100.3 … and i listened to his lungs — all clear.  i admit, there were moments during his worst day when i was ready to take him to the vet’s.  instead, i listened to my gut and turned to a more natural approach: boosting the immune system.

although dogs produce their own Vitamin C, during times of stress and illness it’s sometimes good to offer them a boost.  and as far as echinacea, i prefer the tincture over capsules, and like to get a combo of echinacea and golden seal.  this same combination — along with honey to soothe the throat — was what i used years ago with incredible success when matea developed kennel cough from the bordatella vaccine.

now, clearly if your pet is snorfling up anything other than clear fluid — green, yellow, or even bloody discharge — you should be making an appointment with the vet.  but in this case, i was on track.  merrick’s cold has all but cleared up over the past four days, and now matea is sneezing … a sure sign that it’s just a doggie cold, and merrick has been so generous in sharing with his sister.

i’m NOT advocating you don’t seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is sick … but what i AM saying is that you gotta trust your gut on things and not necessarily take your pet in at every sniffle or limp.  sometimes these issues can — and should — be resolved with natural approaches, giving the body a chance to heal itself before bombarding it with pharmaceuticals. this does not mean that there is no place for western medicine, that going to the vet is a bad thing … there is a place and time for antibiotics and other drugs.  you just have to figure out when it’s the right time.

given all of the health issues we have experienced with our pack over the last few years, and recently saying goodbye to morley as well as our 19-yr-old cat woody, it’s become almost a habit to head off to the vet’s at the first sign of anything out of the ordinary.  and with two hyper-vigilant pet guardians such as ourselves, that can add up to a lot of vet visits … AND a lot of potentially unnecessary drugs and tests, which can be hard on the animal and almost always interferes with the body’s natural healing path.

i never used to be so paranoid, so quick to pack up the animal for a drive to the clinic.  years ago when matea took her first hard blow during a late afternoon play session with her girlfriend macy, she almost immediately started peeing blood … pure blood in the pristine white snow.  talk about shocking!  but my gut told me to wait it out, watch and monitor closely, but don’t rush off to the vet.  often vets don’t have the answers either since our pets can’t speak for themselves.

by much later that night matea’s urine had started to clear considerably, and by the next morning she was fine.  several more times over the years she’s had similar blood-tinged urine, and it was always during those hard winter hikes after the girls flushed a rabbit and took off crashing through the woods, no doubt battering their bodies over logs and rocks.  even macy had bloody pees on a few of these kinds of hikes.  clearly, this is not a case for the vet — although questioning the vet at your annual wellness appointment could be beneficial.  this is a case of kidney blow, not unlike how a human body would react to something similar.

it’s wonderful to see natural healing first hand.  it builds faith and trust in the body’s ability to heal itself, and reminds us that sometimes it’s not vets who hold the answers, it’s our own instincts.

of course, merrick steadfastly believes that the cure for everything — including the common cold — is a good dose of balls … and  i have no intention of convincing him otherwise.