Bilberries

You have probably noticed the sudden increase in popularity of bilberries. They are rich sources of antioxidants, resveratrols and numerous other highly active micronutrients which all work together to protect our cells from free radical damage, inflammation and numerous other challenges.
Being naturally a dark blue-purple, the bilberries in Pet Plus make it look dark purple when you mix it with food.

Fructo-Oligo-Saccharides

Frurafit Inulin IQ is the source of the most effective of all the fructo-oligo-saccharides in a whole food form. It is a prebiotic, a nutrient that supports the probiotics which are the healthy bacteria living in the gut. Many people are moving towards just taking this prebiotic and no probiotics as it is so very good at supporting the existing healthy bacteria already inhabiting the gut. We decided to continue using the best colonising probiotic, Lactobacillus acidophilus, to ensure your pet’s probiotic flora are the best they can be. This dramatically impacts their ability to digest food and so aids a healthy digestive system, of great benefit to everyone within sniffing distance!

Periodontal disease increases the rates of all cause mortality in humans. Why? It is believed to be due to the inflammatory process associated with periodontal disease. Elevated levels of biomarkers of inflammation are found in the bloodstreams of patients who have periodontitis over those who do not have the disease.

Chronic Disease

The majority of chronic disease is explained by major modifiable risk factors, namely poor nutrition, physical inactivity, smoking and possibly periodontitis. The Cumulative Risk Factor Model shows the impact of focal inflammation on common risk; co-morbidity factors such as rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, smoking pathologies and periodontitis act together to increase the risk of atherosclerosis. Patients with a pro-inflammatory phenotype have been shown to be more prone to chronic low grade periodontal inflammation than normal, which could, if present over many years, result in increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. It has been shown that increased periodontal inflammation results in increased risk of atherosclerosis. Equally, reducing the inflammation reduces the biomarkers of
atherogenesis.

Biofilm Bacteria Or Pro-Inflammatory Mediators?

Teeth are coated by a biofilm which can be a health promoting biofilm, but if allowed to accumulate and mature, becomes predominantly gram negative and pathogenic. There is always a microbial challenge in the mouth, especially of animals, which is controlled by the host immuno-inflammatory response. It is the pro-inflammatory mediators, like cytokines and prostaglandins produced during this inflammation, which result in periodontal bone loss, spill into the circulation and can increase risk of cardiovascular disease; not necessarily the actual bacteria themselves.

Plaque

It has been accepted for many years that the presence of plaque is a prerequisite and risk factor for gingivitis. If the body’s immuno-inflammatory response to the oral microbial challenge is balanced, the antibodies and polymorphonucleocytes (PMNs) repel the microbes, resulting in a non-progressive gingivitis. This can deteriorate to periodontitis when an unbalanced host response results in the release of cytokines, prostanoids, matrix metallo-proteinases and reactive oxygen species, all of which interfere with connective tissue and bone metabolism resulting in a progressive periodontitis. Controversially, in 1977, Hillam and Hull published research suggesting that patients with gingivitis also accumulated more plaque.

Hyper-Inflammatory Response

There are several factors which contribute to the hyper-inflammatory response in periodontitis, manifest by elevated inflammatory mediators in tissues and/or blood, despite clinical health. These include genetic exposures, e.g. genetic polymorphisms; environmental exposures, e.g. bacterial infection, stress (neuroendocrine pathways); drug exposures e.g. non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids; and behavioural exposures, e.g. exercise, diet and nutrition. These four exposures interact with each other to differing degrees in different individuals and have a combined effect on the body’s inflammatory status that varies from one patient to the next.

Epigenetics

Most importantly, studies have shown that gene expression is directly affected by the environment immediately surrounding the genes. Good nutrients surrounding the genes will enhance the expression of healthy genes and suppress the expression of deleterious genes. This is so important because it has an impact on overall health and longevity.

Refined Sugars And Inflammation

What we eat actually drives inflammation, as well as affecting gene expression. Research has shown that the presence of excess glucose in the blood triggers inflammation, including gingivitis. In a single blind cross-over study, Sidi and Ashley gave sugar (boiled sweets) to the test subjects 9 times per day between meals for 3 weeks. Compared with the control leg of the study, there was no difference in plaque scores for high or low sugar diets, but the high sugar diet resulted in significantly more gingival inflammation and bleeding. Why?

Pro-Inflammatory And Anti-Inflammatory Nutrients

The impact of nutrition on inflammation is a balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory nutrients. Refined carbohydrates, saturated fats (dairy products, animal fats, some oils (coconut oil and palm kernel oil) and saturated fatty acids) are pro-inflammatory nutrients. On the other hand, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and antioxidants (e.g. carotenoids from green vegetables, tomatoes, fruits; polyphenols from vegetables, red wine, tea, pomegranates; vitamins from fruits, vegetables and sunlight) are known to be anti-inflammatory.

Free Radicals

During the production of energy by the cells, free radicals (FR) are produced as inevitable, but detrimental, by-products. A free radical could be defined as any species capable of independent existence (hence the term “free”) that contains one or more unpaired electrons. This most commonly affects oxygen, producing reactive oxygen species (ROS). Free radicals aggressively search for an electron to form a pair with the lone electron, so balancing their outer shell. Antioxidants supply this missing electron to the free radical, preventing it from causing cellular damage. If there are insufficient antioxidants or excessive free radicals, the search for an electron to quench the free radical becomes damaging. The easiest place for the FR to steal an electron from is fat, and the most readily available source of fat is the phospholipid bi-layer of all cell and organelle membranes. So free radicals cause immense damage to cell membranes, organelles and even DNA. It has been estimated that every cell in our body is attacked by free radicals 10,000 times per day.

Mitochondria are responsible for nearly all energy production in the body via the Krebs cycle, which takes place in the christae within the mitochondria. Excessive sugar and saturated fat drive the Krebs cycle too fast, producing vast numbers of free radicals, which spill out of the mitochondria into the cellular cytoplasm. The most potent cellular antioxidant, glutathione, neutralizes as many of these free radicals as possible, but is quickly overwhelmed, allowing free radicals to attack other organelles (including the nucleus and DNA) within the cell. Free radicals also leak out of the cell and damage its neighbours, resulting in the tissue damage and inflammation which underlies all disease.

Oxidative Stress

Conditions of excessive dietary refined carbohydrates, sugars and saturated fats are likely to be accompanied by deficient dietary intake of antioxidants and the anti-inflammatory omega 3 unsaturated fatty acids. The resultant overproduction of free radicals in an environment deficient in antioxidants allows the free radicals to cause enormous damage, known as oxidative stress. Prof. Dr. Helmut Sies (1986) stated: “Oxidative stress is defined as a process in which the balance between oxidants and antioxidants is shifted towards the oxidant side. This shift can lead to antioxidant depletion and potentially to biological damage if the body has insufficient reserve to compensate for consumed antioxidants.” Oxidative stress is the key orchestration point for the diverse signalling pathways that control inflammation.

Glutathione Controls Inflammation

It is essential to remember that when the antioxidant has donated an electron to the free radical, it itself is damaged and needs to be repaired in one of the many antioxidant regeneration cascades. In fact, research has shown that taking an antioxidant in isolation is more harmful than taking a placebo, so all vitamins and antioxidants are best taken in the form of whole foods, not man-made isolates. The intracellular antioxidant, glutathione, controls redox-regulated inflammatory genes as well as being a potent antioxidant in its own right. In this way, glutathione controls inflammation.

Free Radical Damage

In removing electrons from molecules, free radicals cause folding of proteins, shortening of telomeres (cellular senescence), random gene activation and damage to unsaturated fatty acids, nucleic acids, small organic molecules (e.g. vitamins and glutathione) and much more.

Those very same factors that were earlier shown to result in hyper-inflammation have now been shown to be equally involved in oxidative stress and antioxidant depletion, namely rheumatoid arthritis (dePablo et al 2008), obesity (Pischon et al 2007), type 2 diabetes (Taylor et al 2008), smoking related pathologies (Palmer et al 2005), cardiovascular disease (Dietrich et al 2008) and periodontitis (Chapple et al 2002). The pathways for both are undoubtedly interdependent.

The Neutrophil Extracellular Trap

More exciting research has just been completed involving the exacerbation of inflammation by the neutrophils (Palmer L et al, 2011, in press). Neutrophils are attracted to sites of inflammation as part of the immune response. When they die, their DNA is released, studded with lysozymes, forming a net. This biologically dangerously active neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) aids the immune response but is also implicated in auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and small vessel vasculitis. Periodontitis aggravates this neutrophil hyperactivity, which continues at a low level in susceptible patients, even after the thorough removal of plaque.

The Cause Of Periodontitis

So, does periodontitis cause the far reaching inflammation? Or is periodontitis one of the more visible signs of inflammation affecting many parts of the body simultaneously, with clearly differing clinical pictures, caused by some other underlying risk factors?

A diet rich in refined carbohydrates and excess saturated fats increases free radical production (oxidative stress) resulting in systemic inflammation (Monnier et al 2006). “Meal-induced inflammation” is now the term applied to post-prandial oxidative stress.

Consuming refined carbohydrates causes sudden increases in serum glucose levels, known as “glucose spikes”. These are thought to promote inflammation.

How Can We Eliminate “Glucose Spikes” And Resultant Inflammation?

As humans, by changing our dietary habits to include more raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, unsaturated fatty acids and fibre.
For rabbits, this means a diet of grass and hay.
For dogs and cats, a diet of raw meat and raw bone with liquidized raw green vegetables will prevent the glucose spikes and the ensuing inflammation.

Two supplements are available which have been researched and may do the same thing. These are Juice Plus for humans (Chapple ILC, 2011) and Pet Plus for pets (Penman and Tuck, 2000).

Processed pet foods are full of refined carbohydrates, saturated fats and denatured proteins. Is it any wonder we are confronted with such an alarming array of diseases in our pets these days?

Remember, refined carbohydrates cause oxidative stress and inflammation, the cause of all disease processes. Juice Plus and Pet Plus provide numerous antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and other essential micronutrients which help to prevent oxidative stress and inflammation, thus reducing the risk of disease in a simple way.

References

1. Sidi and Ashley (1983)
Journal of Periodontology 55: 419-423
2. Sies H (1986) Biochemistry of Oxidative Stress.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 1986: 25
3. Chapple ILC et al (2002)
Journal of Clinical Pathology: Molecular Pathology 55:367-373
4. Palmer L, Cooper PR, Chapple ILC (2011)
Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) regulates neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) release.
Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology April 2011 25
(Meeting Abstract Supplement) 116.7 (in press) .
5. Monnier L, Mas E, Ginet E, et al (2006)
Activation of oxidative stress by acute glucose fluctuations
compared with sustained chronic hyperglycemia in patients
with type 2 diabetes.
Journal of the American Medical Association 295:1681-1687
6. Chapple ILC et al (2011)(in press)
Impact of dietary augmentation with dried whole fruit,
vegetable and berry juice concentrates upon outcomes of
periodontal therapy: a randomized controlled trial.
7. Penman and Tuck (2000) A pilot study to explore the
effects of active enzymes on the oral health of cats and dogs.
BVDA Journal 2000

Enquiry

I just ordered another jar of Pet Plus for my 10yo Bichon/Maltese. It’s helping his arthritis!

What would cause kidney stones & yeast infections in his ears? I thought I had him on a good dry dog food~now I’m not so sure.

How & what food would someone start their dog on a raw food diet when they are currently on dry dog food without causing any further problems? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Reply

Thanks for your questions and your order. I posted your Pet Plus today.

The dried food is the most likely cause of his problems, so I’d recommend you change to raw. As you’re in USA, I just looked on the web and found several different raw dog food manufacturers.

What To Feed

Personally, I prefer to have simple minced meat and bone then liquidize my own green vegetables and add Pet Plus. I avoid complicated mixes and certainly do not advocate mixing fruit with the meat and bone mix.

Only when they’re used to eating the raw food in minced form would I consider feeding actual raw meaty bones. So after about a month on minced meat and bone, give raw meaty bones like raw chicken wings, raw chicken drumsticks and raw chicken carcasses about 3 times a week. Remember that raw means totally uncooked, not previously cooked and now cold!

Try to imitate the natural eating habits of dogs. They would eat whole herbivores, like rabbits, so they consume the meat and bone, organs, guts, fur, toe nails….the whole lot! So the liquidized greens and Pet Plus simulate the guts of the herbivore and the meat and bone mince provide the meat, organ meat and bone! I don’t think we need to add minced fur and toe nails really!!

How To Start

So I’d suggest you get a good quality minced meat and bone mix, let it defrost overnight naturally in a bowl (as packets usually leak…yuck!!).
Liquidize / pulverize some green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, parsley, celery…a good variety of greens) and mix them in with the mince, about 40% veg to 60% meat and bone.
Add Pet Plus, and for the first few weeks, mix in his usual food too, so you’re doing a 50:50 mix for the first week or two.
Gradually reduce the processed food and increase the raw mixture, till you stop the processed stuff altogether after about a month.

What To Avoid

Always avoid gluten (so any dried biscuit kibble type of food) and dairy. They are the main causes of allergic reactions and yeast infections in ears, because the allergic reaction creates inflammation which produces a warm moist environment which yeasts and other bugs just adore! So eliminate the cause so healing can take place.

Hydration

Hydration is essential as all mammals are about 75 – 80% water. So feeding dried food means the poor animal has to drink as much as possible to try and keep hydrated. It’s much, much better to feed wet raw food which contains all that natural liquid, so they are getting hydrated from both their food and any water they choose to drink. Make sure also that the water is filtered and fresh every day. If they’re drinking out of puddles and ponds, it’s because the water in their bowl is not fit to drink!

Dehydration is certainly a great contributor to kidney stones. I did it to myself 25 years ago when I had pneumonia and didn’t bother to drink. That was before I knew anything useful about nutrition really, even though I was a fully qualified vet!

Susanna McIntyre (Penman) BVSc MRCVS
Founding President of The British Veterinary Dental Association
Pant-Yr-Eos Farm, Henllys, Cwmbran, South Wales, NP44 7AS
Phone 01633-612595 Mobile 07973-295891
Email suzi.mcintyre@gmail.com
Web sites www.petplusvet.com for dogs and cats
www.juiceplus.co.uk/+sm995733 for people

Max Tuck BVetMed MRCVS
4 Ashley Close, Swanwick, Southampton, SO31 1FW
Mobile 07802-955119
Email maxtuck@tiscali.co.uk

Summary

This pilot study involved 13 cats and 2 dogs. The animals involved were all suffering from a degree of periodontal disease which required treatment. One of the cats involved had gingivitis/stomatitis complex. All the animals which were provided with the active enzyme supplement showed significant improvements in their oral health compared with the unsupplemented control group. The most notable was the dramatic improvement in the cat with gingivitis/stomatitis complex. As a result of these very encouraging findings, we are continuing to use Pet Plus in practice. Since this pilot study was completed in 1997, thousands of dogs and cats have benefited from the inclusion of Pet Plus in their diet.

Introduction

The modern diet of domesticated dogs and cats is very different from that of their wild counterparts. Cats have evolved as carnivores and in their wild state will catch and kill their own prey, eating the meat, bones, intestinal tract and offal. Dogs are more adaptable and, by nature, scavengers, but their natural diet is also raw, like that of the cat, although it usually contains more vegetation. There have been several studies showing improvements in oral health following a change from a processed food diet to a raw food diet in both dogs and cats. One of the major differences between these two diets is their enzymatic activity. As processed foods are produced at high temperatures, any active enzymes which may have been present in the original raw ingredients are destroyed.

This study explores the effects of adding a concentrated multiple micronutrient and active enzyme supplement (Pet Plus+ for Dogs™ or Pet Plus+ for Cats™) to processed pet food diets on the oral health of dogs and cats.

Materials and Methods

All cats and dogs were examined while under general anaesthesia, induced by Rapinovet and maintained by Halothane, nitrous oxide and oxygen, standard practice in 1997. Photographs were taken and the degree of gingivitis assessed using the following gingivitis index:
• I mild with no bleeding on probing
• II moderate with no bleeding on probing
• III severe with bleeding on probing
• IV severe with swelling or ulceration and spontaneous bleeding.

A thorough prophylaxis was performed with the details recorded on a dental chart. Further photographs were taken. All animals were discharged on 5 days of Synulox. The supplemented group commenced the daily enzyme supplement immediately upon discharge. The control group had no supplement.

Post-operatively, all animals were re-assessed on days 5, 14, 21 and 28, updating the dental records. Photographs were taken at 28 day intervals in most cases. Home-care was specifically not implemented in order to minimize the variables.

Results

The results are very interesting, with the improvements gained being maintained throughout the period of supplementation. Most of these animals have remained on the supplement and are planning to continue for life.
(a) Gingivitis in all supplemented animals improved and in some cases resolved. These changes were evident 5 days post-operatively and continued after withdrawal of antibiotic therapy.
(b) Gingivitis in the unsupplemented animals improved in most cases up to day 14, but with no home care and only a processed proprietary diet, the gingivitis had started to worsen by day 21; one cat had reverted to its original grade III gingivitis.
(c) Two unsupplemented cats showed no significant improvement by day 5 so further antibiotic therapy was implemented. This was continued up to day 21. Unfortunately one of these cats was withdrawn from the trial, but the other, after no improvement on 3 weeks of Synulox and an 8-day long-acting corticosteroid injection, joined the supplemented group, where his condition has greatly improved.
(d) The cat with gingivitis-stomatitis complex was in the supplemented group. At the start of the trial, the gingivitis was classified as grade IV with spontaneous bleeding of the gingival tissue. Pharyngeal ulceration was also present. Improvement to grade III gingivitis was noted by day 5 and by day 28 the examination and repeat photographs showed a grade I gingivitis with resolution of approximately half the area of pharyngeal ulceration.

Discussion

The preliminary findings of this study suggest that the micronutrient and enzyme activity of the food plays a significant role in the state of oral health. Recent research in the human field (I.L.C. Chapple et al) has shown that serum antioxidant levels are directly related to periodontal health. In addition, the other exposed epithelial surfaces (e.g. cervix and lungs) are affected in the same way. This emphasizes the importance of a thorough oral examination at every consultation as the state of oral health reflects the degree of health of the whole body. If oral health is poor, a natural whole food supplement is required to redress the balance of micronutrients which will provide the body with the ingredients it needs to effect repair and maintain health.

Pet Plus, the natural whole food nutritional supplement used in this study, contains active enzymes, antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, probiotics and prebiotics all from dehydrated, concentrated raw food. It is having a positive impact on the overall health of dogs and cats all over the world.

Micronutrients

It has long been realised that micronutrients (especially live, active enzymes) play an important role in the proper functioning of all living things. Only recently have we begun to understand that unless these are present in the diet, body systems begin to fail. This results in degenerative diseases, especially cancer and heart disease, and allergies, which are becoming increasingly common in the human and domestic animal populations of the developed world.

Why are active micronutrients so important?

(1) Free radical pathology is now largely accepted as a major cause of degenerative disease. It is estimated that every cell is exposed to free radical attack 10,000 times a day.
Antioxidants offer the major protection against these molecules.
Free radicals are unbalanced molecules which need an electron to regain their neutral balanced status. If this electron is taken from a cell, the cell is damaged, which is the beginning of free radical pathology.
Antioxidants work synergistically to provide the necessary electron to neutralize the free radical, thus protecting the cells.

The Antioxidant Recycling Cascade

That antioxidant is now short of an electron and effectively behaves like a free radical. It needs to be repaired by other antioxidants, phytonutrients and enzymes found in whole food sources but missing from isolated vitamin/mineral supplements. This natural antioxidant recycling cascade cannot work effectively when vitamins are given in isolation or in large amounts (e.g.1000mg vitamin C), because the damaged antioxidant is left unrepaired doing as much damage as the original free radical.
There are now known to be over 15,000 micronutrients in whole raw food all of which are required to maintain the fine natural synergistic balance of health.

(2) Enzymes are essential catalysts for all metabolic processes. Without enzymes, there would be no metabolic processes and hence no life. These are only available from a whole raw food source as it is essential to have all the enzymes together so they can work synergistically in an efficient natural balance. They are destroyed by heat and processing.

Micronutrients are used up during the process of living. They constantly need to be replaced. The only source is raw food. Without an adequate supply, the body gradually runs out of enzymes, antioxidants, phytonutrients, probiotics, prebiotics and other essential micronutrients resulting in a reduction of both the function and the protection of the body organs. Consequently degenerative disease is initiated. To prevent this, it is essential to provide a natural nutritional supplement, like Pet Plus, which provides all these nutrients.

In the developed world, we have moved away from raw food towards processed foods of enormous variety for ourselves and our pets. We are largely loathe to return to the perceived inconvenience of raw food.

A new era of nutritional supplements has evolved made from the raw food on which the animal is designed to live, being bio-available, bio-active and rich in active micronutrients which work together synergistically, but do not work properly in isolation. In this way, the essential elements of raw food, most of which have not yet been identified, are provided without the inconvenience, when added to the animal’s normal diet.

Human Research

Since 1992, several medical trials have been completed on people using Juice Plus, with very positive results including:
• huge increases in antioxidant levels with concomitant decreases in lipid peroxides (a measure of cellular free radical damage) (Wise J A et al, Leeds A.R. et al)
• 66% reduction in DNA damage (Smith M J et al)
• enhanced immunity (Inserra P.F. et al)
• improved muscle to fat ratio (Ray M et al)
• reduced plasma homocysteine (instrumental in the pathogenesis of heart disease) (Samman S et al, Panuzio M.F. et al)
• a reduction in the vasoconstriction which normally follows a fatty meal (Plotnick G.D. et al).

Clinically, one of the notable improvements is in the health of the oral tissues, a trial on which is currently running at Birmingham University Dental School, UK, under Professor Iain Chapple. It is due to be published in 2011.

Conclusion

The initial findings of this pilot study indicate that the micronutrient activity of food, its bio-availability and the synergistic actions of its components play an important role in the oral health of cats and dogs. Since the completion of this study in 1997, thousands of dogs and cats have been taking Pet Plus with excellent improvements in overall health and vitality.

References

Alpha-tocopherol, Beta-carotene, Cancer Prevention Study Group. The effect of vitamin E and beta-carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. New England Journal of Medicine. 1994;330:1455-1456

Chapple I.L.C. et al. Glutathione in gingival crevicular fluid and its relation to local antioxidant capacity in periodontal health and disease. Journal of Clinical Pathology: Molecular Pathology 2002:55:367-373

Inserra P F et al. Immune function in elderly smokers and nonsmokers improves during supplementation with fruit and vegetable extracts. Integrative Medicine 1999; 2(1); 3-10

Leeds A.R. et al. Availability of micronutrients from dried, encapsulated fruit and vegetable preparartions: a study in healthy volunteers. J Hum Nutr Dietet 2000; 13; 21-27

Panuzio M.F. et al. Supplementation with fruit and vegetable concentrate decreases plasma homocysteine levels in a dietary controlled trial. Nutrition Research: 2003; 23(9); 1221-1228

Plotnick G.D. et al. Effects of supplemental phytonutritents on the impairment of the flow-mediated brachial artery vasoactivity after a single high fat meal. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2003; 41: 1744-1749

Ray M. et al. Positive effects of nutritional supplements on body composition biomarkers of aging during a weight loss program. Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, March 1998

Samman S et al. Supplementation with mixed fruit and vegetable concentrate increases plasma antioxidant vitamins and lowers plasma homocysteine in men. Nutrition. 2003;133:2188-93

Smith M J et al. Supplementation with fruit and vegetable extracts may decrease DNA damage in the peripheral lymphocytes of an elderly population. Nutrition Research. 1999;19 (10):1507-1518

Wise J A et al. Changes in plasma carotenoids, alpha tocopherol and lipid peroxide levels in response to supplementation with concentrated fruit and vegetable extracts: a pilot study. Current Therapeutic Research 1996;57:445-461.

Further Reading

Billingshurst, I. (1993). Give Your Dog a Bone. I. Billingshurst, Lithgow.

Howell, E. (1985). Enzyme Nutrition; The Food Enzyme Concept. Avery Publishing Group Inc. Wayne, New Jersey. ISBN 0-89529-221-1

Lonsdale, T. (1995). Peiodontal disease and leucopenia. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 36, p542-546.

Pottenger, F.M. Jnr. (1995). Pottenger’s Cats. Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, San Diego, California.

DuBois Dr. R E. Oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of disease and ageing: an opportunity for intervention. 2003.

Original paper published in BVDAJ, 2000, page 7

I avoid the use of drugs wherever possible as they generally get rid of the symptoms without addressing the underlying cause. Allergies are not cortisone or anti-histamine deficiencies any more than a headache is an aspirin deficiency! I use nutrition as the most important part of any treatment.

Why?

The foundation of health is nutrition, providing the nutrients needed for the body to continuously repair and regenerate used and damaged cells. Remember, the body is made of cells, each with its own special function. For example, liver cells are all clustered together in an orderly manner to form the liver, each cell performing its task in conjunction with the other liver cells.

If the nutrients consumed are of poor quality, the repair and regeneration of cells will be of the same poor quality, so the body gradually degenerates. The regulatory mechanisms also start to malfunction and all sorts of bizarre reactions result, allergies being one.

It is not natural for cats to have fleas nor is it natural for them to have a violent reaction to a flea bite, often leading them to lick off their own fur and scratch themselves raw. These symptoms are evidence that something is desperately wrong, so something has to change!

Treatment

The first thing to do is to change the food. Feed your cats with raw meat and bone mixed with a teaspoon of liquidized greens and 1/4 teaspoon of Pet Plus. Any fleas will go. The cat’s immune system will gradually recover, the skin will be able to repair and the excessive scratching and licking will cease.

It takes time for this recovery to take place. The last cat I treated took 3 weeks to show signs of improvement, but then recovered completely in 2 months. Her fur is still growing back, so it’ll be a while before she looks completely normal, as she had licked off nearly all her fur, poor thing. Also, the owner couldn’t believe that such simple changes could make any difference, so she was a bit slow to get onto 100% raw food! Her cat was relying on the Pet Plus for the first few weeks as she was still receiving processed food. As soon as the owner saw the improvements in her cat after 3 weeks of adding the Pet Plus for Cats to the processed food, she changed her onto raw food with the Pet Plus.

Prevention

Wouldn’t it be better to feed raw food and Pet Plus from the start and prevent these horrible ailments? Just do it!! You know it makes sense!

How?

There are numerous frozen minced meat and bone mixtures available both online and from the pet shop. Prize Choice is one you can buy in pet shops. Cats tend to like the rabbit, chicken, tripe (just once a week!), fish and lamb. The tripe has no bone in it, but it is rich in other nutrients and really smells!! Great for the cat, not so good for the house! Online, you can get raw meat and bone minces form Natural Instinct and Darlings Real Dog Food, all great for cats!
They also thrive on raw chicken wings which you can give every day along with the minced meat and bone, liquidized greens and Pet Plus. This helps to keep their teeth in good health. It’s good to give them some raw heart once a week too.

They have stopped making the Juice Plus for Dogs and Cats so they can focus on the human version, which the humans in our family have been taking for 18 years! It’s brilliant. You can find more on this by visiting my Juice Plus web site.

As a naturopathic, holistic veterinary surgeon, I really valued the enormous benefits Juice Plus for Dogs and Cats brought to all the dogs and cats I treated. So I decided to manufacture it myself. I renamed it Pet Plus for Dogs and Pet Plus for Cats in 1997 when I first brought it to Europe.

Fantastic Health Improvements

In 1996-7 Max Tuck and I ran a Pilot Study to explore the effects of Pet Plus on cats and dogs with periodontal disease. We were staggered by the results. Even those poor cats with Chronic Feline Stomatitis and Gingivitis Complex gradually returned to normal, without the barbaric extraction of their teeth. Since then, numerous veterinary practices, pet health food shops and individuals have been telling me of the excellent results they are seeing with dogs and cats on Pet Plus.

You Are What You Eat

Good nutrition is the foundation of good health. How can we expect our pets to be healthy when we feed them the same old biscuits or the same old tinned meat every day? Would we feed our children like that? Would we eat that kind of food ourselves, every single day? Of course not!

All the nutrients are destroyed in the processing of these foods so as time goes on, your poor old pet gradually deteriorates. Adding Pet Plus to their food puts all the essential, delicate nutrients back, enabling your pet to digest their food and maintain youthful health and vitality.

Better still, feed the food carnivores like dogs and cats are designed to eat! Have a think about what they would eat in the wild. Whole, fresh herbivores, like mice and rabbits. They eat the meat, bone, fur, guts, organs, toe nails….the whole lot! We can come close to providing the same nutritional value as their wild diet by feeding raw meat and bone, liquidized greens and Pet Plus, which supplies the nutrients and probiotics they would otherwise gain from eating the herbivore’s guts.

Pet Plus

I am committed to providing the very best nutritional support for our dogs and cats in Pet Plus! As the benefits of other fabulous, important, natural whole food nutrients are discovered, I am constantly updating the ingredients and improving the formulation, thus ensuring Pet Plus is always the very best!

Why Use Probiotics?

Most holistic practitioners, like me, have been using probiotics for decades, but it is only now that our colleagues in the ‘normal’ allopathic veterinary world have realized their importance. The enormous range of benefits is only just being discovered by scientists, doctors and vets.

This week, there was an article in the Veterinary Times entitled ‘Probiotics: the new treatment for acute diarrhoea in cats and dogs’.

Pet Plus has been an essential part of my treatment for acute and chronic diarrhoea since its creation in 1996. You may have already read my article about Chester, a Golden Retriever who had diarrhoea for 6 years! He’s completely healthy now and has his Pet Plus every single day! There are hundreds of dogs and cats with intestinal troubles, all related to diet, all sorted by adding Pet Plus to their food. The probiotics are definitely part of the story.

Probiotics are involved in so many areas of the body that their inclusion in any diet is now regarded as essential. By colonizing most of the body’s surfaces, they help to prevent pathogenic, bad bacteria and yeasts from invading.

How Many Different Bacteria Are Needed?

There is a lot of discussion on this topic and no real conclusion. Some people think it is beneficial to have loads of different healthy bacteria. It is also thought that if there are lots of different types of bacteria all trying to colonize the one place, they will be competing against each other. The ‘strongest’ one will win and the ‘weaker’ colonizers will be lost. That is why we have chosen the ‘strongest’ one, Lactobacillus acidophilus.

It is generally accepted that at least 500,000,000 CFU are needed to maintain an effective presence. Currently in Pet Plus, we have 750,000,000 CFU (Colony Forming Units) which has proved to be very effective over the years. Even so, we will be increasing this in our next batch in August 2011.

Which Bacteria Are The Best Probiotics?

A lot of the drug companies that have suddenly realized there’s a huge market in probiotics are using Enterococcus faecium. The world leading manufacturer of nutritional supplements that I have chosen to make Pet Plus refuse to use Enterococcus faecium because they regard it as a contaminant! They know that it readily transfers antibiotic resistance and as such is dangerous.

Lactobacillus acidophilus has been used for decades and is well established as a completely safe and extremely effective probiotic. It is found naturally in the intestines of dogs and cats as well as the herbivores they would eat in the wild. Being the best colonizer, it also creates a slightly acidic environment which repells the pathogens and enables it to survive transit through the stomach.

Probiotics are not found in pet food. They are very delicate and so could not survive the processing involved in the manufacture of pet food. Unless you are feeding whole herbivores to your dogs and cats, probiotics will also be missing from a raw food diet comprising meat and bone.

Dogs can supplement their diet by eating herbivore faeces. Cats can gain probiotics by catching herbivores and eating them whole. But these are rather unreliable! Adding Pet Plus ensures that our pets are getting the probiotics, prebiotics and a host of other fantastic nutrients every day.

What Are Prebiotics?

Probiotics are living organisms and need food, now known as prebiotics. Fructo-oligo-saccharides (FOS) have recently been identified as the most useful and are found in all sorts of vegetable matter. Pet Plus contains plenty in the form of wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa and even the ground flax seeds act as prebiotics. We have now included Frutafit Inulin IQ, an excellent, tasteless FOS from chicory, which stimulates the growth of existing healthy gut bacteria as well as promoting the colonization of the Lactobacillus acidophilus in the Pet Plus.

It is now thought that the prebiotics are more important in a supplement than the probiotics, as they support the existing healthy bacterial population in the gut. We have both in Pet Plus.

In Summary

It is essential to provide a good source of healthy bacteria (probiotics) and support them with the nutrients they need (prebiotics) to maximize the benefits of good quality nutrition. In nature, carnivores would obtain these from the intestines of their prey. We need to provide them for our pets, whether their diet is raw or processed.

Diarrhoea

For the first 6 years of his life, he had diarrhoea. The vets prescribed everything they could think of, the owners tried every different diet they could think of, but still, every morning, Chester’s Mum had a lovely brown, creamy mess to clear up.

Pica

Golden Retrievers and Labradors are often called ‘dustbin dogs’ because they will often eat anything they can find and have been known to scavenge through people’s bins for scraps! Chester was no exception, but he had a particular liking for rubber, especially used condoms, much to the embarrassment of the family.

Fleas And Dull Coat

His coat was dull and dry. Fleas came back so quickly after chemical flea treatments, it almost wasn’t worth doing. Parasites always infest the under-dog! Chester’s immune system and overall health were so poor that he could not repel the fleas naturally.

Lethargy And Obesity

Golden Retriever pups are usually so full of beans that they almost knock you over. Poor ‘old’ Chester came into the consulting room and flopped down on the floor. He looked like a fat old chap, but he was only six! Apparently, he had always been like this. The family just thought it was his nature.

Recurrung Mast Cell Tumours

The most alarming thing was that over the last 6 months he had suffered from 3 aggressive mast cell tumours in different places, which had been surgically removed and analyzed. The prognosis was poor.

How Did We Turn Chester’s Health Around?

Diarrhoea is the body’s way of getting rid of something, so the first thing to do is to stop putting anything in; so 24 hours’ starvation, with filtered water to drink.
Treatment needs to work with the body, not against it, so we started by giving him Argiletz clay mixed with Aloe Vera 6 times a day to adsorb the toxins that his body was trying to get rid of and calm his intestines down a bit. Probiotics (in Pet Plus) daily recolonized the gut with healthy bacteria, essential to proper function.
After a few days on this and raw eggs mixed with boiled rice, his bowels settled down and he was passing normal poohs at last! A few days later, he was given some minced raw rabbit with minced bone (Prize Choice), mixed with liquidized greens and Pet Plus, a little and often. Over the next few weeks, his meal sizes increased and their frequency decreased until he was on two meals a day.

Result!

Chester has now been eating raw meat and bone with liquidized raw greens and Pet Plus for two years and has had perfect poohs every day!
His fleas have gone, his coat is glossy, he is beautifully slim and absolutely full of energy.
And best of all, no more cancer!

Probiotics

Probiotics are the healthy bacteria that inhabit all healthy mammalian digestive systems. They are essential for digestion, gut stability and protection from invasion by pathogens. In Pet Plus, we have chosen huge numbers of Lactobacillus acidophilus. This probiotic is an excellent colonizer, growing successfully in the feline and canine gut thereby preventing the growth of pathogens. We realized that there is little point in providing numerous different species of probiotic as they just compete with each other for a place in the gut to grow! Lactobacillus acidophilus is so named because it creates a slightly acid local environment in the gut, an environment in which most pathogens fail to thrive. The range of antibiotic compounds made by these probiotics also inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria.

Speaking of antibiotics, broad spectrum anti-bacterial agents (antibiotics) are often used to combat illnesses and as growth promoters in farm animals. Unfortunately, they don’t just destroy the pathogenic bacteria, but the beneficial ones (probiotics) as well, so many of our pets are inadvertently suffering from sub-clinical probiotic deficiency! That’s why diarrhoea is such a common side-effect of antibiotic treatment. A constant supply of good healthy probiotics helps to maintain an active population of these beneficial bacteria.

A diet of whole herbivores, guts and all, would be ideal! It would supply plenty of probiotics, but of course we rarely have the opportunity to feed such luxuries to our carnivorous pets. When we go on holiday to Scotland, we feed ‘road kill’ to the dogs. They love this early morning full Scottish breakfast of fresh, whole rabbit! Living in the countryside, our cats have plenty of ‘meals on legs’ to choose from too!

Digestible grasses

Herbivore guts contain well chewed, partly digested grasses amongst other things. This invaluable source of phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fibre and even essential fatty acids is vital to the overall health of our carnivorous pets. Even though we mix liquidized greens with the meat and bone minces, they are still difficult for our pets to digest. The enzymes in Pet Plus include cellulase which helps to break down the plants’ cellulose cell walls, releasing the nutrients for our pets to absorb.

Pet Plus is also an excellent source of ‘predigested’ grasses, including the extremely nutrient dense ‘Kamut’ wheat grass, barley grass and alfalfa. The beet root fibre is an additional source of fibre.

These green grasses and beet root fibre not only provide essential nutrients and micronutrients for our pets, but they are also ‘prebiotics’, supporting and nourishing those vital probiotics.

On the days when we feed our team on raw chicken carcasses, meaty bones or chunks of meat, it seems impossible to mix in the greens. So we simply sprinkle Pet Plus onto their food, so they get their greens that way!

What Would Dogs And Cats Eat In The Wild?

In the wild, both dogs and cats would eat other animals, usually herbivores. From this, they would consume mainly meat, bone, gut contents, offal, fat and skin. Dogs are also scavengers and would eat a range of vegetation as well as any rotting carcasses they found. Both dogs and cats would eat eggs too.

What’s In The Herbivore’s Gut?

Larger herbivores like sheep, cattle, horses and even rabbits are designed to eat grass and other equally fibrous, abrasive vegetation. Smaller animals like mice and the types of birds our carnivores could catch also eat vegetation including grass, berries and other fruit. Grain is largely produced by humans and would not be readily available in large quantities in the wild.

All this food is well chewed and ground into a pulp. Ruminants regurgitate their food and chew it again many times. This begins the process which releases the nutrients packed inside the cellulose cell walls of all plant matter. It also increases the surface area available for the digestive enzymes to work on.

The herbivore’s gut contains numerous bacteria, probiotics, which are essential for the breakdown of plant material. In ruminants, like sheep and cows, the bacterial fermentation chamber (the rumen) is at the beginning of the digestive tract, one of their four stomachs. In other herbivores like horses and rabbits, fermentation takes place at the end of the gut, so they have to eat some of their faeces to gain the nutrients they need from the grass they eat, a habit called coprophagia.

How Can We Do This For Our Dogs And Cats?

We need to do our best to imitate this wild diet.

Raw meat and bone

Various frozen minced meat and bone mixes are readily available. I use Natural Instinct, Darling’s and Prize Choice. I also feed whole organic chicken carcasses from Riverford Organics 2-3 times a week. Some offal is included in many of the minces, but you could also feed some heart once a week. Excess liver can result in hypervitaminosis A which is one of the causes of osteoporosis in both people and pets, so I am very cautious and rarely give extra liver.
Variety is the key. No animal would live on just one type of meat for ever!

Vegetables

Dogs and cats do not chew their food anything like as thoroughly as herbivores, so they are largely unable to access those essential nutrients hiding in plant cells, unless it’s already been eaten by a herbivore! Liquidize or pulverize green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, celery, parsley; you can even use grass, but be very careful! Ensure it is clean and free from weedkillers, fertilizers and any other chemicals or pollutants.
Mix this pulp with the minced meat and bone, even if it already contains vegetables, as it is the green vegetables that are important. Dogs thrive on about 1 part veg to 1 or 2 parts meat and bone mince. For cats, mix a teaspoonful of veg with their meat and bone mince.
Green tripe has a lot of green vegetation in amongst the stomach walls that comprise the tripe. It stinks, but both cats and dogs love it raw!
Pet Plus is an excellent source of wheat grass, barley grass and alfalfa, so mix this in as well.

Probiotics

Liquidized greens don’t contain everything that would be found in the guts of the herbivore. We need to add probiotics and the very best one is found in Pet Plus. These friendly bacteria contribute hugely to the breakdown of the vegetation and also help to stabilize and protect the gut from pathogens.

In Summary

Raw meat and bone, liquidized greens and Pet Plus all mixed together form the mainstay of the raw diet for cats and dogs. 2-3 times a week, give raw meaty bones like chicken wings, chicken drumsticks, chicken carcasses, but be careful to ensure the bones are raw and covered with meat. Green tripe once a week is a deliciously smelly, nutritious treat!
If you are just beginning, start with the minced meat and bone with liquidized veg and make sure your dog or cat is used to eating raw before you offer them a bone. If you give raw meaty bones to pets that have been on processed food all their lives, they’ll be so excited at getting real food, they might just wolf it down without chewing it, which might cause a problem.