Atlantic Ave Magazine - April 2020 Issue

misc | ask the petxpert
BY Bill Piechocki and Dr. Diane Sudduth, DVM
Is My Pet Being Poisoned?
As proud pet owners, we often are concerned with our pets’
health. We worry when they have an “off” activity day, lose
their appetite for a day or two, maybe even vomit or have
loose stools. Sometimes tough decisions must be made in how to
react. “Are they sick” or just “off?” Veterinary visits can be costly
and economics and budgets continue to be factors in what we decide.
Many try to self-diagnose online, others seek the advice of fellow
pet owners or pet “experts” at the local pet store. If we could
understand the possible causes, our decisions would be simple.
All disease boils down to two primary causes, deficiency and
toxicity. It is a combination of both, working together that creates
a dysfunction in the body. Often it is only a short-term issue as the
body is designed to heal itself naturally. We are tasked with understanding
what our pets are exposed to, both good and harmful
and make the appropriate lifestyle changes.
Let me explain how these issues occur. The deficiency issue
starts with the feeding of a highly processed, low nutrient,
monolithic diet. The lack of diversity or varieties in foods creates
voids of certain bioavailable nutrients. Synthetic, chemically
added supplements have been the culprit of many pet food
recalls and pet deaths.
The toxicity issues are from many different sources. We can go
back to the synthetic supplements and then add in the plethora
of color, artificial flavors, stabilizers, stimulants and preservatives
that are not only added to the food but are in other ingredients
being used that are not even listed on the package. To add to the
toxic load are the chemical exposures that they breathe in daily,
such as government spraying for mosquitoes and other pathogens,
air fresheners and household cleaners. Dogs are also exposed to
all the lawn chemicals and boosters including the weed killers that
are linked to cancer. We need to look at the toxicity of drugs and
medication we freely use on our pets without understanding their
possible side effects and adverse events listed on product inserts.
This warning is being sounded because beyond cancer, liver
and kidney failure cases have become the main causes of death
in our pets. Liver and kidney issues are caused by a breakdown
of the organs ability to process and eliminate waste. If that waste
contains large quantities of toxic chemicals, the cells that function
are injured or die. If they cannot function properly, the whole
body suffers. Every parasitic drug is a poison, whether it’s for
fleas, ticks, heartworms or others. Every vaccine your pet gets
contains toxic heavy metals such as aluminum and mercury.
When our pets are fed an abundance of commercial single food
diets, the immune system becomes compromised and unable to
defend itself against the assault of the toxins. When we see our
pets not acting normal and appear to be “sick,” we need to take a
moment to reflect on our approach to feeding and medicating our
pets. Ask yourselves this…Did we treat our lawn or deep clean
our house? Did we vaccinate or medicate our pets recently? Did
we change foods?
In most cases if we look and understand what our pets are exposed
to and move to a more natural lifestyle, our pets will experience
a longer healthier life.
Bill Piechocki, nutritionist and Dr. Diane Sudduth, DVM are partners in
Fiesta Pet Deli/dba My Paleo Pet in Pompano Beach, FL, and co-hosts of
the PetHealthCafe.com radio show. Our 40 years in the animal field has
provided us unparalleled vision and information which we pass to our clients
daily. Visit us at www.PetHealthCafe.com or 800-940-7387. Call us for a free
consultation or stop by Fiesta Pet Deli/dba My Paleo Pet 954-971-2500,
we would be more than happy to help.
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FOR OUR PETXPERT TO: PETS@ATLANTICAVEMAGAZINE.COM
these pets are available for adoption
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561-482-8110
www.tricountyhumane.org
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A NO-KILL animal shelter.
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This cute girl is a 1.5-year-old Chihuahua mix,
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polly was happy and loved by a man in his
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She wants to know if you can be her person.
All animals are up-to-date
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Adoption fees $110 and up.
90 | April 2020 | www.AtlanticAveMagazine.com