Healthy Pets by Michelle Nelson

 

OK, you are not really going to send your pet to treatment, but detoxing your pet’s liver on a regular basis is extremely important. The liver’s primary function is to process nutrients from food, produce bile to aid in digesting food, filter toxins and waste from the bloodstream, and produce proteins along with over 500 other functions. The liver has a huge job and with the highly toxic environment that our pets live in, we need to assist our pets in cleansing their livers!

Right now, we are in the heart of seasonal allergy season, and for most pets that means a daily dose of corticosteroids and antihistamines. While steroids may soothe the symptoms of an allergy, they weaken the normal function of the liver, leaving it unable to filter out toxins and free radicals efficiently. When the liver is overloaded, it will overreact to non-threatening intruders, resulting in an overstimulated immune system, which is often what happens during allergy season. If the liver was cleansed regularly, you would not see as severe of an allergic reaction in your pets.

Monthly doses of flea and tick and heart worm treatments also damage the liver over time. Then you add yearly vaccinations that are high in heavy metals, and the liver takes a beating. What if your pet has to be on a prescription medicine for an extended amount of time? Read the known side effects — several of them cause liver damage. Conventional treatments and medicine can really take a toll on the liver.

Environmental toxins are at an all-time high. Think about all of the pesticides and herbicides that our pets are exposed to every time they walk outside? Then they lie down and groom themselves ingesting all those toxic chemicals. Think about your home — are you using any chemical cleaning products, plug-in air fresheners with synthetic ingredients or what are you using for laundry soap to wash pet beds?

Your pet’s food most likely has toxins in it, especially if you are feeding a highly processed commercial dry food. Even fresh fruits and veggies, if they are not organic, contain a high amount of pesticides that the liver has to filter out. No matter what you do, how careful you are, your pets are exposed to an excessive amount of toxins that are flooding their liver every single day.

The good news is, the liver is an amazing organ that can easily be cleansed (repaired) with the right products. Milk thistle is one of my favorites as it can aid in protecting the liver from future damage, as well as repairing the damage that’s already been done. Milk thistle cleans out the environmental toxins and free radicals that will ultimately cause damage to the cells. Milk thistle can be used two weeks at a time for normal detoxification.

Another detoxification product that I love is Liver Rescue by Homeopet. Liver Rescue is a homeopathic remedy used for removal of unwanted environmental toxins from organs, resulting in increased energy, overall health and well being. This product would be used once every three months for regular liver cleansing.

Since there is no way possible to live in a toxin-free environment, our pet’s liver is really taking a beating every single day. You can help your pet feel better, be stronger and live a healthier, longer life by regularly detoxing his/her liver. You may want to detox your own liver while you are at it.

 

Michelle Nelson is the owner of  The Pet Authority in Albert Lea.