3 Key Areas to Focus on For Your Pet’s Health: Insights from a Holistic Veterinarian

Embracing a new year is like hitting the reset button on our lives-- an opportunity to make resolutions, set goals, and upgrade key areas of life. We want to take better care of ourselves and those we love, including our pets. As a holistic veterinarian, I recommend a renewed focus on these three areas of your pet’s health that may benefit from an upgrade.

1. Nutrition & Gut Health. Your pet’s microbiome (the bacteria that live in their stomach and intestines) can affect many aspects of health. The balance of bacteria can play a role in digestion, hormonal balance, mood and levels of inflammation. Feeding a raw diet is one of my favorite ways to improve my patients’ gut health. Raw diets likely improve the balance of your pet’s gut bacteria due to the longer transit time through the digestive tract as compared to processed pet food. If your pet is new to eating raw, I recommend starting with Stella & Chewy’s Chicken Frozen Raw Patties for dogs and Chick, Chick Chicken Frozen Dinner Morsels for cats. If you feel you cannot accommodate the thawing process, or have the freezer space, for a frozen raw diet, consider adding freeze dried raw to your pet’s current diet with freeze dried options such as Plate Lickin’ Pork Freeze Dried Dinner Morsels for cats or Purely Pork Meal Mixers for dogs.

2. Dental Health. Your pet’s dental health is just as important as their nutrition, and there are a variety of ways you can maintain your furry friend’s oral health at home. When dental disease is left untreated it causes inflammation that seeds into the bloodstream affecting major organs like the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs. Dental disease is also painful and most pets suffer silently. Most dogs and cats won’t stop eating or show any signs of pain with dental disease. While brushing your pet’s teeth every day is ideal, many factors may prevent this from being realistic. Looking in your pet’s mouth weekly can go a long way in catching dental disease earlier. Look for broken teeth, tartar accumulation, and red gums. An annual oral exam with your pet’s veterinarian is also vital.

3. Mental Health. Our pets definitely improve our mental health, and it’s time to give some attention to theirs. Your pet’s mental well-being can affect their physical health too. Here are a few easy tips to help improve your pet’s state of mind:

For Cats

• Vertical spaces. Let your cat be the king of the living room jungle by installing a few cat shelves on the wall or by adding a cat tree.
• Food puzzles. Load a few pieces of kibble or freeze dried raw in a food puzzle, such as Stella & Chewy’s Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey Freeze Dried Raw Dinner Morsels. This allows your cat to recreate the prey cycle by hunting and catching their food.
• Catio. These outdoor enclosures are a great way to expose your cat to the stimulating outdoors without risking interactions with other animals and cars.

For Dogs

• Walking. This form of exercise is underrated and should be a daily staple in your dog’s routine. A five-minute walk around the block can do wonders for your dog’s mental health. Walking can also help your pup maintain a healthy body condition and keep them well-muscled, preventing future arthritis.
• Food puzzles. Physical exercise is not enough to keep your dog mentally healthy. Food puzzles help prevent boredom and allow your dog to use their higher problem-solving skills. Be sure to pick a challenging problem to solve.
• Create a safe space. Every dog needs a place where they can relax. This will look differently for each dog. Cultivate a space that is free from your dog’s stressors, which may include other dogs, children, loud noises etc. This safe space could be a kennel, a bed or corner in a quiet room.

Your pet is lucky to be loved by you. Keep educating yourself and advocating for your pet.

Complete a Pet Profile to receive tailored content direct to your inbox, plus a $5 coupon to revitalize your pet with Stella & Chewy’s!