The Real Cost Of Rescue - Why Even 'Good' Rescue Dogs Struggle

As a holistic veterinarian, Dr. Levy has seen firsthand that the true cost of rescuing a dog extends far beyond the adoption fee. Rescue dogs often arrive with unique physical, emotional, behavioral, and nutritional needs that require patience, commitment, and a whole-body approach to healing.

In this video, we'll explore the real financial, emotional, and health costs of adopting a rescue dog, along with practical ways to help them thrive naturally.

You'll learn:
🐾 The hidden medical costs many adopters don't anticipate
🐾 Why gut health, nutrition, and the microbiome matter after adoption
🐾 How stress and trauma affect a rescue dog's immune system and behavior
🐾 Common health issues seen in rescued dogs
🐾 Natural ways to support detoxification, immunity, and recovery
🐾 The importance of enrichment, exercise, and emotional healing
🐾 Creating a wellness plan for long-term health—not just disease prevention

Whether you're considering your first rescue dog or have welcomed several into your family, understanding their holistic needs can help them transition from surviving to truly thriving.

Every rescue dog has a story. With informed care, patience, proper nutrition, holistic veterinary guidance, and compassion, you can become an important part of their next chapter.

Have you rescued a dog? Share your experience in the comments! What surprised you most about the journey?

👍 If you found this helpful, please Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications for more evidence-informed holistic pet health, natural nutrition, preventative care, and wellness tips for dogs and cats.

👉🏼 RESOURCES 👈🏼

💭Curious about the holistic approach to animal care?  Get Wellspring's free Intro Guide which includes the gut reset protocol!

🐕 Learn how to feed raw and protect your dog from pests naturally with the guides in our Basics Bundle!

💪🏼 Want to support your dog's hormone health?  Gender specific beef organ supplements from Heart & Soil are an excellent option!

🦠 GUT RESET SUPPLEMENTS 🦠

Standard Process Enteric Support and Standard Process Immune Support can be purchased here:  Standard Process

4 Leaf Rover Organ Care and 4 Leaf Rover Protect can be purchased here:
4 Leaf Rover

Need a therapeutic gut restoration?  Check out Animal Biome Gut Restore From Raw Fed Dogs

✳️Green Lipped Mussel Oil is an excellent source of omega-3's and fighter of inflammation.  It offers a natural, marine-based alternative to fish oil, with unique anti-inflammatory properties and broad support for joint, cardiovascular, brain, and eye health.

🔅When selecting a green-lipped mussel oil product, consider:

Purity and extraction method: Cold-extraction preserves bioactive compounds 

Concentration of omega-3s: Higher concentrations provide more potent anti-inflammatory effects 

Sustainability: Look for products sourced from clean, renewable New Zealand waters 

Don't miss future episodes!

Make sure to follow to catch more insight into the holistic approach for animals in an inviting, honest, and realistic way, right here on The Crunchy Carnivore Podcast.

Connect with Dr Levy & Melissa

Instagram |  wellspring_haa

YouTube | Wellspring Holistic Animal Academy - YouTube

Website | wellspringhaa.com

Email | wellspringhaa@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Even if maybe the history of the dog in the shelter is actually not bad history, what is kind of what kind of happens through the shelter process, these dogs really just kind of have a rougher start and and kind of automatically come with baggage regardless of where they came from.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Welcome to another episode of the Crunchy Carnivore Podcast. I'm Jessica Levy, Holistic Veterinarian, and this is Melissa Weidenhammer, certified canine nutritionist and holistic breeder. In this episode, we're going to talk about what special considerations uh you might have for when you get your dog from a rescue. So we've talked a lot about the natural rearing process and looking for the naturally reared puppy and doing everything holistically and maybe getting a puppy that's already been started off in that direction. But sometimes we get dogs from other places.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

And I think it's probably a lot more common, you know, to get a puppy or a dog from a situation that is not that. Um, and and it can look like a lot of different things. Uh, but when you are of a more holistic mindset uh or coming to the table wanting to do things holistically or naturally this time because maybe you had a bad experience with a dog last time and you really feel passionate about rescue, once you understand these principles and kind of how important it is to have that solid foundation in all the ways that we talk about, and you take on a puppy from a shelter, or you take on, you know, a dog from a rescue, we want to be very um clear about what that means, what that looks like, because it it is not the clean slate that you would get if you were to get a puppy from a natural rearing breeder.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Right, because when you get a puppy from an NR breeder, they're already prepared in many ways. They're already eating raw food, they've already had uh, you know, their um their intestinal microbiome cultivated. And so you're just kind of picking up from there and going on with it. But when you get a dog from different sources, you're the one who um ideally is gonna start them on the road to health and start that gut healing process. And we've all done this. I've gotten uh plenty of dogs from rescues, I've picked up plenty of strays. Uh one of my dogs uh was returned to a breeder and she gave him to me. Um I've had dogs dropped at my door on their way to, you know, otherwise they'd be euthanized. Um I had a dog that I got on Craigslist. Uh and so, you know, and you've had dogs also from similar sources.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Yep, the the the dog that forever changed everything. Uh we got her as a puppy, but she was uh from a very neglected bad situation uh with her litter mates. And so, you know, by the time we got her, she had already been through a lot of trauma. Um and of course was conventionally raised. So there was, you know, because of that tech just like pitched in and and helped take care of, you know, just to find them homes, which bless her heart. I mean, I'm grateful every day that she did that. So uh yeah, it just it can look um, it can look, it's it can be basically we want to talk about that you you don't know the history sometimes. And even if maybe the history of the dog in the shelter is actually not bad history, right? What is kind of what kind of happens through the shelter process, these dogs really just kind of have a rougher start and and kind of automatically come with baggage regardless of where they came from, you know, and of course where they came from can bring with it a whole lot of issues as well. But right.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

And I think that's just very typical of shelters and rescues. There's gonna be basically an assembly line process. So um all the dogs will get these vaccines at these intervals. Uh if they're not spada neutered, they're gonna be spada neutered. Regardless of age. Yeah. And sometimes regardless of health condition. Uh and then, you know, basically the goal is to find them homes as quickly as possible. Uh they're going to have uh some sort of flea and tick preventive applied. Um they may have been treated for heartworm disease by the rescue or the shelter. They may have been treated for like respiratory infections or diarrhea. So there's basically a lot that goes on with these dogs in a fairly short time. And then we bring them home.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

And it's really like it's understandable why they have this process, and it's understandable what their like their main goal is. And so, you know, we're not trying to paint shelters or rescues as anything, like they're great and it they serve an um an immense um purpose and value to uh to dog lovers everywhere. Uh, but these are just this is just a reality of the process, right? And so um, you know, when you know you have all of these different factors, especially regardless of age. I mean, we we hear about puppies being spayed or neutered at 10 weeks old. I mean, that is just um so, so early and um comes by itself with it a tremendous amount of of issues.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So and I think um, you know, we're in Minnesota, which is a very uh dog-loving, dog-oriented state. I don't know if every state in the union is like this, but there is a constant flood of dogs. Um we have rescues here that go to Missouri and shop at the puppy mill auctions and rescue those dogs. There are groups that are constantly bringing in dogs from kill shelters in southern states. Um, I mean, it's amazing how many dogs arrive in this state that are not purchased from breeders but are brought in. I mean, the rescues here do a tremendous job. Um, and then we still have the occasional pet store that actually sells puppies and kittens. So I had one in yesterday. One of my clients um bought a new puppy from one of our local pet stores. And the thing with those two, um, at least in this state, and I think it is uh national law that breeders cannot sell uh directly to pet stores. Um and so the those uh puppies, the pet store has to purchase them from dealers who purchase them from breeders. Oh wow. And so there's this whole network, those puppies have gone through a lot of stress because of course the pet store wants to get them as young as possible so that you can sell a young puppy. Um there's a lot that happens to them in a short period of time.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

And so, you know, this it really does um lend itself to you kind of have, you know, one of two types of people that end up taking in these kind of rescue cases, which again, it can be anything from you rescued a dog off the side of the road to a shelter or foster situation. Um, or maybe you did buy it from a breeder, but it wasn't the best situation. And so you're kind of rescuing the puppy from a breeder. I mean, that happens all the time too. So rescue can look like a lot of different things. Uh, but uh usually you've got either kind of um two types of homes. You've got a kind of temporary foster home that's gonna hold these animals until they're rehabilitated or ready, or there there is a proper home find found for them to be placed in, um, or you're going to be that you want that as your dog, your, your pet. And so you're gonna be the forever home for this particular animal. Um, and so what we want to do is we kind of want to lay out expectations and kind of maybe recommendations for um, you know, if you whichever person you are, uh maybe what you can do uh or what we would recommend you do from a holistic standpoint, and also kind of just setting expectations because you know, you are getting an animal with that's had just kind of a rougher go uh before before they've gotten to you.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

And we um covered this in uh one of our podcast interview episodes where we interviewed Air Gustafson. Um, and she actually did this. So she adopted a dog from I think Zephyr came from a shelter and um really had it beautifully planned out. How to um oh, what's the word? How to incorporate her into the household integrate, I don't know. Integrate, integrate. Yes. And then uh she was already, air is already a raw feeder, so she had this whole thing planned, how to get Zephyr onto raw food as quickly as possible and move through those things. So that's an episode definitely worth watching because that dog did have some issues and she was able to restore her health.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

So let's talk first about kind of um if you're a foster, if you're kind of a temporary foster home, um, you're you're most likely going to be linked to, you know, to a rescue organization and what that could look like and you know, really what to expect and kind of what you're what you're looking at there is you know, is being able to maybe really start to build some health into this animal, even though maybe you not may not have them for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Right. And that kind of depends on the rules and regulations of the rescue organization. Um some organizations are you know move dogs in and out pretty quickly, and so the foster may feel that you don't have very much time with this dog, so why go to the trouble of switching it to raw food? And then you don't know if the person who adopts it is gonna feed it something else. Maybe they don't want to feed it raw food, and so you know, there might not be a whole lot of continuity in the type of holistic care that you would prefer to give a dog. Maybe they're not gonna get that in the next home that they go to. I always think about those that if you can give the dog better health for the few weeks that you have it, why wouldn't you just kind of give it that jump start? And then, you know, maybe it would be healthier when it goes to the next person. I think that would be a good thing. But some rescues won't let you do that. Some of them are quite strict about having to feed the food that the rescue wants you to use or do or have it be within certain guidelines.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Or do like the the medical plan that the rescue has in place. And so that might be the responsibility of the foster. Um, I have clients who foster for um, I think it's uh can do canines. Uh this organization uh breeds their own service dogs and then they train them and then you know gift them to uh people who need service dogs. That's amazing. Yeah, so they foster for them, and so their own dog is raw fed, but they are not allowed to feed the foster dog raw food because it's gonna be fed kibble. Even though they have this dog for a year or something like that. And then they have, you know, they have to do all this training with the foster dog. I mean, these are dedicated fosters. Well, and I had these dogs.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Yeah, I had the privilege, and I think you went out too. You helped with the temperament testing for uh Great Dane rescue here in Minnesota. What a fun um experience that was. So Dr. Levy got to go out and help perform temperament testing for a litter of puppies that came in with one of the Great Danes. I think there were 10 of them. There was 10 of them.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Oh my gosh, and they were all different colors. It was so they were really, really cute. And the mother dog was super stupid.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

I think before that you had really only helped do that with my litters. And so it was kind of cool to have all of that done with a different breed. Um, and I kind of pitched in and helped, you know, how to interpret the results and things like that. So I also got to go out there and um kind of be a part of that. But what an amazing group of people. And, you know, she's a great example too. Like they raw feed their other great Danes, but they have to stay, especially with these puppies, they had to stay within certain parameters. They love using homeopathy for immunization, but they have to adhere to certain guidelines. And so um there, I think, again, this is one of those uh topics that we would love to bring some unity and do and dissolve some division about this idea about, you know, rescues versus breeders and you know, rescues are are kind of awful because they do everything traditional. That needs to stop because everybody has the same goal. Everybody is is in there for the love of the animals and um doing the best that they can with what they've been given. So um, but most, I mean, most of the time, if you're kind of a temporary foster and you're working with a rescue, a lot of times your hands are kind of tied. But sometimes there is more freedom within that. And so, kind of to go along with what Dr. Levy is saying, you know, I think it would be easy for someone to maybe think, oh, I'm only gonna have this animal for maybe a month or two months. I don't want to go, you know, is it really worth me going to the trouble of transitioning to raw food and doing all this if they're just gonna go to a home that's not gonna do these things? Yes. We would say that yes, it's absolutely worth that because you're you're giving that animal the absolute best for that time being. And it may just be the thing that, you know, that that nourishment and all of that may just be exactly what they need at that particular time. So um, if you're in a situation where you're a temporary foster and you do have some flexibility within what you're allowed to do, and you are more holistically minded and wanting to really kind of pour into that animal while you have them. I mean, there's certainly um a relatively quick and easy gut reset protocol that we suggest people do when they transition from kibble to raw. And this is really, this is good for um, you know, puppies, adults, it doesn't matter uh whether they're, you know, maybe in in pretty, pretty good shape or you know, maybe they're struggling a little bit to do kind of um this gut reset protocol. I mean, it really only takes, I think, two weeks is the full like gut reset to transition to raw period, if you want to take that much time to do that. So, I mean, you can do a lot of good in a week or two uh with just just you know that gut reset and then maybe having you know a food on hand that is um a little bit more uh easy to digest, but more in the fresh food camp. So like a freeze-dried or maybe a commercially made raw food that's been through a sanitization process, it's gonna be easier on the gut, um, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

So um the gut reset that you can do is is very simple. So it involves basically uh four different supplements: four-leaf rover organ care, four-leaf rover protect, standard process canine enteric support, and standard process canine immune system support. And those things all work together to help restore the gut lining and combat some of the difficulties that these dogs often have. Again, just because of having been through the assembly line process without a whole lot of individual attention to their health needs. Uh, there's a gut reset guide that is on the holistic care intro that is part of one of the guidelines that we offer. It is free, it's gonna be linked below. Uh, and then you know, and then it's a different scenario if you're gonna keep the dog and plan on having it long term. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Um, so things that that we've kind of seen um with with people when they when they take in um a rescue is that um a lot of you know this kind of assembly line procedure type thing is done and they they bring the animal home and and the animal has like zero problems when they bring it home and they were seemed to be fine in the shelter, but then they get a month or two in and then all of a sudden they start seeing, you know, issues where it may be chronic diarrhea or i ear infections, or you know, the they can't keep food now, or you know, whatever it is, all of a sudden, you know, itchiness. Um what we want to set the expectation that it it it's kind of like when when this amount uh of of drugs, chemicals, processes is done on an animal all at once, it's kind of like dropping a bomb on them. And it it takes a little bit of time sometimes for the dust to settle from that bomb going off, and then you start seeing the issues show up. And so um it's it's very common for someone to bring a rescue home from a shelter or something like that, and it seems perfectly fine and perfectly healthy, and then you get a month or two months in, and all of a sudden you start to having these issues. And so um it's really just best to understand that you're getting yourself into a situation that you're going to need to do some repair, you're going to need to do some damage control. And so the sooner you can do that, regardless of whether you see a problem, the better off you and your animal are going to be. And then to not be shocked or surprised where when four to eight weeks down the road, all of a sudden problems start to show up.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Right. Because a lot of times people think, is there something wrong with us? Is there something wrong with our house? What did we do? Uh you did not cause this. Uh, this is due to things that happened to this dog before and it's just starting to manifest. And this is something I've seen a ton of. So, like itching is a big one that people see. And so you can hopefully prep for that by doing things more naturally for the dog as soon as you get it into your home.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

So, some of the things to prepare for. Um, these, you know, these things are almost always going to cause some form of inflammation, and that can look like a lot of different things, okay? But some form of inflammation. If, you know, if you're getting a young animal that has gone through this process, there's going to be a delay in growth plate closure, which sets you up for higher risk for injuries or skeletal issues. Um, you're certainly going to have a much higher risk of uh cancer with this particular animal. That is just the way of it. Um, you're also going to have hormonal dysregulation, which we're learning more and more all the time is a huge factor uh in their overall health, let alone then you know how they behave is affected by, you know, removing those sex organs that so you could have some behavioral issues, even if the dog, the dog or the animal did not have behavioral issues before they went in the shelter, they can come out through all of this, these, you know, processes and procedures that are done. And so we're not trying to paint the picture of doom and gloom, but just a realistic expectation. You've got probably a lot coming on your hands to deal with. And so uh the sooner you can kind of, you know, like Air did, have a plan. If you're going to take in an animal like this, just we're not saying don't take in the animal, but just be prepared and have some sort of a plan, maybe have some supplements and food on hand so that you're ready to really start rallying around their health through their gut and their nourishment, and just be prepared that this is gonna be a this is probably gonna be a journey.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

And some dogs, some rescue dogs come through with flying colors, and I've seen amazing things happen. I've seen rescue dogs live a very long time and completely restore their health. Obviously, it depends on the individual dog's genetics, um, but it can be done. So we're not trying to doom and gloom and say, oh my gosh, you better think twice about this. I mean it's legit no matter where you get the dog from. Uh, but it's worth just um being prepared and getting started as soon as possible, even though when you bring your rescue dog home, it might look great.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

So for um somebody who's bringing in an animal and you are the forever home, um, you know, it's it's the the beginning of the journey is similar to what we would recommend for somebody who's fostering. Um you again, that first, the very first step is gonna be that gut reset. You're gonna just do so much to help the immune system, prepare the gut for fresh food. It's really just step number one. Have that gut reset protocol on hand, just have the supplements ready and be ready to go. Uh, and then you know, you can either, if if the animal is not really struggling at that point, we would say absolutely, just you know, do the transition from kibble to raw process that we have in our guide. We have it in the free holistic intro guide, and we also have it in our raise them on raw guide. So if you want to learn better how to kind of understand the foundations of raw feeding, it's in that as well. Uh, we'll link both of those below, of course. Um and so that would be kind of our recommendation would be you know, we we want. That gut reset on board and then it to move into raw feeding as quickly as possible. However, there's a caveat to that. If you are bringing an animal that is already struggling, they are already severely itchy, having diarrhea, you know, they're they're struggling in some way. Um we really like to use that gut reset protocol, but sticking with just, you'll see part of what we ask you to use is raw goat's milk as just an introduction. Um I have had clients who have um dogs that are in this situation, they will literally just feed raw goat milk with the supplements for three, four days. Um, the reason that we choose that is because it's the most balanced and highly digestible food that you can possibly give, and it's liquid, so it's very, very easy to move through the system. Um, and so uh doing raw goat's milk with the gut reset protocol for the first four or five days, they're getting fat, protein, electrolytes, naturally occurring digestive enzymes, probiotics. Um, you know, they're they're going to absolutely be nourished, but in the most gentle way possible. And it gives you a wonderful vehicle for the for the supplements to go through and really see if that doesn't right the ship a little bit and help ease kind of some of their discomfort before you would maybe move into a raw food. You can also choose a commercially made raw food versus a straight raw food. We've talked about that in other episodes. We can link that one at the end of this um video as well. But uh, you know, you can find truly raw food which has not been through any type of sanitization process, and then you can get commercially made raw food that has been through a sanitization process. It's gotten rid of all the bacteria, pathogens, all the things. Well, an animal that's more compromised, that's a way to give them fresh food while you're building that healthy gut microbiome so that they're they're gonna have an easier time assimilating to that new diet, and you're not gonna have um as much difficulty doing that. So that's really that's I mean, that's key. And step number one is getting that gut reset online in whichever way is best for that animal, depending on how they they come to you, um, and then getting them on fresh food as quickly as possible in the way that is gonna be best for them.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

So at the same time, while you're trying to rehabilitate this dog's intestinal tract, the microbiome, feed them a fresh diet, uh, it's also your responsibility to not further poison them. So flea and tick chemicals should be avoided. Uh, there are plenty of natural options to choose from. Um, cancel your lawn care, um uh unless it's organic. Uh, you know, you have to think about chemicals in the home. Like you might want to revisit what you used to clean with. And if you were gonna get a new couch, you're gonna get uh new carpeting, maybe hold off because those things will off-gas some pretty toxic chemicals. Um there's often, I think, a lot of fear about, but what do we do about we gotta keep him from getting fleas. We don't want it, we don't want him to get ticks. Again, there are so many natural options that are 100% safe. Um, and those things are not they're not hard to find, they're not hard to do. Um, we have a guide to those things as well. The other thing, another thing that I was thinking about is that the dog may have already been started on some sort of course of treatment for diarrhea, for respiratory infection, for whatever. And so it's helpful to already know ahead of time who the holistic vets are in your area and maybe get your new friend into a holistic vet as soon as possible. Um, and then, you know, maybe find other things that will support their body while you're proceeding or not proceeding. Obviously, once you purchase the dog, it's up to you with the conventional treatment plan.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

So, first we would obviously say gut reset, get them on fresh food as quickly as you possibly can. Um, make sure you're avoiding uh those chemicals, you know, in and around your home. Um, whatever you're putting on the dog should be natural, no chemicals, uh, because we we don't want to burden their system already, you know, even more. They're already compromised in a lot of ways. The next thing that we would add to this list is uh glandular support. So, you know, if an animal has been fully spayed or neutered, um, that is a big piece of their health that is gonna be affected. And it's um, you know, it's not the end-all be-all, but to get a really good, you know, uh beef organ supplement that has um gender-specific reproductive organ in that supplement is gonna do a lot to help support your dog internally. Um, and so some type of a glandular support in that way. I know standard process has a couple of really good ones, one specifically for male, one for female, simplex F and Simplex M, I believe. Um, and so that's a good option. Otherwise, I've used just really good organic grass-fed beef organ supplements, and you can find some that are gender specific. So uh something like that just to give an example of what we mean when we say glandular support. Um and then uh we, you know, there's there's certainly the the bodywork conversation. So, you know, having if you can locate a good animal massage therapist, animal chiropractor, you know, really working on manipulating their body that way is can be can be tremendously helpful, especially for their nervous system, um, let alone, you know, uh the the physiological part of it. So right.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

And those practitioners can also point out to you if the dog doesn't stand normally or doesn't bear even weight on all its legs, or if it, you know, has a sloppy sit. Those are things that I would start working pretty quickly to correct. Um we kind of tend to forget that our legs are also connected to the rest of our body. And so how we bend our spine and how we use our spine is going to affect nerve function to all the internal organs. So taking care of those things is not necessarily like, you know, if there's time at the end, you want to get onto it pretty quickly because it will affect organ function.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

So once these things have kind of been put in place and checked off on your list and you're you're kind of well on your way with your dog, it's maybe been a month or two, um, then there are certainly other supplements along with a balanced raw diet that would be really, really good to do for an animal that has been compromised in this way. We say to wait because you're already doing a lot. And a big part of kind of our philosophy is we want to do things gently to support the system. If you try and do too much too fast, a lot of us kind of we get in that mode where we're trying to, you know, we get this animal and we feel this emotional pull. Like, I want to do, know that I'm doing everything I possibly can, you know, to help them and all the things. You're already doing a ton, but it needs to be metered and paced to a degree, or what's gonna happen is you're gonna do too much too fast, those detox mechanisms are gonna come online and they're gonna over-detox. They're gonna, it's gonna go way too, and they're gonna be really uncomfortable. And so, you know, just doing the gut reset with the fresh food on the front end and keeping the chemicals off is a tremendous amount. And that is gonna take a little time for their body to get used to and settle into that. And there's a whole process to that already. So once you've kind of got that underway, you feel like they've settled in and kind of become part of your family, and you've got kind of all these different things, and there's this kind of rhythm, calm, stabilization, then there's extra support that you can do supplement-wise for an animal like this. And again, we like to rotate supplements. We don't like to give the same supplement every day, every day, every day. You're kind of doing these as a rotation, just kind of like as a almost like a steady drip, not, you know, not every single day. Um, so some of the the really great things that you could implement would be something like a green lipped muscle oil. It's extremely high in omega-3s. And so whatever type of inflammation that they're that they may be battling or that may be, you know, happening under the surface, you don't see yet, um, that's one of your biggest uh kind of fighters of inflammation is going to be your omega-3s as a supplement. Um, there's some really good foods that we would say to use too, but that's kind of just part of our recommendation for a balanced raw diet is there's really good omega-3s in there already. So green lip muscle is just that extra boost of omega-3s above and beyond if you've got um an animal that's been more compromised like that. Um, and then I know Dr. Lee, you're a big proponent of collagen. So can you talk a little bit about collagen?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

I use it a lot for uh structural issues, um, but it also will help um uh lubricate the joints, and so it is very helpful for older animals as well. It kind of helps rejuvenate them and it actually helps reduce inflammation. And so if there is itching, if there is um any indication that there might be some sort of infection going on or excess earwax or something like that, that's where I would use collagen.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

So if um, because I know this is this is where a lot of people will go, because this is where my brain went when you first brought up collagen to me, I was like, oh, what kind? What kind? Where do I find it? Yeah. So what what would be just when somebody is looking for a good collagen, kind of what are your parameters?

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Well, I like to see as many different types of collagen as possible. So some of the collagen supplements made for dogs have only type two collagen, or they have types one and type three. And you want like the latest, as I saw one that said, now it's nine different types of collagen. Yes, get that one. And then it should be from an animal source. There are collagen supplements made from plant sources or coral for vegans. Um and then, but what you really want is collagen that is beef-based, bison-based, marine collagen. Um, those are going to be better absorbed by dogs because they're carnivores. And something that we've been learning about more recently is the fecal microbiome transplant. And so, happy news that comes in capsules. Uh, the one that we're just starting to experiment with is made by animal biome. They have fecal microbiome transplant capsules, and of course, you want the one specifically that is made from raw-fed dogs because their basic model is not. And basically, this is a supplement made from the feces of very healthy raw-fed dogs that have a balanced microbiome, and so you feed it to your dog in order to uh reset the intestinal microbiome population, uh, and that will really help a lot of these dogs recover from chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, things like that. And I would say, you know, probably a couple of months, I would plan for. It's not something that you do for the rest of their life, it's kind of a process that you take them through, and then you're done when things are better. You can always have their microbiome tested to see if it has become balanced by doing this, and animal biome offers that as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

So what we've hopefully given you some um understanding, maybe some setting some expectations you didn't realize that you needed to have uh when when moving into bringing home an animal like this. Uh and and and really, you know, just to kind of piggyback on what Dr. Levy was saying about, you know, please understand that when you bring home this animal and they're fine, and then two months later they're not fine, there's this is a this is a slow burn that you're just it's all happening under the surface and you're just not seeing it show up until a little bit later. I think it's really hard for us to uh connect something when it doesn't happen right after the event. And that's one of the things that we try and teach is that, you know, these things that we, you know, really like to find alternatives for, they're there, they don't necessarily show up in a bad way immediately. And I think that's part of what makes them so damaging is because people don't connect or veterinarians don't connect that it, oh, it could have just taken a little while for this problem to show up from this event. Just because it didn't happen within 24 hours doesn't mean, you know, this is some of these things can build up over time. And so um again, just just kind of be ready for some of these things to show up and realize that it could have been from something that happened a couple of months ago, that that's what you're seeing. And that we've hopefully given you some really good starter points to um help really rally rally around these animals right when you bring them home. You can kind of have these few things in place. You can have a plan and kind of get, I mean, this should get you three to six months into their journey easy, just with the things that we've kind of shared with you to do here. I will also say that, you know, some animals will have lifelong issues that can be talked about in a later conversation. There are further things that can be done, there are deeper detox protocols that can be done, there are more ways to support an animal who's been fully spayed or neutered. Um we are just now really learning the lifetime effects over their entire well-being about full span neuter. And there are ways that we are are really starting to find holistic protocols and methods about how to best support animals in that situation. I have one. Um, and so there's going to be uh a hormone health guide that we're gonna be coming out with here in the next couple of months, and maybe you're watching this and it's already out. You can certainly check our website for to see if it's available. But um, we give really some good information in this and also some holistic protocols to support these animals throughout their lifetime. You know, I'm putting things in practice that I will do every single day for the rest of Gemma's life because I need to support her system in a different way because she is fully spatered. So um just know that there's more more to this conversation than what we're just talking about in these first steps. But again, we we want we need to lay the foundation, we need to create a stable, healthy, you know, environment and foundation before we can maybe do some of these, you know, deeper things or more intensive things. Um we really just kind of need to set the stage anyway. And so uh that's really what we wanted to give everybody was just a really good kind of here's how to build a foundation, or here's how to best help that animal while you do have them for two months before you send them off. They're only gonna be better off for doing those things. Um we'll link plenty of resources down in the description box below, and we'll certainly probably come back around and talk about some of these deeper, more intensive things that you can do later on. Uh, but we just really want to make sure that people don't dive into those things too quickly. So we're gonna kind of space out our information a little bit before we start talking about those extra things that you can do. So I pray that this was uh insightful and helpful for um everybody that's watching this, whether you've had a rescue, you're thinking about getting a rescue, or maybe you know you have a dog now that you are raising holistically, but you're seeing certain things. All of these that we're talking about are uh helpful, you know, helpful in in a lot of those situations. Um and so uh, Dr. Lee, do you have any final thoughts before we close this episode?

SPEAKER_01 38:00

I still would not hesitate to get a puppy or a dog from a rescue uh or a shelter or something like that. I mean, that that's one of those things where when you find the dog that's yours, um, you know, there is that kind of sometimes it's love at first sight. And so I mean, these things are something to think about, uh, but just with that awareness, you can get started as soon as possible instead of kind of waiting to see what damage has been done and what the fallout's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Thank you so much for joining us. Our goal is always to encourage others to seek out the holistic approach by way of education and empowerment. You can check out our online resources at wellspringha.com. You can follow us on our YouTube channel, Wellspring Holistic Animal Academy, and you can also find us on Instagram at Wellspring underscore HAA. We hope that this has been helpful and that you continue with us on your journey to holistic health for your pets. As always, we're here to be unapologetically all natural.