Integrity Golden Retrievers

If you’re new to Juju’s Journey, take a look back at the old posts and you’ll see just how amazing these pics truly are because you’ll see where we started.

Just where did we start and why are we on this journey with Juju? Well, a quick recap…..Juliet had a tough time during her first litter here at IGR. She had an emergency c-section, then developed mastitis twice, both of which times her “milk machine” burst open causing lots of oozing ickiness and gaping holes in her skin. (She never had either of these issues with her future pregnancies, but man, that first litter was a tough one)

Juliet was on kibble, and not a super great one at that. She was put on multiple rounds of antibiotics during this time, rightly so, but I was uneducated and did not know to give her probiotics. This antibiotic usage without probiotics is what ultimately lead to a yeast overgrowth and what I believe to be leaky gut.

I did not consult my traditional vet on this journey (other than when we took the traditional route of steroids and apoquel for a season), nor did I take Juju to a holistic vet. Probably should have done the holistic vet though. I sought out many online resources, mostly facebook groups regarding natural methods, holistic methods. I follow many, many holistic vets online and just researched and read everything I could. Remember….THESE ARE NOT MY RECOMMENDATIONS, I AM NOT A VET. THIS IS JUST MY STORY OF WHAT I CHOSE TO DO FOR MY DOG.

About 6 months in to this horrific itching (back in fall of 2017), I learned about raw and switched her food. That helped. Alot. But when I landed in the hospital (fall 2019) for 5 weeks due to complications with my breast cancer treatments and we ran out of the DIY raw food I was feeding Juliet, we made the decision to put her back on kibble. This is when she really spiraled downhill. That led to throwing my hands in the air and putting her on steroids and Apoquel. Yes, it took all the itchy away, but at what cost. The more I learned about this potentially dangerous drug, the more I realized I wasn’t solving anything. I was simply putting a bandaid on the root problem: yeast overgrowth and leaky gut. And I was suppressing her immune system, because that’s just what Apoquel does, which according to all I was reading, was a recipe for future disaster.

THEN…..I decided to use Juliet as an example of how to truly heal these issues with diet and holistic protocols, and to be very open and honest with y’all telling you exactly what I’m doing, the cost, and the progress (starting Nov 2021). It’s been about 9 months now, and bear with me as I take some moments to update y’all…..

CURRENT PROTOCOL:

• Eats DIY, fully balanced, raw diet using the proteins pork/turkey
• Have used Glacier Peak Wellness Scan to determine the foods she’s ‘sensitive’ to (hence using only pork/turkey)
• NEVER eats anything that’s on the above “bad” list (we’ve learned our lesson the hard way – a few times we’ve given her “just a tiny piece” of whatever food item the scan says she’s allergic to and she’s spiralled backwards with more itchiness and very red skin)
• Just finished Adored Beast Yeasty Beast – AMAZING RESULTS!!!!!!! BUT – you’ve got to be consistent and do the protocol every day!!
• Just started Adored Beast Leaky Gut protocol….I’m excited to see what results we get from this one.

Since using the Adored Beast Yeasty Beast products, Juliet doesn’t have consistent red, hot skin. She still itches a little bit, but honestly, I gotta wonder what is just muscle memory and habit at this point! Her legs looks great, they have fur on them and no scabby spots. She even has enough fur that I need to trim her grinch feet when I do nail trims. Her face….wowza…..no more black eyes from fur loss!

Once we get through the Adored Beast Leaky Gut, I’ll probably wait just a little bit and then do another Animal Biome test to see where her gut is at and then I’d like to do another Glacier Peak Wellness Scan to see if it’s different from the original one and whether or not I can reintroduce previously no-no foods.

9 months later….I’ve got my dog back!!!! She looks good and I can tell she feels good too. She get so excited when we use those magic words: walk, hungry, go-with, and Dad’s home. She even trots around in the back yard sometimes. Yes, she still sleeps alot, but she’s almost 8 and has had lots of puppies, she’s earned the right to sleep alot! I am just so happy that she’s happy. Overall, it worked – using diet and holistic methods helped bring Juliet back into good health. But it took research, dedication, consistency, willingness to spend money and think outside the ‘traditional western medicine box’, and LOTS of time.

EXPENSES OVER THE PAST YEAR:

Here’s an estimate of what I’ve spend over the past year on supplements to get to the point we’re at now. I suspect this is significantly less than what I would have spent at a traditional vet, and on Apoquel (that stuff is stinking expensive).

• Glacier Peak Wellness Scan: $100
• Animal Biome Microbiome test: $75
• Glacier Peak Gold: 3 bottles: $150ish
• Glacier Peak Immunity: large bag: $150ish
• Adored Beast Yeasty Beast: $100ish
• Adored Beast Leaky Gut: $150ish
• Perfectly Rawsome fee to create balanced raw diet: $100ish
• Adored Beast Fido Flora probiotic: $100ish
• Dog Health CBD: $100ish
• DIY Raw food for Juliet only: $100ish/month