Healthy Goo Giveaway!
One of the leading complaints that brings a pet into the vet is allergies. It is a complicated problem, and like all complicated problems, there are no easy answers. Some pets need special food, others respond to antihistamines, and some need very strong immune suppressants just to make it through the day.
Watching a pet lick and chew themselves raw is so sad and frustrating. All you want to do is help them get rid of that horrible, painful persistent itch. So you go to the vet, and lo and behold, you find out the diagnostic and treatment process is also a drawn out out and complicated deal. Allergies really stink.
If you’ve had the fun of having an allergic pet yourself, you know just how challenging and frustrating it is to go through the diagnostic process. Some vets like to be very stepwise in their approach- ok, first we do a 12 week elimination diet, then we do a 10 day antihistamine trial, etc, etc. Others toss the whole arsenal at the pet from the get go to get them some relief, and after that is accomplished take a step back and try to pinpoint the actual cause of the allergy. I tend to go for the latter approach myself, but I’ve done it both ways. It depends on a lot of things.
One time, while I was working with a holistic veterinarian, he told me he tells his patients with environmental allergies to take a tablespoon of local honey every day. It is basically a form of immunotherapy, introducing low levels of local allergens via the oral/sublingual route. He was pleased with its results, and I started mentioning it to clients with atopic dogs as an additional thing to try.
Healthy Goo, a product for dogs, takes this approach and brings it several steps further. It combines probiotics, a brewer’s yeast supplement, and 17 common allergens in a peanut butter vehicle. It was formulated by Dr. Kristin Holm, a board certified veterinary dermatologist (which, if you did not know, is the board specialty in veterinary medicine to which allergy cases are usually referred.)
The Healthy Goo website has an extensive explanation of the product, the theory behind it, and the ingredients list. It’s well worth a perusal if you have questions about the products or allergies in general. For example, although everyone likes to jump on the food allergy train when they have a pet with allergic disease, environmental allergies are by a large margin the more commonly diagnosed allergic culprit. Bummer, because they are so much harder to manage.
The Healthy Goo product is a little different than the standard allergy treatments, but as anyone who’s done Atopica, steroids or benadryl will tell you, those treatments have plenty of downsides too, be it cost, side effects, or simply that they don’t work. Can I guarantee this will work for your pet with allergies? No, but that goes for anything else you might try too. It’s an interesting concept, one that is appealing to many people who are on the verge of trying their dog on steroids or other immunosuppressants.
Now before you run to your vet and tell them I said to try this and you can stop what you’re currently using, remember the cardinal rule of the internet: if you have any questions about whether this is an appropriate product to try on your pet, please talk to your veterinarian and don’t make any changes in your pet’s treatment plan without letting them know! They are your ultimate resource for helping you determine what is right for your pet. We good? Good. Now onto the fun part:
Healthy Goo has offered three packages of Doggy Goo to readers who have an allergic pet (or if you have a healthy pet and would like to use it as a supplement). To enter, just leave a blog post comment with who you would like to give the Goo too and enter the Rafflecopter! Value: $69.95
In addition, Healthy Goo is offering a promotional code through next month that does two things:
- You get a $5 discount off a Goo purchase
- For every purchase using the code, Healthy Goo will donate $10 to a rescue that I designate. Hooray!
To use this code, just enter DrV$5GOO at checkout.
And to enter to win, here’s the widget!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
