What is herbal medicine?
Phytotherapy is medicine based on the use of plants or plant extracts. It is based on the beneficial effects and the interaction of the many natural active ingredients contained in plants.
Did you know?
" Etymologically, herbal medicine comes from the ancient Greek phytos=plant and therapeuo=to heal."
Plants have been used since the dawn of time by our ancestors to treat their ailments and those of their animals. Faced with the awareness of the limits of conventional drug treatments and their many side effects, we are nowadays rediscovering the innumerable qualities of plants in the treatment and prevention of diseases in human medicine and in veterinary medicine. Where a modern "chemical" drug consists of only one molecule, a plant contains several active ingredients whose effects add up and balance each other. It is precisely from this interaction that the therapeutic efficacy of plants is born and that explains the rarity of their undesirable effects.
What herbal medicine products can be used in dogs?
Fresh or dried medicinal plants
The use of fresh or dried medicinal plants represents the oldest and most traditional form of herbal medicine. But, before they can be used as a remedy, it is necessary to extract the active ingredients. They can be found in the whole plant or in part of the plant: roots, leaves, flowers (sometimes called flowering tops), seeds or fruits. The methods of extracting the active ingredients are all feasible at home. They differ depending on whether the active ingredient to be extracted is soluble in water, oil or alcohol.
Use of fresh plants: why not but
Nothing prevents you from harvesting the plants yourself that you will use in remedies directly in your garden or in nature, but this practice should be reserved for true botanical experts. Nature is full of false friends! Two very similar plant species can have very different properties. Worse, nature is full of toxic plants! Do not collect plants of which you are not sure of the species at the risk of administering toxic plants to your animal. If you're sure you've got the right species, discard plants that don't seem he althy (spotted leaves) and make sure your harvest site isn't regularly sprayed with pesticides. If you don't you are not an expert in botany, rather buy your dried plants in pharmacy. You will be sure of their origin and their qualities.
Herbal teas
Well known to our grandmothers, herbal teas actually include 3 methods of preparation depending on the part of the plant to be used: infusion, decoction and maceration.They are used to extract the water-soluble principles of the plant.
These preparations can then be given, once cooled, to drink to the dog if he accepts them and if he likes them. Yes, herbal tea is not necessarily the easiest way to administer phytotherapy remedies to a dog because of the relatively large volume of liquid that it must absorb and the taste of this potion not always very appreciated by our dogs. four-legged companions. And, we can understand them! Root decoctions are generally not very pleasant drinks to taste, often bitter or harsh! For these reasons, we now prefer traditional herbal teas to off-the-shelf preparations such as phytostandardized extracts (EPS), which are more practical to administer, to dose and which we are sure contain the active ingredients of interest.You can also use herbal tea as a lotion to apply to the dog's skin using sterile cotton compresses.For example, an infusion of nettle leaves (urtica dioica) can help relieve itchy skin or an infusion of Roman chamomile flowers (chamaemelum nobile) can be used to naturally clean runny eyes.
Oily macerates
The preparation of oily macerates makes it possible to dissolve the active ingredients of plants in oil. They are prepared from vegetable oils and fresh or partially sun-dried plants. They are mainly used externally, in local application by gentle massages on the skin of the animal.
Alcoholatures and tinctures
Alcoholature and tincture preparations make it possible to extract the active principles of alcohol-soluble plants. Due to the presence of alcohol, they can only be used externally in dogs, locally applied after 1/10th dilution with water.
Nebulized capsules
The nebulisate corresponds to the active ingredients of the plant reduced to powder. Packaged in capsules to be swallowed by the dog, the nebulisats have the enormous advantage of being very practical to use.
Do not confuse plant powder and nebulizer
In herbal medicine, there are also plant powders presented in capsules. Plant powders are much less concentrated in active ingredients than sprays. They can of course be used in a dog, but the quantities of powder - and therefore of capsules - to be administered to him will therefore be greater. Some powder capsules can also contain up to 500mg of plant powder and are not suitable for very small dogs unable to swallow them without you having to open the capsule.
EPS
EPS means "standardized fresh plant fluid extracts" . These products are considered the products of modern herbal medicine because they were only developed in the mid-1990s and have only been on the market since the early 2000s.Practical and alcohol-free, it is most often in this form that veterinarians specializing in herbal medicine prescribe plant medicines to their four-legged patients.
Are plants really safe for dogs?
No! While it is true that herbal remedies have far fewer side effects than conventional medications, they are not completely free of adverse effects either. After all, it is true that nature produces many poisonous plants: foxglove, aconite, lily of the valley to name but a few! And, the dog can also be intoxicated by plants that we humans eat without problem such as onions, garlic or even leeks.
Toxic plants aside, many plants recognized for their therapeutic interest have active ingredients so powerful that they can interact with conventional drug treatments or be contraindicated in certain very specific cases.In human medicine, St. John's wort - used as a natural anti-depressant - is often cited as an example of reversing the effects of the contraceptive pill. There are many more examples of herb-drug interactions in veterinary medicine! So always avoid self-medication and always ask your veterinarian for advice before administering herbal medicines to your dog.