Welcome to Acacia Animal Care

Acacia Animal Care provides health support, veterinary consultations, advice re feeding, acupuncture, herbal and homeopathic medicines and supplements for dogs  cats and chickens. Dr Charissa Smith is an Holistic Veterinary Surgeon with a life spent caring for pets. Your loved pets will relax at the rural Acacia centre in the bush just north of Gatton Queensland.

 Bring your pet to Dr Charissa as soon as you get it, discuss its food and exercise  and shelter, preventative tick flea and heartworm programms, and vaccines. Titre testing for parvo and distemper to see if your pet needs vaccinating is available.  Avoid later problems! Dr Charissa designs infividual diets,  adjusted for breed and lifestyle. Dr Charissa prefers fresh food, however this is not always possible. If feeding dry food, Dr Charissa recommends Frontier dog dry food, from Northern NSW. Individual diets for specific breeeds such as maltese, french bull dogs and dalmations are available.

http://frontierpets.com.au?aff=29

Phone, and video chat consultations are avilable. These are prebooked and paid for, and it is best to have seen a local vet  beforehand . Vet reports and path reports can be submitted before the distance consultation. Text 0418759237, the phone and e mail fluctuate. 

THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH: 

Tagetes erecta is the little mexican marigold , that you can buy in the plant shops. It will reduce ticks in the garden,  its concentrated herbal oil can be used as a tick repellant in the envionment, and tea made from the flowers assists with renal disease. There is a tendency of companies  wanting a patent and profit, to take out what they call the active ingredient and commerialise it.  The plant exists as a whole and often the combination of 30 or so chemicls in it, stops the resistance and leads to other health increasing properties.

Tick control wih herbal medicine: This is complex subject , and there has been devloping reisistance to common chemicals, this references shows the complexity, and the research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7469192/

1. Vaccination:

It is recomended that a vet be consultd for this, it is a useful tool but can be both under and over used. Testing to see if the pet needs vaccinating before getting this done is useful in animals over 2 yo. Young animals will need vaccinating for core diseases, the other diseases will depend on the exposure and the lifestyle, the website ava.com.au discusses this in depth. Older pets that are most at risk when going into kennel or place with lots of other pets, are those pets which have been kept in isolation so that their immunity has not been reinforced, and that are already ill. 

( Aside: I think all vaccination for any creature should have immunity measured beforehand to see if it is needed).

2. Heartworm 

This is carried by  mosquitoes, as pets get older and their cirulation gets slower they are more susceptable.  Regular monthly treatment is sucessful to prevent this, athough there are some ivermectin resistant strains in the north of Queensland so that Heartguard my not work. There are a range of other chemicals, available in pet stores, all of which are effective. These all have side effects so trim you dose to fit exctly with the body weight, more is not better. Homeopathic and herbal remedies can assist with resistance, though this is modified by exposure and resistance of the animal. 

3. Fleas ...90 % are off the body,  vaccuuming repeatedly is the best way to get rid of eggs, and providng a carpet free washable place for the pet to sleep. Cedar, thyme and rosemary oils are anti flea and can be used in sprays washes and carpet treatments. Diatamacaeous earth can be combed damp throuh coats but if on the air as a fine powder can cause cancer. As can both lime and salt, it can be mixed damp into soil where pets sleep outside.

4. Worms Hookworms and roundworms can cause loss of a  blood a day, and seriously damage the liver. They can migrate through the livers of young pups from the mother. Worming the dog regularly and disposal of feces are important. This can be overdone and excess woming can also damage the dogs immune sytem, trim the dose to exactly fit the body weight. Feces disposal is the most important preventative,  Tapeworm regularly, and if feeding faw offal use 5 x the recomended dose as hydatids can be carried in offal.  Worm eggs survive best where it is warm and damp. 

5 Ticks  Homeopathic tick repellants are useful but are not 100%,  as this is not natures way.  Chemicals are effective and I recomend these if you are in a high tick area. However they all have side effects and should be given in the minimum dose for weight,  and St marys thistle and vitamin c used before and after dosing. The small mexican orange marigolds (not calendular), and capsicum and chlli plants are tick repellant so are good to plant in your garden.

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