Dog Parasite Treatment – An Example of Debugging Pet Health
Many vets don’t know how to diagnose, let alone treat, the root causes of illness in pets. The standard of care is to cover symptoms with steroids and antibiotics. Pet or dog parasite treatment is often all that is needed.
Background – How I Started Debugging Dogs
Debugging Sussie The Dog’s Symptoms
Diagnosing and Treating Dog Candida
Example Videos: How to Figure Out Dog Parasite Treatment
Debugging Pet Health:Symptoms & Ideas of Where to Start
Observations From Dog Parasite Treatment
Background – How I Started Debugging Dogs
My neighbor’s dog was sick. Things weren’t looking good. I watched my neighbor spend thousands of dollars at the vet on testing and procedures. It seemed like she was always taking her dog to the vet. In the end, she still came home with a very, very sick puppy. My neighbor was desperate, so she asked me for help.
Let me get this straight – I don’t know much about pets or dogs. The neighbor was a good friend, and she was all tied up in knots about her dog being very ill. I decided to give it a try. I could apply the same debugging skills I learned on my family.
First, I found that the dog had a massive Candida overgrowth. She needed sugar-free dog food and a few drainage remedies to help her get the Candida population down. Once we got that taken care of, parasites were her next level of healing. A few rounds of parasite medications and hundreds of worms later, she was feeling great. All symptoms gone and ready to live on!
It seems many vets don’t know how to diagnose, let alone treat, the root causes of illness in dogs. The standard of care is to cover symptoms with steroids and antibiotics. Dog parasite treatment is often all that is needed. Believe it or not, it seems most vets don’t even understand worm treatment for dogs.
Debugging Sussie The Dog’s Symptoms
My good friend treats her dog like her child, who means the world to her. The dog is a 12-year old Schnauser named Sussie. Sussie had constant watery eyes, itching to the point of bleeding, didn’t want to be petted, vomiting, diarrhea, and ran/darted around as if she was having a panic attack.
After thousands of dollars spent at the vet, they concluded that she had allergies, and she should be kept on steroids and as comfortable as possible. Sussie had already been on steroids her whole life, and clearly they weren’t helping. My friend was desperate.
Sussie’s digestive symptoms were so similar to my daughter Soraya’s it was uncanny. I figured the same debugging techniques I used on my family might be able to help Sussie.
Diagnosing and Treating Dog Candida
It turns out that Sussie the Dog had a bad yeast infection. She was testing well on sugar-free food, Caprylic Acid, Diatomaceous Earth (DE) and some Terrain drainage remedies. Example videos showing how I figured this out are below: Example Videos: How to Figure Out Dog Parasite Treatment.
Shortly after starting this program, Sussie actually began to smell like yeast as she detoxed it. She stopped scratching, her eyes cleared up, and she started to gain weight. The transformation was impressive.
Sussie continued without further intervention for almost a year. Then she started having bowel problems again. My friend took her to the vet, spent thousands of dollars, and the vet blamed her sugar-free dog food for causing the problems. The vet gave her antibiotics and food with sugar. The antibiotics definitely helped her acute lethargy, but she was still losing weight, having bowel issues, scratching, and vomiting. The owner became desperate again and asked me to help – again.
Diagnosing Dog Parasites
Digging deeper this time, I found that Sussie had worms. I had previously seen a tape worm in her stool around the time of her Candida treatment. The owner told the vet about the worm, and the vet promptly prescribed one dose of worm medication. I have to give the vet credit for prescribing parasite medications based on visual observations of worms by the owner. Many vets (and MDs!) won’t prescribe medication or treat parasites without a positive stool test. Unfortunately, the chance of catching parasites in a stool test is actually quite low. More details on this in Diagnosing Parasites In Humans.
I was extremely skeptical that worms can be eradicated with one dose of medication, even in a 15lb dog. (Side rant: It’s a shame that today’s vets don’t know understand treatment for worms in dogs. And it’s even a bigger shame that we don’t regularly de-worm our pets, let alone ourselves! See Parasites in Humans for more information about human de-worming.)
My testing showed that Sussie did indeed still have worms and needed parasite medications. Her owner was skeptical about giving her parasite medications without the vet prescribing them. On the other hand, she was desperate. Just to be sure, I took Sussie for a ZYTO treatment. Her results: The #1 and #2 stressors in her scans were whip worm and tape worm.
Even though Sussie’s original acute problem was yeast, I’m suspicious that perhaps she wouldn’t have ever had the yeast infection had the parasites not paved the way in her intestinal tract. The antibiotics from the vet probably also cleared up a bacterial infection in her gut. The parasites likely paved the way in the intestinal tract for the bacterial infection to take hold in the first place. My point: Parasites are a fundamental problem. The allergies, yeast, bowel issues, and weight loss are ‘symptoms’ of the parasites.
Treatment for Worms in Dogs
We put Sussie on worm medications. The worms started coming out by the tens in every stool. The owner was shocked, and so was I. It was amazing how many worms a 15lb dog can have! Sussie started acting and feeling better, even after just one round of worm medications. (Note: if Sussie were a person, I would have done enemas first to try to get some of them out whole. See Parasites in Humans for more details). Here is a summary of Sussie’s parasite medication rounds:
| Length of time, Moon (rounds start 7 days before full/new moon) | Medication & Dose | |
| Round #1 | 10 days, Full Moon | Pyrantel, ½ tsp morning, ¼ tsp evening, Skin Terrain (now discontinued) |
| Round #2 | 10 days, Full Moon | Levamisole, 1/8 tsp morning & evening, Skin Terrain |
| Round #3 | 4 days, New Moon | Diethyl, ½ pill morning & evening, Colon Terrain (no longer being manufactured, unfortunately) |
| Round #4 | 10 days, Full Moon | Pyrantel, ½ tsp morning & tsp evening, Stomach Terrain |
| Round #5 | 10 days, New Moon | Mebendazole 1.5 pills 2x/day Pyrantel ¼ tsp 2x/day, Stomach Terrain (no longer being manufactured, unfortunately) |
| Round #6 | 2 days, Full Moon | 0.5 pills Ivecop 12mg 2x/day, only tolerated for 2 days. (In humans, Ivermectin is one of the best tolerated medications.) Adrenal Terrain (no longer being manufactured, unfortunately) |
| Round #7 | 10 days, New Moon | ¼ pill Diethyl and ½ tsp Pyrantel 2x/day, Skin & Bladder Terrain (Terrain drainage remedies are no longer being manufactured, unfortunately) & Skin Terrain |
Note that after Round #2 Sussie started having symptoms around the new moon. Her new moon symptoms were mostly darting in a panic, biting & scratching. It seems like the worms have switched their life cycle from the full to the new moon. We started testing Sussie on both the full and new moons to see if she needs to do a round of medications.
We filmed videos showing the live debugging of Sussie’s case, including how we figured out which medications she needed in what doses. These instructional videos can be found in the next section.
Example Videos: How to Figure Out Dog Parasite Treatment
It’s easier to ‘explain’ how I figured out Sussie the dog’s parasite treatment plan with example videos. Generally I use the same strategies that I do for humans. A ‘surrogate’ human is used to test the pet.
Here is the series of debugging videos on Sussie the Dog. Sussie had allergies, symptoms of infections, and parasites.
Round 1 of parasite medications in Treatment for Worms in Dogs:
Round 2 of parasite medications in Treatment for Worms in Dogs:
Round 3 of parasite medications in Treatment for Worms in Dogs:
I also tried to debug my parents’ dog Ellie’s allergies. However, it was the middle of winter and Ellie didn’t have any symptoms. I wasn’t able to find anything. Still, since Ellie is so cute, here is the video:
Debugging Pet Health: Symptoms & Ideas of Where to Start
My symptom list and ideas of where to start is similar for pets and humans. I don’t know much about pets, so I start with what I know.
Pets tend to be less sanitary than humans. I am often suspicious of parasites earlier in the debugging process. Pets don’t brush their teeth or go to the dentist, and they are often fed food with sugars. Dental infections may also be a culprit. It’s hard to test for dental infections on pets without putting them to sleep. I don’t have a great solution for this.
Below is a general symptom list and ideas of where to start debugging pet health. A more detailed symptom list that I made for humans can be found at Figuring Out The Root Cause of Health Problems. Examples showing how to test these ideas are at Example Videos: How to Figure Out Dog Parasite Treatment.
The list below has brainstorms of places to start. Not all cases will be the same. The key to figuring out health issues is thoughtful persistence. Keep brainstorming, testing, and thinking. Never give up.
| Allergies | Similar to human allergies, I believe dog allergies stem fundamentally from gastrointestinal issues. The first things I would test are: 1. Food – Test current food against one that is just grassfed meat or organs with no other ingredients. Test any special treats too. 2. Antimicrobials – The first things I would test are: Grapefruit seed extract, Caprylic acid, Berberine, and DE. These may help balance the flora in the gut. 3. Parasites – If the dog’s diet is good (not much sugar, chemicals, etc), then I would also check for parasites. 4. Drainage remedies – These will help pets detoxify infections. Sussie the dog responded really well to drainage remedies. Our favorite is the Terrain line. |
| Colds & Infections | Our favorite cold remedies are Xlear Nasal Spray, Gentle warriors herbals and homeopathics. After years of testing various viruses, it seems that no one remedy works best for all colds. Common Cold Treatment is a video example of debugging a lingering cold in humans. Dogs potentially pick up all kinds of things on walks. I would also test on whatever human or pet antibiotics happen to be around. They may have picked up a bacterial infection. I wouldn’t necessarily give them the antibiotic, but they are useful for debugging. If they are testing well on antibiotics, I would test drainage remedies. See #4 above for more details. |
| Eyes | For dry, itchy, painful eyes, independent of allergies, I would look first along the Gallbladder-Liver meridian. My first guess would be parasites in the liver/gallbladder area. My second guess would be stones, energy testing rompe piedra or chanca piedra. |
| Stool | Stool issues, both too soft and too hard, are often a sign of gastrointestinal issues and/or parasites. Those would be the first two places I would look. If the stool is too hard and there are no signs of gastrointestinal or parasite problems, then I would try testing a mineral or magnesium supplement. |
Observations From Dog Parasite Treatment
I have the following pet-specific observations from working on Sussie the Dog’s Parasite Treatment Plan:
- Sussie the dog responds really well to energetic treatments like ZYTO. Sussie’s allergies were significantly improved after just two ZYTO treatments, and gone after three. This is generally faster than my observed human responses to ZYTO treatments. Sussie the dog immediately pooped out whip worms after a ZYTO treatment. This is possible, but not common with humans.
- Parasite medication doses tended to scale from human doses by body weight to dogs.
- Sussie seemed to really need detoxification binders and drainage remedies to help her heal. These were needed during both her parasite treatments and gut healing from candida. This is very similar to what humans need when healing.
FAQ
Q: Where can I get worm medications?
A: There are worm medications OTC at the pet store. Some of them are combinations of medications that might not be desirable to take together. The concern is overloading the liver and kidneys with medications that might not be needed. Where to Get Parasite Medication for Humans has a list of where to purchase medications. Note that worm medications typically used for pets and humans are the same. I always look at detoxification and drainage remedies along with the parasite medications.
Q: How can you give a dog human medications?
A: We tend to label medications and food as ‘pet food’ or ‘pet medication’. If you read the labels, you will find that these products most often have the same ingredients as human food and medication. In the example videos, I use both ‘pet’ and ‘human’ foods and medications. I test for medications dosing on pets. I don’t have ‘rules of thumb’ dosing guidelines for them. Typically I found that Sussie the dog needed human-level doses scaled linearly for her body weight.
Q: What about other pets besides dogs?
A: I have only worked with dogs, so I don’t have specific insights about what might be unique to debugging other animals.
References
[1] D. Traversa, Pet roundworms and hookworms: A continuing need for global worming, Parasites and Vectors, 2012.
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