Litteroma - A Natural Litter Box Deodorizer

Stop buying those commercial litter box deodorizers consisting of fake fragrances and chemicals! Mother Nature has the answer to smelly litter box problems. Not only are these healthier choices but they have many benefits too. Besides, cats have a much keener sense of smell than we do and do not like the overwhelming chemical induced smells coming from scented litters or commercial deodorizers. I always recommend using a good unscented scoopable cat litter. (Not all cat litters are created equal.)

My natural litter box deodorizers are animal-friendly and made with two ingredients; pure baking soda and a special blend of medical/veterinary grade, pure essential oils. The blends themselves are created by holistic veterinarian Melissa Shelton, DVM,  who is an expert on essential oils and animals, and author of Essential Oils for Natural Pet Care: A Veterinarian's Desk Reference for the Top Health Concerns for Cats, Dogs and Horses (2011), and The Animal Desk Reference: Essential Oils for Animals (2012).

There are three different litter box deodorizers available, each with a different blend of veterinary grade essential oils (each blend created by Dr. Shelton). They come in clear plastic bottles (as shown) and have a dual shaker/pour top. Each bottle contains one pound of deodorizer. Choose from:

G I Goe Cat - is great for cats with any type of gastrointestinal concerns, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, indigestion or car sickness. Also good for cats that have an unknown or emotional aversion to the litter box. 

Smells Away Cat - as the name implies, is great for litter box odor elimination (as well as shoes, laundry hampers, dog bedding and more) and is also a great bug repellent! Bugs don't like it and stay away too! Some cats are more attracted to the litter box when this blend is used because it contains Catnip essential oil. 

All Cat - this blend helps support the thyroid, liver, kidney, heart health, reduction of inflammation, and all of the basic things cats are prone to. A tiny addition of Catnip essential oil in this blend helps to promote litter box use.

Not only are these deodorizers non-toxic and safe for cats, they have pleasant aromas that appeal to the most sensitive noses, animals and humans alike, and there are many benefits to the use of essential oils.

Essential oils are Nature's medicines and can effect us and our animals on many different levels; not only on a physical level but also on emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

For instance, my mother has a six-year-old cat that she's has since he was a kitten. Although he's always been good about using the litter box to urinate, he had an aversion to doing number two in it no matter how clean it was. She had tried things like different kinds of litters (Cat Attract worked for awhile) and adding another litter box without success. Then after giving her some of the G I Goe Litteroma to try (which I was using for our cat with IBD), she excitedly reported that he began doing number two in the box instead of beside it!

Litteroma - Choose from: GI Goe, Smells Away or All Cat - (1 lb)  $6.00 each

Please use the "Contact Form" on the right side of this blog to send us an email and let us know what you want to order. We will get back to you with payment and shipping/delivery methods. These are also available on our "Shop" page. 

Beneful = Bad News

After receiving thousands of complaints of sick and dead dogs linked to Beneful Dog Food over the last few years, it turns out the FDA actually did do some testing on the dog food and inspections at some of their manufacturing plants as well. But get this: They did the testing and inspections in 2013, but just released the results on their website in April 2016. Three years later. There was no public notice. If it wasn't for our pet food advocate Susan Thixton (TruthAboutPetFood.com) "finding" this information on the FDA's website and making us aware of it, I wouldn't even be telling you this.  

What their reports say are disturbing. For one thing, I'm sure you will be horrified to know that they found the same ingredients in Beneful that were in the foods that caused the largest and deadliest pet food recall in our history (2007), killing thousands of pets. And this is just the beginning. I'm not going to tell you everything they found because Susan Thixton has already done so in her article here:

http://truthaboutpetfood.com/fda-releases-concerning-information-about-beneful/

This company shouldn't be in business, yet dogs are still being fed this poison. And unless you stay informed by someone who keeps up with this stuff or someone who is always surfing the FDA's website, you wouldn't know any better. The FDA releases the information in such a way so as not to bring any attention to it or to let anyone even know about it, but yet if asked about it, they can say that it's right there in public view for anyone to see. You mean you didn't know about it? (Duh.)

They think we are stupid. They don't care about your animals. All they care about is that you keep buying their products which earns them millions. Read the reports. Decide for yourself.

I would never recommend this food to begin with, just based on the ingredients; and then you add all of these findings...scary, to say the least.

Any time I see someone who feeds Beneful to their dogs (dry or wet) I share these articles with them or tell them about what I've learned. Won't you please do the same? It is up to us to bring awareness, which is the key to keeping our pets safe and healthy.

Zoopharmacognosy: Animals' Clever Use of Nature's Medicine

Zoopharmacognosy is the study of how animals self-medicate in the wild. After watching a video of Dr. Karen Becker interviewing Caroline Ingraham, and also videos of it being applied to dogs, I was totally fascinated with this! 

Caroline Ingraham is the founder of Applied Zoopharmacognosy and has spent three decades researching and observing how animals heal themselves.

Dr. Becker states, "In applied Zoopharmacognosy, Caroline and other practitioners bring remedies to animals that don't live in the wild, providing them with a wide range to choose from to bring themselves back into health. Empowering animals to self-medicate often results in a swift and complete cure." She offers plant extracts in different forms including using essential oils. Caroline shares some interesting cases in the interview as well as explaining why sometimes dogs will eat things that poison them.

This is really amazing. This is the future of natural medicinal healing for animals! Back to nature, that's what it's about. Nature has the answers. Check out the videos here:








Read the transcript of the interview here.

Prescription Pet Foods - Ignored Ethics

As I recently mentioned in a previous article, prescription pet foods have a list of problems, including never being proven to be safe or effective at what they claim the foods to be for, which caused the FDA to recently put in place a new compliance policy guidance stating that veterinarians are now responsible for the prescription foods. (I wonder how many veterinarians are even aware of this?)

Another issue that Susan Thixton, owner of TruthAboutPetFood.com, founding partner of AssociationforTruthinPetFood.com, and author of Buyer Beware, points out in a recent article is that one of the AVMA's  Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics (PVME), is being ignored when it comes to prescription pet foods. She's absolutely right. Read her article by clicking here.

This should be a wake up call for pet food consumers who feed their pets prescription foods. Do you really want to be giving your pets foods that have never been proven safe or effective -- according to the FDA themselves -- who, for this reason, recently gave all responsibility for these foods to vets? Foods that vets are selling and profiting from while ignoring the very ethical conduct they are expected to adhere to, which is “Veterinarians shall not promote, sell, prescribe, dispense, or use secret remedies or any other product for which they do not know the ingredients.”?  Foods that contain the very ingredients that you want to be avoiding? Ingredients that violate federal law? As Susan Thixton states, "Do you think many veterinarians prescribing Rx pet foods know what poultry by products or animal fat is? Have they read the science on carrageenan? It’s simple…most do not know." 

Other questions I have are: Do you think they (vets) know what GMOs are? And that the Rx foods contain them? If they did, do you think they would still prescribe them, especially considering they are now the responsible party for Rx foods?

Check out this excellent article listing the Top Ten Myths About Pet Food and Nutrition by Dr. Jean Hofve, Holistic Veterinarian, and see what she has to say about prescription foods, which is the first on her list.

Here is a very informative (13 min.) video explaining GMOs and some of the studies done on them, by one of my favorite health researchers Mike Adams, The Health Ranger.





And another (9 min.) short video from Anthony Samsel of the Glyphosate paper by Samsel and Seneff, sharing results of a study as well:

National Dog Bite Prevention Week

This week, May 15th - 21st, is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. 

Pet Sitters International, the world's largest educational association for professional pet sitters is urging dog lovers to think twice. Like their article states, when we are walking dogs, we try to avoid other people and animals for everyone's safety -- humans and animals alike. I've turned around and walked the other way and sometimes had to run to avoid an unwanted situation many times. The nightmare is when there is a loose dog running at you while walking a client's dog; or a small child running toward you to pet the dog you're walking, which is a dog that doesn't like being around children. As you can imagine, over the course of fourteen years I've encountered all kinds of situations. 

All dog lovers need to remember that not all dogs that are being walked are being walked by their guardians. Their pet sitter or dog walker may or may not know how that dog will react in any given situation. It's safest for us to just avoid others.

Prevention is the key and Pet Sitters International has some good tips for all dog lovers in this article on how to prevent dog bites....and be on the look-out for the new leash badges!

Prescription Pet Foods

You know how the FDA has strictly enforced the idea that drugs are the only cure or treatment of illness and that no one in the food industry is allowed to make any wellness or health claims when it comes to food products? 

But did you know that the FDA allows the pet food industry the same privilege as a drug? The FDA allows prescription pet foods to claim they cure or treat diseases AND they can do so without any of the requirements of a drug -- such as having to prove the effectiveness or safety! Doesn't that sound crazy? It's true!

And because these "food drugs" have not been proven for effectiveness or safety, (which the FDA themselves state) the FDA has a new Compliance Policy Guidance  which states that prescription pet foods are now the responsibility of the veterinarians! Not the FDA, not the pet food companies, but the veterinarians are responsible for the efficacy and safety of prescription pet foods. 

Whoa, that's pretty heavy. 

This puts vets in the position that they must learn about the ingredients in these foods, and as Susan Thixton of Truth About Pet Food puts it:

"And should a veterinarian not invest the time to learn the risks of many ingredients used in prescription pet foods – because the FDA dumped responsibility of the safety and efficacy of these pet foods into the lap of veterinarians, it appears the the FDA just set them up for consumer lawsuits (should the prescription pet food cause additional illness to the pet)."

"...should the prescription pet food cause additional illness to the pet."  How can they not, when these foods are full of GMO ingredients, carcinogens and other ingredients I would never want to feed my animals? The problem is, how would you prove it? 

Is it worth the risk of giving your pets foods that have not even been proven to be safe, let alone actually be effective at what they claim?

The last time I gave one of our pets a prescription food was almost two decades ago. It definitely had an adverse affect on our pet, (a dog who had never been on a prescription food before) of which the symptoms disappeared immediately upon removing the prescription food. She had never experienced the problem before the food either. I told our vet about it but they didn't or couldn't believe it was the food and dismissed it, though it was very obvious to us. It was the food and I didn't even know much at all about pet foods then. After researching pet foods and the ingredients in them for many years now, it's easy to understand. 

Still today, when I read the ingredient list of the prescription foods that I see people feeding their pets, I just cringe. Now that the FDA has created this new Compliance Policy Guidance (CPG) on prescription pet foods and given all the responsibility to vets, maybe now they will re-evaluate being in the pet food business altogether. I certainly hope so.

For more details on this subject including the ingredients of prescription foods and the new FDA CPG, please click here.

9 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Seafood Cat Foods

I know, cats can be finicky eaters...and they always seem to go for the seafood flavors, right? It's because they are really smelly and to a cat this is enticing. Pet food manufacturers know this. They know that if they just add some type of fish to their foods, the cats will go for it. In fact, I have discovered that some entire lines of can cat foods contain fish in the ingredients, even when it doesn't state so at all on the front of the label. It might say something like "beef dinner in gravy" or "chicken dinner in gravy" on the front of the label, along with "grain free" and "gluten free", so you think you're getting some quality food without fish in it.....wrong! Read the list of ingredients on the back and you will find fish among the top 5 ingredients!

9 reasons why you should avoid 

giving fish or seafood flavor foods (can or dry!) to your cats:

1    They contain PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) and PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) which are flame retardant chemicals that are also derived from marine organisms. PCBs and PBDEs are endocrine and thyroid disruptors.

2    They most likely contain elevated levels of heavy metals including mercury. The FDA advises women of child bearing age and children to avoid certain fish entirely for this reason. If they are dangerous for children, cats are at an even higher risk!

3    Fish is one of the most highly allergic foods for cats, which causes inflammatory conditions.

4    It's not a species appropriate diet for cats.

5    Fish fed in high amounts can lead to thiamine deficiency.

6    Fish fed long term can deplete vitamin E and vitamin E deficiency causes a painful condition called steatitis, which can be life threatening.

7    Seafood is a rich source of iodine and cats are not designed to process a lot of iodine.

8    Magnesium content in fish has been linked to urinary tract diseases in cats; a diet with too much magnesium can cause ammonium phosphate crystals or struvite crystals.

9    Pet food regulations require menadione sodium bisulfite to be the ONLY vitamin K source for a fish based cat food. There is no other vitamin K source approved (regulations) for a fish based cat food. This is a synthetic form of vitamin K3, which for humans is known to be hazardous to our health if ingested and that prolonged exposure to it can produce organ damage. So how could it be okay for our pets to eat, especially when they are fed the same thing for every meal over long periods of time?


For more details on why you should stop feeding your kitties fish or fish-flavored cat foods please read this article written by holistic veterinarian Dr. Karen Becker  by clicking here. 

For more details on menadione sodium bisulfite and other unwanted pet food ingredients please read this article by Susan Thixton at TruthAboutPetFood.com on How Safe is Pet Food?