The Royal Treatment: A Natural Approach to Wildly Healthy Pets

by Barbara Royal Dr.

Overview

In this scientific guide to animal needs, renowned veterinarian Dr. Barbara Royal presents her groundbreaking treatment methods that will do wonders for your pet’s health and happiness.

Take care of your pet naturally!

• Functional nutrition and diet recipes

• Commercial pet food: recognizing the good, the bad, and the unhealthy

• How diet and protein levels specifically affect your pet’s health and behavior

• Judicious use of herbs and medicines

• How to detect if your pet is feeling pain and where

• Noninvasive, nonsurgical treatments for genetically flawed hips and other arthritic joints

• How to know if your pet is happy

• How to clean your dog’s, cat’s, or rabbit’s ears—the right way!

• Pet supplements explained

• Which vaccines to give or not give your pet

• Evolutionary insights into your pet’s behavior

• Getting your new puppy off to a perfect start

• How acupuncture works

• Geriatric wellness and end-of-life care

These pages shimmer with ingenious advice that combines common sense with holistic medicine and the best of modern science. A passionate, dedicated, and innovative veterinarian with a background in zoo and wildlife medicine, Dr. Royal empowers animal lovers to lift their pets into a realm of natural health and happiness that will be palpable from shiny coat to bouncy step.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451647709
Publisher:	Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Publication date:	06/25/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	380
Sales rank:	1,102,098
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr. Barbara Royal is a veterinarian and the founder of The Royal Treatment Veterinary Center. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was a featured veterinarian on the Smithsonian Channel. She lives in Wilmette, Illinois with her husband, two children, her cat, Flag, and her dog, Henry.

Read an Excerpt

THE PURSUIT OF PET HAPPINESS

If your dog wags his tail in your house and no one is there to see it, is he still happy?

“I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF DAKOTA IS HAPPY.” I HEAR THIS FROM owners nearly every day.

Are Simba, Diesel, Oscar, Darby, Ladybug, Numbers, Pippin, Isabelle, or Ariadne happy? How can we know?

When we brought animals out of their natural habitats and into our homes, we formed a partnership with them. The original impetus may have been for protection, but I believe that even in the very first human interactions with a cave-pet, there was an element of joy. We hope their domestication has brought them more advantages than disadvantages. Because we are grateful for what our pets offer us, we want to reliably provide what they need. We are advocates for these silent family members.

Nonetheless, they communicate with their language of wagging tails, purring, and head-butting. We’d like to believe that our pets are at least as cheerful as they might be in the wild. In general we do not concern ourselves with the comfort level of wildlife. However, when I worked in wildlife rehabilitation, I was deeply concerned about this, particularly because the animals were under human care. I was certain that once returned to the wild, they would make their own way. While quantifying the contentedness of a wild animal is difficult, I assess the happiness of pets every day.

Owners wonder if any animal can be satisfied living in an apartment, a small ranch house, a mansion, a farmhouse, or a high-rise. They might wonder if the pet that travels the world with my client Oprah Winfrey is happier than the pet living in a city apartment with my client Sondra, who works as a night nurse. Both pets seem content to me.

Pets keep us grounded in the moment. Despite our busy schedules, the pace of a pet remains the same, and we must become part of that pace, if only for a brief part of our day. A fifteen-minute walk with your dog or a quiet moment with your cat is invaluable for both you and your animal.

Pet owners understandably worry about myriad things: whether they provide too few or too many activities for their pets, whether they are feeding them the best food, if current vaccine schedules are safe, and if alternative treatments really work. Finding the right resources and correct answers is fraught with false claims and vested interests.

In response to all of this, I urge pet owners to not overanalyze. A pet should be a joy, not a job.

It is simple. Your pet lives in a safe, secure existence with a loving person. At the same time, understanding the primal imperatives will satisfy the inner wildcat and make the outer housecat purr; it will nourish the inner wolf and allow the outer puppy to grow.

I have noticed clients in my practice becoming more confident about their pet care decisions. They know that the Royal Treatment is not a plan that lavishes pets with unneeded pampering, but a sensible way to treat them. Giving your pet the Royal Treatment can ensure that he or she is not only happy but also wildly healthy. Once I’ve shown you how to do that, the next steps are a walk in the park.

Table of Contents

Terminology xiii

Preface xv

Foreword xix

Introduction: Wild Fire 1

Part 1 Wild Health

The Pursuit of Pet Happiness 7

The Perfect Fit 9

Zebra 13

When Best Intentions Don't Pave the Way to Health 21

Part 2 What Wild Animals Teach us About Our Pets

Hoot 37

Coco the Monkey and Wonder Bread 44

Life's a Zoo 53

Don't Make the Rabbit Scream 57

Part 3 Where the Wild Things Eat

4,000 Pet Foods and Counting 67

Diet Is Not a Four-Letter Word 74

Functional Pet Nutrition 87

How to Read a Pet Food Label 106

Don't Feed an Anemic Hummingbird a Steak 112

Part 4 Survival of the Fattest

Lean Toward Lean 123

Eight on Weight: Tips for Shedding Pounds from Hounds 130

Eight on Weight: Tips for Fat Cats 132

Part 5 Wildest Dreams

The Unlikely Zen Doc 137

Rhino and Reproduction 141

A Dog Named Fly and the Genetics of Health 144

Part 6 A Wild Approach to Healing

Acupuncture: The Point of Health 163

Getting the Most Out of Your Vet Visits 177

The Lost Art of the Physical Exam 196

Going Dental 207

Part 7 Wild Nature

Chat About the Cat 215

Feral Cats, Snow Leopard Tails, and Baby Tigers 216

Housecats Are Wilder Than You Think 226

Cat Litter: Thinking Inside the Box 233

Part 8 Medicine Gone Wild

Cancer Doesn't Come from Nowhere 241

Vaccinations 254

Medicine Chest 262

Emergency Care 273

I Usually Bring My Duck in at Twilight 292

Part 9 Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Rehab and the Coyote 301

Chameleons and Cold Laser 310

Tarantula Glue 312

Rejuvenating Your Older Pet 313

Part 10 Wild Circle

Euthanasia, the Heart of the Matter 327

Finding the Right Time to Say Goodbye 332

Baby Animals 345

After the Fire 361

Cure and Release 363

Acknowledgments 367

Professional Acknowledgments 370

Suggested Reading 372

Index 374

Editorial Reviews

Chicago-area veterinarian Royal, whose clients include Oprah Winfrey, combines guide book and memoir in one volume, illustrating her advice to loving pet owners with anecdotes from her own past, both happy and tragic. Royal, whose combination of Western and Eastern practices is decidedly unconventional, preaches respect for the animals we’ve made companions. Shaped by their shared histories with humans and by their predomestication evolutionary pasts, pets require appropriate treatment that isn’t driven by human fantasies about animals; carnivores cannot live on vegetables and simians cannot live on bread alone. This 10-section guide covers a wide range of subjects, from diet and litter management to humanely and ethically managing pets’ inevitable mortality. While trained in conventional techniques, Royal also values Eastern medical traditions and provides owners with discussion of what works for her and why. Written in an entertaining manner and supplemented with a suggested reading list, Royal’s book is a useful guide for anxious pet owners. Agent: Peter Miller, PMA Literary & Film Management. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Anxious, chubby, arthritic, allergic? No, not you, your pet. Licensed veterinarian Royal wants to help by first reminding us that our domesticated friends have not lost their wild needs. Then she offers a blend of Western and Eastern practices. She's been on Oprah, so people will ask.

Library Journal