You know the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." In this day and age of health and fitness clubs, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, organic foods, dietary supplements, chiropractic care, meditation, massage and preventative medicine for people, this article will guide you through how many of these treatments can be highly beneficial to your animals.

Below is a list of alternative treatments available to help your animal maintain or regain their health.

Acupuncture: Based on the 5000 year old Traditional Chinese medical system, acupuncture stimulates the meridians(energy pathways) of the body by inserting tiny needles into the skin along the meridian points which unblocks stagnant Qi (life force energy). Ask friends for references, depending on symptoms usually need 2-6 sessions. Has benefited: arthritis, back issues, organ dysfunction, immune system boosting, obesity, diabetes, coughing, old age, hip dysplasia, stomach issues, allergies, fear and submissive behaviors, injury recovery, cataracts, anything diagnosed as congenital, lupus, cancer and heart conditions.

Chiropractic Care: Gentle inputs to the spine assist it in realigning itself. Works the same way for animals as humans. Animals are often much more active than humans, especially the ones running along the beach and the horses on hilly land, so having your animal checked 2x a year is a great preventative. An injured limb can cause a misalignment in the spine as well. 1-3 sessions is usually all that is necessary for an injury. Has benefited: older animals, injured animals, an animal that has become aggressive whose back is sore, overweight animals, rescue animals, high end athletes, dachsunds, horse with lameness, cats who are high jumpers, large breed dogs, and agility dogs.

Massage: Aaaaahhhhh! No need to explain this one, very simple and works the same for animals as it does for humans. Excellent for all physical issues stated above, as well as it being a great all around calmer.

Animal Communication: Think of it as a psychic reading for your animal. An Animal Communicator can help you hear the messages that your animal is trying to share with you and can be quite accurate in assisting you in pinpointing the root cause of your animals issues, be it physical, emotional or psychological. 1 session will typically do the trick with perhaps 1 or 2 follow ups down the road. If you have tried a trainer, a vet and are at the end of your rope, try a communicator- and next time an issue comes about they may be the first one that you call.

Nutrition: This is a big topic because there are so many myths perpetuated about proper diets for animals. To cut out a lot of the myths and made up facts let's take a common sense look from Mother Nature's perspective at the two most important factors of what is most natural to our animals systems.

Unless there was a time when the wolves or the mountain lions sat around a camp fire and brainstormed the idea to cook and eat dry kibble, then the traditional "dry food only diets" of today are seriously out of balance with nature.

First and foremost, in the wild an animal's diet would consist of 70-80% moisture. If you look on the bags of your animal's food at the actual moisture content it is somewhere between 10-12%. When there is not enough moisture in the food, the body has to pull moisture out of the cells, an unnatural process leading to dehydration. Adding water to the kibble is not the best way to get more moisture into your animal.

A dry diet is THE most unnatural for cats as they are strict carnivores, not only do they need fresh meat but need the water content from that meat as they were not designed to be big water drinkers. I am convinced that dehydration is a major contributing factor to kidney disease in cats as they get older. Think about it, would you eat dry food out of a bag everyday and realistically think you would be healthy and live a long life?

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