Pet Corner: Herbal Antibiotics for Pets

Enlarge Image Image Gallery To prevent your puppy from getting sick, look into herbal antibiotics. Photo courtesy of A. Sheplak

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In my holistic practice, I rely almost exclusively on herbal antibiotics. There are several reasons for this, and I think it is more important to understand these reasons than to try to learn each and every herb that has ever been used for its antibiotic properties. (There are literally dozens of them.) The litany of reasons not to use synthetic antibiotics has filled whole books, but for this article, I’ll just list a few of the major ones.

Synthetic antibiotics kill off health-enhancing bugs as well as those that cause disease. A pet’s body is a complex organism that, in a healthy condition, provides a balanced environment for billions upon billions of microorganisms, most of which play an important role in the pet’s overall health. Synthetic antibiotics are as unselective as a shotgun blast; they kill the good-guy bugs as well as the ones that cause disease.

In the few short decades that synthetic antibiotics have been on the market, dozens of pathogens have developed resistance to one or more of them, and the number of resistant strains is rising exponentially. In fact, experts acknowledge that there’s no way technology can keep up with the bacteria’s ability to mutate and develop resistance. What this means is that the more antibiotics you use today, the more you run the risk that your vet will not be able to treat your pet’s future infectious diseases with any antibiotic.

Antibiotics eliminated from the body during treatment have become a huge environmental problem, and as more and more antibiotics contaminate our water and food supplies, even more resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria are created.

Herbs with antibiotic activity

Because there are dozens of herbs that have proven antibiotic activity (either germ-killing or germ-inhibiting), there is no shortage of species to choose from. So, I try to select an herb for its other properties as well as its antibiotic value. If I can find an herb that helps ailing organ systems as well as having antibiotic properties, then the patient is doubly rewarded. Some examples of antibiotic herbs that also enhance organ systems follow.

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). One of many herbs containing the biochemical berberine—in addition to being immunostimulatory, it has antibiotic activity against many bacteria and fungi. Goldenseal is especially good for use in any inflammatory condition involving the mucus membranes, and it’s also good for gastrointestinal and liver problems. Wild goldenseal has been harvested to the brink of extinction; be certain the product you use has been organically grown—or a good substitute herb is Oregon grape root (Mahonia aquifolium).

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