10 Must-Have Simple and Natural Dog Remedies

We use these dog remedies on our dogs all the time. The dogs in our family have always come from the drop-off strays left in our neighborhood. When we take them in, they get all the love and attention we can give.

While I didn't intend to start out on a journey of using natural methods on my animals, it actually is what happened. Our cow dog of 16 years recently died after living his life with few vaccinations and natural supplements.

Our Siberian Husky came to us with undiagnosed brown tick disease, which I treated with essential oils. While she did not survive very long, she did outlive the veterinarian's predictions of her life expectancy! Even our Chihuahua came to us with a mystery fungal infection and I eradicated it with black walnut powder.

Our dogs have served us well. They rarely go to the vet and do not usually get sick unless they are on death's doorstep.

Why dog remedies?

You might wonder why in the world you need dog remedies for your dog? Well, just like the doctors for our special needs children, veterinarians don't have all the answers either. In fact, there are fewer medical answers for dogs than there are for people!

Dog remedies help keep our dogs healthier longer, focusing on health and not just medications to treat illnesses. Try some or all of these remedies to help your animals live their best life!

Fungal and Worm Treatment

As I said, I learned and researched how to give my dog black walnut powder for a mystery fungal or worm issue. The vets told me that it was just sunburn or something, but when I researched it online, I found out that it was actually some sort of fungal issue. In my research, I found out that it could have even come from being around rats! EEW!

Since we live in the country, he probably didn't get it from here. Plus, he was a stray, someone more than likely dropped him off from the city, or he ran from there. Anyway, I sprinkled black walnut powder on his dry dog food for several weeks and the peeling on his nose went away!

Plus, he showed no sign of worms. It has now become my regular treatment for worms. You can get black walnut powder here.

Use this dog remedy about every six weeks for two to three days and keep the worms away!

Joint care

If you have a big dog, or a dog at the end of its life, joint care is a biggie. You can treat this and add a few months or even years onto a dog's life when you use dog remedies that help their joints. The glucosamine and chondroitin mixed with turmeric work really well in people as well as pets. Try these natural dog treats to help your dog.

Adding this into your dog's daily regimen along with some turmeric helps your dog regenerate joints with regular exercise and a good diet.

If you already use a human chondroitin pill, you can simply give it to your dog in their food or mixed in peanut butter or cheese to cover up the taste as well.

Turmeric

I ran across this natural remedy when my female dog mysteriously got mastitis. While I still don't know the cause of her lactation (she wasn't pregnant), I did give her about 1/4 tsp of turmeric, 1 tablespoon of raw honey and 1 teaspoon of coconut oil. I melted it a bit in the microwave and gave her a spoonful cooled.

This not only made her feel better, but lowered any inflammation she had. Plus, it helped to stop any infection. I used antibiotic ointment on her teat, and she immediately began to heal.

Turmeric and curcumin have also become regulars for joint healing as well. You can purchase these chews as well on Amazon.

Fish oil

I used these pills a lot when my older dog began struggling. I noticed a pep in his step when I added them to his food. I did use over-the-counter fish oil capsules I myself take on a regular basis.

Fish oil capsules are just a healthy daily solution to keeping your dog healthy.

Yogurt

Given the milk factor and a dog's stomach, I wouldn't pass this out too much at a time. But, yogurt does give good bacteria, even to a dog's stomach. This keeps Fido healthy on a dime. You can even mix it up in some peanut butter, cheese, and/or almond meal into a ball. This way, he just thinks he got a snack, and you know you just helped him live longer! Make your own yogurt if you like!

Homemade dog biscuits

Yes, you could go buy store-bought dog treats, but homemade is so much better (and cheaper!). Keep them in a Ziploc in the refrigerator for a nice tasty treat.

Fresh Dog Food

There are so many new dog foods focusing on the Primal dog diet, but honestly, your dog probably isn't really getting the authentic dog diet. I have used this sort of diet on my own dog, who had brown tick disease.

You can make up a Primal dog food by adding a couple of ounces of meat to a good amount of purred vegetables and rice or quinoa. My dog's brown tick disease was reversed like this for several years and she was able to eat and digest dry dog food for the rest of her life.

General Homemade Dog Food Recipe

Use the portions to match the size and temperament of your dog. Larger dogs require 2-3 ounces of meat, while a smaller lap-size dog may only require 1/4 ounce of meat. Adjust portions accordingly.

Mix it all together in the dog dish and serve.

Essential oil dog remedies

So much information gets passed around about essential oils and animals online. While we don't have a cat, I cannot verify the issue about oils and cats.

Dogs, however, do real well with essential oils. I use them for a variety of reasons and most modern-day vets somewhat appreciate the use of essential oils.

Lavender oil

Use lavender oil on your dogs for wound care and to help calm them. Make a spray to brush them down before fireworks and other incidents that may cause dogs to become anxious.

Tea Tree oil

This little oil packs a good punch on ticks. Tea tree oils help suffocate ticks that have latched onto your animal and may even fall off and die. When removing a tick you can add a drop or two of tea tree oil and remove the tick easily with tweezers.

Keeping a good spray down of tea trees also helps repel ticks and fleas.

Oregano oil

Use this oil in small doses or thinned out with a carrier oil for infections. If you prefer not to use antibiotics on your dog, you can use oregano oil to stop infections of most sorts.

Peppermint oil

This cooling oil soothes irritations and also repels fleas. For some years this has worked in dog shampoo and spray to keep the fleas off my dog. In other years, I admit, we went to the toxic flea and tick killers.

But, peppermint helps with congestion in older dogs and fleas. I used to diffuse it in the air when my older dog began to wheeze at night in his sleep. It dramatically helped him!

Calendula

While some make think this is a bit crunchy, I admittedly did too, that is, until I learned how to use it. Calendula tincture found on Amazon can heal most any skin issue. I use it on dogs, chickens, and goats (we do live in the country) with great success!

Frequently calendula is made with an alcohol base, in which case, I add a few drops to a bit of coconut oil and add it to wounds and rashes this way. When dogs get into something, you can just spread it lightly on their wound directly until it heals.

Skunk Remedy

This remains one of my all-time favorite dog remedies. If you live in the country you may already know this, but no, do not bathe your dog in tomato juice! Whoever came up with that idea did not have to live in the same house as the dog!

Our poor puppy was made to lay out the back door until I found this natural remedy. Read my post about our dog, Fred, and his skunk activities!

Sanitizing Dog Shampoo Recipe

Years ago, I discovered this dog remedy when our Husky came down with a UTI. All that fur and she was irritated and I couldn't find anyone to groom her. So, once again, I researched a dog shampoo recipe and discovered this gem. It removed the odor and sanitized her.

This really does work well...even on a Siberian Husky with tons of fur!

In a gallon-sized jar or container add the following:

Stir the ingredients together gently, and add to a squeeze bottle for application. Store the remainder of the dog shampoo in an air-tight container for later use. Apply the shampoo directly to the dog's fur and work up a good lather. Rinse and repeat until all stinkiness is removed!

Towel dry your dog and blow dry if necessary.

Dog shampoo tips

Healthy dogs are happy dogs!

You can really do so much to help your puppies live long and healthy lives. Yes, giving them the right kind of food does help, but also tending to their needs with dog remedies really gives them a good boost for longevity.