Clients often ask me if I can tell them why something is going on with their pet. I wish it were that simple - that I could ask a pet "What is making you so itchy?" or "Why have you been throwing up lately?" and then relay their answer to their guardian. Since animals don't communicate that way, it is often up to us - their guardians - to answer those questions. You might be surprised to know that keeping track of changes we've made (regarding food, treats, medication/supplements as well as life changes, schedule changes, etc) will give us more information than we thought possible.
I learned this myself many years ago when all of the sudden Lucky had a ton of hot spots. She was itchy and uncomfortable all the time. My vet asked me if there had been changes to her food or treats and my answer was "No." In my mind, nothing had changed so we couldn't figure out what could have caused this sudden bout of severe itchiness. Then one day while at the pet store, I decided to grab another bag of the treats I gave her and was stunned to realize that there were two different brands right next to each other on the shelf. The shape and size of the treats were identical and the bags were even the same color. Could I had accidentally bought her a different type of treat the last time I made a purchase? Sure enough that ended up being the culprit. Here I was swearing up and down that NOTHING had changed, when the truth was, I had accidentally bought a different treat and since I opened the bag up and poured them into the "treat jar" I hadn't seen the packaging since the day I bought them. (On the plus side, that was when we determined that Lucky had an allergic reaction to corn).
I learned a lot in the years Lucky was with me and thankfully, I can pass those insights along to my clients. For instance, I have had countless dogs suddenly become "deaf" - my clients assume it's an old age thing but often inquire if a Reiki session could help with that. This is a situation I am so familiar with that I always ask "Did your dog have ear mites anytime in the last 6 months?" The answer is YES about 80% of the time. The reason I ask that question is because I learned through my OWN experience that the treatment (drops that you put in their ear canal) can often leave a thin coating on the ear drum. This results in the dog not being able to hear as well and in most cases, using an ear wash will "restore the dog's hearing."
The "hearing loss" isn't usually noticed immediately so by the time we're at the "I think my dog is deaf" stage, we've long forgotten about that brief period of ear mite treatment that occurred months earlier. So much time can pass that it won't ever occur to us that the two things are related.
As Lucky got older and had more health issues, it was harder and harder to keep track of how long something had been going on, as it seemed my answer to that was "just recently" or "for quite a while" whenever our vet asked me questions about the timing of things. That was when I learned to keep my own "Pet Journal."
Recently I had a client who was very concerned about her dog's seizures and she wanted to know if I could tell her what was causing them. I explained to her that her dog wouldn't be able to tell me the cause but reminded her that she had more knowledge than she thought she did. I suggested she start keeping a journal/diary for her dog. She said she already kept track of food changes and medication/supplement changes in her calendar so I asked her if she could also start writing down everything else she was observing. Whether it was behavioral or medical or just seemingly random small things.
It is the reason that I often suggest that animal guardians start keeping a diary for their pets (especially with all my older pets) because a) it's nearly impossible to remember every detail or know what details are important and which ones aren't. and b) because animals often "show us" what's going on through these seemingly small and/or unrelated things. Yes, it does mean that I talk about 50% of the people who come to me for a session OUT of having a session - LOL - but I would much rather support people in finding the answers themselves whenever possible.
The other reason this type of information can be helpful is when I DO have a session with an animal, I am able to tap in more specifically to what the guardian has been able to put together. Partnering WITH the guardian almost always ensures a better and/or quicker resolution.
For example, when a guardian needed help with her cat who had suddenly started vomiting . . . since she was able to tell me exactly what her cat, who was on a raw food diet, was eating for breakfast each day, I was able to pick up on the fact that it was too many different proteins. Plus I got a feeling of queasiness that I get when I eat food that is too rich. Based on that she decided to cut back on the # of different proteins each day and also cut out the ones that were a little more rich. Kitty barfing was resolved!!!
With another client, being able to share specifics from his journal about when his dog jumped the fence and how often it happened along with what other things were occurring in his life at the time, helped us determine that it WASN'T a negative reaction to his new girlfriend (his biggest fear), but instead the fence jumping coincided with his son's visits. Each time his son came for a visit and then went back to college, there was a day or two of fence jumping. His dog was just missing his son. Putting a t-shirt or sweatshirt his son had worn in the dog's bed resolved the fence jumping.
Like I said, you have more information than you think . . . and you probably need an animal communicator less often than you think too! :-) Something to consider . . .
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