Article Title: Aloe For Dogs
Author: Pamela Glynn
What's Aloe Vera? It's a kind of cactus, isn't it? How can a
cactus help Sam's stiff limbs?"
Those were my words of about ten years ago. I said them to my
daughter, Joanna, who was gleefully holding up a chubby yellow
tub. She seemed to think its Aloe contents held the answer to my
8-year-old Bearded Collie's arthritic problem. I disagreed. My
reason? I knew that Joanna had been drinking Aloe Vera for her
IBS – and that it had helped the condition. At that stage I saw
no connection whatsoever between Sam's stiffness and her
stomach!
I had a lot to learn. My `Aloe education' began with the 60 mls
of the drink that I eventually agreed to pour over Sam's dinner.
A finicky dog, he often refused food initially and almost never
pounced on it like so many of his friends and relatives seemed
to do. I'm not suggesting that he pounced now … but to my
astonishment he ambled over quite soon and, after sniffing this
`new food', polished it off quickly (for him) and even licked
his bowl clean.
Having tasted the Aloe in the tub, I found Sam's apparent
enthusiasm for it mystifying and dismissed it as a very
temporary blip. But I was wrong, because he was enthusiastic
again the next night … and the next. Did he know something I
didn't?
Suspecting that he and Joanna shared a secret that excluded me
because of my inbred skepticism about `alternative' products, I
did some digging.
In the process I learned that, far from being a cactus, Aloe
Barbadensis Miller (the true Aloe Vera) is a member of the lily
family, related to garlic, onions and asparagus.
Having been around for thousands of years, it has been used for
centuries to maintain health and enhance beauty. Cleopatra is
said to have bathed in it, while Dioscorides, the Ancient Greek
physician, is reputed to have used it in his pills and potions.
But we'd moved on since then, hadn't we – and now vets dealt
with animal health? Well, yes, and they do that brilliantly! All
the same, while reading about Aloe Vera's natural
anti-inflammatory properties (which seemed perhaps to explain
Joanna's insistence that this drink might benefit both her IBS
and Sam's stiffness) I was witnessing a difference in Sam.
In the two or so weeks that had elapsed his `bounce' had come
back! For the uninitiated, I'll just mention that Bearded
Collies in good health do seem to have paws with inbuilt springs
– and now Sam was bouncing around like a young thing. Still
disbelieving, I said nothing to anyone, fully expecting this to
be a very temporary phenomenon. But it wasn't – and my fellow
dog-walkers started commenting, as well as asking questions that
I wasn't yet equipped to answer.
Before long, even Sam's vet wanted to know what I was doing
differently – and, as often happens in life, one thing led to
another …
© P.G. Glynn 2008
About The Author: I am a published author, both of a novel in
hardback and many articles, some about Aloe Vera, which I've now
been marketing for 10 years. Please visit my new website to read
Sam's story (told in his own words)and learn more about animals
and Aloe. Free Aloe Brochure. http://www.my-
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