How everyday changes can affect your health and your pet's well-being
Here in the Pacific Northwest, that fall time change always shocks the system for me. Suddenly, darkness arrives much earlier than I expect. I can look at the clock and know exactly what time it is, yet something about the day feels different. My dog has her own sense of time. She might be smarter than all of us! Waiting for her dinner or ending her day in darkness before playtime is over aren't options for my Border/Aussie girl. Pet trauma and recovery can happen overnight, only become physically visible much later.
It's a simple example of how changes in our environment can affect us, sometimes in ways we hardly recognize. In fact, you could even say they're a shock to your system! In this article, I'd like to explore what happens when something disrupts your body's natural balance, how you might recognize the signals, and what you can do to support your ability to adapt and recover. The same principles apply to your pets.
Your Body Is Always Adjusting
One of the fascinating things about living organisms is their ability to maintain balance even as conditions change. In biology, we call this homeostasis. Your body constantly adjusts its temperature, circulation, metabolism, and countless other functions to keep you healthy. Your pets have the same remarkable ability.
Think about the last time something unexpected interrupted your normal routine. Perhaps you traveled across time zones, experienced an illness, underwent surgery, or found yourself dealing with an unusually stressful situation. Your body immediately began making adjustments to meet the new demands. When it couldn't adjust . . . maybe because of too little time to fully adapt, too much stress, too little rest, less-than-wonderful nutrition, or even exposure to crowds, noises, and confinement . . . you (or your pet) became unwell. It might have been just too much all at once.
Some changes are relatively easy to accommodate. Others require considerably more energy and time for recovery. A major illness, for example, can affect multiple systems throughout the body, and the process of restoring balance may continue long after the most obvious symptoms have improved.
When the Effects Appear Later
I've explored this relationship between emotional experiences and physical health for many years. In an earlier article, How Energy Affects Your Health, I discussed how significant life events can influence your well-being long after the original experience.
I can often connect the dots between obvious shocks to the system and consequences that appear a week - or even a month or two later. I've seen it in animals after required vaccines, as well as in people after hospital stays, or emotional stressors. In my own experience with my dog, nearly two months after spending eight days in intensive care for acute kidney injury, she developed a skin condition involving demodex mites. She's regained her appetite and enthusiasm for life, yet this new development, one we saw in her as a puppy, has me concerned about her immune system and full recovery from her ICU experience.
The emotional experience of a health crisis deserves attention, too. I've written about this in Working With Animals to Heal Trauma, Pain, Injury, and Disease, where I explore the importance of recognizing both physical and emotional distress in animals.
Demodex mites commonly live in canine hair follicles, and the immune system ordinarily helps keep their populations under control. When immune regulation changes, the mites can multiply and cause skin problems. I know from experience with her as a puppy that she's sensitive. Observing her in ICU I knew it had to be perhaps the worst time of her life - seemingly abandoned and sequestered in a confined area, poked and prodded, away from home . . . well, you get the picture. I forgot about the longer-lasting effects of stress. The immune system has to work harder to come into balance. Because of her acute kidney injury I stopped giving her some supplements that I deliberately give to support her immune system, My thought was to rest her kidneys, giving them less to process. It wasn't a good idea in her case.
Her experience reminds me that recovery can involve more than the immediate problem. Sometimes changes become noticeable weeks or months later, and sometimes they're unrelated to the original event. Either way, they're worth paying attention to.
Recognizing the Signals
You may notice changes in your energy, sleep, digestion, mood, or ability to concentrate when your body is working to adjust to new demands. Your pets may communicate through changes in appetite, activity, behavior, or the condition of their skin and coat.
For Bridie, it was entertaining to watch her use the shrubbery as a scratching post. What a smile she had on her face! It must have felt wonderful on her itchy skin. The evidence appeared later as a patch of missing fur on her side and a few missing hairs around one eye. Yep. Demodex. The mites were winning, but only temporarily. I knew what to do.
What Helps You Recalibrate?
For Bridie, recalibration means more playtime and more attention from me. For my part, it's about giving her immune system some additional support. I've added her medicinal mushroom supplement back into her routine and ordered a specific blend of Chinese herbs designed to support healthy immune function. You might say I'm helping her immune system work smarter. I've also been caring for the affected areas of her skin with pure rosehip oil and using Nano Silver both internally and topically as part of my approach to supporting her skin and addressing concerns about secondary infection.
For you, recalibration might begin with recognizing seasonal triggers. Perhaps it's the way-too-early holiday music playing in stores, the growing number of social obligations on your calendar, or the awareness that everyone around you seems to be coming down with the flu. Even positive experiences can create additional demands on your body, especially when several things happen at once.
Your pets experience changes in their own ways. They respond to shifts in household routines, unfamiliar visitors, travel, and the emotions of the people around them. Sometimes their behavior provides the first indication that something has changed. Other times, as I've discovered with Bridie, the physical evidence appears later.
What interests me most is how much information your body provides when you begin paying attention. A change in sleep, energy, digestion, or mood may be an early signal that something needs adjusting. Your pet's appetite, activity, behavior, or skin may offer similar clues. Recognizing these changes gives you an opportunity to consider what your body, or your animal's body, needs to restore balance.
I've spent many years exploring ways to support the body's natural intelligence, and experiences like Bridie's continue to remind me that healing and recovery are ongoing processes. The immediate crisis may be over, while the body is still making adjustments behind the scenes.
Perhaps that's the most important thing to understand about shocks to the system. Their effects don't always appear immediately, and recovery doesn't necessarily follow the timetable you expect. The more familiar you become with your body's signals, the better equipped you are to recognize when it's time to make an adjustment.
Creating balance begins with awareness.
