It’s not just humans that use plants as medicine. Zoopharmacognosy - the study of animal plant self-medication is a fascinating field and I thought I’d share a few examples...
This is fascinating article. I have 4 dogs and I do observe carefully what they eat. They all eat the new sugar rich grass though in a much more grazing fashion so I suspect they just like the taste
This is the kind of thing I am really fascinated by and have observed on rare occasions in myself. I had such experience with hawthorn berries in the past. The innate intuition we have for sniffing out things we need is undoubtedly there...I have a lot of belief in a being's ability to seek healing/help in their environment. What I want to discover is ways to return to this state...I feel a lot of it is retuning sensory awareness and to do this involves cutting out a lot of the noise humans have accumulated over years of 'civilised society'. I leave a link here to my hawthorn story, the only article on my website, which is still in progress as a project. Don't feel obliged to look at it, just if you are curious :) Thank you for your knowledge! https://imogened.wordpress.com/2020/06/19/hawthorn-in-the-blood/
One of my dogs, Charlie, loves to eat grass too, and I can tell she eats it because she likes it, not because she has an upset tummy. She has always done this, her whole life. When I walk her, if she encounters a nice patch of grass, she'll stop to have a nibble.
My other dog, Leo, however, never eats grass. But he does eat sumac when he has an upset tummy. He will chow down on the sumac leaves until he throws up. Do you know if the leaves contain any special properties - or is it just the excess roughage that is doing the job?
This is fascinating article. I have 4 dogs and I do observe carefully what they eat. They all eat the new sugar rich grass though in a much more grazing fashion so I suspect they just like the taste
This is the kind of thing I am really fascinated by and have observed on rare occasions in myself. I had such experience with hawthorn berries in the past. The innate intuition we have for sniffing out things we need is undoubtedly there...I have a lot of belief in a being's ability to seek healing/help in their environment. What I want to discover is ways to return to this state...I feel a lot of it is retuning sensory awareness and to do this involves cutting out a lot of the noise humans have accumulated over years of 'civilised society'. I leave a link here to my hawthorn story, the only article on my website, which is still in progress as a project. Don't feel obliged to look at it, just if you are curious :) Thank you for your knowledge! https://imogened.wordpress.com/2020/06/19/hawthorn-in-the-blood/
Hi Monica, Great article.
One of my dogs, Charlie, loves to eat grass too, and I can tell she eats it because she likes it, not because she has an upset tummy. She has always done this, her whole life. When I walk her, if she encounters a nice patch of grass, she'll stop to have a nibble.
My other dog, Leo, however, never eats grass. But he does eat sumac when he has an upset tummy. He will chow down on the sumac leaves until he throws up. Do you know if the leaves contain any special properties - or is it just the excess roughage that is doing the job?
Thanks!