Zoopharmacognosy practitioners assist and encourage animals to utilize their natural skills and instincts to self-medicate. They offer a range of herbal or plant remedies to the animal, allowing them to self-select. Zoopharmacognosy practitioners have the knowledge of knowing the active constituents, therapeutic actions and any interactions with regards to medications and plants. Zoopharmacognosy practitioners can use their knowledge of nourishing and healing plant remedies alongside the animal’s self-medication skills to help address their mental and physical health concerns. This applies to domestic animals, farm animals and wild animals that are in captivity.
Zoopharmacognosy and Mental Health
When we think of health our mind goes directly to the physical aspect of our being, even though this is the case, our mental health has a huge impact on our wellbeing. This is no different for every other creature in the animal kingdom. Keep in mind that our domesticated animal family members are highly sensitive and can feel everything that is going on for us as well. Zoopharmacognosy is able to offer animals the chance to self-medicate with mood-balancing substances. This stimulates their senses and instincts that becomes dormant from domestication and captivity. They get to utilize their mind which is mentally stimulating for them, they become engaged and interested in this practice which leads them to be happy and content and as a result, healthier. Every animal parent needs to realize that domesticated and captive animals do become bored and depressed if their life lacks interest and activity. Boredom and depression in captivity and domestication, causes emotional issues that may appear as behaviour issues which will end up resulting in poor health for our loving animals.
Animals have a tendency to be drawn to aromatic remedies using their nose to select healing plants when they are unwell and even when they are in optimal health. This means that it is a great idea for our animals to have access to a selection of remedies at all times. Having a dry herb garden down for them helps to diminish boredom, it also helps to relieve behavioural and emotional issues. This includes separation anxiety which is a common issue for animals that are left home alone. So we can see that zoopharmacognosy is extremely valuable for keeping an interesting and engaging environment for them but most importantly, it fulfills their health needs. It is natural for animals to utilize plants in their environment to manage and balance their health. Our domesticated cats and dogs are far from their natural habitat which means they don’t have access to these health balancing plants their bodies are made to have access to. This means that domesticated animals in a man-made habitat are more likely to struggle if they don’t have certain plants available to them. Having these available to them in the home will help them immensely.
The Need For Zoopharmacognosy At Home
As a cat parent, we are familiar with cat grass and catnip, this is an example of what we are discussing here. Cats and dog will consume grasses at times that can result in vomiting and if they do not have these grasses available to them, they will seek out house plants that can be toxic to them. If your cat is strictly a house cat with no access to grass, this can pose a problem for them. Dogs, even thought they do go for walks may not be allowed or discouraged to eat grass and plants outside. Based on the observations in the wild, zoopharmacognosy practitioners can create an environment that meets the animal’s health needs. The practitioner will ask the owners, farmers or zoo keepers questions about the animal’s behaviour to gain insight on whether it relates to their self-medicating instincts.
Zoopharmacognosy practitioners have said that dogs who chew on non-food items or unusual chewing behaviour may be an indication that the dog is trying to self-medicate and do not have access to what they require remedy wise. Remember that a dog’s ancestor is the wolf who utilize zoopharmacognosy quite often, this is engraved in our dogs. This means that even though self-medicating in domesticated environments is mainly for behaviour issues, it often means that there is a physical root to their behaviour problems. Practitioners of zoopharmacognosy use years of research observing our captive animal’s ancestors to help create the most optimal habitat for them. This ensures less chances of boredom, providing an environment to follow their instincts and heal and manage their health.
The Need For Zoopharmacognosy In Zoos
Captive animals live longer overall than the same species in the wild, it doesn’t mean that the captive animal is healthier. The lack of nature intended food, plant remedies, rich soil and bacterial diversity in a domesticated habitat will contribute to poorer health. Zoopharmacognosy practitioners take note of what animals in the wild will do so they can replicate it for animals in captivity as well. To maintain optimal health, captive animals need to be given these types of chances and there are zoos that follow zoopharmacognosy.
Some examples are:
- Bears using resins to apply on their skin and fur
- Primates using citrus plants to rub on their bodies as insect repellent and rough leaves as an anti parasitic treatment.
- Deer roll in moss to heal their injuries.
- Parrots eating clay daily to deal with toxins in plants.
- Elephants seek out and mine sodium
- Tortoises go to find calcium for their shells.
Here we can see how important it is to have a zoopharmacognosy practitioner for all animals that are not in their natural environment. Even though our animals are members of our family, it can be easy to forget where they came from. We cannot forget that they still need some of the wild in their lives, and it is up to us to supply that to them for a happy and healthy life.