IT ALL STARTED WITH AGATHA

Saving her life was just the beginning.

Our dogs help fill the empty places in our lives.  Dogs bring us so much joy and sadly, when they get sick, so much pain.  A lifetime of loving and working with dogs has fueled a passion to help them live longer healthier lives.

The earliest photos of me always seem to show a small child attempting to get as close as she could to whatever dog or cat happened to be nearby.  A little dark-haired girl who if you looked very closely, had eyes that were shadowed with sadness.  Our home was not a happy one and was oftentimes filled with reasons to be afraid.  My pets became my comforters, and my closest friends.

When I was with them I felt loved and I could forget for a little while that home was not a safe place.  I can still remember those childhood pets who brought comfort and help to a little girl who so badly needed it even though it only came from those who were covered with fur and couldn’t talk (but showed vast sympathy nonetheless).

I grew up loving animals, dogs and horses and cats, and even an occasional rabbit or turtle.  

I devoured dog books, hiding under the blankets with a flashlight, reading till the small hours of the morning, escaping through the adventures of Lad, Grey Dawn, Treve, and a dozen others.   

As for so many of us, dogs helped filled an empty place in my heart and I developed a deep love and a bond that has lasted a lifetime.  

As a young adult, I searched for a career where I could work closely with animals and first became a veterinary technician.  It seemed unbelievable that I was being paid to be with dogs every day.  I couldn’t learn enough, about their personalities, their different breeds, their health and the many maladies that they succumb to, and about how to keep them well.

I assisted in surgery and as much as I enjoyed the work, unfortunately, too much of the time veterinary medicine just didn’t have all the answers.  Over time, that became a hard process to watch and eventually, I longed for a career with dogs that wouldn't involve being part of the end of so many of their lives.

For a time I raised and showed purebred dogs, we imported wonderful dogs from out of the country trying to find the very best bloodlines. I traveled extensively, with my own dogs and showed dogs for others as well at AKC events around the country.  We attended national specialties and saw many of the great dogs of that time.  But as I became more deeply immersed in the world of purebred dogs there too I began to see disturbing trends in the health of the dogs I loved and decided that it was time to find another way to be close to them.

Eventually, my husband John and I opened a pet resort in Charleston, South Carolina. Moonshadow Kennel quickly became one of the most popular boarding kennels in the area and remained so for nearly 20 years. We offered boarding and grooming to a whole host of animal characters.  The stories from that time would fill a book of their own.

I tell you all of this to say that though I’m not a scientist, perhaps, more importantly, I’m a dog-lover with a strong background in veterinary medicine and I’ve spent several decades working closely with and studying dogs and I’m here to tell you there is an alarming downward spiral in the health of almost all of them.

I’ve always been very interested in nutrition and have researched and used supplements for as long as I can remember. While I was quite convinced that John and I needed extra supplements to maintain good health, I was also convinced that if I bought holistic top-brand dog food, I would be doing all that was necessary to maintain the health and longevity of my four-footed friends as well.  I had been told for years that “dogs don’t need supplements or extra vitamins, everything they need is included in their dog food”.

Sadly, after these many years in dogs and dog medicine, I began to see a pattern that alarmed me, not only in my own dogs and cats but also in the countless animal hospital patients, my boarding kennel patrons, seemingly most of the pets belonging to my friends and family.

All seemed to be living shorter and shorter lives in spite of the best of care and the "best diets".

Almost all these much-loved and well-cared-for animals were at their veterinarian’s offices frequently for a laundry list of ills ranging from chronic skin and ear problems to kidney and heart failure.  Worse still, cancer was taking more and more of these beloved pets at younger and younger ages. I was spending a small fortune on the very best dog foods, on their veterinary care, and still watching them suffer and losing them heartrendingly too young.

Allergies And Sudden Illness

It all came to a screeching halt though, when my beautiful Cavalier, Agatha, began having troubling allergy issues.

She was constantly chewing, scratching, digging, rolling back and forth to reach each new spot that tormented her. Soon she was going the same route of cortisone injections for the skin issues and scratching, and repeated courses of medication to treat the chronic and very painful ear infections.

Yet again I was to see another of my beloved dogs begin to go down that declining path of ill health and sometimes tormenting allergy issues. I knew that ahead the only tools at my disposal to help her were seemingly what her veterinarian would prescribe, prednisone injections, courses of antibiotics, smelly ointments, and medicated baths that not only seemed entirely ineffective but meant hundreds of dollars for treatments that did little to help and often did much damage instead.

The search for the perfect dog food.

I began looking for answers again in the dog foods I used, I researched brands and claims for dozens of foods that promised the end of this particular issue. I bought dog foods with wolves on the bag, dog foods made of venison, and others made with ducks & potatoes, I tried foods made of fish, just opening the bag was unpleasantly smelly. I was simply convinced that it was the food and that the food could fix her problems.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to help and poor Agatha continued to drive herself & us crazy with her constant relentless painful scratching, Medications were next to useless, and she had more medicated baths than I care to remember, We were nearly at our wit’s end but all of that was just a precursor to what happened next.

It just wasn’t possible; she wasn’t even 5 years old. She’d been on the very best foods that money can buy, had the best of veterinary care. And yet here suddenly we were at that same terrible path of losing another of my beloved dogs.

One day, I was giving Agatha her medicated bath, and as I lathered her long coat, reaching under her abdomen to spread the shampoo, my hand came across a large tumor, big enough to horribly seem to fill the palm of my hand. The earth seemed to stop for a moment, disbelieving, I felt anxiously, yes, an ominous oblong growth had appeared, unbelievably in the short time since I had last bathed her.

It just wasn’t possible; she wasn’t even 5 years old. She’d been on the very best foods that money can buy, and had the best of veterinary care. And yet here suddenly we were on that same terrible path of losing another of my much-loved dogs.

 I’ve never been able to have children, suffered through the anguish of miscarriages and years of unsuccessful fertility treatments. I must admit that I have showered my pets with the love I perhaps would have given children if I'd had them and I wept over this beautiful little dog, this little soul that has brought much joy to my life.

My veterinarian scheduled her for immediate surgery which revealed that her tumor was malignant, our vet gave no comfort with his prognosis for her long-term survival.

Frantically I began to research supplements and vitamins to support and heal her system. I had foolishly depended on commercial dog food to keep her healthy, and yes, faithfully listened to the veterinary admonishments about NO PEOPLE FOOD FOR DOGS and DOGS DON'T NEED SUPPLEMENTS...  I knew all of that was wrong, and belatedly realized that my dogs simply needed more to stay healthy. I also began to pray, I’m a born-again believer, and while my faith was shaken by this smallest of tragedies. I believed with all my heart that God had a plan and that if I allowed Him, He would bring good out of Agatha's problems.

With the help of a naturopath in Pennsylvania, I immediately put her on a course of Probiotics and other supplements.

I knew that probiotics are very healing and supportive of the human body, so why not my little sick dog’s body as well? I read encouraging articles about the NuVet products which contained obscure-sounding ingredients like Cat’s Claw and Pine Bark Extract whose benefits included immune system building and cancer prevention. Agatha was the perfect candidate and I was desperate to try anything that might help.

Within a short time, I began to notice subtle improvements, oddly enough, Agatha wasn’t scratching as much, in fact, rather disbelieving, as the days went by, I realized that her coat had begun to grow more luxuriantly, incredibly, within a month, the dog who I had laughingly said made a career out of scratching, had completely stopped! Her ears which had been such a terrible problem cleared up too and lost the yeasty smell I had never been able to cleanse away.

I grew more astonished as each day went by and she continued to recover, we gave her high doses of probiotics every day and her coat began to shine with health, she looked like she'd never been sick a day in her life, and my beautiful Agatha never looked better.

I don’t know if it’s too late to save Agatha, I pray not, that the Lord will give me many more years with her, but I am somehow heartened by the thought that my little friend has been the inspiration for putting products into the hands of pet owners the supplements that will help their pets live longer healthier lives.

The facts remain, the current methods of manufacturing dog food, are creating a diet that is sadly lacking in genuine life-giving nutrition.  

Dog foods, no matter how expensive they are, are bankrupt of the real nutrients needed to keep our much-loved pets healthy.

Postscript March 2019

The above letter was written over 8 years ago, my dear Agatha continues to do amazingly well and will be 12 years old on her next birthday, with my background in animal medicine, I know that is truly astonishing.

She is as full of life and exuberance as a puppy, just this morning she raced me up the hill to get the morning mail, I am most grateful for these extra years with her, one of the most amazing little dogs I’ve ever known. I pray for many more.

Agatha's journey has had a happy ending, but so many pet owners have not had this kind of outcome with their beloved pets when they've become ill.

With Warmest Wags,

Terry and John Cross,

Founders of Agatha's Pet Wellness

Postscript June 2023

My beloved Agatha lived to be almost 13 years old, the dog who we almost gave up hope for when she was only 4 was beautiful and still a joy for almost a decade after her diagnosis. I continue to use supplements like NuVet and probiotics every single day with our dogs and each of our puppies goes home with a starter pack of them; such a simple way to help the dogs we love be healthier & happier for their entire lives.