Grainne in Ireland

by Grainne Armstrong
(Ireland)

Star

Hi this is not about anti fungal properties of Olive leaf but about an animal, my dog Star.

Star came to me as a rescue dog when she was 2yrs old. She is a Springer/cross, black and white.

2yrs ago, Aug 2010 Star went to dig up a bone with her nose and paws. When she came back in she couldn't breathe through her nose as it was clogged with dirt. She sneezed for 2 days after to clear it and seemed ok after this. Within 6mths she developed a bad cough wet stringy phlegm and very spasmodic. Time for vet!

While being examined they noticed her heartbeat was irregular, like a murmur so she was put on heart medication Ventolin and heavy duty antibiotics. She seemed to improve for a few weeks but soon after the cough came back.

I always felt that she must have inhaled some of the dirt into her lungs and also ended up with chronic sinusitis. It followed the same pattern, green mucus from nose followed by spasmodic wet cough a few days later. Her energy would drop considerably.

Constant regular visits to vet for next year and a half, stronger antibiotics, Exputex cough syrup. It would clear up for a while but the time in between finishing the antibiotics and cough reappearing became less and less.

Steroids were the next option but as a Nurse myself I felt this was on the downward slope and I didn't want to give them to her.

Then I put her on olive leaf capsules 2 a day, morning and evening. She was due back to the vet in 12 days. I didn't give her any meds, only the heart medication and also natural yogurt as a means of probiotic.

We are just back from the vet and Star is great. Her stats are good, her cough maybe once a day and mucus gone from nose.

Told the Vet what I was doing with olive leaf and yogurt and she said to keep it up! As I was going out the door the vet asked me what is the name of that stuff? She had another case similar to Star.

So we are only using olive leaf 12 days but a good report all round and as for Star's energy it has increased. She now enjoys running up hills chasing black birds with her pal Jan. She couldn't do this 2 weeks ago.