Page 81 - Summer2020final

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Dr. Paul Dettloff’s Complete Guide to plants. Our cows, whose only experience with
Raising Animals Organically: comfrey was when we occasionally cut a few
Natural Ways of Farming, Feeding and leaves to offer as treats, came down with pink
Treating Cattle and Other Ruminants eye. Though the comfrey was blocked by two
By Paul Dettloff with Megan Dettloff-Meyer fences, the cows trampled their way through
Acres USA both and ate all our comfrey plants to the
ground. The plants came back (in case you were
Talk about timely! Given the sudden spike worried), and more impressively, the cows’ pink
in interest in growing one’s own food and raising eye cleared up with no other treatment. This
animals, resources that can help people learn made a lasting impression on my understanding
how to do this organically—and well—are in- of what to feed our animals.
valuable. Dr. Paul Dettloff’s Complete Guide to Dettloff conveys the power of building me-
Raising Animals Organically is such a resource. dicinal plants into an animal’s ecosystem and
Dettloff is a holistic veterinarian and sus- gives many ideas for how and what to include—
tainable agriculture consultant. His book starts yarrow, hazelnuts, my beloved elder(berry) and
with two important reminders. First, animal more! This technique truly allows animals, and
health is built on the health of what animals especially ruminants, to let their food be their
eat—and the health of what they eat is dependent medicine, let their medicine be their food and
on the health of the soil that their food comes to self-medicate as needed. This section also
from. Second, animal health depends on the discusses homeopathy and essential oils. Know-
environment in which animals find themselves, ing which oils to use for specific animal health
so creating a healthy environment is crucial to needs makes it a helpful quick guide.
minimize health problems from the start. The final—and longest—section of the
Thus the first section of the Complete Guide
focuses on how to build and support healthy book covers treatment protocols in a thorough,
soils and healthy plants using compost, foliar well-laid-out and easy-to-navigate manner. Det-
sprays (nutrients applied to a plant’s leaves) tloff organizes it around major bodily functions
and similar tactics. The next section—all about and systems (such as digestion, reproduction and Animal health
energy (including electricity) and its impact on the nervous system) and covers a few general
areas of concern. He caps this with a section is built on
animals—came as a bit of a surprise, but given
that I had just read Arthur Firstenberg’s The laden with the wisdom gleaned from his more the health of
Invisible Rainbow, it was a welcome one. I don’t than forty years of vet experience. I suggest what animals
expect always to agree with everything I read, reading this section during the off season to
but I see it as important to interact with ideas become familiar with the contents (and the eat—and
that are outside of my normal range of opinion equipment you may need). Then, as health is- the health
and discussion, and that is just what this section sues crop up, you can consult the book without of what
provided. Dettloff discusses “energy wheels” as starting from zero.
well as dowsing and the impact of DC (direct This book is strictly limited to ruminants. they eat is
current) on animal and human health, provid- Though it does not cover pigs, chickens, rabbits dependent
ing suggestions of things you can do to address or other common farm animals, it may offer on the health
these issues. some general ideas and principles. Both Dettl-
In his section on alternative health care, I offs get two thumbs up for this interesting read of the soil
was immeasurably excited to see a discussion and useful resource, which allows individuals that their
of herbal hedgerows. Years ago, when we had raising ruminants to have a holistic veterinarian food comes
cattle, we also had a large mixed annual-peren- “on their bookshelf.”
nial growing space with all sorts of medicinal Review by John Moody from.

SUMMER 2020 Wise Traditions 79