You can see in the pics, what a big difference the HOCl made (and how bad it was at the worst point). I am so grateful to have my machine because it has saved me a fortune in vet bills. The machine has paid for itself several times over with just the money I've saved on vet bills alone. I've used Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl) to treat numerous cat and dog wounds over the years and it works great every time.
It's funny, I got the machine back in early 2015 from a woman named Monica who lives in Texas. I did some really in-depth research before I bought the machine, and wanted to get it from someone who was really knowledgeable and also empathetic. We had a lot in common, and we were both fostering lots of cats at the time. We kind of lost touch during the pandemic, and one day I called her and told her I was fostering 4 German Shepherds, and I found out she now had 2 shepherds of her own!
You can see a video about the machine HERE, but just be careful as a facebook video will play so be sure volume isn't too loud... sorry but I couldn't figure out how to share a link with the video on "pause".... facebook just seems to make it automatically play for some reason.
Thanks to the machine I have at home, I am able to make unlimited amounts of this stuff, practically for free (the only ingredients are salt and tap water!) Hypochlorous acid formulations cost about $10.00 PER OUNCE or more, when you buy them on Amazon, but I can make it for free at home, and have donated it to many other people in animal rescue groups. If you live in the Bay Area, CA, just let me know if you need some (I'm in Silicon valley).
To break down how the problem started.....
I had been successfully keeping all my dogs free of fleas and mites, by making an anti-itch oil with oregano oil plus MCT oil. I basically combine about 1/4 of a cup of MCT oil with several droppers of oregano oil (you can test it on your tongue to make sure it's spicy but doesn't burn). I'd rub it into their fur when I see them itching. It works great! I just kind of discovered this recipe by accident when I wanted to use oregano with some kind of carrier oil to mix it into their fur to treat fleas, and I just happened to have half a bottle of MCT oil in my kitchen. It seemed like the perfect oil to use because it's very light and not super sticky, and I knew because it's derived from Coconuts, it also would have antifungal properties.
I was looking for an alternative to Advantage, since I used to use Advantage and swear it caused all my cats to die a few years earlier than they would have without it, so I will never use those types of flea meds again. But no one wants to see their dogs scratching, so I had to use something that worked well. Luckily, that simple recipe worked GREAT! Until.... I ran out.
Once I ran out of the MCT oil... that's when all hell seemed to break loose, I couldn't find it at Costco anymore, and made the big mistake of using regular sunflower oil as the carrier oil instead (I later found out that most seed oils are VERY BAD... and I was rubbing this oil directly into their skin). I also had been putting virgin coconut oil (the Kirkland brand) into their food (my sister bought this when she couldn't find the MCT oil at Costco). But think I may have used too much, because that is when my foster dog Shelby started having allergic issues (and then Poppy developed the same exact problem just as Shelby's was healing).
So, I believe this big problem was a combination of mites plus the fact that I used a little too much coconut oil in their food, and I shouldn't have used sunflower oil on their fur at ALL, it was too heavy and sticky, but I didn't know how bad it was till it was too late. My boyfriend informed me that Mites feed off that type of oil (whereas coconut oils tend to be antifungal and ward off pathogens). I had to give poor Shelby SO many baths, but she finally healed, and the hypochlorous acid was a Godsend.
And it's great that hypochlorous acid is completely safe to use around the eyes. Those bastards were getting to the area around her eyes, but as you can see, HOCl is safe to use around the eyes, as they sell many sprays like THIS ONE on Amazon that are formulated with HOCl because it's effective yet gentle. I can literally spray the stuff right into my eyes and there is no burning at all. A good friend of mine uses this stuff regularly and she said it helps her a lot.
If you can't afford a machine that makes hypochlorous acid (in addition to different levels of pH drinking water), you can still get HOCl solutions via different pet formulations like Vetericyn from Amazon or you may also be able to find it at Petco or your local pet store (check out the Petco reviews for this stuff!!). Just keep in mind that some local pet stores (like my local Pet Food Express) stopped carrying it because it expires fairly quickly. In my experience, it will last longer if you keep it in the fridge, and keep the lid on TIGHT!
Please note, in the pics below there are still lots of little tiny bits of black scab dots in her fur, I think it will be like that for another week or so but eventually they'll all fall off and her fur will be back to normal as her sister Shelby's is now.
You can see in the pictures below, how bad it looked. I have a neighbor who thought I should take her to the vet, and I realize a lot of dog owners would say the same, but here's the thing. I know what's going to happen when I take her to the vet: They're going to give her antibiotics, which have side effects and can impair the liver, which is the organ you need to work really well if you're trying to clear up some kind of allergy (I took the dogs mushing several times in an area where there's lots of fresh air and it really seemed to help not only their liver but it made them happier and gave them an endorphin rush).
The Dangers of Antifungal Creams
I know the vets would also very likely give some kind of antifungal cream, but they can contain bad ingredients that aren't good for dogs. My boyfriend decided to go on YouTube and look up topical treatments for the dogs, and he saw some people were using Monistat on their dogs mite wounds. If I didn't have something that worked better, I might have been ok with using that, but in my opinion, HOCl is SO much better because it is completely safe for dogs to lick off their skin. HOCl is completely natural and biocompatible because your body and a dog's body MAKES IT as part of its IMMUNE SYSTEM.
I took the time to look up the ingredients in Monistat and was SHOCKED to see just how bad they are!! I'm pasting a screenshot of the Facebook post I did after finding out one of the ingredients is known to be carcinogenic!!!
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A Natural Adjuvant!
I also recently found out that hypochlorous acid is a natural ADJUVANT.... so it naturally ramps up the immune system in a way that is gentle but effective. At least that has been the case in my own experience, using this stuff on myself and my pets. I was pleasantly surprised (while doing vaccine research) to see that when I googled to see what would be considered a NATURAL adjuvant... hypochlorous acid was the FIRST THING to come up!
Because I'm on a very tight budget right now, I'm really grateful that I was able to treat all my dogs with effective remedies I already had at home. Now, if I didn't already have things that had a 100% success rate in the past, using them at home, I would have taken her to the vet. And I would have taken them if for some reason the things I used were not working as I thought they would. But because I've had a 100% success rate with using HOCl on the dogs in the past, I felt very confident that this method would work once again, and it did.
I also think it's important to use a prebiotic / probiotic formula that helps control bacteria and speeds up wound healing. I've been using this on all my pets for over a decade and can't say enough good things about it. I learned over 10 years ago that probiotics alone can completely get rid of a UTI even better than antibiotics can (with zero negative side effects), so ever since then I've been a big proponent of the stuff.
The brand I always buy is NaturVet. I always get the 1-pound jar. Please note that thist stuff is NOT cheap, but it's well worth it. I have a friend who makes her own at home, and I need to learn how to do this myself, just haven't had time, but if you want to look into it there must be lots of videos on YouTube.
Killing the Mites at the source
I did also use Chlorohexedine in the area where I believe the mites were "hanging out." I eventually figured out they were coming from an area where I was keeping a bag of bird seed, next to a window where I'd been feeding birds regularly. One day I left the window open and apparently, rats wound up coming in through the window and I wasn't aware of it while the room was vacant (but the dogs were still going in there). I believe this is how they got the mites.
Normally I would have used the Kangen 2.5 to kill mites on a carpet, but I was trying to use up a gallon sized bottle of Chlorohexedine that my boyfriend had bought last year, and I do think the Chlorohexedine may be stronger. But it also has more chemicals so I'm not a huge fan, but at that point I just wanted to kill those mites ASAP. I know Chlorohexedine is the stuff the nurse uses on my arm before I donate blood, so I figure it can't be the worst thing in the world. I think the Kangen 2.5 pH spray (HOCl) could have worked too, but I would have had to spray it more often for it to kill everything.
For now I am just uploading pics of my Dog Poppy, who had the worst case. When I have time in the future I will upload the pics of the other dogs' cases.
I was soooo happy and relieved when I started to see Poppy smiling again. She has a really cute, rembunctious part-Corgi smile, but that smile disappeared while she had that hotspot. She wanted to spend most of her time hiding under my bed while she healed.
The problem seems to be almost completely gone now that I've sprayed that area really well, plus I've been sweeping the house after gently sprinkling food grade diatomaceous earth on the sofas, carpets and floors. I use a duster that's kind of like this one. The stuff can be bad for vaccuums but seems to work great when you just use a good old fashioned broom and dust pan. It definitely helps that we have an air purifier as well.
More about Hypochlorous Acid
CLICK HERE to see how Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is used by veterinarians for pets (and people)!
CLICK HERE to see how it's used by eye doctors. One of my best friends is currently using a solution with HOCl in her eyes, and she said it helps a lot (I believe that she experiences itching and allergies without it). Also, I used to share it with her when one of her neighbors had an issue with rats and it was causing a mite infestation in their apartment complex. She and her husband used to treat their dogs and their skin with it, and it really helped, so I knew ahead of time that it worked for mites.
CLICK HERE to see why it kills germs better than bleach, yet it's so safe to use, you can literally soak food in it and GARGLE with it!
If you have any questions about the machine I use to make the hypochlorous acid at home, please feel free to contact me via the contact form on the right side of the page.
Hope this helps!
Laura
