Honey is delicious in tea or on toast \u2026 and it\u2019s Winnie the Pooh\u2019s favorite. Honey has long been used in folk medicine (there\u2019s even a name for that \u2026 apitherapy). But what about honey for dogs?<\/p>\n
Yes, dogs can have honey. It\u2019s safe for dogs in moderation. It has many traditional health benefits \u2026 from helping with allergies, to soothing coughs, to wound healing. But it\u2019s also high in sugar, so there are some cautions that you\u2019ll read about later.<\/p>\n
First. moderation is key because of honey\u2019s sugar content \u2026 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to know how much honey is safe for your dog, keeping in mind that honey is a simple sugar. This is the daily maximum amount of honey a dog should eat according to his weight:<\/p>\n
More isn\u2019t always better, and that\u2019s the case with honey. Start slowly with just a small amount at first until your dog gets used to it. products. Watch for digestive or behavior changes that might indicate that honey doesn\u2019t suit your pup.<\/p>\n
Honey is full of potential benefits for dogs, with a range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants \u2026 as well as being a sweet treat. And it turns out honey\u2019s medicinal benefits have been quite well researched. <\/p>\n
Not all types of honey are the same quality. When you buy honey, beware of processed supermarket \u201choney\u201d that sometimes has very little actual honey, and may contain pesticides. <\/p>\n
Instead, look for labels that describe the product as pure, raw or unfiltered. The best choice is to get honey from a local beekeeper or farmers market .. and buy organic if you can. Raw, unfiltered honey is darker in color than processed honey. Processed honey won\u2019t contain all of the pollen and propolis that provide some of honey\u2019s health benefits. <\/p>\n
Here are some ways honey can help your dog. <\/p>\n
Cuts, scratches, bumps and scrapes are part of everyday life with dogs. Honey has antibacterial properties that can help with healing (1). So for minor wounds that you can care for at home \u2026 smear pure honey over the cleaned wound, and cover it with a clean bandage. For small cuts or scrapes, you can even skip the bandage, but be sure to distract your dog so he doesn\u2019t lick the honey off before it can work its medical magic.<\/p>\n
If you have it on hand, you can also mix equal parts of honey with colostrum to make a paste that can be applied to wounds and will help stimulate healing.<\/p>\n
You can also use honey for hot spots, eczema, and insect bites. Honey helps reduce pain and inflammation. Ironically, it\u2019s an old folk remedy for bee stings too!<\/p>\n
Note: If you\u2019re using honey for its antibacterial properties, it\u2019s best to buy Manuka honey. Research shows Manuka can even help treat MRSA infections (2, 3). <\/p>\n
There\u2019s differing research on honey for allergies. A 2002 study at UConn Health Center found that there was no difference between subjects who took honey and the placebo group (4). But 2013 research in Malaysia found high doses of honey significantly improved symptoms of allergic rhinitis (5). And symptoms improved for a month after the treatment stopped. <\/p>\n
Still \u2026 it\u2019s a long-used folk remedy and many people do find honey helps with their environmental allergies \u2026 so it could help your dog too. The theory is that honey provides trace amounts of flower pollen, so if your dog\u2019s allergies are seasonal, slowly introducing the pollen by giving local honey will allow his immune system to create antibodies.<\/p>\n
Pollen also contains natural quercetin, which has antihistamine effects that may help manage allergies. <\/p>\n
If you can get local honey from a beekeeper or farmers market, that\u2019s best, because it will contain the local pollen that affects your dog.<\/p>\n
Unlike medicated products that mask the symptoms without healing it the underlying problem, honey can provide itch relief by controlling inflammation. Often, itchiness and skin diseases are a result of bacteria or yeast overgrowth, so honey\u2019s antibacterial and antifungal properties can really help your dog heal. <\/p>\n
Use honey as a spot treatment by rubbing it into your dog\u2019s skin where he\u2019s irritated. Oral dosing can also help with skin issues caused by allergies. You can also blend it with colostrum powder for extra immune support. <\/p>\n
Honey, though a simple sugar, breaks down differently than table sugar. It needs less insulin than regular sugar, and it may slow down your dog\u2019s digestion (6). If he has a hard time staying at his healthy weight, adding a bit of honey might be helpful.<\/p>\n
It may also help manage blood sugar in dogs with Type 1 (not Type 2) diabetes \u2026 but read the Cautions <\/strong>below before you give honey to a diabetic dog. <\/p>\n We\u2019ve all had sore throats or coughs that were soothed by adding honey to tea, or even eating it straight off the spoon. Honey can soothe your dog\u2019s sore throat or coughing as well. A Pennsylvania State University study in 2007 found buckwheat honey eased children\u2019s nighttime coughing and sleep difficulty better than dextromorphothan medicine (7).<\/p>\n Honey helps with gut health because it has prebiotic as well as probiotic properties. The natural probiotics help maintain the balance of good bacteria in your dog\u2019s gut \u2026 and prebiotics provide fuel for the probiotics (8)<\/p>\n Honey can help resolve indigestion, constipation and diarrhea. Research in China showed how honey affected gut microbiota in mice and helped with constipation (9). <\/p>\n Your dog\u2019s body creates free radicals as a normal byproduct of metabolism. Free radicals are damaged cells that try to repair themselves by stealing from other cells. This causes oxidative stress that leads to disease and faster aging. Antioxidants help control free radicals and protect your dog from their harmful effects.<\/p>\n Phytonutrients are compounds in plants that help protect the plant, and phytonutrients in honey give it antioxidant effects. Honey contains antioxidants that can help keep disease at bay and boost your dog\u2019s immune system. A Malaysian study by S Ahmed et al, found that honey has immunomodulatory and anti-cancer effects as an antioxidant agent (10) <\/p>\n Another Malaysian study found that honey has anti-cancer effects, concluding \u2026 \u201cHoney is highly and selectively cytotoxic against tumor or cancer cells while it is non-cytotoxic to normal cells.\u201d (11)<\/p>\n Researchers at University of Calabria in Italy found that honey may act as an immune booster to help stop cancer spreading, and can alleviate side effects of chemotherapy (12).<\/p>\n So honey can be really good for your dog. You might want to make friends with a neighborhood beekeeper to get a good supply of local honey. Honey is sweet for many reasons \u2026 for you as well as your dog! <\/p>\n 1. Mandal MD, Mandal S. Honey, its medicinal property and antibacterial activity. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed<\/em>.<\/p>\n 2. Jenkins R, Burton N, Cooper R. Manuka honey inhibits cell division in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2011 Nov;66(11):2536-42.<\/p>\n 3. Frydman GHet al. Manuka honey microneedles for enhanced wound healing and the prevention and\/or treatment of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) surgical site infection. Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 6;10(1):13229.<\/p>\n 4. Rajan TV et al. Effect of ingestion of honey on symptoms of rhinoconjunctivitis. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol<\/em>. 2002 Feb;88(2):198-203.<\/p>\n 5. Asha\u2019ari ZA et al. Ingestion of honey improves the symptoms of allergic rhinitis: evidence from a randomized placebo-controlled trial in the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Ann Saudi Med<\/em>. 2013 Sep-Oct;33(5):469-75<\/p>\n 6, Erejuwa OO, Sulaiman SA, Wahab MS. Honey\u2013a novel antidiabetic agent. Int J Biol Sci<\/em>. 2012;8(6):913-934.<\/p>\n 7. Paul IM et al. Effect of honey, dextromethorphan, and no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for coughing children and their parents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med<\/em>. 2007 Dec;161(12):1140-6. <\/p>\n 8. Anand Mohan et al, Effect of honey in improving the gut microbial balance, Food Quality and Safety<\/em>, Volume 1, Issue 2, 1 May 2017, Pages 107\u201311<\/p>\n 9. Li Y, Long S, Liu Q, et al. Gut microbiota is involved in the alleviation of loperamide-induced constipation by honey supplementation in mice. Food Sci Nutr<\/em>. 2020;8(8):4388-4398. Published 2020 Jun 27. doi:10.1002\/fsn3.1736<\/p>\n 10. Ahmed S et al. Honey as a Potential Natural Antioxidant Medicine: An Insight into Its Molecular Mechanisms of Action. Oxid Med Cell Longev<\/em>. 2018;2018:8367846. Published 2018 Jan 18. <\/p>\n 11. Erejuwa OO et al. Effects of honey and its mechanisms of action on the development and progression of cancer. Molecules<\/em>. 2014;19(2):2497-2522. Published 2014 Feb 21. <\/p>\n 12. Mariateresa Badolato et al. From the hive: Honey, a novel weapon against cancer. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, <\/em>Volume 142, 2017.<\/p>\n 13. A Koluman et al. Clostridium botulinum<\/em> in honey: prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of isolated strains. Turk J Vet Anim Sci<\/em> (2013) 37: 706-711<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n ,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Honey is delicious in tea or on toast \u2026 and it\u2019s Winnie the Pooh\u2019s favorite. Honey has long been used in folk medicine (there\u2019s even a name for that \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duuvk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Honey For Sore Throats<\/h3>\n
Honey For Gut Health<\/h3>\n
Honey\u2019s Protective Antioxidants<\/h3>\n
Cautions With Honey<\/h2>\n
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References<\/span><\/summary>\n