What if you could heal your pet’s health issues, extend their life, or help prevent cancer?
As a holistic health coach, I never knew there was such a thing, but if people can use food as medicine, then why can’t pets? I was so excited to learn about how having a pet health coach can be just as beneficial for our pets as it is for us humans.
I met Sunny Gandara about 10 years ago when we were both in school for holistic health coaching at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and now she’s cooking up great ideas to improve the lives of pets, specifically the big boy breeds. A Wine expert who has Professional Chef, Holistic Health Coach, and Holistic Pet Health Coach, Sunny holds numerous credentials, including those of a certified canine nutritionist, a canine culinary herbalist, and has been in the kitchen cooking for over 20 years. Sunny’s warm, loving, and compassionate personality fills more than a glass of wine or a room full of folks, ready for her delicious recipes to come to life. Her life has been shaped by a devastating experience that changed her career, shifting her from helping people to directly focusing on animals.
Pets want to feel good, too!
Our pets are on the same journey as we are; they want to feel good, full of energy, and jump into our laps to lick our faces. But what happens when they can’t because they are constipated, overweight, have heart issues, gut issues, constant gas, or maybe your cat has hairballs all the time, or your animal experiences diarrhea or worse, gets diagnosed with cancer? None of the above-mentioned issues is acceptable or normal, and they should be looked into. That’s where hiring a dog health coach could save you time, money, and maybe your pet’s life.
What is a Holistic Pet Health Coach
Sunny from Beacon, New York, known as the “dog city” for its abundance of dogs, is a perfect place for someone who dedicates their life to helping dogs and advocating for improving their lives. As a holistic health coach, chef, and someone who has lived around the world, Sunny loves to share her knowledge about food and how eating healthier can do more than just make your pet feel better; it can help them live longer, even against the odds, especially against cancer.
“I’ve always been a believer in a diet consisting of whole foods and finding gentler, more natural ways to support my own health, just as nature intended.” Sunny Gandara
By examining an animal’s food, environment, and overall health, you can identify many issues. This is where Sunny educates others by providing individualized, case-by-case information after carefully combing through a dog’s health history. A holistic dog health coach doesn’t diagnose or treat, but offers tools to help dog owners heal their pet’s health issues. Sunny’s role is not a replacement for a veterinarian but rather someone to offer hand-holding to help dogs live a healthy life.
How it Started
It all started when her Cane Corso, Nacho, was diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma Cancer- a cancer of the blood, that is highly aggressive, and happens to be one of the most common cancers in dogs, more specifically in larger breeds and older dogs. Sunny had gone to great lengths to save her dog’s life as Nacho was given two months to live, and the options were to do nothing or to treat him with chemotherapy.
Sunny’s background in holistic health supplied her with confidence and tools- and she knew she was willing to do whatever she could to extend Nacho’s life. She would slowly integrate healthier food options from real meals in her kitchen and research alternatives.
This journey led her into learning about Chinese Herbs and mushrooms. She changed her Cane Corso’s diet, and 10 months later, Nacho was still around, without any signs of illness, and was carrying on with a real-foods diet. Proving food is medicine.
While she beat the odds of being given only two months with her family member, the day came to say goodbye. The big guy was unable to defecate, leading to an emergency surgery, which led to an unexpected departure due to internal bleeding likely from tumors of his hemangiosarcoma cancer. It was likely that his tumors ruptured during the surgery treatment due to the blockage.
Becoming a Certified Holistic Pet Health Coach
The first school to offer pet health coaching
While this tragic event caused Sunny a lot of pain and sorrow, it motivated her to do something in honor of Nacho, and shortly after, she enrolled in a program that would start to change her life and the lives of the dogs she meets.
Sunny would get to meet Dr. Ruth Roberts, the well-known woman who founded the first Holistic Pet Health Coaching program. Dr. Ruth, a pioneer veterinarian who had her own health issues, began healing herself through holistic methods, then applied the same methods to animals, and now teaches others how to heal their furry friends with a holistic pet health coaching school, where Sunny became certified as a holistic pet health Coach.
This newfound inspiration led to the Nacho Average Dog Health Coach business, where she
focuses on cancer prevention and works mostly with dogs. Her work allows her to work in person and online. Her love for animals and healing is part of who she is, and extends
She has a local crowd in New York, has networked well with many veterinarians in her area, has teamed up with a veterinarian’s team, and works as an in-house animal nutritionist, focusing mostly on raw and lightly cooked foods. She helps formulate diets and leads pet owners through the process of providing healthier alternatives for their animals.
How to find the root of the problem
Approach to addressing deep-rooted health issues
Sunny works extensively with both Western and Eastern herbs. She uses Ayurvedic modalities and implements a Chinese formula or an herb, and bases it on each individual dog. Sunny empowers the pet parents to be their pet’s first advocate for their wellness because they know them better than anyone else.
Sunny uses a sensitivity kit that can be used on pets and humans, analyzing a hair or saliva sample to help guide her treatment. It gets emailed in, and then you get results. She believes it’s much cheaper than what veterinarians charge. It’s an easy and effective tool for getting to the root of a health problem.
Then Sunny works with the pet parents and teaches them how to follow an elimination and rotation diet, avoiding foods that trigger reactions. An approach used by most holistic health coaches. A normal process might be 4-6 weeks. Depending on the dog’s progress in introducing new proteins, it could be shorter or more extended.
Sunny has learned that most dogs have gastrointestinal issues and believes pet parents should be aware of their dogs’ overall health and monitor GI issues, as they are common. She has witnessed too many dogs having issues for months or even years, unaware of how their food or environment could be the culprit.
Healing your pet with food
Utilizing herbs, teas, and tinctures
The use of Chinese herbs is one of Sunny’s approaches and requires a separate questionnaire and a lot of time to think through. She uses powders, tinctures, pill forms, and teas, and refers her patients to trusted, ethical, clean, and organic brands. Everything she suggests and offers about the treatment of her pet clients inspires the owners, who become inclined to change aspects of their own health.
Small changes can put a smile on your dog’s face
The goal for Sunny is to optimize what you can feed your dog and to find creative ways to start implementing healthier options by adding broth or steamed veggies. Small changes can improve the food quality by 20% and your dog gets to taste different things every day. Now, this would put a smile on your dog’s face!
Sunny cooks raw and lightly cooked food. Having a puppy and a dog going on 10 years old, she creates different meals based on the animals’ current health. She prepares foods that are cooked lightly, and loves to use a formula called the “CrockPet Diet,” created by Dr. Ruth Roberts. Once a week, Sunny makes a big pot in the oven at a low temperature. She also creates a lot of batch cooking and freezes what she doesn’t need. All of her meals are dog-friendly. Her amazing restaurant-style recipes are also available in her incredible e-book.
Dry dog food isn’t regulated, and if you want to learn more about the truth of pet food, Sunny recommends a reputable website that researches pet food ingredients, recalls, and regulations called The Truth About Pet Food.
Nutrition is the foundation for cancer prevention in dogs
As a Professional Chef and Dog Health Coach, Sunny lives holistically and knows nutrition is always the foundation, and you can’t out-supplement a bad diet. Many dogs die from the dog food they eat every year. Sunny has also learned that the cheapest food is not always the best, nor is the best-marketed package.
There is a 50% chance that all dogs over the age of 10 will get cancer, and 25% of all dogs will get cancer, which is why Sunny specializes in helping coach the parents of dogs, especially the large breeds, towards cancer prevention. Her cancer prevention program offers group or individual sessions.
Even if your pet has cancer, it doesn’t mean they can’t continue to live with it and live a longer, healthier life. The sister of her dog, Nacho, had only about a month to live at one point. She had to wear a diaper because she couldn’t potty and would have continual messes. The dog had only about two months to live, and her white blood cell count was gone. At this point, her family was willing to do whatever was required to bring their dog back to good health. After a 90-day cancer-prevention program with Sunny, the dog’s trajectory changed.
The Cane Corso’s family was dedicated and diligent to transforming the dog’s health. With Sunny’s guidance, the dog ate a diet of herbs, mushrooms, and Chinese medicine and lived an extra six months with lymphoma, happy and healthy. Her parents were so grateful to Sunny for getting the extra time with their canine.
Pet grief support group
After losing Nacho, Sunny also decided to start a Facebook group called Compassionate Paws, a pet grief support circle she runs with another holistic pet health coach. It’s free to join and is for people who feel they haven’t been able to deal with their grief. Pets are family, and we do whatever we can to keep them safe, healthy, and well-loved.
To book a consultation for canine cancer prevention and nutrition with Sunny, go here.
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Cheers to organic inspiration!🥂
Darian Rowles
Written by Darian Rowles, Founder of Women Who Inspire, an Ohio self-help author, health coach, and speaker, curating confidence one conversation at a time.