Holistic Wellness for Pets: Why the Whole Animal Matters
Updated: 2 days ago
How thoughtful daily care, scientific research, and botanical skin support can work together.
Wellness lives in the everyday moments: a dog enjoying a comfortable walk, a cat feeling secure at home, or a horse moving easily through its day. Looking after those moments is at the heart of holistic animal wellness.
“Holistic” means considering the whole animal—nutrition, movement, emotional wellbeing, surroundings, and physical health. Veterinary care belongs within that picture. An integrative approach brings conventional medicine together with complementary options supported by appropriate evidence. The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association emphasizes that these approaches should meet scientific standards for safety and effectiveness.[1]
Why is holistic wellness attracting attention?
Part of the appeal is participation. Owners want to understand what they can do each day to help their animals thrive. Food, exercise, grooming, routines, and product ingredients give them practical places to begin.
Research also documents substantial interest. In an online survey of 1,000 dog owners, 45.3% reported previous use of complementary or alternative veterinary medicine, and 91.5% expected veterinarians to know about it. This survey does not establish a worldwide growth rate, but it shows why open conversations about these options matter.[2]
A smaller Swedish questionnaire study offers clues about motivation: some owners described wanting complementary support alongside veterinary care, greater attention to the whole body, or less reliance on pharmaceuticals. These are owners’ reasons for seeking care, rather than proof that a particular therapy works.[3]
The appeal is understandable: people want care that feels attentive, individualized, and connected to their animals’ daily lives.
What positive lessons can research offer?
There is no single study that proves “holistic wellness” as a whole. Researchers study particular practices, products, and outcomes. Some encouraging findings involve the foundations of everyday care.
Nutrition and body condition can have lasting effects.
A lifetime study involving 48 Labrador Retrievers found that dogs fed a controlled, lower food allowance had longer median lifespans and generally later onset of chronic disease than their paired controls. This supports thoughtful feeding and weight management; an individual animal’s food allowance should be tailored with veterinary guidance.[4]
Emotional wellbeing belongs in the health conversation.
Feline environmental guidelines identify safe resting places, appropriate resources, opportunities for play, and positive human interaction as important to wellbeing. These are practical ways to make a cat’s surroundings better suited to its needs. The guidelines represent expert recommendations informed by research, rather than a single treatment trial.[5]
Botanicals deserve careful scientific investigation—and Dragon’s Blood has been studied in both horses and dogs.
Research into Croton lechleri extends beyond one small equine experiment. Several studies have reported encouraging findings involving wound repair, collagen formation, or inflammatory markers, although the strength of the evidence varies.
In a 2020 journal report involving 31 horses, researchers followed naturally occurring, non-infected wounds treated with two Dragon’s Blood sap preparations. They described encouraging wound contraction and improvement in inflammatory signs. [9]
The 2026 study involving six mares, published in Veterinary and Animal Science, adds experimental evidence. Researchers evaluated creams containing Croton lechleri and reported increased collagen deposition and changes in inflammation and blood-vessel development over time. Its small sample and experimentally created wounds mean that larger clinical studies are still needed.[6]
Research in dogs provides additional positive findings. A 2020 veterinary thesis at Universidad Politécnica Salesiana compared Dragon’s Blood sap, propolis, and silver citrate in 60 dogs following neutering, with 20 dogs per group. The author reported the shortest average healing time in the Dragon’s Blood group—approximately 11 days, compared with 12.9 days for propolis and 15.9 days for silver citrate. This is useful preliminary evidence from a university thesis, with less independent scrutiny than a peer-reviewed clinical publication.[10]
A 2026 veterinary thesis at Universidad Estatal de Bolívar studied 20 dogs assigned to four groups receiving a control ointment or ointments containing different concentrations of Croton lechleri. The researchers reported the noticable improvements were in the group using 20% Croton lechleri (Dragon's Blood), including reductions in measured inflammatory markers. Higher consintrates yeilded stronger improvments. [11]
Together, these studies provide a reasonable basis for saying that Dragon’s Blood has shown promising results in more than one veterinary research setting, including studies in horses and dogs. It gives solid grounds that future further independently research could establishes which preparations work best, for which uses, and in which species.
For Hello Rainforest, this research provides context for our interest in this botanical. Our Dragon’s Blood for Cats & Dogs and Dragon’s Blood Equine have a defined role in topical skin-barrier support, as described in our product information. Used for centuries, it’s finally being recognized by modern science as an advanced botanical.
The studies above did not test our finished products. Controlled clinical evidence in cats remains a gap in the research identified here; benefits demonstrated in horses or dogs should not be presented as proven in cats.
The positive message is that everyday care and botanical research both deserve attention—with each claim matched to the evidence behind it.
Where Hello Rainforest’s Dragon’s Blood fits
At Hello Rainforest, our Dragon’s Blood for Cats & Dogs and Dragon’s Blood Equine fit into this broader approach through targeted topical skin support.
Our product information describes a plant-derived resin that forms a light, breathable protective layer and helps support the skin’s natural protective barrier. That gives these products a specific role within an attentive care routine, alongside grooming, observation, suitable living conditions, and veterinary advice.[7,8]
Their place in holistic wellness is purposeful: choosing a product for a defined need, understanding its ingredients, and respecting the individual animal.
Use each product according to its species-specific label. These products are for external use only, must not be used in pregnant or lactating animals, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Skin concerns that persist or worsen need veterinary assessment.[7,8]
Whole-animal wellness grows through informed choices and consistent attention—from the food bowl and the resting place to the skin we care for.
Because care begins with awareness.
Sources
Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. Integrative Veterinary Medicine (2026). https://www.canadianveterinarians.net/policy-and-outreach/position-statements/statements/integrative-veterinary-medicine/
Keller et al. Surveying dog owners’ use and understanding of, and communication with veterinarians about, complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. Veterinary Record (2023; online 2022). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36331424/
A Questionnaire Study on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine for Dogs in Sweden (2021). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8704802/
Kealy et al. Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs (2002). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11991408/
Ellis et al. AAFP and ISFM Feline Environmental Needs Guidelines (2013). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23422366/
Rosa et al. Effect of Croton lechleri sap-based topical treatment, with or without nitroglycerin, on healing of equine metatarsal skin wounds (2026). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41810120/
Hello Rainforest. Dragon’s Blood for Cats & Dogs—manufacturer product information. https://www.hellorainforest.com/product-page/dragon-s-blood-for-pets
Hello Rainforest. Dragon’s Blood Equine—manufacturer product information. https://www.hellorainforest.com/equine
Rodrigues et al. To evaluate the effect of two different natural products based on dragon blood sap (Croton lechleri) in the treatment of secondary intention wounds in horses. Revista Ciência e Saúde Animal 2(2) (2020). Exploratory journal report; 31 horses; no untreated control. https://revistas.icesp.br/index.php/CSA/article/view/1270
Ramos Gavilanez, D. A. Comparación del efecto de cicatrización en caninos (Canis lupus familiaris) sometidos a orquiectomía utilizando citrato de plata, propóleo y savia de huampo (Croton lechleri). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (2020). Undergraduate veterinary thesis; 60 dogs across three groups. https://dspace.ups.edu.ec/handle/123456789/19514
Miranda Jones, Á. S., and Flores Silva, J. P. Evaluación antiinflamatoria del ungüento de sangre de drago (Croton lechleri) en dermatopatías inflamatorias de origen bacteriano en caninos domésticos. Universidad Estatal de Bolívar (2026). Veterinary thesis; 20 dogs across four groups; summary verified from the university repository. https://dspace.ueb.edu.ec/items/b245c64a-dee1-4985-a2ca-dc6a4b0329f6
Editorial note: Manufacturer descriptions are distinguished from independent research. Interest surveys do not establish efficacy or a longitudinal growth rate. Ingredient studies do not establish finished-product efficacy. University theses are identified separately from journal publications; the 2020 equine report included other wound care and treatment interruptions, limiting causal conclusions. No controlled feline topical clinical trial was identified in this search.
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