When Heather Donkers realized health restrictions would prevent her from working on her family’s dairy farm, she knew she had to find a way to still play a role in caring for animals.

Her health treatments included Body Talk, a relatively new natural health practice.  Donkers was so happy with the way her treatments were going, she took a course to be a certified practitioner, and that was when things began to fall into place.  One day she found out Body Talk could be practiced on animals. A course called Access Animals taught the basics of it.

“To really get into something you need a lot of passion. I’ve always loved animals. I got my animal science degree and when I found out about animal talk I decided I want to do this. As soon as Access became available, I took it,” said Donkers.

According to Donkers, Body Talk is meant to re-establish balance, synchronization and communication within the body.  It will help the body recognize where there is a problem, and then help the body work towards healing it.  Body Talk is not meant to replace a doctor or vet, but instead acts as a form of maintenance to make vet or doctor visits less frequent and illnesses less common.

“It’s like brushing your teeth and going to the dentist – you don’t brush your teeth so you can stop going to the dentist, you brush your teeth to have less problems,” Donkers explained.

According to Donkers, Body Talk uses a system of reciprocal points and tapping to help the body function properly.  It can be used to help heal injuries more quickly, allow for easier breathing, work on core disease, balance the two sides of the brain, boost the immune system, and more.

Donkers has been practicing Body Talk on people for about one year now.  She has just completed the Access Animals course, where her instructor told them about the opportunity to use their new skills on all animals, from small pets to livestock.  Since completing the course, she has been using it on her dogs to improve their energy levels, to calm them down and to heal an injury one dog had.

There is a huge potential for animal welfare, according to Donkers.  It can be used on abused animals to help them trust again, to allow animals to overcome a fear, to heal injuries and prevent long-term complications, and even to reduce stress when animals are being moved from one area to another.  During the course, the instructor discovered one of Donkers’ dogs has an allergy, and Donkers is now using her skills to help the dog have less severe reactions.

Donkers’ family will be moving its cattle into a different barn shortly, and Donkers will work to help the transition go smoothly with minimal stress to the animals.  In the future, she sees herself travelling around helping care of people’s animals, both small and large.

In the dairy industry, Donkers hopes to use her training to help farmers reduce the somatic cell count in cows (normally a symptom of an underlying problem, linked to mastitis) and reduce lameness.  With horses, she says it will be able to help calm them and overcome their fears.

“I definitely want to do it on people’s animals. This gives me a chance to help the animals in a controlled environment,” she concluded.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on August 9th, 2012 :: Filed under Animal care,animal handling,Animal health,Dairy cattle,Horses,Uncategorized
Tags :: animal care, animal welfare, animals, dairy cattle
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