Star Metro - Cleaning the chakras of Ecuador's cats and dogs

In Ecuador's capital Quito, traditional healers are tapping into a new market for herbal remedies: the anxious "parents" of pampered pets.

At the San Francisco market, dogs, cats, rabbits are all candidates for a "limpia" (cleansing), an ancient Andean ceremonial ritual designed to banish physical, emotional and spiritual blockages.

A "curandero" (healer) uses herbs, smoke and raw eggs to open the chakras of creatures great and small and furry.

Ximena Tixi says her one-year-old golden retriever Lucas hasn't been himself since he had a run-in with a cat.

But she's seen an improvement since he had two cleanses.

"He's more active, he no longer shows that fear he had," the 49-year-old architect told AFP.

Now on his third session, Lucas trots into the stall, tail wagging.

Nancy Correa, 57, is a fifth generation healer from a family of female "curanderos."

She hugs Lucas and then rubs him with a bunch of medicinal herbs, including amaranths, rue, nettle and eucalyptus.

She chose these plants, she said, because they grow in ravines and therefore "hold the energy of water, air, and sun."

Next door, fellow healer Amparo Lugmana treats Copito, her four-year-old mongrel who has been "feeling down" of late, by rubbing petals, an egg, and herbs over his white, curly fur.

She finishes by hanging Amazonian huayroro seeds on a ribbon around his neck, to ward off evil spirits.

Lugmana has also worked on cats and rabbits and sends treatments to the countryside for owners of unproductive cows and chickens.

The cost of the treatment ranges from $5 to $10, depending on the size of the pet.

P.Beaulieu--SMC