Dogs Naturally On Air

  This week, Dana and Rodney talk with pet nutrition expert and Dogs Naturally writer, Dr Jodie Gruenstern about pet food. We ponder why dog owners are uncomfortable feeding raw bones yet are fine feeding synthetic calcium that originates from China. We also talk about the ladder of nutrition, from kibble to a raw prey model diet - and the grey area that lies between them.   Links To Learn How To Avoid Low Quality Diets   Think you can avoid pet foods made in China? The truth about dog food and supplements   Thanks for listening to Dogs Naturally On Air: see you next week!   Email your videos, comments and questions to on.air@dogsnaturallymagazine.com    

This week I received a phone call from a reporter from CBC. There was an apparent parvovirus outbreak at an animal shelter and they wanted DNM’s take on what pet owners should do. What followed was a sad glimpse into how pet owners are being let down by the one person they should be able to trust: their veterinarian. In this week's podcast, we talk with holistic veterinarians Michael Dym and Will Falconer about their thoughts on annual vaccination. The Parvovirus Interview During the interview, I took a few moments to explain that pet owners shouldn’t run out to vaccinate for parvo out of fear because it’s very likely their dog would be protected anyway (because we now know that immunity lasts for many years and likely for the life of the dog) and that if they weren’t sure if their dog or puppy was protected, to first use a titer test instead of rushing into vaccinating. The CBC then allowed a local vet to respond to my comments. And did he ever! He stated that parvovirus should be given every two years - kind of. He was elusive, so I took a look on his website. Here is what it said: Because of the persistence of maternal antibody, we now recommend the following protocol: Start at 6 weeks – boost at 8, 12, & 16 weeks and then annually. If in a high risk area or dealing with high risk breeds that travel, vaccinate every six months. Booster vaccination is a good idea prior to boarding your pet. Yes, the veterinary expert they asked to respond to my comment (which was just a summary of Dr Schultz’s fine work showing a duration of immunity of more than nine years for parvovirus) vaccinates many of his patients twice a year for parvovirus! Here is more information on that interview. While CBC asked me for documentation to support my point of view (and I gladly supplied peer-reviewed research papers from Dr Schultz), this vet was allowed to present a scientifically unproven vaccine schedule, just because he’s a vet. You see, the AAHA revaccination guidelines recommend “every 3 years or more” with the following comment: “Among healthy dogs, all commercially available [core] vaccines are expected to induce a sustained protective immune response lasting at least 5 yr. thereafter”   More Links To Learn About Vaccine Duration of Immunity   Lifelong Immunity What Every Vet Should Know About Vaccination   Thanks for  listening to Dogs Naturally On Air: see you next week! Want To Be On Our Next Videocast?     You can be on the next Dogs Naturally On Air! There are three ways you can join in the fun: Introduce Us Grab your camcorder, phone or iPad and shoot yourself and of course your dog and introduce people to our show. Say something like ... "Hi, I'm Wanda from New York and this is my dog Sally. We'd like to welcome you to Dogs Naturally On Air!" That's it! Ask us a Question Do you have a question for Dana, Rodney or one of our guests? You can email us your question or, if you're not they shy type, videotape your question! Say Goodbye Help us by thanking the Dogs Naturally community for watching the podcast! Again, Just introduce you and your pup and tell us where you are watching from! Submitting your video to Dogs Naturally Magazine is  easy! Record yourself on any device, upload your video to Youtube and send us a link to your video! We'll take care of the rest! Video Recording Tips Not all videos will make the cut! We'll be using the best videos, so give us your all. Here’s how to make your video rise above the cut! You can also email your videos, comments and questions to on.air@dogsnaturallymagazine.com      

  Natural Flea and Tick Control: Making the World a Safer Place   We get it! You know those flea and tick products can harm your pet. If they kill fleas and ticks, they have to be at least a little bit dangerous for your dog, right? But you're also afraid of Lyme disease and having a houseful loaded with fleas. We get that too. Hopefully this week's videocast will help you feel a bit more confident making the best parasite control decisions for your dog.         But first, a story ... We glossed over this in the videocast, but I want to share my story about fleas and naturally reared dogs. My dogs don't get any flea or tick products, they don't get any vaccines not required by law, ever, they eat a whole food diet and are treated with homeopathy and holistic medicine. Drugs and conventional products are saved only for life threatening or out of control illnesses (which we very rarely have here, thanks to the above principles). So a few years ago, I travelled to a dog show with a friend who uses commercial flea and tick products, vaccinates and feeds a commercial kibble. We brought three dogs each, drove in my van and had a great time. A few days after we returned home, my friend called me up. She said the dogs that travelled with us were covered in fleas. They were crawling up her son's leg! So of course I checked my own dogs. I didn't see any fleas and didn't see any scratching. I never did. Now remember, it was my van we drove down in. I went and looked at it and thought I should vacuum the carpet but there weren't any fleas on my dogs, so I didn't bother. I never saw any evidence of fleas on any of my dogs. Yet my friend's dogs were crawling with them. What was the difference? A healthy immune system. Healthy dogs aren't very good hosts for parasites. They prefer to live on the animals who aren't as robust. Think this won't work for you? Well, it might not. If your dog is eating a commercial food, vaccinated excessively and exposed to drugs and toxins, then parasites are more likely to seek him out and set up camp. But hold on ... that doesn't mean you have to reach for the neurotoxic flea and tick meds just yet. There are natural solutions to controlling ticks and fleas that you should try before resorting to those more toxic products. And it's a good idea to do this, because those flea and tick products are harmful for your dog, harmful for anybody who touches him, harmful for our environment - and worst of all, fleas and ticks are adapting to them, so more and more of the dangerous neurotoxins are needed every year to make these products work! This is why we feel they should be used only as a last resort - and if you raise your dog naturally and stay away from toxic chemicals and drugs, you might find that you don't even need the natural solutions - your dog's immune system will be kicked into overdrive and those pests will stay well away from your shiny, healthy dog! “Healthy animals are less attractive, for reasons that science has yet to determine, to fleas and other external and internal pests and parasites, whose whole existence is one of opportunistic survival and multiplication” says Dr Michael Fox DVM. “Dogs and cats on the kind of ‘junk’ foods that are still widely sold are far more prone to fleas and other parasitic and infectious health problems than those who are on a wholesome, whole-food diet, ideally organically certified and of course nutritionally complete. So many are not, so I strongly advocate the use of the following inexpensive nutrient supplements.” Want More Information on Natural Solutions for Flea and Tick Control? Here are some great articles that expand on the topics covered in this week's videocast.   Non-Toxic Flea and Tick Control Poisoning Fleas, Pets and Kids Make Your Own Flea and Tick Powder Garlic For Pets: Poison or Medicine   Thanks for viewing our first Dogs Naturally On Air: see you next week!

http://youtu.be/bVSV-ZlH8IQ Welcome to Podcast #1! As you can see, it's been a long and hard road to get this first one off the ground, but I think Kevin did a good job of making us look OK, don't you? This first podcast is really just a teaser to get things off the ground and, as we've announced, we have Dr Deva Khalsa coming on next week to talk about fleas and ticks and the products we use to prevent them. In this podcast, we've made reference to Dr Ronald Schultz's research on vaccines. If you'd like to learn more about the research showing that the core vaccines (parvo, distemper and adenovirus) are extremely likely to last for life, then here are some articles you'll find interesting: Lifelong Immunity: Why Vets Are Pushing Back What Every Vet (And Pet Owner) Should Know About Vaccines And we also mention titers as a way to reduce over-vaccination. Here is an article that will tell you a bit more about titers: Titer Testing Canine Vaccicheck: An Inexpensive Tool To Reduce Pet Vaccination We sure hope that helps! We'll be talking lots more about vaccines in upcoming episodes, so be sure to stay tuned. Thanks for viewing our first Dogs Naturally On Air: see you next week! Want To Be On Our Next Videocast? You can be on the next Dogs Naturally On Air! There are three ways you can join in the fun: Introduce Us Grab your camcorder, phone or iPad and shoot yourself and of course your dog and introduce people to our show. Say something like ... "Hi, I'm Wanda from New York and this is my dog Sally. We'd like to welcome you to Dogs Naturally On Air!" That's it! Ask us a Question Do you have a question for Dana, Rodney or one of our guests? You can email us your question or, if you're not they shy type, videotape your question! Say Goodbye Help us by thanking the Dogs Naturally community for watching the podcast! Again, Just introduce you and your pup and tell us where you are watching from! Submitting your video to Dogs Naturally Magazine is  easy! Record yourself on any device, upload your video to Youtube and send us a link to your video! We'll take care of the rest! Video Recording Tips Not all videos will make the cut! We'll be using the best videos, so give us your all. Here’s how to make your video rise above the cut! You can also email your videos, comments and questions to on.air@dogsnaturallymagazine.com

by:  Dr. Jeannie ThomasonIn 2008, Elizabeth Hart’s dog died within days of receiving an annual booster on “core” vaccines. Vaccination boosters are not only unnecessary but in most cases cause adverse reactions and even death. This devastating experience started Elizabeth on a long journey of exhaustive research and frustrated dealings with the veterinary profession and regulators. The basic issue, she believes, is one of informed consent and that pet owners should be properly informed of the risks. Elizabeth states: “my argument is against unnecessary vaccination of pets that have already responded to core vaccination, as the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s (WSAVA) Guidelines for the Vaccination of Dogs and Cats note that “…duration of immunity (DOI) is many years and may be up to the lifetime of the pet.” (Ref: WSAVA 2010 guidelines: http://www.wsava.org/PDF/Misc/VaccinationGuidelines2010.pdf) It is unacceptable that dogs be subjected to unnecessary interventions that can cause harm. The ‘informed consent’ of the pet owner should be obtained before any intervention takes place. If pet owners want to verify that their dog has responded to core vaccination, they can opt for a titre test. (I understand titre testing is available for around $90-$100 from some vets.) I have seen no evidence that repeated titre testing is necessary. On the topic of adverse reactions to vaccination, the WSAVA 2010 guidelines acknowledge that “there is gross under-reporting of adverse events which impedes knowledge of the ongoing safety of these products”. The WSAVA 2010 guidelines also warn “we should aim to reduce the ‘vaccine load’ on individual animals in order to minimize the potential for adverse reactions to vaccine products.” Want to learn more about vaccines and adverse reactions?  Listen to these Animal Talk Naturally podcasts featuring Dr. Stephen B lack and Dr. Patricia Jordan. Dr. Stephen Blake Part 1 |  Part 2 | Part 3 Dr. Patricia Jordan Part 1 |  Part 2 |  Part 3