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Hi! This is Krista with Episode #129 on the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast. I am so thrilled to share that I am expanding the Wag Out Loud business. Because I’m an influencer who is obsessed with helping other dog parents be the best advocate for their dogs’ health and wellness and because others trust in my product recommendations, I’ve decided to become a Dog Brand Liaison and have teamed up with the manufacturers of my favorite canine products to act as a liaison between those manufacturers and the brick and mortar or online retailers. I serve those retail owners that are interested in carrying safe and functional products for their dog-loving customers. These are products that I know, like and trust and that should be on every dog owner’s shopping list! These are Products made ethically, that can’t be found in the big box stores, many that are patented and made in the U.S. I am very choosy with who I partner with and enjoy connecting small businesses with other small businesses, all on a mission to improve the lives of dogs and the people who love them. If you’re a retailer looking for items that your customers will want and appreciate, let’s connect! I can share the products, their benefits and offer you samples AND additional discounts to the wholesale pricing. Please share this news with your favorite boutique pet retailer today! If you are a dog parent who wants to check out these amazing products, just go to Wag OutLoud.com and click on the Partner Products link to see some great items, learn about their benefits and get my feedback. Oh, and I’ve negotiated discounts for most of these products. Shop today! Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Holly Ganz, BS, MS, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer for AnimalBiome. She has studied the interaction between microbes and their hosts for over 20 years and shifted her focus to the microbiomes of dogs, cats, and their wild cousins 15 years ago. She started AnimalBiome in 2016 based on work that she began at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the UC Davis Genome Center. Holly has published over 30 peer reviewed articles on the microbiome and animal health. Carlton Osborne, JD, is the Chief Executive Officer for AnimalBiome. He started his professional career as a lawyer after graduating from Stanford Law with a focus on business law. He transitioned from law to business 20 years ago and was involved with five start-ups as head of business development, general manager and Chief Executive Officer. Carlton and Holly are high-school sweethearts and Carlton joined AnimalBiome full-time 3 years ago. Welcome dog lovers to another fascinating episode of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. And I have been so looking forward to this learning opportunity with Dr. Holly Ganz and Carlton Osborne, who are going to be giving us a warning of don't give antibiotics or probiotics to your dog without listening to this podcast. So Holly and Carlton, please introduce yourselves and tell us why it's your mission to use science to unlock the mysteries of the pet gut microbiome. Hi, I'm Holly Ganz. And I'm a microbial ecologist, which means that I study how bacteria and other microorganisms that live inside of the digestive tract of animals, especially cats and dogs, interacts and affects their health. I started AnimalBiome based on research that I was doing at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the UC Davis Genome Center, where I found that imbalances in the composition of bacteria in the gut microbiome of pets (cats and dogs,) was often out of whack and that this was associated with the use of antibiotics. I am on a mission to try and improve gut health for our pets through the reintroduction of beneficial gut bacteria and try and minimize the use of antibiotics. And Carlton! Sure. My name is Carlton Osborne. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of AnimalBiome. I like to say that my claim to fame is that I met Holly when I was in grade school and married her. My background is that I'm a business person. I started my career as a lawyer moved over to the business side more than 15 years ago. This is my fifth startup. And when Holly was at UC Davis and doing this research, I realized that you know, she may be on to something with with looking at the microbiome. So I was an early supporter, cheerleader, investor in AnimalBiome and joined AnimalBiome full time about three years ago. And I'm really happy to be aligning my business capabilities with my passion for animal health in cats and dogs. And happy to be here. Well, I appreciate both of you the work that you're doing and you make a fantastic team, both professionally and personally. Well, I think by now that most of us understand how our dog’s gut microbiome plays a huge role with their immune system. And the microbiome helps protect against disease and of course, maintains healthy digestion and regulates hormones. So really, is it safe to say that a healthy microbiome equals a healthy dog? I would say that a healthy microbiome is foundational to having a healthy dog. Of course, there can be other things that go awry in the complex system that is a dog. Sure. Well, you guys are gonna share with us what actually happens when you add antibiotics into the equation. And yes, we're talking about dogs. But this all applies to us humans as well. Right? Absolutely. Cool. Okay. Well, before we do the deep dive, Can one of you define what antibiotics actually are? Right! That's a great question. So antibiotics are included in a group of compounds that we refer to as antimicrobials. More broadly, they are used to control the overgrowth or like over abundance of pathogenic bacteria, but also fungi and anti parasites are sort of broadly now included in antimicrobials. And they are really foundational for veterinary medicine. I think that modern medicine really came of age once the antibiotics were discovered by Alexander Fleming and then brought into production as something that could be widely available. Okay. And I think a lot of times antibiotics are prescribed for GI issues, right? Yes, especially Metronidazole all and then also Tylosin are very commonly used for GI issues in dogs. Yep. Well, is it true, I think I've read that oral antibiotics cannot differentiate between the “bad bacteria” that may be causing the bacterial infection that the antibiotics are prescribed for. So they can't differentiate between the bad and then the good bacteria that is actually supporting your dog's health. So it wipes out both the beneficial and the harmful. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. Like I said, they knock out the good along with the bad. And then there's some groups like with metronidazole, E. coli, which can be a commensal, that's normally found gut of a dog. It's not harmed at all by metronidazole, so it can become over overly abundant. Similarly clostridium difficile as antibiotic resistance genes, which allows it to flourish when the other groups get get knocked down. It's just I don't know, maybe it's me, it sounds like a vicious cycle. So if, if your dog is taking antibiotics for GI issues, but these antibiotics can throw off the balance in your dog's gut, wouldn’t that result in vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and other digestive problems? It can. I think, I think, recently, people have really started to dig into this. I think the conventional wisdom in veterinary medicine prior to the last few years was that healthy dogs or would recover and they didn't really look, think about, well, maybe this wasn't a healthy dogs to begin with it you gave this medication to and are they recovering to the same extent. And really, just last year, they published an article showing that healthy dogs actually not all of them will recover the full diversity of gut bacteria after metronidazole exposure. Do antibiotics work against all type of bacteria? Or are there some that are resistant to antibiotics? It's pretty complicated. So there aren't, I don't think any antibiotics that just kill all bacteria because some bacteria are more susceptible than others, to the different kinds of antibiotics that are on the market. But antibiotic resistance is a really clear way in which these organisms can evolve resistance as well. So even if they historically had been susceptible to a drug, they can get a gene from another bacteria. So bacteria like pass genes to each other, and become resistant. And this is a real and growing problem for us, as we rely heavily on antibiotics to control for severe infections by bacteria. I was just gonna ask Holly to talk a little bit about sort of antibiotic stewardship and the idea that, you know, it's a growing trend in human medicine as well as veterinary medicine, that vets should be very judicious in the use of antibiotics. And they should identify the microbe they're trying to control and then use the least amount of antibiotic to control that microbe. And I think that, like in human medicine, antibiotics are so useful, but they've been overused and not as narrowly used to address a specific infection. And so that's part of what Holly's talking about that, like, you know, metronidazole is great at reducing the amount of diarrhea a cat or dog may have, but it's wiping out other bacteria that are useful and it's sometimes not being used in a judicious way. That's a great point, Carlton. Are most doctors, do they know that it is a bacterial infection in the first place? Or do they just… Is it the go to to prescribe antibiotics, even for viral infections? I'm not sure if they're using it for viral infections. But in my own experience with veterinarians that I've worked with who I consider to be very talented individuals, they don't have access to the right diagnostic testing. So they usually will just reach for it without testing for a specific abundance of a certain group of bacteria. Okay, you two. So if antibiotics can be detrimental to the health of our dogs, why should we even use them? Well, because a bacterial infection can can kill you or kill your dog. So that means it's like things like sepsis. My dog developed hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and metronidazole, which is like acute bloody diarrhea, and is life threatening, and they end up with vomiting as well. And they just lose, you know, they become severely dehydrated and, and it responds very well to metronidazole. The problem with that this is it. So it's a very useful tool, it can help to reduce infection, and help the immune system to get things under control. It's just that the overuse of it without being able to restore the community of gut bacteria afterwards, can lead to these sort of medical merry go rounds where they end up with chronic conditions, like chronic diarrhea, Right. And so really, the warning is, if your pet is sick, make sure that the vet is being judicious in their use of antibiotics. So like you said, you know, they shouldn't give antibiotics if it's a viral infection, so things like that. But then if they do give antibiotics, the question you should ask is, well, how do I help make sure that my pet recovers, because we know these antibiotics are going to sort of clean out the good with the bad and perhaps not address certain pathogens that can take over? And so that's really the question. When you have a sick pet, it's not going to antibiotics or doing antibiotics, it's Let's be thoughtful about when it's going to be used. And if it has to be used, then what do you do to restore your pet’s gut health. Yeah, because there are other alternatives, like there are fibers that can really help to get diarrhea under control. And there's there are probiotics that don't harm the native microbes like that saccharomyces boulardii is a great example. I think more than 1000 studies showing that it can effectively reduce diarrhea in dogs and cats and humans. And it doesn't have any negative consequences on the community. It's got bacteria. That's right. And one of the things that Holly and her team of scientists have found in our database, is that a lot of dogs that come to us about 30% have high levels of E. coli. And that is what is causing their diarrhea. And metronidazole does not reduce the level of E. coli in a dog's digestive tract. So in that case, metronidazole is not the right antibiotic to use if E. coli is what is causing the diarrhea. And so saccharomyces boulardii that Holly mentioned S boulardii, to those of us who have trouble pronouncing things, and but we've also found another product that simply targets E. coli. And we've added that into one of the products that we offer. So those would be alternatives to using antibiotics, particularly if the antibiotic isn't designed to target E. coli. Makes sense. So what tips do you guys give? What can we do? If our dog needs to have antibiotics? Is there anything that we can do while they're on the antibiotics? And then we'll go over the tips for what we can do after? Yeah, that's a great question. So I recommend having them if they're prone to diarrhea, having them on the S boulardii that we mentioned, because it really helps to support well formed stool and reduces significantly reduces diarrhea. And it's helpful. Sometimes people use probiotics when they're on antibiotics. We tend not to recommend those because they're not the native microbes that are found in cats and dogs. And if you use them after antibiotic exposure, they've actually been shown to delay recovery of the community of native bacteria in your dog's gut. So we recommend using an oral fecal transplant to restore the native community after your dog has had a course of antibiotics. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you said that. And we are at a point where we are going to take a quick commercial break and we are going to talk more about how you can give a supplement instead of an actual fecal transplant. So we will Be right back. SPONSOR AD Thanks to our friends at AnimalBiome for sponsoring today's episode. They are brilliant at applying science to improve your dog’s health. Did you know that 60-70% of your dog’s immune cells are located in the gut microbiome? And when their microbiome is out of balance, it can lead to inflammation associated with GI and skin issues. My dog Winston was tested and the results were shocking! He had way too many harmful bacteria and too few strains of the beneficial bacteria. No wonder his immune system was always compromised! Thanks to the AnimalBiome team for getting him back on track so that he can live a much healthier life! Isn’t it time to test your dog’s gut health? Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off! And we are back with Dr. Holly Ganz and Carlton Osborne. And they are giving us the warning, don't give antibiotics or probiotics to your dog without listening to this podcast first. And we've gone over some amazing information… stuff I never knew. And Holly right before the break, you mentioned that a fecal transplant. You know, we've heard about those. But you guys have a product that it is in an oral supplement form. Can you please elaborate? Sure. So a fecal transplant is a procedure where the stool from a healthy dog is given to one that is ailing. And it can be given by a veterinarian in a clinic, by an enima. And there are other forms of delivery that can be done more invasively or can be given an oral capsule. And what we've done is developed a way to take carefully tested and screened stool from healthy individuals and prepare it so they can be given in a in a freeze dried form in a capsule to a dog and reestablish a beneficial community of gut bacteria. I mentioned earlier that our dog had developed hemorrhagic gastroenteritis later in her life. And she was one of the first dogs where I gave her these capsules. And after having nearly two years of bouts of bloody diarrhea that was very scary, and life threatening for her. These capsules were able to reestablish the community and get her off this whole metronidazole merry go round. That's amazing. So I know that you guys offer the gut microbiome test, and I have taken it with my dog Winston, I know a lot of our listeners have done it as well. It's amazing. So where would we test the gut microbiome? You know, let's say we do have a dog with GI issues. Before we go the antibiotic route, would you suggest getting tested first to see what we're up against? I mean, ideally, you don't want you want to test it when you have, you know, a week or two to collect a sample, mail it back to us. And you know, it takes us about a week to process it after we get it. So if your dog is having bloody diarrhea like my dog Yuki was, then you can send in a sample, but you're going to probably need to go ahead and do something to make sure that they recover from that. So it's nice if you can, if you can sort of if you've been dealing with a chronic problem, if you can plan ahead a little bit and send it a test allow a couple of weeks for that process. But what we do recommend also, if you're going to do something like the oral supplements, we recommend testing beforehand so that we can know whether or not your dog has been experiencing elevated levels of E coli or other pathogens, or if they're missing some of these key beneficial groups of bacteria that are so foundational for health. That can help us give personalized recommendations to you so that you can better I think, achieve a better level of success with the supplements that you're using. Yeah, I think… Sorry to jump in here. But I think part of it is where are you on your journey with your pets? Right. And so we would recommend that as part of a yearly sort of wellness exam that every pet parent is getting the microbiome test. Make sure they understand where their pet, how their pets, gut health is doing. In about 50% of the time, the recommendations out of the out of the microbiome test are around diet. So increased protein, increased fiber, sort of tweak your pet's diet to optimize their gut microbiome. And so if you think of that as like a baseline, then if they get sick, and they're having diarrhea, there's a baseline to refer to. And so we would encourage folks to be more proactive and not just wait until your dog is is having diarrhea. Or, or something like that to address their gut health. That's just the one plug, I wanted to put in there that don't wait till there's a problem. really be proactive about your pet’s gut health. That's great. Okay. So let's say we do have to put our dog on a course of antibiotics. And Holly, you mentioned it's not ideal to give probiotics during their time of being on antibiotics. So would we give both pre and probiotics after the course of antibiotics? I recommend using the yeast probiotic S boulardii during the course of antibiotics, as well as afterwards during the recovery. If you're using fecal transplants, or our gut restore supplement, it is not competitive with the native gut microbes, whereas most of the probiotics on the market have been shown to actually out compete some of the native bacteria that you're trying, you're working to help your dog recover. But I will give the caveat that if, for the long term, if you find that your dog isn't able to support a healthy microbiome, then they can be a useful tool just like antibiotics are a useful tool. But ideally, you shouldn't have to give probiotics every day if your dog is able to support a healthy community, and it's on a healthful diet. It's like vitamins. Ideally, you should be getting those through your diet, and you shouldn't need to take a multivitamin on a daily basis. Right. That makes sense. And is it true that a dog's microbiome is also sensitive to other drugs and foods as well? Yes, they have been starting to look at this in recent years and found that over 70% of medications commonly used in human and veterinary medicine do have unintended effects on the gut microbiome. I mean, especially of course, the antibiotics, antifungals anti parasites, but but also NDAIDs and other commonly used drugs for pain relief. We can point out that integrative and holistic veterinarians that are more apt to find the reason a dog is having issues versus You know, there are some conventional vets that use antibiotics and other medications as a band aid. So I am a proponent, of course of integrative and holistic medicine, when possible. So I guess you guys are saying use antibiotics sparingly. And make sure that your veterinarian knows what the pathogen is that they're prescribing it for, is that pretty much how you're summing it up? That's right. I mean, where we are integrative veterinary medicine is pretty common. And so what I really like about that is this balancing of the holistic approach with judicious use of antibiotics and other medications that can be really helpful for keeping your pet, you know, from suffering too much pain and helping to cure infections. And are there any stories that you guys can share with us regarding this actual topic? Did you have a dog that was always on antibiotics? Their microbiome was not ideal, it was compromised? And how, through your testing and products, you brought them to having a healthy gut microbiome? Yeah, we have so many stories. Carl which one should we should we share? We've already mentioned Yuki, our dog, and you know, she, she did the fecal transplant capsules after many bouts of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. And it made a huge difference. I mean, she lived until she was almost 17. And, you know, up until the very end, she was having perfect poop. And I credit the fecal transplant capsules for that. But you know, also we adopted a dog from a sanctuary up in Mendocino County, and he was really undernourished. And, and we found when we looked at his microbiome, that there were groups of bacteria that were more present that in animals that are calorie restricted, so he wasn't sick. But it was clear that his microbiome was impacted from his history of being been a stray. So we were able to actually use the microbiome testing to guide which food we fed how much protein he had in his diet, and really, ultimately nursed him to having a healthy microbiome. And, you know, it made a big difference in his behavior. You know, often these dogs end up in shelters because of behavior. And when he was actually getting the right nourishment, he was much calmer, much better behaved. And so it's not that the microbiome is this magic thing, but it is really connected to so many parts of a dog's health, that it's something that ought to be measured and nurtured along the way. And Darwin is a great example because he had elevated levels of a group of bacteria, called Megamonas. And there have there was an article that came out, I think it's in the last year where they looked at shelter dogs and found that those dogs had had elevated levels of Megamonas, were more aggressive. And when we adopted Darwin, he had been abused, but he did have aggression issues and getting back at us, he had to learn to trust us. So I think it was complicated, but he also had a history of abuse. But I think having a microbiome that makes you agitated for food, because it was in sort of a starvation mode, it makes sense that that might promote aggression. And once we had him on the right amount of calories and a better balance, that group went back to normal levels. We also, of course, worked with a trainer. And now people can't believe that he had any of those problems. He's really sweet. Yay, happy ending for Darwin. Great. Well, the exciting news is everybody that's listening. As I mentioned, I did do the testing with my dog Winston. And being that I have this podcast, and you know, I think that I'm doing the best for my dog, he had very high levels of E. coli. We found out and the results, how you guys display the results. And all of the recommendations on what to add or change with the diet. I did those and did the testing again. And it was night and day. He had a great gut microbiome as far as the results and going through the program. So I can't thank you enough for all that you guys are doing. And it was so easy, simple. So if anybody out there wants to try the microbiome test by AnimalBiome, I am an affiliate because I absolutely love this product. And if you go to AnimalBiome.com, and use the code, WOL-20, you will receive 20% off any of their products, including the test. So I highly recommend that all dogs have, as Carlton mentioned the baseline of where is their gut health right now and how can we improve it? So what would you guys like to leave us with before we sign off today? Probably with the proverb that all ailments start in the gut. And that comes from Western medicine as well as Eastern medicine. And so if you can get your pet's gut in the right place, they will live longer and healthier lives. Agree. Holly? Any last words? Yeah, I guess also echoing that, that, you know, diet can be a really critical part of medicine, and you have to feed the microbes. And understanding how your dog's microbiome relates to the diet you're feeding can really be a way to maintain ongoing health as well. That's great. Well, thank you, both of you for being here today. Where can everyone find out more information about you and AnimalBiome? You can find us at https://animalbiome.com/. And we actually have a great team page. And you can read all about me and Holly and the rest of the team. Wonderful. Well, again, thanks for all that you're doing. I know that with all the science that you guys are entrenched in that there are going to be more products to come. So thank you for your innovation and for helping pups all around the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks again to the team at AnimalBiome for sponsoring this episode. Learn more by going to animalbiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off. Your dog will thank you! Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hello everyone! This is Krista with Episode #128 on the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast. Listen to this: Analysts with Morgan Stanley believe the pet industry in the United States may reach $275 billion by 2030, and that’s up from $118 billion in 2019. This will be fueled by increasing pet ownership and higher spending. This shows that more and more people are realizing how much dogs enrich our lives, include them as part of our families and we just can’t help pampering them. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Dr. Zac Pilossoph, a Long Island, NY born, nationally recognized veterinary medical professional, a top graduate of Tufts University Veterinary School of Medicine with post-graduate focused training in E/CC and Neurology/Neurosurgery at two of the most recognized programs in the country. As one of the world’s most proactive cannabis-focused experts in his respective industry, Dr. Pilossoph provides non-bias, harm reduction education, to the global cannabis pet and vet industry. Welcome dog lovers! Let's learn something new today from Dr. Zac Pilossoph, who is going to share natural Cushing's control. Dr. Zac, we so appreciate you being with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself? And tell us how you came to be one of the premier global veterinary cannabis educational experts. Yeah, absolutely. So first off, I'm super excited to be here today. It's such a great platform, the amount of people that have been inspired and, and educated from this one platform alone is, is really quite amazing. So I'm happy to be on here. And so yeah, so essentially, I'm one of the newer generation vets kind of breaking out of the box a little bit, it's been a quick, gradual process. And that's, you know, obviously an oxymoron. You know, sometimes we think like you're moving slow, but there's just so much to know, outside of school that you need to, you know, you have to be a lifelong learner, no matter what your profession is, I guess. So, I got to this point, basically, initially kind of following the professional path for a veterinarian, I was going to do a couple of steps towards not only becoming a general vet, but I also want to specialize in actually neurology when I was younger, but quickly found out that I was meant to do a bit more with my life. And I just was driven to just kind of follow, I guess, winding roads that were not as walked or not as bright. And I was always curious about things that were newer or innovative. And so after following in that kind of natural inclination, I, you know, had come to fall in love with a few areas of veterinary medicine with, with cannabis and CBD being one of those. And so you know, about three or four years ago, actually, that's when I started to really get exposed to it on the human side. More than on the animal because they have so much more opportunity to get to the human side to get feedback from the use of it, and the ability to try and find the ways in which it can be therapeutic, as well as mitigate any type of potential adverse effects. And so through a couple friends, and then a couple of business partners I was able to become quickly immersed in that world. So essentially, you know, through through a few friends and and as well as some business partners, I was able to be quickly immersed in the human side of the cannabis movement, and found that it was something that was truly had a great principle behind it. And I was just blown away by the stories and the real world people that I was meeting that had not only improved their quality of life, but also had been beating conditions and diseases that the rest of the world had kind of given up on them on. So I was really just absolutely just enlightened by that and became interested to see how that would play out with the patients that I had been dedicated my life to. And from then on, it was just it was a bit of trial and error meeting the right people out of a large pool of people that maybe didn't have the same principles right in and then slowly finding out that there are actually some people with a really great mission in this industry through the chaos of the “wild west of cannabis and CBD”. Whereas now, after about three or four years of of holding those close to me, and finding people that are interested in the educational component first and then being able to then search for products, or help people find a product that they can trust second, and then making sure that you're there for them along the pathway of their trial and error period as well. That's how I’ve been able to get to this position now. That's great. Well, I'm excited to chat with you about this topic because as we all know, there are so many studies finally being done on cannabis, and how it helps not only humans, but our pets as well. And I wanted to ask you, you're also the Chief Veterinary Officer for CBD Dog Health, which is a product that I absolutely love. And we just recently actually yesterday released Angela Ardolino’s episode on cancer, and how CBD is helping to treat cancer, which is exciting. So what made you choose that company to partner with? It's a great question, actually. Because I tell you what I promise you when I started many years ago, I said to myself, I wouldn't pick one company over another because I wanted to kind of be the overall regulator of the industry that helped kind of every company maintain a level or standard that I thought was acceptable and more likely exceptional, so that we didn't have this problem of second guessing if something was going to actually do what we expected. However, it was actually kind of futile to tell you the truth. I just, I reached out to so many companies, I tried so hard to be that third party figure almost like a non bias, FDA for lack of a better analogy for the pet CBD space. And you know, through speaking engagements and meeting people and trying to offer my ability as a, as a guiding light to them, that none of them really wanted that and I didn't understand why. And then finally, I met this group at one of those engagements, two and a half years ago or so. And they were thrilled to meet me, and I was thrilled to meet them. And I think it actually started because I was like the first veterinarian they’d ever met that wasn't scared of THC. And THC we are taught is poisonous, basically. And, you know, it's really, it's not as Oh my god, it's just like every other, every other compound within our bodies. So it’s all about the therapeutic window, and then what you can use do within that in order to make your body enhance versus, you know, worrying about adverse effects. That kind of sparked it. And then I, I really found that there was at least one company out there that after years of begging companies to listen to me of what I've done on my own, sort of know exactly what you needed to start to finish that they were as transparent as possible, and that they had a product that you had no problem finding pet parents that were willing and able to talk about the before and after story so that they have it similar to just how I started with on the human side when I when I was convinced on that side. So again, when you see that you hear that and you have a company that's willing to let you come in from start to finish and look at whatever they're making and stand behind it. That's what I was looking for, for and hoping for everyone. But you know, they were they were really the first and only ones that I came across that really allowed me to do that and trusted in my education and I trusted in their principles behind the product. That's great. Well, I'm glad you're part of that team. Well, again, we're gonna chat about Cushing's disease in dogs. And that's a pretty common ailment, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Its millions of dogs. Yeah, I have the latest data. I don't know if it's, if it's what you know, but according to Washington State University an estimated 100,000 dogs are diagnosed with Cushing's in the United States every single year. Is that about right? Yeah, exactly. Yep. Yep. And you can imagine how quickly that can build up over time. And did I read somewhere that it's actually the opposite of Addison's? Yep, exactly. So Cushing's is an overproduction of your steroids, your natural steroid hormones, and Addison's is essentially a consequence of the adrenal glands, not being able to produce in general, the amount of hormones that they that they're in charge of. things that can include all the hormones that are created by the adrenal glands, or certain types from different different locations. Okay, got it. So how does a dog actually get Cushing's? That's a really great question, because that's exactly going to answer the question as to why CBD is a potential therapeutic option for it. And the reason is, because Cushing's disease is a cancerous mass that is active. And that's important for us to know. cancer is a word that everyone's fearful of, but it's not. It's not a word that we have to blanket, you know, be blanket fearful of. And the reason being is because cancer comes in multiple ways. And the way in which Cushing’s works is that either it's from, you know, a constant pounding on negative feedback loops throughout your body, or, you know, a different reason of sorts. Cushing's disease is actually created by a benign tumor that grows in one or two locations of your body of your dog's body. Essentially, it can either be a tumor that grows inside the pituitary gland, which is inside the brain, or it can be a tumor that grows in their adrenal glands in their abdomen. And the reason why it's important is because, like I said, although cancer is a scary word cancer can be benign or malignant. And this cancer type is what we consider benign. But it's a metabolically active benign tumor. And it creates excessive hormones, mainly which being your steroid hormone, and that has numerous segues downstream for our body when they're being produced this high level on a constant basis. We're dealing with with, you know, an “endocrine disease.” Yeah. But the actual ideology, is a benign tumor that grows. Okay, I didn't know that. Is it true, Dr. Zac, that a lot of time… Well, not a lot of times, but there are times when there's too much vaccinations being administered, that that could cause Cushing's? Yeah, I think that there's research in the over the last 40 years from measures that we've kind of become comfortable with doing just as some shotgun method approach. One in which actually, I think vaccination plays a role. But the one after I think that we're thinking maybe actually is more influential on terms in terms of kind of, I guess, intercepting the normal feedback loop that I kind of mentioned before, and your body is early spaying and neutering in dogs. And the reason being is because the gonads which are the final receiver of the hormones that are created by adrenal glands, which are stimulated by the pituitary gland, if we remove those organs too early, they can disrupt the feedback loop and then cause an overproduction or an over response to the negative control centers that feedback throughout the body. And again, the reason why that's important because if you have the brain talking to the adrenal glands and it was supposed to be talking to the gonads, if we remove that end result, then you have this backup of hormones that are trying to then go to a destination that doesn't exist. So I think vaccination and you know, impurities and toxins in the environment and in the food, no doubt are causing our bodies to be a little bit more pro or hyper inflammatory. And that definitely doesn't help at all. So you know, if you are able to take measures on those fronts, it's it's definitely something that is relevant now. But what I think a lot of the doctors that are in the integrative world and the holistic world are maybe seeing is that actually may be a very logical consequence of when spaying and neutering early and that doesn't mean that we're saying spay neutering is bad, because population controls are something we need to be aware of as humans, as we unfortunately, also have had that effect on dogs and cats if we're not responsible. But I think that there's a time and place for everything, I think I will find maybe that there's a better time or place til our bodies mature. And this might be a consequence of that. Okay, so I have to ask you, what age do you think is appropriate for spay or neuter? You know, it's tough, right? Because I think now everyone's gonna start developing their own opinions. What I've been kind of just coming into this position of is like, I understand when a dog is young and still growing, and I understand when a dog enters geriatric. And so you know, within that window is kind of where I would say, is the best place because you're going to let the body mature fully, and you're not going to make it so that it's thirsting for the complete feedback loop that exists. But at the same time, as you get geriatric, the organs that we removed during a spay or neutering surgery, those aren't really being used anymore, and they're actually more predisposed to them becoming a problem to the body, whether it's infection or cancer. So, you know, geriatric involves, again, relative based on the size of the dog, are between eight to nine years in a small toy breed dog, seven to eight and medium size, five to six in a larger or giant breed. You know, when you're when your person ages, the organs are removed, are technically, probably not useful and necessary, in terms of metabolically but to spay and neuter earlier than when the body's mature. I really am confident that not only just Cushing’s, but several other endocrine diseases, we're going to find maybe a correlation to that, whether they are endocrine, or are congenital, orthopedic, cancer, etc. So the window, you know, like I said, it's hard, it's relative, it's kind of based on the breed and it's based on the owner, how responsible the owner is. Do you trust that owner, you know, to be able to keep that dog intact for a while, but, you know, the mid mid adulthood is definitely somewhere I think that we need to be targeting for for that. And that's not even to get to the topic and discussion of, you know, vasectomies and hysterectomies versus classic spay and neutering. That's super new. But that's a whole different topic. Yes, we'll have to have you on again. This is a great place for us to take a quick commercial break, we will be right back. SPONSOR AD Thanks to our sponsor CBD Dog Health. It is one of the very few CBD companies that I feel confident in recommending and here’s just a few reasons why: Their FULL SPECTRUM HEMP-DERIVED CBD PRODUCTS ARE: · Extracted from high-quality hemp grown in the U.S. with no use of herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers · Legal in all 50 states with less than 0.3% THC · Non-GMO · Full of active cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, CBN, CBDA, · Processed using supercritical CO2 extraction · Manufactured with 100% food-grade ingredients · Tested by a third-party laboratory · Available for home delivery to all 50 states Check out all of the quality CBD DOG HEALTH products and help your dog find relief at https://cbddoghealth.com/ AND be sure to use the code WOL for 20% Off. Trust in a company that is passionate about helping your pet live their very best life. Hello, everyone, we are back with Dr. Zac Pilossoph. We're going to talk about how we can treat Cushing's disease naturally. And Dr. Zac, I just wanted to quickly before we talk about how CBD can treat I understand there's three types of Cushing's. Is that right? Yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean, the primary ones we talk about are pituitary and adrenal dependence. Those are tough to get sometimes with we will talk about those actually, I guess, technically, they could be four, but mostly it's easy to pituitary adrenal dependent. And that's just based on where the hormones are being produced. Okay. And it's difficult to diagnose, why is that? It can be because to get a definitive diagnosis, it requires some tests that are tailored to trying to prove the excessive stress response of the body basically. And so the reason why it’s hard is because if a dog has other conditions that are occurring at the same time, or the body is immune suppressed for some reason, or, you know, it just got over it a different condition or, you know, better, there's so many different examples, that the ability to get a true accurate reading of the body's stress response by itself and in and of itself, and can be skewed or, you know, kind of altered by the things that are going on, right, because your body, you know, your body doesn't work in one single linear plane, it's always overlapping. So, you know, we have a variety of tests that your veterinarian might mention, in addition to just basic blood work, they may be wanting to suggest in order to try and get a definitive diagnosis. And that can be blood tests, or that can be, you know, imaging of the abdomen as well. So it is difficult sometimes to get an accurate diagnosis. But sometimes, it can be diagnosed, but it can be difficult. I definitely agree. Okay, how is it treated in conventional medicine? And then we're gonna move over to how CBD affects the treatment. Right? So conventional, has been pretty limited, actually. So, you know, I always mention this, because I think it's quite funny. But actually, one of the first drugs that was used was something called Mitotane, which is a sister of DEET, which is, you know, is perfect bug repellant. A carcinogen. And so that was we used to use and I think that's amazing that we thought that was a therapeutic option, nonetheless, so really, right now, the most common drug that's used is something called Trilostane, which is goes under the name of Vetoryl, I believe. And essentially, what it does is it blocks the enzyme that is divided uses in order to then a couple of steps down the road, create cortisol or your stress hormone. And so on paper, it looks great, because it means that your body can create cortisol. But, you know, at the same time, what about all the other molecules that are supposed to be made by that system is also being blocked by that enzyme that was blocking, you know, it's confusing to talk about it, it's easier to make a drawing of it, but all you have to know is the kind of, you know, you're kind of cutting the the trunk of the tree and expecting the roots to, you know, still get water from the branches. So, you know, it's difficult to really fathom how again, that's that's an option. But again, it does work for some dogs, but a lot of dogs, it definitely doesn't it only has about a 60 to 70% positive influence in that same time, you know, what are the adverse effects from blocking that enzyme and the third would be specific, usually to the tumor itself, where it's located. So if it's in the abdomen, it's adrenal, an adrenal dependent tumor, and sometimes people do surgery to remove it. If it's a pituitary dependent tumor, sometimes they'll do radiation to try and shrink it. So those are usually the three options, but the most common by far is using Trilostane. Now on to CBD. So, we're treating or a hormonal imbalance as well as a tumor. So what are the benefits of using CBD specifically for Cushing's? The specific list is actually quite diverse, which is, again, surprising to me. It's something that I never expected when I met the CBD Dog Health Group, to be able to be a part of this, this early finding, but the list in which not only that the direct cause for the increase steroid production, but the side effects and the adverse effects your body feels downstream. They're all kind of directly, not well, most of them, if not all of them are, can be addressed by a full spectrum CBD rich extract from a trusted source. So, you know, starting with the obvious that, you know, CBD, full spectrum, CBD rich extract that has THC in it has been found to be numerous studies capable of addressing numerous types of cancer types in the body. So, directly we can do the directly addressing the source of where the excessive steroids are being produced and helps to shrink, that tumor to a normal size. The second would be a lot of the modulation in general of the endocrine system. So there's numerous reports showing that CBD helps to modulate and regulate your endocrine system, meaning that it doesn't cause it to go too high or too low, it often helps in a fashion to keep it in the regular fashion and normalcy in more ways than one. And it's not just what's the steroid hormones, it can be with numerous other neuro hormones and other molecules your body creates everyday talking to each other between cells and organs. So those are two right off the bat that again, address that to me specifically. And then there's the other you know, other things that that Cushing’s causes. Specifically, it causes an immune suppression of your body from having steroids all around all the time. And immune suppression leads to the ability to develop infections earlier specifically, skin infections can be something that’s common. ear infections becoming as common. And so as we know, full spectrum CBD rich extract topically is actually one of the most effective uses no matter what, whether human or a dog or another animal. It's hugely responsive when used topically for the fact that every layer of your skin has both CB1 and CB2 receptors in it. Truley responsive not only for inflammation, but for itch, for infection. And then, you know, lastly would be skin tags and benign tumors that often form on the skin from the actual effect of Cushing's. And whether it's one of those fatty tumors that we call the lipoma or a sebaceous cyst, or skin tag tumor. These are super common when you have Cushing’s. again, a lot of them are due to the immune suppression or dysregulation of a cell that otherwise shouldn't be dividing. And, again, Cushing’s is directly related to it. Because we see this in such a high number in these cases, and then at the same time, and CBD has the ability to address other cancer types, these are not any different. So those are really the most common things we see, you know, helping to address the tumor itself has grown as a benign tumor, how it modulates the immune system and the endocrine system, and then helping to for a variety of conditions that we can visually see on the outside whether infection or inflammation, or actually little bumps in the skin that there's actually a couple more, but those are the main ones. I would definitely point out. That's exciting. And do you recommend both an oral tincture as well as putting a salve topically on a tumor? Yes, absolutely. 100%? Yeah, if you can get it from both directions, there's absolutely zero drawback to that. And there's only added benefit if it's going to be effective. And you can if you can reach that perspecitve. Is Cushing's a disease that a dog will have for life? So they would be on this CBD regimen for life? Or is it possible to actually “cure” it? Well, that's a good question. Actually. I don't know if we yet, as a very small group of people have are able to kind of answer that in terms of a longevity study. I don't know if I can give a great answer to that. I know that it's a gradual reduction in terms of side effects and the condition that you kind of see them in almost like a domino fashion. But I actually, I'm not positive about that. I think that we're still very early in knowing if this is something that has to be continuously at a steady state, or if it does effectively, you know, address the tumor in a variety of dogs. And then after that their their level of remission forever? That's a good question. I would love to be able to answer that in the next few years, you know, at least some type of small group of pet parents that are willing to help us prospectively understand. That's great. Well, there have been studies on CBD for Cushing's correct? In pets, no not not right now. So it's all in human medicine so far, but it's very promising. great results. Yeah, it is. you know, when you're looking at the you know, the the ultimate surveillance or ultimate regulator system in the body, the endocannabinoid system, which is what CBD full spectrum CBD rich extract is helping to enhance and to keep at a high function. It just makes sense that it's going to help wherever it is needed and You know, this is no different. You know, of course, you know any other condition or disease that can respond to it. And as far as dosing, you know a lot of people, we know that because of the endocannabinoid system that we should be taking CBD preventatively anyway, ourselves and our dogs. But when we have Cushing's, would there be a higher dosage? So the dosing question is, without a doubt one of the more frustrating ones, to to help, I think that society understand because we've been so tuned in to the dose response curve of classic pharmaceuticals, that when it comes to cannabis cannabis is I think a lot of people would disagree with what I'm saying here. But cannabis doesn't seem to show the very classic dose response curve that we would expect with pretty much every other pharmaceutical and you know, every drug that we use to heal is based on a milligram per kilogram or mozart per pound, or kilogram per meter square basis, meaning that it's based on, you know, either a weight or a surface area, and that it should be a linear a linear relationship. with cannabis, and classically with CBD, you'll find this with CBD like the curve in which how CBD works. And there's a there's a middle moderate dose that usually works best based on the individual at hand. So when you're looking at using cannabis as part of a multi modal approach to addressing one or more conditions, you have to take into account that animal in and of itself, meaning what is the age of the animal? What disease or diseases are you trying to address? what pharmaceuticals have you been on? How fatigued has its endocannabinoid system already been? You know, how what what is our goals in terms of treatment? Are we looking to mitigate something? Are we trying to actually cure something? You know, so and then what other you know, what other natural therapies are we going to include with it? Are we going to try to use CBD as a monotherapy? You know, those are six categories, that alone would be important to consider prior to us kind of answering that question, but it is something we can answer but I think in many situations, but the endocannabinoid system itself is something we're just still under trying to understand quickly. So that dose we're going to need to I guess, keep a long story short, yes, we'll be we'll need more than what would be considered I guess, a steady state basal amount, because we are trying to address the actual condition, how much of it is going to be case dependent based on the animal. Well, and I'm sure you and the team at CBD Dog Health would be happy to work with you on a starting dosage for your own dog. And then you go from there. You can always increase it, of course. So actually, the sponsor of today's episode is CBD Dog Health. It's a product that I highly recommend, of course, Dr. Zac being a part of the team. So if anyone's interested in talking to them about not only Cushing's but any ailment that your dog might have, the team is wonderful, and will help you in your journey. So as we're wrapping up, Dr. Zac, is there anything that you would like to leave us with as far as CBD and Cushing's? Yeah, I have my classic sign off, I guess, in a minute or less. So my first thing is, is essentially, you know, like, I know, I'm part of a small group of veterinarians that not only maybe want to give CBD a try, but are going forward with the necessary education to understand the cannabis plant and the CBD products out there in general. And so you know, obviously, what that what this does, though, is this topic creates a lot of fear in a lot of people's minds because it is, like you said, very unregulated. And so the first thing you need to know is that, for me, at least, we are not as cannabis advocates saying that cannabis is going to 100% cure everything, no problem whatsoever by itself. Don't worry about anything else, just use cannabis or CBD and it's going to do it. You know, people always say all the time, we're giving it high hopes that older dogs are going to be cured, and then they're going to turn around and use it themselves, they're going to be totally fine. That’s not how it works. CBD is though…what I'll say is this 100% confident that if you have a product that has that you really can trust based on the company's as well as your own due diligence in terms of making sure that product is safe and also effective is that there is no better first tier natural therapy or natural remedy that you can use for almost every condition with confidence and knowing that there is one or more ways that it's going to be able to help you or your pet become more balanced and more helpful in life. Cannabis is not a cure all for everything. But it is without a doubt one of the most profound, multimodal therapies that we can turn to for almost every condition and be confident that this is something that's only going to help our bodies if we find a product that is proven to be safe and effective through the due diligence of both parties. I totally agree. Well, Dr. Zac, we are out of time. I can't thank you enough for sharing this valuable information. Where can everyone find out more about you? So right now, both of my contacts can be done through directly through CBD Dog Health. That's why, I let them take care of the community reaching out to me, and whether that's just questions that they can submit through social media platforms. Or Angela, you mentioned before is the CEO of the company. And we actually are are able to do tele health consultations for pet parents who are looking to not only incorporate CBD but looking to help improve their dog's life through incorporating natural foods and remedies that can otherwise be either in conjunction with or eventually maybe even supplant what they're doing right now with their pets in terms of treatments. So CBD Dog Health has been helpful so much in terms of taking that stress off me. So that's where you can really turn to but that's the main homepage, or the email there. I'm friends with everyone on that team. Perfect. Well, we so appreciate everything that you're doing, as the studies keep coming in. And, you know, even anecdotally, people are finding CBD to help so many different things. I'm excited to see what's on the horizon. And just another reason to have you back. Yeah, absolutely. I guess that is quite impressive. How many how many pet parents, how many educators, how many experts you can bring together on one platform and have enlightened. so I I'm so thankful that you invited me on here and you never know. A couple months, years down the road, maybe we can do it again. Let's! Alright, Dr. Zac, thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks again to our friends at CBD Dog Health for sponsoring this episode. Check out all of their amazing products like: CBD enriched hemp oils for separation anxiety or traveling needs, extra-strength cannabinoid formulations specially made for more serious conditions like PTSD or pain from cancer, salves to treat dry skin for dogs and other ailments like hot spots and allergies, and all-natural pet treats. All of the CBD Dog Health products are made to effectively treat your pet holistically and naturally. Help your dog to thrive by using the code WOL for 20% Off at CBDdoghealth.com Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hi there this is Krista with episode #127 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. are you enjoying our podcast and the topics that we cover? Would you like to be a part of the conversation? Well, I'm bringing back past guests on the Clubhouse phone app to revisit hot topics from the Show. And of course, all dog lovers are invited to take part by asking questions or commenting. We've had some great discussions with lots of interaction, and we'd love to have you join us. If you've already joined Clubhouse, be sure to become a member and follow the Wag Out Loud Club. Or if you're interested in joining Clubhouse and just need an invite, let me know and I can text that to you. Clubhouse is super easy and lots of fun! Can dogs eat nuts? Well, I'd say for the most part, dogs should avoid eating nuts. Most nuts aren't technically toxic for dogs, but they are high in fat, making them difficult for dogs to digest in large quantities. And too much fat in a dog's diet can cause upset stomach and even lead to pancreatitis. Most commercial nuts are also packaged with salt and other chemicals, which can dehydrate or even poison dogs. The absolute worst not offender is the macadamia nut. NEVER EVER give your dog macadamia nuts, as they are the most toxic, even in limited quantities. Just a few macadamia nuts can cause real short term neurological problems for dogs such as tremors, dizziness, or even temporary paralysis. To play it safe, that's why I encourage that dogs avoid eating nuts all together. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Dr. Tori Countner is a small animal integrative veterinarian in Southern California. Dr. Tori believes that pet parents shouldn’t be overwhelmed with how to care for their companions, and aims to teach simple and tangible ways to incorporate better health and wellness into their daily lives. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two dogs. Hello dog lovers back for a third time because she always has such great info to share is Dr. Tori Countner and she is going to introduce us to Gua Sha Massage: More Than a Beauty Hack. Dr. Toryi thanks so much for being with us again. Could you please introduce yourself and tell us why you started your practice? What did you see that was lacking in traditional veterinary medicine? Yes, so thank you so much for having me on. It's always so fun to be here. I'm Dr. Tori Countner and I started Balanced Pet Vet as kind of a reaction to what I saw in general practice. I saw a lot of older dogs, you know, arthritic older dogs, and they couldn't move as well. And they were just kind of aches and pains that really diminished their quality of life. And so I wanted to seek out another way to help them just by instead of just throwing medications at them. So I got trained in acupuncture, laser therapy, and now I do a lot of Gua Sha massage and a lot of integrative therapies that hopefully help prevent aches and pains and extend their quality of life. And you know, through diet, supplements and these other modalities we can really help our dogs in their golden years and throughout their life and with preventative medicine. So that's why I started Balanced Pet Vet and yeah, everybody's really responded well to it. And I hope to kind of incorporate this more and more into veterinary medicine. Yay. And I wish you were closer to me. I'm in Colorado and Dr. Tori is in the LA area. But yeah, San Diego, San Diego, San Diego. No, I kind of bounced back and forth. But now now I'm in mainly San Diego. A few reasons. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, Dr. Toryi you're the one that suggested this topic of Gua Sha massage and I had never heard of it before even I didn't know it was even being practiced on people. So can you break it down? What exactly is it? Yeah, so it's been around for about 2000 years in traditional Chinese medicine TCM and it's a way to relieve stagnation, heat, relieve tense muscles but most recently in the beauty world as people have been seeing Gua Sha around, it's these stones and it's similar to kind of those roller those cool rolls like the Jade stones and Rose Quartz stones that you can use on your face to help decrease wrinkles, make your face look a little bit brighter, or maybe a little bit younger. So it's really taken off in the beauty world, most recently in the past couple of years, like I said, especially for wrinkles and kind of smoothing out that collagen, and having a younger look. But there's also behind that, there's a lot of research being done on the fascia and the connective tissue, that collagen and releasing tension and getting new circulation new cells in there. And that's what really helps your face look a little bit younger. So there is body Gua Sha as well. And that's, that's what's been around for, you know, 1000s of years in traditional Chinese medicine, and my own acupuncture, my own human acupuncturist was doing that, you know, on my face, but also on my low back, because I have a lot of low back pain. And it really gets into that fascia, that connective tissue that lies underneath the skin. And it's becoming more and more commonplace to use it on the body in humans. And so I thought, well, why can't we just use this on animals? So I tried it on my own dog first, you know, did a lot of research with in the human realm and talking to my own acupuncturist about Gua Sha. And I swear, it's really helped, you know, my own dogs relax, and also my patients kind of go over plateaus or break through plateaus if we're having chronic issues. And we're just not getting at the root of the problem. So, yeah, it's been around for 1000s of years. And it's been in the beauty world. And now we're seeing applications to human bodies, which is great. And on our companions as well. That is so cool. And when I actually did a Google search for Gua Sha on dogs, there is little information out there. So you're really making a splash. Yeah. And doing something new, I think. Yeah, I mean, there's really no informations so I thought, Oh, this is great. I'm like, because I did the same thing. You know, a couple years ago, I Googled it. And I was like, Oh my goodness, there's really nothing on this. But humans have fascia, that connective tissue underneath the skin and it surrounds, you know, all your organs, vessels, lymphatic system, everything. both humans and dogs, and all animals have that. So it's fairly easy to do at home. So I was just very surprised that it really hasn't caught on in the veterinary world yet. But veterinary medicine is unfortunately about 10-15 years behind human medicine. So that's probably the reason why as well. Great. Well wait to be the Trailblazer. I love it. What What made you want to add this to the tools in your tool belt? As far as treatments? What does this do that the other things like the cold laser and acupuncture don't provide? Yeah, so Gua Sha really gets at that connective tissue that lies right underneath the skin. That connective tissue is called fascia. And it surrounds muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, you know, lymphatic vessels, nerves, organs that basically surround and wrap your whole body kind of like saran wrap in this connective tissue. And when you have injuries, scar tissue, stiff muscles, you know, just chronic issues, that fascia can get really sticky and have adhesions. And it can get a little bit kind of like dehydrated a little bit. And that can cause decreased movement, it can cause the tendons, ligaments, muscles to not move as well. It can really cause stiffness, and that can cause pain. And with in terms of circulation, it can kind of slow down circulation, slow down lymphatic drainage and movement as well. So there was really nothing, you know, acupuncture can open up those areas, and certain trigger points. cold laser can relax the muscles and soft tissues underneath, but there was nothing to really smooth out that fascia. Again, kind of going back to the saran wrap analogy, if you bunch up saran wrap, it kind of like sticks together like adhesions. And so I wanted something that could smooth that out, and therefore smooth out everything that it engulfs, essentially. So that is why I love this tool to use. In humans, it's similar to foam rolling. I don't know if you or any of your listeners have done foam rolling. I do it for my IT bands on my on thigh and it feels really good and its a really good release. But for our dogs, we can't really foam roll as well as we can in humans, right, or cupping, which is something else that can kind of release that stagnation that's in the fascia. that doesn't really work in our animals as well. So, to me doing the Gua Sha massage and using that tool to smooth out the underlying fascia that was something extra that really needed to be done to help the whole body move better. And with this past year, in the pandemic, I wanted something that I could give my clients at home and give people at home that they could do. If they weren't able to come into the office, you know, I was unable to go into some people's homes. And so I would teach them over zoom, how to do it on their own animals at home. That's fantastic. And Dr. Tori, what does the tool actually look like? Can you describe it? Yeah, so it's in, you know, 1000s of years ago, they would use either like a horn or spoon. So it's kind of like a flat... A lot of tools I use are, they look like little hearts. And so they have rounded edges, curved edges, and it's flat. And they can come in like Rose Quartz, or Jade, or even beyond stone or byond stone. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that one, right. But they, they feel cool to the touch usually. And so it's hard to, you know, talk about, but you basically glide the tool along the skin surface with the with the direction of the fur. And so you can do a little pressure, you can do a little bit deeper pressure, but you just want to, you know, kind of glide along the skin surface with this tool. If you look up human Gua Sha, body Gua Sha, they'll say you scrape it . In our companion animals, we don't want to go that far and do that much pressure, but you're basically just, you know, again, kind of like a spoon, or the flat little tool. And if you guys Google Gua Sha tools, you'll you'll probably see a lot of variations. There's just a flat tool gliding along the skin surface to smooth that fascia if you think about oh yeah, I'm trying to move out that saran wrap that lies underneath the skin. So just kind of like a flat tool that that helps with that. Wow, okay, we're gonna have to look that up. This I think is a great place to take a quick commercial break. So we will be right back and talk more about Gua Sha. SPONSOR AD A big thank you to the team at Adored Beast for sponsoring today’s episode. I am a HUGE fan of Adored Beast because they offer a one-of-a-kind line of high-quality, Human-grade, natural products that don’t just treat the symptoms of your dog’s ailments, but also the root causes. With an impressive line of natural, holistic treatments, these homeopathic products address core issues, support healing and aid in preventing reoccurrence. Addressing Gut Health, Allergies, Liver, Bladder and Nutrition, they offer a 100% No-Risk Money Back Guarantee. I especially love their Turkey Tail Mushroom Liquid Double Extract, their leaky gut protocol, Fido’s Flora probiotic, and phyto synergy super antioxidant.  You really can’t go wrong with any of their quality products.  Support your pet’s health today by checking out  https://adoredbeast.com/ AND Be sure to use the code WOL15 for 15% Off on any of their high-quality natural products that will support and heal your adored beast. Welcome back, everybody. We are speaking with Dr. Tori Counter, The Balanced Pet Vet and she is teaching us all about Gua Sha massage for our dogs. And this is just absolutely fascinating. I can't wait to get one of these myself. For me, which I think would improve since I'm about to turn 55 Don't we all want to look better? And of course, Winston. So I think we just did a Clubhouse recently about pain relief treatments for dogs. And you mentioned Gua Sha as one of your treatments that you offer. And you said something really interesting that doing this type of massage helps with your dog’s knowing where their limbs are. Can you talk more about that? Yeah, so proprioception is that fancy word for kind of knowing where you're placing your limbs and a lot of dogs that have neurologic issues, you know, spinal disc issues like IVDD. You’ll notice that they'll either drag their foot or their foot will or their paw will turn over and they won't be able to turn it back up right. So they don't understand or they're Just kind of not spatially aware or their nerves aren't aware that the foot is in the improper position. So they have been doing a lot of research on fascia in humans, that by kind of, because the fascia surrounds all the nerves, the vessels, all of that, if the that fashion gets sticky, it can kind of decrease that communication, you know from the nerves down to the paw, all of that. So they're calling, they meaning the Fascia Council of Human Medicine is calling fascia the biggest sensory organ in the body, because it really does help with nerve connection, conduction, it helps kind of put all the pieces together. So if the fascia is bunched up, there's adhesions, if there's not, it can slow that down. And so there was some research done that it can help with better placement or better awareness of where you're in humans, where your hands are, where your feet are, and just kind of spatial awareness because everything is flowing better. In Chinese medicine terms, the qi is flowing better, there's no more stagnation, there's less stagnation, and therefore you can be more spatially aware. So that's huge in our animals. Again, with I see it all the time with back dogs, herniated discs where they're a little bit ataxic or wobbly. And their proprioception or their spatial awareness isn't as good as it should be. So using this, you know, showing my clients how to use it at home on a daily basis, can really help with that nerve conduction and for for lessening that ataxia, and getting them more back to normal That is fascinating. So what areas of the body on a dog would this apply to? I assume that it would not be good on bony areas, right? Yeah, so I would try to avoid bony areas. So the ones that are most prominent are along the spine, their little hip bones, knees, elbows. So what I usually show clients is I can place one hand, either kind of like over the spine, or over the knee, or keeping the skin taut above where I'm about to massage. And just go along, I call it the meaty parts, or the muscular parts, the soft tissue parts of the body. If you happen to go over, you know, a hip bone, don't worry, dogs are resilient, and you probably aren't going to go that hard, where it's going to hurt them. So usually I start at the front of the animal and I do the neck, and I hold on to their little head, the skin is taught and I go along their neck, and then I move down to kind of their thoracic or where their ribs are. Depending on how skinny they are, you can do a little bit softer pressure over some ribs. But that's a really big place where those muscles get pretty tight. And then the low back right after the ribs stop, that is basically their core. So that can get extremely tight, whether it's back issues, front limb issues, hip issues, knee issues, that is the biggest place or the most common place, I see tightness in those muscles in their low back area. So I really tell clients to get in there on a daily basis. And that really helps release stagnation and make them feel good. And then going back down the legs, you know, you want to avoid some shoulder areas in the elbows, knees, hips, that type of thing. Okay, and how do dogs react? Are they awake and just chilled out or do some fall asleep while you're doing this? All of the above. So I have like, obviously this example I have two dogs at home, my French Bulldog, I can barely I can maybe get like, two to four needles in him and he just doesn't react well. So what I do and what I have been doing is when we're sitting on the couch watching TV or snuggling in bed, I will use the Gua Sha tool on him. And he loves it. He responds really well to it. I do think I have some videos of him where I've been trying to Gua Sha him and he just he's like putty in my hands. So they absolutely love it. Or you know, he loves it. He's just very reactive to the needles and doesn't do well with them. A lot of the other dogs absolutely love it. It's it's a really, it's like petting them but with a purpose if that makes sense. So many dogs love it if they have a sore area or they're postsurgical you know, you can avoid those certain areas or do a little bit less pressure on those areas. But overall, it does have a relaxing… Anecdotally I've seen a relaxing side effect I guess, you could say, of the Gua Sha and they definitely relax. And a lot of clients say that, you know, they see that at home too, that it helps them relax, calm down, and they love it. That's great. And that's a perfect bonding experience with your dog as well. Can you use this technique on dogs of all ages? Yes. So I've used it on puppies that just as a preventative measure, and you know, up to, you know, super old dogs. The only things that I would say be aware of, or is there any, like skin issues hotspots, if there are any lumps or bumps that are new, or you're not aware of, you know, always talk to your vet about kind of what those lumps or bumps are, just avoid those areas. And then, yeah, if there is a place where they're extra sore, then you can either do light pressure, or just, you know, move on to different areas. But yeah, I've used it from puppies to extremely old dogs. Okay, that's good to know. And with your clients, how long does a session last? And how often do you usually do treatments? So I incorporate it with my whole integrative medicine, treatment. So I do acupuncture, laser, and then I finished with Gua Sha. Sometimes if the animals are a little bit nervous around needles, I will do the Gua Sha first. And they’ll accept the needles. And so, you know, that kind of depends on how long I see the clients. But I tell clients, they can do it a couple times a week, you know, three times a week, I don't want it to be a big like annoyance, but like a big to do for them. So I say if you guys are hanging out on the couch, just do a couple of strokes where you can. I'd rather have them incorporate the Gua Sha easily into their daily life, than have it seem like a chore. If the dog is really hurting, then I'll say, you know, you really got to work on this hind limb and the rest of the body, you know, for 20 minutes, three times a week to really get good results. I have clients though that just do it kind of before bed time every single day. And that really, really helps. So it's just kind of again, going back to the foam rolling analogy. You can do just like a couple of foam rolls or a couple of strokes every single day or like three times a week. And you're gonna get really good results. Even if you know there's nothing wrong with your dog just for preventative measures. I mean, if you just do it once a week for 20-30 minutes, that's going to be extremely beneficial overall for their health. Great. Well, I'm excited because you mentioned that we can do it at home and that you can teach us. So yeah, where do we learn this technique? Do you have any tutorials that you recommend? Yeah, so on my website https://www.balancedpetvet.com/. I do have a few Gua Sha tutorials that you guys can see how I do you know some maintenance, see how to angle the the tool and all of that. I also am coming out with a course later this Fall about Gua Sha and maintenance and different body parts and lymphatic drainage that can help with that. So that will be later this Fall. But right now going to my website or even my Instagram, I have some tutorials there. all at https://www.balancedpetvet.com/ That is great Dr. Tori! That is so cool about this course that you have coming out later this Fall all about Gua Sha. And you're going to dig deep about the technique itself. So this is going to be a deep dive much more explanatory than you know the video tutorial you mentioned on your website. So Dr. Tori is offering an amazing deal for this course. So if you use the code WOL20 you will get 20% off this Gua Sha course. Dr. Toryi what can they expect in this course? I love teaching people and I love educating people because I want to put the power back in my clients’ and pet parents’ hands. So they are going to learn about what fascia is, why it's important. How to do Gua Sha on your dog at home just for maintenance or for specific ailments, you know, neck issues, elbow dysplasia, back issues, hip dysplasia, you know, TPLO post surgery, you know, even like scar tissue that's been there for a while, and also lymphatic drainage. So we're going to kind of do it. We're going to do a deep dive into all things Gua Sha for your animals to help get you started and get going at home. This is great. And where do you recommend that we would buy a Gua Sha tool? My absolute favorite tool is called https://wildling.com/. The Empress stone. So Wildling Beauty is a company that does a lot of Gua Sha tutorials. So there's some Human ones if you guys want to check out the human gua Sha for your face. It really does help does it helps me with wrinkles like it helps with my jaw tension, it helps me relax. So I can only imagine how that feels for the animals. So that's the Wildling. I also like the heart shaped or the teardrop shapes of the Gua Sha tool from Herbivore Botanicals as well. The Wildling and Herbivore Botanicals. Perfect. I will include those links in the show notes. This is so exciting. Something I mean something old, but it's something new to a lot of people. How cool! Well Dr. Tori, I am so glad that you recommended that you speak about this because if I didn't know about it, I'm sure a lot of people are finding this all new information. And Dr. Tori is actually going to take a little break. She is about to have her first baby, which is so exciting. So thank you for squeezing this in. I'm sure your life is gonna change very soon. That's what I hear. So we're very excited, but it's gonna be different. Oh, well, we're thrilled for you. And hope everything goes well. Of course, we'll be following you with all of the pictures. Dr. Tori is great on Instagram. So definitely follow her @balancedpetvet. And we can't wait to see the baby pictures. Yes, thank you. Well thank you, Dr. Tori, we so appreciate everything that you're doing. And I'm sure we'll have you back yet again because you always are full of great information. Thank you and yes, I love coming on the pawdcast and I learn so much from your other episodes. So I'm so happy that Wag Out Loud is doing all the good work you're doing. Well, thank you. I really appreciate it and best to you and little baby. Thank you very much. Thanks again to our friends at Adored Beast for sponsoring this episode. Remember, they offer a 100% No-Risk Money Back Guarantee on all of their high-quality products. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by supporting the needs of your adored beast by going to https://adoredbeast.com/ AND using the code WOL15 for 15% off Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hello this is Krista with episode #126 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? These are products that I have tried and put through the paces, and that can help your dog to thrive. Just go to WagOutLoud.com and check out the Partner Products section. And notice that I've negotiated discounts for most of the products, so why not see what can make a difference in your dog's life? Check them out! You and I have two eyelids per eye, an upper and a lower, but our dogs have three eyelids. And this third eyelid is called the nictitating membrane, also called a haw. And these third eyelids serve four purposes: they protect the eye from injury, they keep the cornea clean, act is a lymph node which produces antibodies to protect against infection, and they produce additional tears. Here's another fun fact… Dogs have two tear glands in each eye. But us humans only have one. Fascinating stuff right? Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on WagOutLoud.com. I'm your host Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Erin Scott admits she was somewhat of a reluctant dog owner but her husband’s insistence that they adopt a dog transformed her into a “dog person” and changed her life in all the best ways. Erin’s dogs have become teachers, healers and inspirations in her life. After experiencing cancer, allergies and mystery illnesses with her dogs, Erin was inspired to create the Dog Health Journal to bring peace of mind to pet parents struggling with their dog’s health. Erin is the founder of HugsAndBellyRubs.com and the host of the Believe in Dog Podcast featuring heart-centered conversations with pet parents about how the love of a dog can impact our lives and the world. Erin lives near Baltimore, Maryland with her husband Tim, and adopted pit bulls Penny and Neno. Welcome dog lovers to another informative episode of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. I am joined by fellow dog freak and podcaster Erin Scott, and she's going to be sharing proactive pet parenting for your dog's health. Erin, thank you so much for being with us today. Please introduce yourself and tell us why are you on a mission to help other pet parents struggling with their dog's health? Hi, Krista. Thanks so much for having me. Yes, I am…what's funny is I'm a bit of a reluctant dog owner. It was never my idea to have dogs and my husband really pushed the issue. And guess what, I'm a dog person. And, you know, over the years, our dogs have suffered with all kinds of strange illnesses and allergies and autoimmune and cancer and mystery illnesses that we couldn't get diagnosed properly. And I would have these notes to myself everywhere. And we would constantly be changing our you know, regimen and supplements and trying all these different things. And so I started trying to get myself organized and created what I'm calling the Dog Health Journal. And I was realizing that oh, this is really helpful to me, I want to help other pet parents also, who might be struggling, who might have a dog with a complicated diet or regimen or medications. And if this can help somebody else, then I always want to do it. So that's why I'm here today. Wonderful. Well, I can't wait to learn more. I know you've put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this Dog Health Journal. So why don't you tell us how it all started to where it is today? Well, the original sort of drawings were actually back in 2014. I had my old girls, Lucy and Kahlua who were our original dogs. And they were both suffering with cancer. Lucy has this sort of rare illness that we had a hard time getting diagnosed. Kahlua had mass cell cancer, that we had a hard time getting diagnosed. And every day I was leaving notes for our neighbors, they were so lovely to help us with checking in on the dogs throughout the day, when we were at work, and I'd be leaving all these notes and saying try this, try that. And I still have to take photos, one of these days of all these crazy notes that I would leave all the time. And then that sort of Season of Our Lives passed on. And then around the beginning of 2020, my current girl Penny started suffering with some skin issues. And again, we were having a hard time getting it diagnosed. And we were trying, you know, we're doing epsom salt soaks one week in green tea foot soaks the next week. And I'm trying to determine like, Is any of this working? What am I doing? And you know, our vet would be like, Well, here, try this, try that try this. And I was just kind of getting I'm not kind of naturally an organized person. And I was very confused and overwhelmed. And so I was like I have to get myself organized for the dogs’ sake. And so that's kind of how all of this really came into fruition during the year during COVID actually during 2020. Okay, so what you're saying in this Dog Health Journal that helped you is to have with each of your dogs, all of the regiments, all of the medications, I assume the changes that you either saw or didn't see, you know, how much time went by what else is involved as far as the information that one would put into this Dog Health Journal? So there are daily pages where for each day, you can record this is the diet, this is the time I gave the morning meal, the evening meal, whether they had a good appetite or not, whether they're taking poops or not. What does their poop look like? their level of thirst because you know, if they're drinking too much, sometimes that can be a sign for us. And then there's kind of space to write notes about each day about, you know, physical characteristics, like sometimes I would be counting, you know, Penny has five lesions on her right foot. But then the next day, you know, be like, Oh, you know, now she has three, you know, two of them have healed. And then there's space for like behavioral updates, because that was one of the things I really learned throughout this process is really knowing my dogs, knowing their behaviors, knowing their routines, was showing me so much information. And during the course of all this, I actually saved Penny’s hearing. she had it's called an ototoxicity reaction to her ear medication. And I realized this because like the mailman came one day, and she didn't bark at him. I'm like, wait a minute, she always barks at the mailman. And I had, you know, left to go out. And I came home. And she was, I mean, I literally dropped to my knees because she's laying in the dog bed in the living room, and she doesn't get up to greet me. And I mean, my first thought is, Oh, my God, what's wrong with her, you know, and it's just, she was sleeping so soundly and didn't hear me. So I contacted my vet. I'm like, you know, in the last few days, we've had these things where she's not hearing things. And she's like, Oh, well, that can be a reaction to this ear medication so stop using it. Sometimes they're hearing comes back, and sometimes it doesn’t. But I had been making notes of these types of things that this is odd, you know. But then for instance, when I realized she was starting to instigate play with our other dog, Neno, I'm like, Oh, this is a good thing. She hasn't instigated play with him in two weeks. So she must be feeling better. And so I have space to record all of these things. And I think, you know, when you have like a chronic or a health issue that we're really concerned about, you know, cancer, allergies, auto immune, you know, all of this information each day is so helpful to have, and to help you communicate to your vet. The other piece of it is having templates for your vet visit. And you can record like I need to make sure I get refills of these medications, you know, I need to make sure I ask these things because I've totally been that person who gets halfway home from the vet. And it's like, oh, my God, I never asked them this, you know, oh, my goodness, I forgot to get this refill. And you know, keep track and making sure that I'm getting copies of the bloodwork and the test results. And I want to make sure that I have all these for my records also. And so I'm starting to release this sort of in pieces at first as digital downloads. And so one of the next parts that will be coming is a bloodwork tracker, and it's going to be a pamphlet that'll describe what are all these numbers that you're looking at, and like a spreadsheet to help you track those, because that's something else I found is, you know, your vet might tell you, oh, this is in the normal range. But just because it's in what's the technical normal range, it might not be normal for your dog. And if you have that, you know, on a spreadsheet to look at, you can see, oh, this went from, you know, this one to the really high end of the normal range, but they're not necessarily bringing that to your attention all the time. And I guess that's one of the things that I've had to learn the hard way is that sometimes, either you need to find a vet that you have you know, the utmost confidence in or you need to be tracking a lot of these things on your own. make sure, because you you'll be the first one to notice the changes in your dog's behavior. And you might be the first one to notice these other changes also. Absolutely. And I think this is the perfect example of how we can be the best advocate for our dog's health and wellness is just by tracking every little thing. And, you know, I don't think people realize what you said that you saved Penny's hearing, because you were paying attention. And you thought to ask the vet, you know, oh, she's not acting right. Is there something that's going on? Unfortunately, your vet probably should have told you the side effects to begin with of the ear medication. It was one of those things where they said well, four times in 20 years, we've seen this reaction, but I didn't like that. I didn't know that that was something that was a possibility. And I'm just glad we caught it as soon as we did. And eventually it still took I mean, we only used the medication for like three days and it still took probably three months for her hearing to really return to the way that it had been. And I still don't think it's 100%. But, you know, it's certainly, you know, hardly noticeable. Well, that's great. Good for you. I mean, a proactive dog, mom. Yay. That's awesome. And in addition to this information being tracked for yourself and your veterinarian, I can think of so many other people in your dog's life that would love this information. You know, the pet sitter, maybe a boarding facility. If you take your dog to somebody for other treatments like acupuncture or chiropractic. I think everybody would really know your dog, not just personally but on paper, what is their health history? I think it's phenomenal. So kudos to you. We're gonna take a quick commercial break and come back with Erin Scott, who's going to share more about her dog Health Journal system. Hello, everyone, we are back with Erin Scott, who is telling us about this brand new brilliant product that she has come up with the Dog Health Journal. Okay, Erin, we talked about all of the things that we can track with our dogs. I am just blown away. So with Winston my dog, he's 12 now and he literally has a folder that I would say is probably four inches thick. And if you were to ask me right this minute to find his blood work from five years ago. Yeah, that's gonna take a while. Yeah. So how is your Dog Health Journal organized? Is it hardcopy only? Or do you foresee that it's also going to be able to be in digital form? Right now is a digital download. And then in the future, I'm going to sort of put all the pieces together and have it available in a hardcopy format. But I wanted to get the pieces that are available out right now that you can digitally download and you can fill in a PDF or you can print it whatever works easier for you. And then just you know, you can keep reusing, you know, save a new one for each day or save a new one for each time you change their regimen, you know, their supplements, their medication, their diet. So for now digital only and the physical product in the future because I want to be able to incorporate what you're saying like I want to have like tabs for bloodwork and tabs for you know, each year's records or something like that. Because like I said, I'm kind of not naturally organized. But when there's some sort of issue. That's what makes me go, Oh, I need to get myself organized here. And I know I have a huge folder also with Penny. I mean, just from last year, there was one point where we were going to the vet every week last year for about six weeks. And then we went to like every other week and now we're at like once a month and that's amazing. I feel like I have my weekends back. Well, it's funny that you're saying this because I'm right now looking at switching doctors myself, and I have had the hardest time getting my records transferred. So how amazing would this be for your Dog's Health Journal? And let's say you do switch vets or maybe your dog has an emergency and you have to go to an emergency vet. You can't see your regular vet because it's not regular hours. You have it all there. It's all documented that is just amazing, Right. One of the things that I'll have as a freebie if anybody wants to come to the Hugs & Belly Rubs.com website is I'll have a free download of a medical history chart. And so that's something that I created that sort of like a quick at a glance of, you know, every time they've gone to the vet, which vet did they go to what did they go for? Was it an ear infection? What did we you know, give them as a medication? And with Penny, this is pages and pages. But, you know, like for our guy, Nino is, you know, it was a pretty easy thing to, to complete for him. But I really like having like the at a glance, and then sort of having like the detailed also. That is great. again, everybody if you want to get this template for the dog health history chart, hugsandbellyrubs.com. Thank you for doing that. Oh, my gosh, Erin, how long have you been working on this? For about a year now. I was doing like some beta versions, and really trying to get it down. And I worked with a designer to really get it the way that I wanted to. And then the hardest part honestly, was trying to you know, build a website and figure out how to deliver these things to people because that was not my natural skill. You've done great work so far. And I'm, I'm excited that you're adding along the way as well. I know one of the things that you're a huge fan of is finding the right veterinarian. Right. How do you find the right one? There's a couple ways. One of I think the best ways is word of mouth. And not just going on the internet, like Hey, does anybody live in, you know, Baltimore and go to a good vet? But the way I found our current vet was we have I take Penny Penny and I actually have the same chiropractor, she treats both animals and people. And she's the one that gave me the recommendation because, you know, I like the way that she takes care of my animals. I know how she's taking care of her own animals. And she was able to give me you know, a great recommendation when I was ready to try somebody new. One of the other ways is, you know, the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association website. I'm sure I'm butchering the name of the organization. But you know, I'll put it in the show notes. I'll put the link in. Perfect. And you know, I'm a big fan with Penny with her issues. What we found, so she had had a series of issues with UTIs in 2019. And she had been on several different courses of antibiotics. And then a couple months later, she started having these horrible skin issues. And the first thing they did was put her on more antibiotics. And we feed a raw diet. We're doing Answer’s goat milk and Answer’s fish stock, and I thought we were doing all the right things to repopulate her gut health. But when we switched veterinarians, what our new veterinarian did right off the bat was I want to do an AnimalBiome test (use code WOL-20 for 20% off). And it came back so bad. Yes. And what's interesting is just for the fun of it, the first time I had ever heard of AnimalBiome and collecting dog poop samples for fun, apparently I had gotten a sample at the beginning of 2019, before she had ever had any of these issues. So I actually had proof from early 2019. Post four courses of antibiotics over the course of the year to the beginning of 2020 and see exactly how much damage was done and how much the changes were. And so it's been through doing things like the fecal microbiome transplants and ozone treatments, that we were really able to restore her health. And so I'm such a huge fan of ozone treatments. I know you've talked about that on the podcast before. And so going to the I think it's https://www.o3vets.com/ website, they have a link to find a veterinarian that uses ozone in their practice. And so that's another place that I would go because I want to make sure that my vet, you know has that tool in their toolbox. That's a great tip. Well, you mentioned that you're going to be releasing the blood work tracker. And I don't know about you, but a lot of conventional vets, they're not really thorough about how they're looking at bloodwork results, or how they're telling you like as you mentioned, they might be within a certain parameter, but that doesn't mean that it's right for your specific dog. I think you have a story to share about Lucy and her cancer diagnosis. Yes, so Lucy was our old girl. She was my first dog and now If you see I have ever seen the Believe in Dog Podcast logo, that's actually a rendering of my Lucy. And so Lucy had a very rare form of cancer called insulinoma. And it's cancer of the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. So it was causing her pancreas to over produce insulin, which in turn drives down the blood sugar. So it's basically like the opposite of diabetes. And what this results in with low blood sugar is seizures. And so she would be having these episodes. First, it started as like she fell over when we were on a walk. And then it progressed into sort of like these twitching episodes, and then eventually it went into full blown what we think of as like a grand mal seizure type thing. And our vet was having us do cardiac workup because she had had a congenital heart murmur that had not changed over 11 years. And then we had to go and do a neurological workup. And nobody could really tell us what was going on. So I got really frustrated with how our vet was handling things, because I felt like they weren't really listening to me, he had had me taking videos for seizures, because it was almost like he didn't believe me, when I was saying that she had a seizure, it was not a good match with our vet, even though we had been going there for 10 years, this sort of brought all of the issues to a head. And so I said, Well, I'm going to go find a holistic veterinarian, and I got a recommendation actually from somebody I know. And they started going through all of Lucy's records and found that three months ago, when she had the first episode of falling over, she had actually had a really low blood sugar reading, and just nobody ever followed up on it. Like her blood sugar reading has been like 49. And that's definitely in the low, like anything below 60 is considered low. And all of her other readings had always been much more normal in the 80 or 100 type range. and just nobody ever followed up on this. And when I contacted them about this, I had to find out why this wasn’t brought to my attention. You know, nobody could really kind of give me any kind of answer of Oh, well, sometimes just from. it sitting out, sometimes it goes lower. I still don't understand that one. But so our holistic vet ended up finding this reading and then that's and then she ordered some other tests. And that's what enabled us to finally get the proper diagnosis. And that was like my hard lesson of learning, I need to be the one who's looking at these, I can't rely on the vet. And I want to track these for my own purposes also. Well, that's gonna be a great addition. Well, as we're wrapping up Erin, and I know that you also wanted to mention the daily gratitude that you're going to include in the journal as well. what is that going to be like? Yes, for each daily page, there is space for your grateful moment of the day. And I have found whether my dogs are healthy, or, you know, when we were dealing with dogs with cancer, you know, there's always some point during the day that they make me smile, they make me laugh, we do something fun, we go for a car ride, I would go for a walk. And I never want to forget those moments. And sometimes, you know, if your dog is really sick, you can get very lost in the woods, it can feel very lonely, it can feel very depressing, especially if there's like a terminal situation. And I just love having these silly moments to look back on. And to make me smile and to make me remember, you know why I'm doing all of this. And I just wanted to make sure that I included that for everyone else also, because that's some of the most important, you know, memories that we have with our dogs. Is all these times that they make us smile and are there for us. I totally agree. Oh my gosh, you've thought of everything. Well, Erin, I can't thank you enough. Where can people find out more about you and actually get their own Dog Health journal and learn more about your Believe in Dog podcast? Yes, I have made HugsAndBellyRubs.com sort of the my central website for everything right now. And that'll link you to the podcast that will link you to any of the downloads for the Dog Health Journal. Like I said, Get your free health history download. And then you'll find out more about when all the other pieces are available and when the hardcopy product will be available. And I'll be sharing some other just tips and tricks that I've learned along the way. And so that's the best place to go. And I appreciate you having me here today. Well, I can't thank you enough for putting this together. This is going to help so many dogs, so many people. I just I recommend everybody do this because we've all been there we just if we don't write it down somewhere either hardcopy or digital, we forget, you know, when was that? What did they do? What medication was that? So This is just amazing, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to put this together. So everybody go to https://www.hugsandbellyrubs.com/ check out everything that Erin has to offer with the Journal as well as her amazing Believe in Dog podcast. Erin, thank you so much. Have a tail wagging day. Thank you. We want to again thank our friends at tickles USA for sponsoring today’s episode and for making such incredible products.  Why not order your dog a Tickless device today by going to ticklessusa.com and don’t forget that the code wagoutloud (no spaces) gets you 15% off!  Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hi there. This is Krista with episode #125 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Feeding fruits and veggies to your dog provides them with great antioxidants and phytonutrients. But remember, the ratio of fruit to vegetables should always be three vegetables to one fruit. And the same goes for us humans too! Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hi there dog lovers! Thank you so much for listening. And for wanting to be the best advocate for your dog's health and wellness. We are in for a real treat, as Carrie Hyde is going to be covering the topic of is Your Dog Boarding, Daycare, or Grooming Facility Making Your Dog Sick? Carrie, I am so thrilled to have you here with us today. Could you please introduce yourself and share why are you so passionate about educating other animal lovers about the dangers that they may not know actually exist? Hi Krista. Yeah, thank you for having me here. It's a tough subject to talk about. You know, it makes me sound like I'm just after all these boarding facilities and groomers and daycare facilities. And that's not really what I'm here to do. I'm here to actually educate and hope I can change the industry that I've been a part of in love and have been so passionate about for 36 years now. I was a vet tech for 12 years prior to opening up my own boarding, daycare, grooming and Nutrition Center. And it wasn't too soon after I opened that I realized there were some huge, huge problems in the industry. And they stem from so many different things. And so I started to just change the way that I ran my facility. I started looking into different things. And then as you know, I started my own podcast, as well to try to help educate people, because the health of our animals is declining rapidly. And it's not just from one thing, you know, a lot of times we focus on nutrition, or we focus on vaccines, or we focus on we focus and we get hyper focused on that one thing. And in order to have our animals healthy, there's so many aspects, including their lifestyle and where they're boarding and where they're getting groomed, and, and all of that. And so that's why I became very passionate in in trying to help pet parents understand that they need to think a little bit further outside of just what goes in their bowl. Although I do think of course, as a pet nutritionist that is very important. But there is so much more. Well, I just want to emphasize that you have your own holistic boarding, daycare and grooming facility, and it's called the Spaw. So you're actually doing it. You're out there in the field. So why don't we jump right in? Let's unpack the title of the topic. So how are boarding, daycare and grooming facilities actually making our dogs sick? So it's not like I said, it's not one thing that that makes them sick. It's numerous things. All the way from how many dogs are boarded. You know, a lot of people don't realize that there are no now I'm going to talk pretty deeply about this, but also want people to understand that each state and each county has different laws. So when I'm talking about this, your state or your county or your city may have a little variation to these laws. But in general, and my experience has been over the years and the people that I have spoken to across the country is that boarding facilities don't require a certain they don't have like a limit on how many dogs can stay in their facility. They'll put limits on them like my like, for example. I can ask, you know for a boarding license, so boarding facilities are supposed to have kennel licenses. And my kennel, for example, I can say I want to board 20 dogs, and they'll either approve it or not approve it but the sad part is is how they approve it isn't how you would think they would approve it. Like come out check and see how big the facility is, how many people are working there. If someone's spending the night. They don't that's not how it gets approved. It's actually to be honest, I'm not even really sure how they stamp the approval because I've upped mine every year until I finally decided to kind of do a little test run and see if I just put 100 dogs would they give me my boarding license? My kennel license is what it's called. And so I just went from 25 dogs to 100 overnight, and had no problem getting that kennel license. Now, keep in mind, I'm not going to board 100 dogs, I was just trying to see if I could get approved for it. And I was never asked, will I have more staff? Is my facility actually getting bigger? Will we have a night shift? Are we doing large dogs or, you know, small dogs, there was no real understanding of the care and the level of care that would be taken care of, of the animals there. So that's one big problem is? Yeah, like, I mean, if I could, what if I put 800, 1000, 10,000? Like, where's the limit? And there's no limit in the writing. So when you look at your licenses, it won't say like, you know, per square footage, or how many people so I spoke with animal control in my area one time and asked them, How many people per dogs are required, like how many like, you know, like a child daycare will say, you need to have one person for every five children. If they're infants, we need something like that in our boarding facilities. If they're large dogs, we should have more than you do with small dogs for obvious reasons. Is it free run? Are they caged. There isn't any questions of that that comes across? So that's one of the huge problems is the number of animals. And so when we talk about whether your animal’s getting sick, does that matter? How many dogs are there? Will that matter? Yes, of course, it matters, because that's more pee and poop that's getting picked up. And if you have one person for 100 dogs, your dog has a high chance and probability of laying and pee and poop or… And those are, you know, your dog laying in pee and poop is horrible, and nobody wants that. But that's second to your dog forgetting to get fed. Right? Sure. Not noticing if he's breathing, heavy coughing, sneezing, eyes wandering, having a seizure. You know, I've had dogs in my facility have seizures at one o'clock in the morning. And we've had to rush them to the animal hospital. And if there's not a night shift, which is another problem, there's no laws that say that boarding facilities need to have a night shift. And some people think that that's okay, you know, well, my dog’s just going to be sleeping all night. But it's it's a different environment. And that's where people don't understand is that at home, your pet may be sleeping all night long. But in a boarding facility with 100-150 dogs, the chances of them sleeping all night long, are much lower, because there's going to be some anxiety. Dogs have anxiety when they go into boarding facilities. And so you have a different environment. And so that fact alone, just going into a boarding facility can cause stress on an animal. And it's interesting, because people are like, Why do you talk about this, and still own a boarding facility? And I do because I think that boarding facilities have a place and they need to be there, but they just… It's like child daycare would be like saying, well just keep your dog at home with the babysitter. You can’t always do that. But we need to regulate boarding facilities. I was gonna say that I am not surprised. Can you name one thing in the entire pet industry that is regulated? I mean, it's so frustrating, from food, to supplements to CBD, to the actual plastics used in toys, and it goes on and on. So what you're saying to me is not surprising, but it just gets me even more pissed off. Yeah, it's something to get pissed off about. I you know, like I said, as a boarding facility, I regulate myself, I know how many employees I have. I, I know what my limits are and where it's comfortable. And sometimes that can be really tough, because, and this is where I put the blame on the pet parent is because parents in general people in general, we wait till the last second to do things. And so if you build a relationship with a boarding facility, and you have this really great relationship with them, and they love your dog, and that's what you really want, you do want to train your dogs so that they're less stressed to go into a boarding facility that they're used to going to. That they do daycare, these are solutions we can talk about. But one of the problems is is that pet parents will wait until let's use Fourth of July, for example, they'll wait till July 3, and say oh my gosh, I need to board my dog tonight. And then the boarding facility is most likely booked, if it's Fourth of July, they should be booked. And then if they don't take your dog, you start to get threats. And well I've been coming here forever and they kind of put the pressure on the boarding facility to take that dog. And the reality is that also is a problem that pet parents need to realize is that if your boarding facility has limits, please honor them because and don't make them feel like they're horrible people for not doing it because when you put that pressure on your boarding facilities, just take them, just take them, just take them… You're putting your dog at risk and you're putting other dogs at risk by doing that. So it's kind of a two, it's a two part thing, right? You can't be forcing this down, you know, you're boarding facilities that are trying to cause to have limits, because there are some great boarding facilities out there, don't get me wrong, but they really, really try to have limits. But some of them don't. Some of them, you know, will actually have cages in the back, and they're stacking their dogs in cages. And they're doing, you know, all sorts of crazy things with them. So, it requires both parties to take it seriously. And to not, you know, for us, we have like I board, for example, I board 20 small dogs a night period. And really no more than that. But I have, I could comfortably myself could comfortably board 25 dogs a night. But I leave those five spots open for emergencies. For my plane got delayed, and I can't get back and pick up my dog and then another dog is here, do you know because that happens all the time. And people don't realize that. So when they set their limit really, really high. And then you have those happen all the time. I can't tell you how many times somebody didn't come pick up their dog, when they were supposed to pick up their dog because of number of reasons, or a really great client has a family member who passes away and they're desperate, and they have to drop their dog off. So you have these and so there has to be boarding facilities that are being responsible with the idea that that could happen on any given chance. So numbers are a big reason. The lack of regulations like we talked about, and there never is going to be regulations. So I I just kind of say, we are not going to get to the point where organizations are going to require these really great regulations that I wish we had. And the reason for that is because how are we going to do that? We're barely regulating our child daycare facilities, right? Like how many children like they don't come out and check them every day. Right? So they're not going to be able to do that it comes down to the pet parent and asking questions and knowing how to pick a boarding facility. So one of the reasons why our dogs are getting sick in boarding facilities is the number of dogs that we’re boarding in these facilities and the sheer numbers of them. Put your dog at risk for for all sorts of stuff because the anxiety goes up, the more dogs are in the facility, but it's not the only. Okay, well this is a good spot to take a short commercial break so we will be right back. Thanks so much to our friends at Primalhealth for sponsoring this episode.  They are the makers of TEEF Protektin42: Drinkable Dental Health for our dogs. Now this is a product that I can get behind! With over 80% of dogs over the age of three having active dental disease, it’s crucial that we get ahead of this condition. TEEF is a patented 100% nontoxic prebiotic formula that promotes protective bacteria to neutralize dangerous bacteria, even below the gum line. It’s a human-grade, safe and clinically-proven powder that is easily added to your dog’s drinking water. It promotes clean teeth, healthy gums and fresh breath!” What are you waiting for?  Order yours today by going to TEEFhealth.com and use the code WOLP to receive 20% off of your order! And we are back with Carrie Hyde. And this is a very passionate discussion about is your dog boarding, daycare or grooming facility making your dog sick? So Carrie, you've just told us about the non regulations as far as number of dogs in a facility? How many people? I just can't believe that the kennel license is the way it is. But yeah, why don't we talk about the elephant in the room? vaccinations? The required vaccinations for dogs in most states. Tell me about that. Yeah, so vaccines are definitely another another reason why pets are getting sick in boarding facilities. And you know, I like I said in the beginning I've been working with animals for 36 years. As a vet tech for 12 of those years. And back when I was a vet tech, we hardly ever saw dogs with kennel cough, for example, like it just wasn't something that we really ever saw. We also didn't really vaccinate for it. It wasn't like a huge thing that we gave vaccines. But kennels back then which was God 26 years ago, 27 years ago, kennels didn't really exist. Like they do today. People boarded them at their best hospitals and you didn't have doggy daycares and you didn't have this kind of stuff. And so, but then as those grew, then the want or need or desire, however you want to look at it to start getting more of the kennel cough vaccine became something that people just did. And vets realized, hey, these guys are boarding here and they're doing daycare and so I became… In my county, the bordetella vaccine, which is the kennel cough vaccine also is not required. So I have my kennel license, but I'm not required to give the kennel bordetella vaccine. But most kennel license people, people who own or have their kennel license don't even know that they just continue to force this down your dog's throat. And the problem is, is it's an ineffective vaccine. It's absolutely ineffective. Secondly, it's a non core vaccine. And thirdly, the dogs who get the kennel cough vaccine. I've done the research at my own facility because I don't force people not to get it or to get it. I recommend that they don't. And I require a two week waiting period before they bring their pet into my facility. And the reason why and most kennels don't do this and which is why your dog is getting sick in these kennels is because they're forcing you to get this vaccine. It’s a shedding vaccine. According to Dr. Jean Dodds, it's one of the worst shedding vaccines second to Parvo. And when you bring a pet into a facility who's just been vaccinated yesterday, he brings it into the facility and creates an unhealthy environment. So any other dog in that environment, say for example, a dog with diabetes or an elderly dog or a puppy who's still building his immune system, even a vaccinated puppy for kennel cough can still get another strain because there's lots of strains of kennel cough. So these facilities aren't even reading their own licenses. So I've had kennels in my area Tell me Well, I have to require the bordetella vaccine and I tell them if I were you, I would read your your paperwork because you don't have to. Now some licenses require certain vaccines like rabies. There's nothing we're going to be able to do about rabies. So we're hoping that the laws will change like Delaware did and now allows for titer tests for rabies. But you have to check with your you really need to ask your kennel where you're where you're boarding your dogs to give you a copy of what they require. Now there's difference between policy and what's the law states. So your kennel may have a policy and they want your dog to have a bordetella vaccine. But the license may not require them to have bordetella, for example, and if the license doesn't require them to have bordetella, I would ask your boarding facility if you can give them a release that says hey, if my dog gets kennel cough, I won't sue you or do any harm and you know to your business in case that happens? Sure. That's how you can avoid it. So you can ask if they'll take a titer. Now titers aren't run on bordetella. Bordetella is a non core vaccine. So which is part of the problem is that the non core vaccine that the AVMA doesn't even recommend or require. But we have these sporting facilities that are dictating their own policies based on misinformation or not having information at all. I know of a boarding facility in my area that is having huge outbreaks of kennel cough huge. It was so bad. I mean, I had clients coming in to me and saying oh my gosh, what's going on over there? And then I found out that the owner’s response to it was to increase the frequency of which the bordetella vaccine is given. So he's required every Yeah, used to require every year and now he requires it every six months. And all that's doing I mean, you think about it, like I said, in the beginning, we're busy, we have busy lives. And so you go and you get the bordetella vaccine the day before you go into the boarding facility, and then you bring it in and and that's not good for your pet, or the pets in that environment. So one of the things we're learning about Coronavirus, that we've all gone through this pandemic is that it takes time for your body to build antibodies to protect you. So if you go get your dog a vaccine, like a Parvo vaccine for you know, which is can be a very deadly disease and you give it to him and then put him in a stressful environment I can almost guarantee you if your dog’s under the age of two he's going to come home with kennel cough. The reason why is you just compromised his immune system temporarily. His immune system is trying to deal with the vaccines you just gave him and then you put him in a stressful environment. No matter how much your boarding facility loves your dog and, and does the best they can. It's still not home and it's still not the regular routine. And once you take a dog out of the routine, their immune system is going to be a little compromised. This all makes so much sense. Yeah, vaccines are probably one of my big like, we need to come up with a better plan and we need to educate our pet parents because it really does come down to the pet parent is knowing how to protect their animal. It's not just the vaccines but when you're putting flea and tick medications… I very, very rarely have a bordetella virus, kennel cough outbreak in my facility. Literally years will go by before and but every once in a while we'll get one and we had one, probably about eight years ago and I knew it was going to happen but I couldn't go back and it was a puppy. Under six months old. The owner had just put flea and tick medication on the dog a day before she came into the facility. And the dog was a very nervous dog. It was fully vaccinated for every single thing under the sun and it ate a poor diet. I knew I'm like if there's kennel cough in here this weekend, this dog’s gonna have it and sure enough, this dog ended up with kennel cough. But that was all stuff that the pet parent could have avoided by feeding healthier, not over vaccinating, not putting that flea and tick medication on the pet. Now the anxiety is something we dealt with, but I think the dog would have had a better chance of not picking up a cold, which bordetella is just a cold so I don't want to make it sound like it's this deadly thing. But it can make your dog sick. And it could cost lots of money. Right. And I know I just had Rita on. She's the canine herbalist Rita Hogan and she mentioned a kennel cough remedy for dogs. It's all natural by Pet Alive, the KC Defense and she said that works wonders. The people that listen to this show, they know that over vaccination is causing disease and illness and that the combo shots are even worse. So right. To your point, there are easier, more natural ways of tackling this, you know of boarding dogs and making sure that everybody's healthy. And it's a great point that you keep pointing out that in stressful situations, dogs can get all sorts of things. Yeah. Wow, there's a fine line and a balance that you have to work with every single day. No, it doesn't. You know, people think, Oh my gosh, my dog went to a boarding facility and he got sick and now it’s the worst boarding facility on the planet. And they're dirty and they're gross and they don't take care of the dogs. That's not true. Kennel cough is the most common thing that an animal will pick up in a boarding facility, they can pick up other things like Giardia and Parvo. And I have never seen a dog pick up Parvo in a kennel, in a boarding facility. So I think the chances of your dog getting a Parvo in a in a boarding facility not it's not like a you know, there's puppy mills, and there's those kinds of things but a good boarding facility, the likelihood of your dog getting Parvo is very slim. So kennel cough is the thing you're most likely going to get. Giardia is the second most likely thing you're gonna get. Fortunately for us, those two things aren't deadly. But they can set your dog down a road that you don't want to go down, for example, your dog gets kennel cough, or Giardia, both of those are most likely going to be treated with antibiotics. Even though bordetella has a couple of different strains. And most of those strains are viral, they're not even bacterial. So your vet, you'll go to your vet, your vet will give you an antibiotic, and then that's going to destroy your pet gut. Yeah, and so now you're now you're going down this path that really all could have been avoided, if you started with a good diet, you know, waited, if you're going to do the vaccines that your boarding facility is going to require. you know, those certain vaccines, you know, at least waiting two weeks before you put your pet into those environments. But you know, boarding facilities can be so great also. right there, they socialize your animals, they, you know, I have animals that thank god, they're able to bring them into our facility and they they get socialized and they run around and they get exercise and so there's a lot of really great things that can come from a boarding facility. We just need to as pet parents and owners of boarding facilities. We just need to think about the long term effect that a boarding facility… just a simple little thing like saying hey, I want to be given the Giardia test I don't actually require a Giardia test for dogs to come in to me because I've always thought it was kind of silly because how easy Giardia can be picked up just from one simple walk. So yeah, so you get these boarding facilities who are like okay, you can't come in here unless you get a Giardia test. Well the owner goes and gets the Giardia test, you know two weeks before coming in, get the negative, but for two weeks, she's been walking her dog in the neighborhood. Well, now the dog has Giardia comes in, which goes back to the numbers of dogs that are boarding in these facilities. Because if one of them has Giardia and you've got one person trying to pick up pee and poop for you know, 150 dogs and I'm not when I say 150 dogs, that is probably the average number of dogs that are boarded in these facilities. I know places that board 300 dogs a night. So you're talking about how on earth are they going to keep the facility clean, so other dogs aren't walking through poop that has Giardia or eating it, because they'll eat poop from dogs that are doing it. So it goes back to the numbers, and those kind of things. But yeah, vaccines are a huge problem. They're a huge, huge problem and boarding facilities need to start understanding what the laws are. Because like, it drives me crazy. When I hear a boarding facility Tell me in my area, I know for a fact we are not required to force bordetella. And yet I have boarding facilities that tell their clients that they have to have it and like they know they don't. If that's my area, other areas might be different. Well, Carrie, as we are wrapping up, what advice can you give to pet parents on how to spot a great grooming, boarding or daycare facility? What should we be looking for? So I think first and foremost, you have to be able to have a communication, you have to have open lines of communication with your boarding facility. you need to know and they should know i think one easy thing I tell people, don't ask customers. ask one of the girls that work there one of the guys that works there, how many dogs do you board a night? They should know that answer. And it should match. So if you were to ask I have 28 people who work for me. if you were to ask any one of those people, how many dogs do we board a night, they will know the answer. But if you ask receptionist #1 how many dogs do you board a night? She goes well, we have a capacity of 200. ask the next person because if those two things don't match, then they don't have a limit. They don't have a hard and fast limit, it means that it's constantly fluctuating and changing. And that's when your dog is going to be in danger. So you want to know how many dogs are boarding and you want to know how many people work there. And think about it this way. If you have five people that work in the entire facility, and they're boarding 100 dogs. Five people don't work 24/7, right, true. So somebody's got a day off here and there. So are you telling me at 150 dogs that possibly any given day, there might be three people here? What if someone gets sick? So you want to match those up and see what sounds pretty right for you. For me, I think one person for every 10 small dogs, and one person for every five large dogs is depending now, are they caged? Or are they free run? So there's a lot of variations there. But you really need to know. is there a night shift? is someone there all night long? you need to know that And believe me, please don't leave your dogs in a boarding facility or a cat facility that doesn't have a night shift. Please don't. It is horrifying for these animals to have all the lights turned off. And then nobody comes back until the morning. So you really want to make sure there's a night shift. You want to know what their vaccine protocol is, of course, and why they have it. also their cleaning protocol. I have in my facilities, HEPA filters that run 24/7. I would not board my dog in a place that doesn't have HEPA filters. So you just you got to ask these questions. They may feel like you're, you know, it's uncomfortable, like you're questioning them. But a good facility would want you to ask those questions. Sure. Those are important questions. You have to advocate. Yeah, you have to. That's what we're here about. Well, Carrie, this has been amazing, a lot to think about. And where can everybody find more information about you, and your facility, The Spaw and the Spawdcast? So this podcast is on Spotify. We also do YouTube videos. My Facebook page is called The Spaw. And then you can always reach me through our website, which is https://www.ahhthespaw.com. You can reach me through there. We do lots of videos to try to help people you know with just about anything you can reach out to me. You can always call me to I'm at the I'm at the Spaw all the time. And I can help you. I've even called people I've called facilities for people. And if you're really concerned, I'll totally do it for you and ask the questions. Finding Carrie and The Spaw: 1.     Website: https://www.ahhthespaw.com 2.     Social Media: @petlifecoach 3.     Social Media: @thespawdcast 4.     YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSpawdcastwithCarrieHyde/ 5.     Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-spawdcast/id1469284868 6.     Schedule a Pet Nutritional Consult: https://www.ahhthespaw.com/scheduleconsult/ 7.     LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-hyde/ So cool. Well, I will put all of your links in the show notes. And I want to thank you, Carrie for hopefully opening up our eyes a little bit more, you know, because we don't ask the right questions. We don't know what goes on behind the scenes. So it's time for us as we have discussed many times to advocate for our dog's health and wellness. So thank you so much for sharing this very valuable info. Of course, thank you so much, Krista for having me. I hope it helps people just real quick. It's important to me to let people know that there are some great boarding facilities and there's some really, really great things that can happen for dogs that are being socialized and getting that pack because dogs are pack mentality. And so they do build friendships at these boarding facilities. So I don't want people to think you should never board your dog. I just want you to be smart about it. Absolutely. I agree. Thanks again to our friends at PrimalHealth makers of TEEF for sponsoring this episode. Again that’s spelled T-E-E-F as in Frank. check them out at TEEFhealth.com. And don't forget that the code WOLP as in Paul gets you 20% off of your order. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hello everyone this is Krista with episode number 124 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Did you know that dogs that eat kibble are in a chronic state of dehydration, which contributes to problems such as kidney disease or the formation of bladder stones? So vegetables are an excellent source of water, and veggies like cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, or even brussels sprouts are over 85% water. But just remember when feeding vegetables to your dog, you can feed raw or even frozen veggies, but you'll need to make them digestible for your dog. So you can either crush or pulverize them in a juicer or a blender, or it helps to lightly steam them as well. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hernando Umana earned a professional certification in Medical Cannabis biology and the therapeutic uses from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He serves on the board for Fire Flake Farm, a rescue for neglected animals, where he has helped hundreds of animals using cannabis medicine. Co-owner of CBD DOG Health, Father of a 10 year old shitzu, Blanche and a 5 year old chihuahua mix, Linda! Welcome all dog lovers to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. I want to thank all of our listeners who want to be the best advocates for your dog's health and wellness. And today, I am joined by her Hernando Umana, who is going to share why your vet won't talk to you about CBD. Hernando thank you so much for being with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us about your passion for dogs and your journey in becoming a cannabis expert. Awesome. Thanks for having me. My name is Hernando Umana. I'm a co owner of a company called CBD Dog Health. I'm always hesitant to say that and call it like this because I never want people to think that I'm here to talk about my brand. Because that's not what I'm here to do. I'm a cannabis educator first. I'm an animal lover first. And I support any company who is doing the right thing to help animals. In my history of what I'm doing right now. I graduated from the University of Vermont's Medical Cannabis Program. I work with Angela Ardolino, my partner with her rescue farm called Fire Flake Farm where we've helped hundreds and about 1000s now animals, chickens, dogs, geese, pigs, everything you can imagine, with every kind of cannabis medicine possible. I travel and work with veterinarians all over the country. And this is this is what I do now I get to watch dogs go from having multiple seizures a week to none and dogs who can barely walk start to run and some pretty incredible things that I that I love to do. Cannabis saved my life personally, and saved my dog's life. And I couldn't be happier, more proud to be part of it. What a great story. Well, Hernando, we all know that as pet owners, you know, we've been frustrated at our vets lack of interest or experience on the topic of CBD. And it seems like everyone is talking about CBD these days except our conventional veterinarians. So because it seems to be such a taboo topic for most conventional vets. Why do you think that is? Lack of education. Number one. Veterinarians are not taught about a lot of things including nutrition, but they're not taught about cannabis medicine. They're not taught about the endocannabinoid system, which is a system that we all have that’s a massive regulatory system and oversees every system in our body. So why we're not being taught about that. I don't know. And, you know, they're all taught to put a bandaid on the problems instead of looking for what's actually causing the problem. And that's what cannabis medicine does. You know, it's not this one compound pharmaceutical that's going to fix everything up right away. And so they're not being taught about it. And that's, that's what it comes down to number one, because if they could see the research we did have and see something as basic as the endocannabinoid system. I think there’d be a lot more questions as to why are we being taught about this. Right. Now, aren't there legal ramifications as well? Because I think still the American Veterinary Medical Association says that under current federal and state law that veterinarians may not administer, dispense, prescribe or recommend cannabis on any animals. Are laws changing? Oh yeah, laws are changing every single day, state by state. So before we get into that, let's talk about the difference between hemp and marijuana because that's really important in this discussion. Marijuana products are still are still on schedule one of the Controlled Substances Act so anything above .3% THC in a cannabis product is considered marijuana and THC is that psychoactive effect. It's not dangerous to dogs or to us at all proven in research. But for legality sake over .3% THC is considered marijuana products and anything under .3% THC is considered a hemp product. Now hemp products have been made federally legal in 2018 by the United States Farm Bill and through there we should be very comfortable knowing that veterinarians can discuss and recommend and even distribute hemp based products. When it comes to marijuana based products. That's where things get tricky and difficult in neither realm hemp or marijuana that cannot administer, treat or prescribe using cannabis medicine. But when it comes to marijuana based medicine, most states in this country now have medical marijuana programs for human use. Unfortunately, none of those programs include animals or veterinarians. New York actually just passed a recreational medical marijuana and they are still in early, early process of figuring out all the legality, but it's the first time that veterinarians were listed as providers of healthcare. So there's a possibility that in New York, veterinarians will be able to maybe even recommend marijuana based products. But other than that California and Michigan are the only two states who have come out and said that veterinarians are allowed to simply discuss marijuana based products. But no states have said that they can recommend it or use it in any way, which is ridiculous, but it's what we have right now. Well, hopefully things will change quickly. So I guess the main roadblock to widespread regulation is the limited research into the effects of CBD to treat dogs. So I think that's why the FDA hasn't approved CBD for use in dogs. But I know you and I also did an interview with Angela that studies are coming out. So there is scientific evidence behind this right? There is. CBD itself… There is an isolated version of CBD that has been approved by the FDA for epilepsy and seizures called epidiolex. That one is not intended to be used on animals, but veterinarians could technically use it as an off label medicine. But as far as CBD and the FDA goes is that we need to remember that FDA only controls food and drugs. CBD right now is not either of those things. Because it's not generally recognized as safe or GRAS, we cannot put it in animal feed. It's not a drug. So it's not there to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent anything. So normally that would fall under a supplement where vitamins and other health care products would go to. Unfortunately, in the act of 1994, where they start to regulate supplements under the FDA, they specifically left out animals they said this year is to oversee all supplements except for animal supplements. So animal supplements have no government, anything, no one is looking to see if the product is safe or effective, which is a very, very big problem. So right now CBD for pets has no category. All we know is that it's legal. Well, we are talking about conventional vets but you and I both know that holistic and integrative veterinarians already recommend CBD to their patients, which is fantastic. So I've also heard that these conventional vets you know they use CBD on their own pets. So it seems that they're slowly coming out of the woodwork and are being honest about their own use of CBD and the benefits that they are seeing at home. Do you agree? Oh, yeah. And there are a lot of veterinarians now who sell CBD in their practice or recommend CBD in their practice. And they're getting the results from their, from their patients, and they get to see it every day. So it's they're definitely starting to become believers. You can't not believe it when that dog who could barely walk last week came in and all of a sudden walk. And do you want to quickly talk about that? You know, a lot of people think, Oh, I have to give my dog or I don't have to, but CBD might be an option for my dog for whether it be epilepsy or, you know, joint issues, arthritis, but shouldn't we and our dogs be taking CBD oil as a preventative? Absolutely! It's so important, you know, dogs are gonna go through degenerative problems. Regardless, what we can do is slow those down, especially when it comes to something like arthritis, we're all going to get inflammation in the joints, but we can really slow it down and keep them comfortable and keep that information away, as long as possible. CBD has been proven to be neuro protective. So we know it's gonna protect the brain and help your joints. There's receptors in their gut, that's going to help their gut health help everything because it's part because it works the endocannabinoid system, there's every aspect of your body can benefit from CBD. And as we know, most illnesses, stem from the inflammation of and what CBD really, really, really helps with and we know this from research is reducing inflammation. So really being able to tackle inflammation before it becomes chronic, is incredible. So I always tell pet parents, even if your dog has no issue yet, even if you can get just a little bit of CBD throughout the week and there is maybe a good time to use treats if you don't want to go through a bottle or just give them give them a few times a week just kind of keep the endocannabinoid system flowing and making sure that they are healthy for the long run. Great point. Well, we are going to take a brief break to hear from our sponsor and we will be right back. SPONSOR AD Thanks to our sponsor, CBD Dog Health. It is one of the very few CBD companies that I feel confident in recommending. And here's just a few reasons why: thEIR full spectrum hemp derived CBD products are extracted from high quality hemp grown here in the US with no use of herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers. They're legal in all 50 states with less than .3% THC, non GMO, full of active cannabinoids, such as CBD, CBG, CBN, and CBDA. Their processing uses supercritical co2 extraction. They're manufactured with 100% food grade ingredients tested by a third party laboratory and available for home delivery to all 50 states. Check out the quality CBD Dog Health products and help your dog find relief at CBDDogHealth.com. And be sure to use the code WOL for 20% off. Trust in a company that is passionate about helping your pet live their very best life. And we are back with Hernando who is talking about why our veterinarians are not talking about CBD for our dogs. And I kind of get their situation, you know, because as you mentioned, this industry is totally unregulated. So not only are veterinarians wanting to see studies which are coming out, like amazing studies of the effectiveness of CBD for so many health issues, but because it's not regulated, which company, which brand, can you feel is safe because the labeling again is not regulated? Right? Exactly. Cornell University actually did research last year where they bought 30 pet CBD products on the market. And they did their own lab tests. And out of those 30 only 10 were anywhere near a 10% ratio what they were actually claiming was in the bottle. As far as cannabinoids go. multiple models had pesticides. A lot of them didn't have CBD at all. So yeah, it's completely unregulated. Because it's a very, very big issue. So Hernando, what do you think? Because, you know, we mentioned that our veterinarians don't have the knowledge because they're not taught in veterinary school. So how are they going to get educated on this? Once, you know, the states, and the regulations open up that they can discuss this with their patients? You know, first of all, as far as this discussion goes, I always talk to all my vets saying, there is a first amendment right, and you do take an oath to do no harm and take care of the animal. And I think using that First Amendment right to be able to discuss is, to me a no brainer, but you know, as far as getting education, there are so many stories, there’s hundreds of 1000s not millions of stories now being told, every day of the incredible effects of CBD for seizures, for cancer, for arthritis, you know, there was just a new study done on canine cancer cells showing increased apoptosis and stop the spreading of cancer cells, you know, there's just, there's just too much anecdotal evidence out there for them to ignore. And they're going to be forced to, to ask the questions. And what we need, though, is regulation, because what's going to happen? What is happening is that, they say, okay, fine, let's try it. And then they get a product that's ineffective, and it doesn't work. And that's where it starts getting labeled as snake oil. That's when you have a product that works. And you see the difference. So we all know humans, you know, we all have the potential of using cannabis first so many reasons. And that's because the endocannabinoid system, like I said earlier, but dogs have even more receptors in their endocannabinoid system than we do. So they we see the effects that much faster. And that much greater. And the beauty in animals is that there is no placebo effect. You see the difference. It either works or it doesn't. So, you know, there's just gonna be too many pet parents asking the questions, and eventually they're gonna have to be able to answer it. I agree. Well, the cool thing is, is we mentioned you know, the, these integrative and holistic veterinarians already are recommending CBD oil to their patients. And some heroes in this industry, Dr. Karen Becker. She says when it comes to pain management, there's a significant amount of evidence that supports the use of CBD. And since cannabinoids work differently in the body than narcotics, and also non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs that so many of us give our dogs, they can be used together without the risk of drug interactions. So thank you, Dr. Becker. Dr. McGrath at Colorado State vouches for the safety of CBD for your dog. And she recommends you're also already using a CBD product or are considering one that you try to get a certificate of analysis, which is super important. And that should show you how much THC is in the product. So you should feel good if you do your research, giving certain CBD products that pass the test. And then lastly, Dr. Garry Richter, who's been on the show, he says, while there are some differences in how cannabis affects pets, compared to humans, they can benefit in many of the same ways people do. So it is being used. There are plenty of veterinarians recommending it. So I just wanted to mention that and I guess for now, are you suggesting that we just do our own research? Yep, you have to unfortunately right now, a few good things to look at when choosing the right CBD product is number one, like you said, is seeing a certificate of analysis. That's showing not only that it has the amount of CBD and THC that it's saying as, especially for veterinarians, because if they are comfortable selling CBD, they want to make sure they don't go over that .3% THC because that's when you get in real trouble. But it also shows you that there's nothing harmful, there's no pesticides, there's no heavy metals or anything. So having that certificate of analysis is very important. We have a video if you want to share with the audience of how to read that certificate of analysis, because if you don't know, it's impossible. But yes, that's important. You want to get a full spectrum product, meaning it has at least below that .3% THC, research has proven over and over again that not only the most effective way for the medicine to work for any of us, but it's incredibly safe. They've even done terrible, awful studies where they tried to kill beagles and chimpanzees with upwards of 9000 milligrams of THC, and they could not do it. There is no lethal dose there's never been a creature on this earth who has ever died of cannabis. Any toxicity things that you hear on the news you can be assured that it was adulterated or is in a brownie or gummy or something else. But full spectrum is very important. And you just want to make sure that it's a potent bottle. There's reasons why there's $30 $20 bottles out there, because if it’s got 100 milligrams in the whole bottle. And that's not going to be effective. You want to make sure that you have at least a 500 milligram bottle or up around nine milligrams per serving, at least. Well, I think something encouraging that I found out is that the AKC Health Foundation is currently funding a study to hopefully provide the scientific data that is needed to gain legal approval for veterinary use. So I think that's cool. And I can't wait for those results to come out. Because you and I both know, it's gonna be good. So Hernando, how do we start the conversation with our regular conventional vet now? That's a great question. I first always want to make sure that pet parents never feel the need to hide the fact that they're using CBD. You shouldn't be hiding anything from your vet, if you're using it for your animal, whether they agree or not. Their job is not to tell you how to take care of your animal, they can suggest things, but their job is to take care of the animal no matter what's going on. So please talk to your vet about this so that they know. And it's just an open, honest conversation. You know, you've heard about this. You've heard incredible stories, you found a reputable brand. This is what I'm thinking. And if you are determined to use it, it's not a question of, are you allowing me to? It's a question of, will you help guide and learn with me? Yep, I agree. And we have to be honest about our goals for you know, why are we using CBD with our dog? I think our vet needs to know that. Yeah, 100% like I said, before, it's, it's we’re all about finding the root of the problem and fixing it from there and not putting a bandaid on the issue, suppressing the immune system and causing other problems to happen. And, you know, if you're doing your homework, and, you know, because I don't, I don't trust doctors anymore, I don't trust vets, I you know, I will listen and go and do my own research. But there are so many steps you can take to keep your animal healthy. And, you know, food is to me food, nutrition, and CBD. As long as, as long as their gut is, is intact and healthy, and we're keeping inflammation away and protecting the brain. You know, we're in good hands there. I agree. And I think, to your point, you know, when we're talking about food, or CBD or any other supplements that we are giving our dog, help your vet, you know, keep a journal and track their symptoms and their patterns and, you know, positive and negative that you see, I think that only helps the entire team advocate for your dog's health. 100% and we tell pet parents that when finding the dose, you know, just keep track, see what works and what doesn't work, and adjust accordingly. Hernando, is there anything that we can do right now to promote any change? Are there any senators or representatives or anybody that we can write to or you know, have a voice? I mean, there's a lot of states that will be voting for medical or recreational cannabis use in humans. And and there's, there's a way to start for sure. And honestly, right now, we just need to keep talking about it. We need to tell our friends when you have success stories, you tell your friends either write it on social media, keep the story going. There are billions of dollars by the pharmaceutical companies making sure that these messages are suppressed. One Voice after another we will win. So we just need to keep talking. Keep asking questions. Anytime you can vote in your state. you vote for that. And and the rest will come slowly but surely. There is hope. Well Hernando I am very picky with the products that I recommend. And CBD Dog Health is one of those companies because you guys are full spectrum CBD, you are non GMO. You are holistic and you're offering amazing products in different forms, which I love. You know, you have the tinctures, you have the salves and the treats. And if anybody listening today is curious about CBD, please, please, please check out CBDDogHealth.com. OFFER: And our friends at CBD Dog Health are offering an amazing discount for you to try it. Just use the code WOL to receive 20% off. Hernando, do you have any last words? We're here to help. We're here to educate. There are no dumb questions. If you're not getting the answers from your veterinarians that you need. We can always refer you to veterinarians that can answer your questions or at least willing to learn with you. But uh, we all got to stick together, we got to do the work together. And I'm just so proud to be to be here and to be part of this and to be part of this revolution. It's awesome. I agree. So Hernando, where can everybody find out more information about you and CBD Dog Health? You could just go to CBDDogHealth.com. You know, I'm a blog contributor there and we're our team. That's all we do. That's how we make a living is by educating so you can find all of us there. Angela, our education director Carter Easler, our veterinarian, Dr. Zac Pilossoph. We're all there and a whole bunch of information for you guys to read. We appreciate it. And thank you for doing this. And yeah, one vet at a time, right? Exactly. Exactly. Right. Thanks, Hernando. Thank you. Thanks again to our friends at CBD Dog Health for sponsoring this episode. Check out all of their amazing products like CBD enriched hemp oils for separation anxiety or traveling needs, extra strength cannabinoid formulations specifically made for more serious conditions, like PTSD or pain from cancer salves to treat dry skin for dogs and other ailments, like hotspots and allergies, and all natural pet treats. All of the CBD Dog Health products are made to effectively treat your pet holistically and naturally help your dog thrive by using the code WOL for 20% off at CBDDogHealth.com. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Rita Hogan is a Canine Herbalist and healer with over 19 years of experience specializing in Holistic Canine Herbalism. She’s an educator, speaker, writer, formulator and herbal medicine maker and uses a combination of diet, flower essences, herbs and phytoembryonic therapies. Rita’s practice is world-wide and located in Olympia, Washington where she lives with her partner, one pug, two bulldogs and a basset hound. Hi there dog lovers! Aren't we lucky to have canine herbalist Rita Hogan here for a second time to chat about the fascinating topic of lipomas in dogs and herbs to get rid of these fatty tumors? Rita, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us why are you so passionate about the use of herbs with dogs? Did you know that lipomas found on your dog are a sign of toxic overload? Canine Herbalist Rita Hogan is here to share why some dogs get lipomas, what they are and the protocols to treat lipomas safely and effectively. Listen and learn! Your dog will thank you.

Hello everyone, this is Krista with episode #122 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Are you enjoying the show and the topics that we cover? Would you like to be a part of the conversation? Well, I'm bringing back past guests on the Clubhouse phone app. And we revisit topics from the Show. And of course, all dog lovers are invited. And you can take part by asking questions or commenting. We've had some great discussions so far and lots of interaction and we'd love to have you join us. So if you've already joined Clubhouse, be sure to become a member and follow the Wag Out Loud Club. Or you can check out all of the upcoming Clubhouse rooms at WagOutLoud.com and just click the Events tab. Did you know that dogs have about 1700 taste buds? Compare that to humans, we have more. And we have about 2000 to 10,000 taste buds. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well-being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hi there dog lovers! This episode is going to be amazing! Here today to chat with us about why fresh feeding is the most critical factor in your dog's health and longevity is Dr. Conor Brady, and he is the author of the recent book that is in my mind the new raw feeding Bible. It's called Feeding Dogs. So Dr. Brady, please introduce yourself and share with us why were you compelled to put in 10 years of blood, sweat and tears into writing Feeding Dogs? It was while I was with Guide Dogs Australia that the true powers of raw-feeding came to light. That was 15 years ago. The time since, bar a couple of years as a producer myself, I have spent as a full-time writer, speaker and dedicated advocate for natural canine food and health.The subject fascinates and consumes me, providing me with near bottomless rabbit holes that demand exploration. What I found over the last decade of work I have recently released in book form, Feedings Dogs, which proudly made it to the top of a number of best-seller lists, including #1 in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine in the US (Amazon Charts). It remains today the top-rated book by readers on canine nutrition on Amazon.  I live with my wife and two daughters in Wicklow, Ireland. When I am not writing or doing consults, you will find me out walking with my slightly odd blue roan cocker spaniel Dudley. What he lacks in brains and overall finesse he makes up with single-minded determination, though that statement is equally true for both of us. Thanks Krista. So thanks for having me on. Yeah, like the book was it was definitely a labor of love. I can't I had to do it at nighttime, because like everybody else you have work during the day. So this book, I’m not messing… it nearly ruined my life. I would sit down at my desk at eight o'clock at night and start and not lift my head until three in the morning and then get up for work the next day. I did this for many years, it nearly cost me my marriage. I say that in a funny way. But honestly, my wife was not too happy about it. So the story behind it really is I started in guide dogs, Krista. For people that don't know me, I have a doctorate in nutrition and behavior than studying gut morphology and behavior in animals. And so when I joined guide dogs, I was always fascinated with food. And the little things you could do to them little things you could add or take away often is more important. And how it helps the dog, you know, nice, tightly controlled population of dogs. So you could you can see things. But it was really when I got to Australia and I saw the raw movement with my own eyes in 2009. it was really taking off. There are a lot of people feeding real food to dogs, which wasn't kind of normal for me. I came from Ireland, and like the States were not you know, we have to in particular, our two countries in particular, were a little bit behind the curve. And it was when I bumped into Brisbane Guide Dogs in Australia that all changed for me. The wool fell from my eyes, and I saw the difference real food could make you know, so that was the start of it. And that's when I started writing the book because I was already interested in it. But the change was so dramatic the veterinary bills, the savings were so dramatic that I thought wow, this is information that is not getting out there properly. Unfortunately, it took me 10 years to get it out there. But you know, that was the start. Well, I appreciate it. Oh my gosh, I am halfway through your book I mentioned before we hit record. And I love the studies and the information that you're giving. I'm learning about my own health and my own body, in addition to my dog, Winston. And I like that you wrote it so it's very easy to understand. You know, it's a lot of science. It really is but your writing. I just I have to commend you on the delivery of that. I guess I want to ask you first have you always fed raw? No, I haven't always fed raw. I first really saw the power of it myself. When I was living. I was over in Australia and my first few months and my old Shepherd cross Rough Collie Meg who was just the most incredible dog. She was only seven years old and at that age already she had terrible hip dysplasia. She was neutered too young. She was on dry food. And I heard that she was on shots of whatever they were putting into her and tablets and all sorts of things to keep her going. So in the few months I left there was quite a dramatic decrease in the dog's health. I came back for a couple of weeks I had already been switched on to the raw movement in Australia. And I just made some changes in the dog's life. I took her off dry food, took her off the carprofen and a couple of other things. Put in some simple additions that you would normally put into a dog with seizing joints. And I'm not messing Krista. By the time I left after two weeks, this dog was back running up the cliffs by my house, we live near the beach. And she loves this part of the beach and she was back running what she couldn't do, she didn't have the power on her back legs in two weeks. This sounds like a snake oil promise. And it really is how we're going to conclude the podcast today, which is I want to wind people up to a little simple things that they can do themselves at home so they can see the difference. You don't need other people to tell you what something's going to be like. you can do this very simple experiment at home where you do cut out the products and feed a couple of bits and pieces. And you'll see the difference in the dog like I saw because then I went back with a vengeance to Australia. That was really where I started contacting Brisbane Guide Dogs. As I bring up Brisbane Guide Dogs again, like the savings in health care costs. This is published in the paper and the courier times in Brisbane. And I've got links to all the studies that ever mentioned, Krista if anybody needs that need that they need a bit of a convincing. But 82% savings in veterinary bills in a colony of 200 working dogs 82% veterinary bill savings. So that is a staggering amount of money. So you can think about how that increases the longevity of the dog, how long they're going to work for that sort of saving for a charity organization is just impossible to put into words, you are going to change a lot more people's lives with more money. So that was what started to come to my head. But it was the start what we'll see in my own dog and the difference with my own eyes. I get back to Australia I had the 18 dogs I was training. I think six or seven of them were on non steroidal anti inflammatories. (NSAIDs), like a casual epidemic of kids on non steroidal drugs. Imagine in the classroom of 18 kids and six or seven of them are on steroids for health conditions. That might not have been acceptable, you know, so right by making I made some changes a little experiment myself, we've got these dogs off their drugs stop they stopped visiting the vet complete success just like what Brisbane Guide Dogs were seeing. And I take this back to my superiors and go guys, something's up. I just got these dogs off of atopy. You know, unexplained itch was the big thing in Australia, in these dogs anyway. And it just stopped when I started feeding raw. So like, you know, my tails wagging. I'm all excited and I run to the vets and my superiors go guys, look what I did. I did it thinking that they would join me in a rain dance. But no, they just kind of said, Well, you know, they just didn't believe me. They just didn't believe it was possible. And it maybe wasn't worth the risk. And there was money involved. And it's like yeah, not like 82% savings of vet bills money as if money was the most important thing to these dogs, you know, health. So that was when I kind of quit the job and started going out for full time I knew something was up and yeah, so the Brisbane Guide Dogs thing was really interesting, but I wanted to understand why other guide dog groups couldn't see what they were doing and see how much money they were saving. Also Brisbane Guide Dogs stuck their name on a raw dog food products because you know people are convinced that if Guide Dogs are eating this, it must be good stuff. So they also made they also got free food out of it. So now your food bill has evaporated your two biggest costs as a guide dog training school. And so there was a statement by the AAHA, the American Animal Hospital Association the year before. Brisbane guide dogs, the raw dog food kind of ended, things got shut down, unfortunately and the CEO was moved on and the CEO that came in 2015 brought with them dry food very sadly. And the Brisbane Guide Dog raw adventure ceased, rather unceremoniously. But the AAHA does not support raw feeding in the States. They're one of the most influential groups out there next to the AVMA, another American Veterinary Medical Association. But they put out a statement in 2014 that had big problems. But when you get to the science of it, it's very light. There's no there's no real huge amount of studies from these statements. They say things like the statement began past proponents of raw food diets believed that this was the healthiest choice for pets. And that word believed was very interesting. And there's no, they don't kind of develop it much. But the fact remains that while veterinary associations in the veterinary industry say, Well, where's your proof that raw is good, you know, where's the evidence, we need to see the evidence that your new idea of real food for dogs is a good idea. But that idea can be switched. While I say yes, there isn't a lot of studies showing raw is better than dry. That's correct. But you can flip that statement and say, isn't it strange that there are no studies of dry better than raw? Where are your studies, you're the one who's made this leap to this incredibly strange, high carbohydrate ultra processed foodstuff, which we know was responsible for the obesity epidemic in humans, high carbohydrate ultra processed foods. And we have an obesity epidemic mirrored the same number almost in humans in our pets, which is decimating their health. And, you know, where's your evidence that this is good for a pet long term? Can I see your study that convinced you and they go silent? Or they'll jump to the next one, which is well, well, then it's dangerous? And you said, No, no, sorry. We were talking about evidence there. If you ask me for evidence, I can ask you. So I say I'll tell you what we'll do being very generous as I am. I will go study for study. I'll tell you the most impressive head to head study that I saw and convinced me while I was very healthy for dogs, but you have to give me one as well. And then I burst into my first one, which, if I, you know, I'll send it to people if there's a way Krista, that I can share a link to the study somehow with you. Yes, we will have it in the show notes. STUDY INFO: "In 2015, DogRisk was back with their most convincing work to date (Roine et al. 2005) as it involved a head-to-head of raw and dry-fed dogs with atopy (exhibiting a heightened immune response to common allergens). This time they measured the metabolite levels in dogs suffering atopy. In particular, they were looking at homocysteine, a by-product of the metabolism, which is related to a number of diseases, but dogs suffering allergy/immune responses have higher levels of it in the blood. It’s fair to say it’s something you’d like to see less of in the body. What they found was indicative of everything we have discussed previously. First, dogs eating raw food had 0.17 nM homocysteine in their blood. Dry-fed dogs had 1.57 nM, nearly a ten-fold increase. But even more remarkably, when raw dry-fed dogs were moved to raw they suffered a near five-fold increase in homocysteine (from 0.17 nM to 0.77 nM) while dry-fed dogs changed to raw enjoyed a five-fold decrease in homocysteine (from 1.57 nM to 0.30 nM). They followed up this work with a paper presented at 42nd WSAVA Congress in 2017. They found that compared to raw, dogs eating a dry diet showed a highly changed regulation of genes in the skin, proving dry food seems to have a dramatic impact on skin gene expression. These findings were verified by Anderson et al. (2018) using peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression, microarray profiling. This catchy named technique is a minimally invasive tool commonly used in human diet intervention studies. They concluded that a meat diet was associated with a decrease in cytokine gene and receptor expression compared to a kibble diet. The kibble-fed dogs had increased expression of immune-related genes/pathways and elevated plasma IgA concentrations. These works paint a very clear picture – in comparison to raw dog food, dry food is likely causing a lot of inflammation in dogs. Whether this is due to its high cereal content, high chemical content, the types of protein used, the lack of fresh fats or maybe even processing technique, remains unknown." The studies used are  Roine, J., Roine, M. Velagapudi, V. et al. (2015). Metabolomics from a Diet Intervention in Atopic Dogs, a Model for Human Research? 12th European Nutrition Conference (FENS) 2015, Berlin, Germany Anderson, R.C., Armstrong, K.M., Young, W.et al. (2018). Effect of kibble and raw meat diets on peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression profile in dogs. The Veterinary Journal, 234: 7–10  More benefits of raw here! https://dogsfirst.ie/raw-faq/benefits-of-raw-food-for-dogs/ So there's lots of little studies that suggest kind of raw is, you know, advantageous small little, little things that we can come back to. Many surveys involving 1000s of people and that kind of thing. But as for direct evidence, they did a great study of dry versus raw fed dogs. And they compared dogs at rest, they just took their bloods and they analyzed it for a metabolize called homocysteine. It's like an inflammatory metabolite Look, the less of it in your blood, the better. That's that's the guts of it. And they found that raw fed dogs had .17 amount of homocysteine in their blood, but dry fed dogs had 10 times the amount of this inflammatory marker. But the really interesting thing was when they changed the dry fed dogs to raw food, this inflammatory marker fell by a factor of five. So they show that at rest, they're inflamed, but when you jump them to raw, they get less inflamed. We don't know if that's because they're eating wheat, or the chemical preservatives, or the stale fat, or the lack of bioactive compounds, on and on and on the many things that can be wrong with ultra processed food. But that was a really interesting head to head. And the people that did it was the University of Helsinki, DogRisk, these guys are called. And they have now gone after this very, because they are so enthused by the results of this, that they've produced quite a lot of studies on raw which I can share on your page. There's a link to all the studies they've done and papers they've produced, all coming down on the side of raw dog food. It's not like they're sponsored by raw dog food. They’re a university, they're not doing it to make money, right. But they found that then in the following study, they found that atopy that you know, mysterious itch, which is plaguing dogs, the number one reason you're going to go to the vet is evaporate on Raw dog food, the same thing has been Guide Dogs are seeing the same thing I saw my studies are now verified by studies. So we know that if you're sitting there with a dog, usually a small little white coated breed your little Westies or you know any dog really recurring skin conditions, recurrent ear conditions, recurring gut conditions, all those three, if your, if your dog is chronically suffering one of these, just try and make a leap to something very simple, a simple little home cooked diet that you'll find on any Facebook group or so many groups out there that can help you just try for two weeks and see if it works. If it doesn't work, the bag of dry food and the drugs are going to be waiting for you, you know. you've lost nothing trying it. your dog isn't going to flip over and die because he's been eating lovely cooked turkey mince for two weeks, you know, he's gonna have a lovely time. And then if it doesn't work, you've lost nothing. And so that's really what I want to when we get to it, I just want to show people how to make something at home that they can try on their dog sick or not, and see for themselves. Great! And I know you wanted to talk about the science of false marketing. Yeah, well, like, you know, that's kind of what half the book is about. I mean, there is a huge amount of science, behind dry food, okay, behind I mean, ultra processed food canned, dry, whatever. There's a huge amount of science behind it. But it's not the science that I need to see, which is like I'm a researcher by trade, I want to see where's the evidence for feeding this food. The science is actually more a science of marketing. It's just an incredible job has been done to convince us that this foodstuff is made by candy companies, you know, is the best food for a dog. They have no studies to back that up. But they say so. And it is just a lesson in how incredibly good they are at getting us to swallow this message. And it's not the first time they've done this. I mean, the oil companies kept back the whole climate change kind of thing for many, many years. Despite knowing for a very long time. We've had, you know, the baby formula issue where baby formula was touted as better than breast milk until voluntary organizations in the 70s and 80s, forth and back and said, Look, there's many things missing from this, and here are now the studies to show the health. I'm not slagging off for them there's a place for us. But I'm just saying they're one shot and making a complete food in humans didn't work out for us. So they still can't replace what Mother Nature puts in. So, you know, these tricks have been done many, many times to convince us that this product is so necessary, when actually, you know, what we need to see is good head to head studies that solid science randomized control trials, you hear people talking about their gold standards where we put dogs in trials on one or two sides to see, look, we don't have that we have a major problem with corporate influence in various levels of the veterinary industry. I'm not talking about individual vets. I'm not I don't want any kind of you know, angst where people start to go into their vets and say, hey, my dog’s doing great in Hong Kong food and you try to sell me this dry food as if the vet wanted harm for your dog. You know, these vets work their butts off to get into college, and to do this course. They work their butt off in college. It's a very intense course. You know, GPS, human GPS just have to learn from one animal these guys have to learn, you know large animals, cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, fish, you know deer, and they've got to learn not just one aspect of it, but every single “ology” you can think of biology, pharmacology surgery, you know, nutrition of every animal on the planet in four short years as an 18 year old, like five short years, give me a break, it just can't be done, all they can do is get an elevator pitch. And unfortunately, the elevator pitch that they are being given in some aspects, such as nutrition is heavily biased towards the feeding of these these products that, you know, lack any scientific credibility. So that's a big problem, but not the vets fault. You can't expect them to be reading up on every single thing that they're doing. They trust that regulation in place, they trust that the studies are really solid, they trust the reps that are coming into them, which is incredible, really, when you think about what that does trust there. But you know, I would say there is no trust in science, there's only data. So you know, I don't trust anybody. That's not a negative thing. But you know, it's probably not too positive either. But it's like, it'll show me the data. And I believe you. And the data is just not there. So that's what the whole book is about. I spend more than half the book convincing people and walking them along this road of the first section is the dog is a meat eater, to a large degree, he may eat some plant material here and there, you can just debate that all day. And I love talking about it. But ultimately, we know from the biology and the diet studies, that the dog is definitely a big meat eater. The second section, I said, Okay, if he's a meat eater, he doesn't really eat a lot of carbohydrates at all in his in his life. He can digest them, but it's not very, not a lot of them. And so what is this diet doing to them this new diet. So that's what the first half of the book is. It's only really by the third and fourth section that I get into teaching people, this is how I would feed the dog myself, you know, and it's, it's really simple, guys. You know, it's, there's a lot of we talk about science so much down. I don't want to bamboozle people and freak them out, because there's as much science about feeding a dog as there is in feeding yourself, you know, people listening here have kids, and you kind of go, Well, how much calcium Did you give the kid last week? I don't know. Oh, okay. Well tell them you know, they're already a of calcium, very, very important mineral you don't know, haven't a clue how much Where do you get your manganese from? I don't know where you get a vegetable, which vegetable? You know how much manganese did they absorb last week? Okay, so these questions, while important, I suppose to some people, you know, generally not important to mom and dad, because we do our best we look at the diet that she didn't really eat that week and the things that I wish my kids would eat more of, and I go, you know, did she get any greens in the last few days? That's really the most important thing? And yes, or no, she did. That's kind of what I weigh it up is, it's the same with dogs, we know what they need, and we do our best to provide it. And if you cycle those ingredients and offer a varied diet, not just feed the same thing every day, what a boring waste of time. You can just feed turkey one day and some sardines and pork, the next and some beef. By cycling through all the ingredients, you get balanced over time. So it eliminates that fear of, if I don't feed enough potassium his butt will fall off. You know, you don't need to worry about those things. It's still, it's it seems funny now, but that's what you're led to believe I can't feed a dog but I can feed my kids. Oh give me a break. You know. Dr. Brady, I'm gonna stop you just for one second. So we're gonna take a commercial break. So I'm just gonna pause here and we'll be right back. Thanks to our friends at AnimalBiome for sponsoring today's episode. They are brilliant at applying science to improve your dog's health. Did you know that 60 - 70% of your dog's immune cells are located right in the gut microbiome? And when their microbiome is out of balance, it can lead to inflammation associated with GI and skin issues. My dog Winston was tested and the results were shocking! He had way too many harmful bacteria, and too few strains of the beneficial bacteria. No wonder his immune system was always compromised! But thanks to the AnimalBiome team for getting him back on track, so that he can live a much healthier life. Isn't it time to test your dog's gut health? Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com. And be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off. And we are back with Dr. Connor Brady, author of Feeding Dogs. Dr. Brady, you're gonna give us a breakdown. And before we go any further, both you and I we don't like to shame people that are feeding dry. We are just sharing Well, the science and it can be an easy transition to try raw, right? Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And it's definitely not about shaming. I know you're on the same page as me with that. People get very heated up. We're cliquey. we're dog people that's face it. all dog people are cliquey. There's something about us, I don't know what it is, but we love barking through a fence. So you know, take that fence down and dogs generally don't bark at each other like that. So we need to relax on social media and stuff. You know, this yes or no world we inhabit now or there's no gray area. So Yes, guys, there's lots of reasons why people might be feeding dry food at the moment. But there's definitely space here where we can just start adding things in. I mean initially, and I'm sure that's how you started as well, Krista, you're not too sure. And you're kind of like can my dog eat sardines as like delicious, delicious sardines. I go, Well, guys, you can. Delicious sardines. If they're good for you, they're probably good for the dog. Anything with a face is good for your dog, believe me, put a you know a tin of sardines in fresh water or even brine. pour off the brine, perfect protein for a cat. full of just everything that your dog needs, it's cooked. So your vet will be safe with that one, because they're very worried about raw proteins. And so little things like that can be done, you can crack in a raw egg, you can get a handful of blueberries, beautiful antioxidants, you know, and you can get a handful. and I've got a cocker spaniel who was the most obsessed dog about sniffing I've ever seen in my life. I mean, he's just only happy when he's sniffing. And he's just anyway, look, I haven't had a cocker spaniel before, obviously. So this is the first spaniel in my life. He’s nuts, but I love him. So what I would do for him is I would get a handful of if I was ever going to use dry food, the only time I would use it, you get these little sample packs, sometimes what's that dry food, like, I'll give you a sample pack great, didn't cost me anything. And I would get this “good quality” dry food. I say good quality, like you know if they say it's natural, it’s got good meat in it… who cares, it's ground. And I would get a handful of that I'd go to some sort of field where I'm running him. I'd show it to him and annoy him. I wouldn't give them any of it. And then I'd throw it out into the field. And now he spends 20 minutes half an hour looking for that. That is unbelievable exercise for a dog. You don't even need your own yard. You know, if you have your own yard, lucky you! throw it into the hedges in the bushes and make the dog work for it. That's how we feed zoo animals for a reason. It's behavioral enrichment, but also 25% of his brain is smell factory, its cognitive process and so you are churning through energy, you’re fueling the dogs happy chemicals. it's such a great thing to do. and you can do it with blueberries at home you can that kind of thing. So small little things I love. But the best thing about starting off, besides the couple of small things that you can add to the bowl which is really a cooked bit of meat that you've made yourself you can add that in yourself and you can gradually move on to raw meat. you know a lot of people step to cooked food first because it’s more normal to them. we eat cooked foods so the dog should eat cooked for or he’ll get salmonella. and that's the fear. you know what guys, a dog and bury a bone and dig it up a week later he doesn't drop dead of salmonella. there's enough on that bone that will kill a rhino and yet the dog is fine. Because they are engineered to be okay with this sort of stuff. They have big noses for smelling out carcasses and digging out animals and stuff. So they are they actually outcompete vultures where they live together. vultures won't live where packs of dogs are, because they're better at finding the carcass than a vulture, which is unbelievable what a lazy bird the vulture is. . Yeah, so like they're just unbelievable scavengers, and they can just decimate a carcass down nothing and eat the bones because they can live on it. the whole prey. cats will just eat more flesh than anything else. Whereas dogs will eat whole prey. they will eat the whole squirrel, whole rabbit, you know, nothing much bigger than that. But they'll eat till they do eat bone. that's the teeth is even shaped That way, when you look at a dog's back teeth, that huge pyramid shaped tooth, it's called the carnassial tooth. And they don't meet his teeth. They come down beside each other like a scythe. And that's how you know chops bond. So you know, he can safely eat this material. But you know, let's leave the bones for a different conversation because it can freak people out. But one way I realize I'm talking a lot here, Krista, I'm sorry. No, it's good. I get animated. But if I was a dry feeder, and I wanted to kind of move slowly into this, there's a thing that we call POWER CUBES. Okay, so the large part of the dog's diet is meat. Okay, so it's meat muscle. And in that is a little bit of cartilage and fat and a bit of bone. So that's the large part of his diet. But the really important bits, that's when we look at green veg for humans say, really important ingredient, you really can't be cutting too much of that out. a lot of problems with the Western diet is because we're not eating enough of the veg, of the dark green stuff anymore. with dogs that is organ meat. Things like liver, heart, kidney, those ingredients are just so good for the dog when you feed a whole sardine and he gets a little bit of brain a bit of eyes. Because when carnivores eat, they don't eat plants to top up on their bioactive ingredients, they eat herbivores, but herbivores are eating plants. And we know from studies that herbivores act as syncs of these bioactive compounds. So they have a lot of lutein and zeaxanthin, which is great for cancer in their eyes. It's good for a seeing. that's where you might find a lot of vitamin A. So generally, things that are good for eyes are found in eyes. So carnivores will actually pick out the bits of the prey that they need depending on the time. caterpillars will do it. If they're infected by parasitic wasps, birds will do it. All animals do it. chimps are notorious for picking up bits of food depending on what they need to get rid of parasites or whatever and dogs do it. So we try to feed the whole animal. but this organ stuff is really, really important. So what I like to do is to say to people look, you can make an unbelievably brilliant nutritional addition that you can add to dry food. That if you're putting that in, and you have to feed dry food initially, which I say is like you have to feed pizza you know with your salad. You don't really have to feed the pizza, but initially, just while I’m getting you. guys going. Let's make power cubes. here's what I would do. good quality or good quality meat is very different than bad quality meats. So meat that's been intensively reared on wheat and corn, all of its life is not going to be the sort of meat that you want to live on too long. if you guys can't afford it, or if you get really smart and find when it starts to go off in the supermarkets, because that's actually perfectly fine for your dog as well. But I would try buy the best meat I could. So try get some good quality organ meat. ideally organic if you can, that does make a difference because organs are sinks for the good stuff, but also for the bad stuff. So start getting good quality meat if you can afford it. And even if you if you can't afford it, the regular organ meat is fine. I would get a little bit of liver, a little bit of heart if you can find it, a little bit of kidney, liver and kidney always available in all the supermarket's you'll find it. you might have to start going to a butcher or getting a bit of a relationship going with him or her. You know, buy your meat from a butcher and say what else have you got there that you can give me they say, Well, you know, this beef has been out for two or three days would you take this absolutely, I'll take anything. And they love seeing you coming in then because you suddenly become a bit of an avenue for bits and pieces that they couldn't shift. So you start off and I'll give the exact ingredients to you Krista, so you can post them up okay, but to fly through them, I would use about maybe in in a bowl, I would chop up some liver, heart kidney, whatever organ meats you can find that's about 40% of the mix. And the other 40% of the mix would be a bit of veg. Okay, so your organic veg I like dark greens for the dog. a bit of broccoli, bit of kale, bit of spinach. I like some carrots, any that kind of stuff is fantastic. The thing about veg, dogs aren't great at digesting veg. So you might give the veg a little bit of a cooking. okay, a little bit of a steaming, or what lots of people do is they just skip the cooking step and just Blitz it in the food processor. So anything that breaks down the plant material is good for the dog because they lack the system they lack the their intestines are smooth, they've no way slowing the forage down, they don't have the bacteria to digest plant fiber. So that's the only ingredient have to do something to first before the dog so the meat goes in raw. And then you get your bit of veg which is another 40% of the mix. And so you're now at about 80% of the mix. These are all your window dressing ingredients I call them then you might put in some sardine initially you can buy them in the cans, don't buy sardines or fish in veg oil, you don't need that you're feeding the sardines for the omega threes. They're deflammatory those omega threes. they're great but if you cook sunflower oil which is what all the fish is cooked in, that is actually full of omega six and it becomes inflammatory so cooked veg oil is not good for us. There's a great book called Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan. Guys check it out on audio on Audible, it's just staggering, but she will put you off cooked vegetable oil very quickly. And definitely don’t give it to a dog. so you'd be buying the fish in freshwater or brine. and just pour off the brine or even tomato because it's just plain tomato uncooked tomato is actually quite high in lycopene, which is anticancer very, very good. So a little bit of tomato, why not? Who cares? So I would have 40% organ meats, add 40% organic vegetables starting to fill up a bit now 10% sardine or you know handful of frozen muscles or 10% whatever in a can that looks tasty. That looks good. I'd pop in a few good quality eggs, you know outdoor eggs, outdoor foraged eggs, because that bird is then going to help give you eggs that have more nutrients in it than a barn reared egg. So you go after those eggs and you're going after the nutrients that were on the ground. So a couple of really good quality eggs, a handful of dark berries, because that's your anthocyanins and antioxidants and stuff. I like to just throw them out in the grass for the dog, but we're just making this big mess at the moment. And I throw in a few shovelfuls of full fat probiotic yogurt because that's just delicious and it's got a bit of lactobacillus a little bit of bifidobacteria. all very good for the head. You can throw in some crushed pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are great so we use seeds because you know birds eat seeds and dogs will eat a whole bird they don't shake free the stomach contents of a bird. it’s too small. there’s no eating around a bird so it just eats the whole thing. So dogs will have a little bit of seeds in their life, but particularly we know some seeds like pumpkin seeds are very high in chaotic acid and chaotic acid is as effective as phenobarbital, which is the worming chemical you use to worm your dogs for the worms that they don't have. you know if I had a dog I would just work, send his poo sample off once or twice a year. Why would you keep worming the dog that doesn't have worms? it's like you don't de-nit your kids if they don't have nits. you wait to see the nits and then you barf in your mouth and you reach for the shampoo and sort it out. you know you don't leave it's ridiculous how we do this with dogs flea treatments for dogs with no fleas I mean what a waste of money. So some crushed pumpkin seeds fantastic any type you know mash them down. You guys have loads different types of pumpkins in the US. I thought it was only one type of pumpkin but you've got like, like 10s and 10s of different pumpkins anyway, so you guys have pumpkin seeds you know more about that than I do. You can even put a little bit of crushed garlic in there people are gonna freak. Oh my god, you can't feed garlic to dogs. garlic is in the same family as onion. it's in the allium family. But, it doesn't contain any of the bad stuff that onions do what's called thiosulphate, which is gonna make a dog sick. So there's only one study of garlic use in dogs. And it was a very strange, horrible experiment which sorry for people in advance. It was an overdose study where they fed 100 and the equivalent of 125 grams of raw garlic a day to dogs, which is 25 cloves to a beagle dog every day. And after seven days, his blood was wrong, yet, no poo Sherlock. you know, so that bears no relevance to a little bit of crushed garlic now and again, because the potential benefits in that it's anthelmintic. Its anti yeast. But if there's so many things for blood, it's brilliant, but it contains allicin and allicin is the unbelievable compound for many reasons. You don't have to use the garlic at the moment, I just wanted to put that in because I'd like a bit of controversy. And then you can put in a little nutritional booster so we're not sure what the dog needs or what he's missing. So we'll put in something like I love seaweed, you know, I do I everything from a thought it just contains so many cool vitamins and minerals. But because seaweed lives in the most inhospitable place on Earth, which is the intertidal zone, it's smashed around by rocks, it's eaten by all sorts of animals. There's air and sunlight in sea. So air to sea is very difficult for plants to take. And for many other reasons, suddenly, it's hot. Sometimes it's cold. So it's full of antioxidants. And it contains antioxidants that other plants don't. loads of things in seaweed that are brilliant, and it's cheap to buy. And it's highly nutritious. So I highly recommend putting in a bit of seaweed, I put in the equivalent of one gram of dried seaweed per 10 kg of dog per day. So if I'm making this big bowl of stuff, I'm kind of saying that a couple of tablespoonfuls, you know, you'll get them, you're not going to overdose on seaweed. it's also a source of iodine, which your dogs aren't getting much if they’re dry fed. And then the last thing, which is kind of cool is a pinch of good quality salt. If your dogs are eating dry food, they are getting very, very high salt diets. I mean, there is a reason cats and dogs come to us with so much kidney disease, you know, it's just there's many things about dry food that will give you kidney disease, but the high high salt content, it's used as a taste enhancer. Without salt animals won't eat dry food, it's just it's not something that looks appetizing. And so they can’t take the salt out. But there's lots of different types of salt. There's not just sodium chloride, there’s potassium chloride and all sorts of clever ways to get the salt in there. But that's refined salt and refined salt has rightfully a bad reputation. For good quality salt, when you're going to raw dog food, for even the raw feeders listening, it's absent in salt. there's no salt in it at all. But there's lots of things in good quality salt, it's a mineral sink of not just sodium, but like potassium, magnesium, and then all sorts of electrolytes that we don't even talk about, like strontium. How much strontium do you need each day? I haven't a clue, but it's in salt. So when you are doing a race and you're drinking this electrolyte drink, you know, really, you can make that yourself on good quality local honey and a pinch of good quality salt. That's your electrolytes done. You don't need any more than that. And so I like to put a pinch of good quality salt into my mix. It's tasty, and the dogs don't get a lot of salt. So that's my bowl and actually turns a bit purple for some reason. You're looking at this purple mash in front of you. And then you are starting to curse me a bit because nobody likes work. I'm a vegetarian. By the way. I'm the bloody voice for the meat industry. So it's not ideal, but so you get this and then I buy three or four large silicone ice cube trays. I love large ice cubes. I hate small ice cubes. I drink big ice cubes. just one bouncing around my glass, perfect. So I would get it depend on the size of my dog. If I have a toy dog, I wouldn't get them too big. If I've got a Labrador, I’m getting giant ice cube trays. I just love the silicone ones because they come with a lid, which keeps that horrible frosty taste off it. And I mash my mix into the ice cube trays, and I pop the ice cube trays into the freezer, freeze them down. Then after a couple of days, I'd pop them out. And I put them into a bag and then I’ve got a bag of POWER CUBES. And in that is such a nutritional kick for the dog. I mean that is better than most dogs are doing. So it nearly you'd like to say it nearly doesn't matter what the rest of the diet does. It does. Of course, if you're feeding dry food, you're still putting in chemical preservatives which are decimating his good flora. So people put in a handful of dry food because they think there's some nutrients in it. Now you're only getting in the way of good food. But adding that little cube in once a day for your dog is a fantastic thing to do. I'd give it to give him on its own, or throw it out the backyard. I’d say, there you go dog, a little cube to eat, particularly in summertime. You know we're in the Northern Hemisphere here, it's starting to heat up. And now your little dog is chasing the ice cube around the patio. And it is incredibly nutritious. I'd give it to him outside of his dry meal. So it's on its own. And you are now going to see just from that ice cube alone, that power cube alone, you'll see the difference in your dog. You'll see the little meat boogie that he does before the cube comes out and he's going insane to get his ice cube. Very few dogs go insane to get their dry food except maybe a Labrador. he comes anyway. So like you'll see the difference in that cube alone. And then it's really once you start to see the difference in the dog, you'll see his coat change. That's the first thing. The coat is all protein Okay, the skin is protein, even the oil on your coat is protein, people think it's fat, it's not. It’s a protein based liquid. Everything about your dog will change from the skin to the type of nose that he has. His vitality will change because now he's getting a huge amount of antioxidants, B-complex. from the dark greens, all sorts of things, you'll see a slight change in the behavior, you might see a calming to the behavior. So usually coat and behavior and poos will change. And you'll see a more textured, more normal looking pool. Those alone should be enough to convince you and people then start to increase the amount of meat and go well, maybe I'll just add some chicken to this and give them a power cube. Now you're talking. extend your trial to maybe four weeks, because it takes four weeks to turn on a coat. After two weeks, you'll see it's been oilier and sleeker. But after four weeks, he'll drop his old coat. And you see the difference in the new coat. It's big, because if you're living on at the moment, dry food has the lowest amount of protein legally allowed. So they'll see AAFCO, this is recommended by AAFCO’s guidelines. But actually 18% protein is the legal minimum you're allowed to feed your dog and call a complete pet food. So suddenly, all dry foods have raised to the minimum and say, Oh, we do 18% in line with AAFCO. that's a minimum guideline. So if you're living on the minimum amount of protein, and it's from very poor sources, largely vegetable proteins you can't digest, your body's gonna say, well, I've only got a certain amount of protein here, I'm gonna keep the brain and the heart going. And then forget about your fancy hairdo, you're not getting that this week, because I don't have a lot of protein going around. When you start giving power cubes and extra meat to your dog. Suddenly, there's loads of protein to go around. So check out my do, it's going to give you this. So they're the sort of things you'll change first. And that's just the stuff on the outside guys, you're going to transform the dog on the inside, which you can't see. You just have to trust me on that. But that's the power cube idea. And I'll send you that kind of ingredients, Krista so you can post it up. It's great. Yeah, if people need a little bit more help to make the final push. There's so many groups and people doing this already. And check out Karen Becker and all these other behemoths. I mean, Rodney Habib, a big 3 million followers. So these are big, big players for a reason, because people are picking up what they're putting down. You know, it's a fact. Well, this is fantastic. And you've made it easy. It's an all in one power cube. I love it. POWER CUBE RECIPE Yeah. So Dr. Brady, I know that you've got an amazing offer for our listeners. OFFER: So anybody listening to this podcast, you can get 15% off of a consultation with Dr. Brady. He speaks with people on Zoom all over the world. And all you have to do is use the discount code WOL for Wag Out Loud. Again, that's 15% off a consultation with the Dr. Conor Brady. More benefits of raw here! https://dogsfirst.ie/raw-faq/benefits-of-raw-food-for-dogs/ So Dr. Brady, where can everyone find out more information about you? And the book Feeding Dogs and your company Dog First? Yeah, with my website is https://dogsfirst.ie/ . And that's an Irish ends to the website .ie. Really, I should have gone with.com in hindsight, Google's now punishing me. I actually had a huge amount of traffic when Google changed its rules there a few years ago and now I’m getting slaughtered. So https://dogsfirst.ie/ is where you'll find my website, you'll also find a health section there for dogs with I'm very big on pancreatitis, kidney disease, that kind of stuff. So you're gonna find all these talk to you of that first and that kind of stuff, you know, but there's no, I give that dietary advice for free, because it's just too important. So for the major health conditions, the dietary tips are there, and you can take that to your vet and discuss it with them. So I also talk a little bit about my book there. But generally, you'll hear from me most on my Facebook page @DogsFirstIreland that I check in with maybe you know, almost four or five times a week. And then my book has been sold by Amazon and Book Depository, because that gives me the biggest reach to different countries print on demand. And so you will check it out on Amazon or Book Depository. And that's where you'll find the book. Yeah, it's actually the top rated canine nutrition book at the moment. Number one. But I've had a bit of help, you know, that the influence has got behind it and the likes of Dr. Karen Becker have been very keen to kind of give it a bit of a push. And that's really, really helped, you know, so it's, it's starting to wipe its feet now. So that's where you can find the book guys. You can contact me there's a consultation button on https://dogsfirst.ie/book-an-appointment/. . I do all sorts of consults, quick short ones, longer ones for health issues that takes an hour, group kind of stuff. So you'll see the options there. But you can contact me on my email address info@dogsfirst.ie . Any questions, I can just ping them back to you No problem. And if I can help you, I will. This has been such a treat. Dr. Brady, thank you so much. I am continuing to read the book and can't wait to learn more. Everybody again, the book is Feeding Dogs and reach out to Dr. Brady. He is a wealth of information and he can help your dog to thrive as well. Thank you so much for having me, Krista. I really appreciate the opportunity. SPONSOR Thanks again to the team at AnimalBiome for sponsoring this episode. Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off. Your dog will thank you. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our bark about it page where you can suggest topics guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston, was that another tail wagging episode?

Hello there! This is Krista with episode number 121 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Do you home cook for your dog? Did you know that there are two great resources to help ensure that your recipes are nutritionally complete and balanced? You can check out https://www.petdiets.com/ or https://secure.balanceit.com/. These are two great websites that are super easy to use, and will help you feel more confident that you are feeding your dog all of the nutrients they need to stay healthy. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well-being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hello dog lovers! Welcome to another learning opportunity on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Today we have Ed Bond on the show and he's going to chat about a new hope for distemper dogs. So Ed, thank you for being here. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your journey with dogs. Hi. So thanks again for having me on your show. I really appreciate this opportunity. What I want people to know about me first is that I don't like dogs dying when they don't have to. And I believe that's what's going on with canine distemper. The second thing you need to know is that I'm not a vet or a doctor or scientist. My background is in journalism, I can't really claim to have proven that there is a cure for canine distemper. what I am asking for is help in putting these theories to the test. And third, I have pragmatic and rational reasons to believe why dogs can be saved from distemper and the best way for me to explain that is just by telling my story if that's okay with you. Yeah! Before you do that, if you don't mind, because I know when we get a puppy and we go to the vet and they get, you know, the recommended vaccinations, we hear about this distemper vaccine, but do we really know what it is? So can you first tell us Ed what exactly is canine distemper? Sure, it's a virus. It's a Paramyxoviridae virus, which puts it in the same category of measles and mumps and Newcastle's disease. So those viruses are all related. And it is that measles at one point back in the 1700s mutated and turned in to and that it could give dogs distemper and so now, this is now a dog disease. What it does is it will first usually attack the respiratory system. you're going to see coughing, gunky nose, fever, you're going to see other things go on like dry eye, dry pads of feet, etc. And after about six days, the disease progresses into a neurologic phase. And that will give you your muscle tics, your twitches, your spasms, your seizures, your paralysis, blindness. It is an awful stage of the disease. And that is usually when dogs get euthanized. And it's just an awful, it's just awful. We went through this we've lost two puppies to canine distemper back in 1996. They both hit the neurologic stage, and it was just an awful thing to see them die. They were like a few months apart. And then in 97, we had our dog Galen. And that's really where the story starts. Oh, gosh, I can't even imagine going through that. And it's highly contagious. Correct? In closed, especially in enclosed environments, like shelters, it spreads through aerosol droplets that are expelled through the nose usually, so a dog coughs and sneezes inside the shelter. That little aerosol droplet travels and gets sucked in by another dog and that dog gets distemper. that's actually a very unstable virus. It doesn't last outside a dog for very long and it's something that is easily destroyed by cleaning chemicals. So they need to have protocols in place to keep it from spreading from dog to dog. Sure. And Ed is this a virus that is worldwide? Can you find it everywhere? Year round as well? Yes, it is. I have heard from people from all over the world while doing this. India, Philippines. South America, throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, and especially also in the southern United States, Florida, Texas, California. And it does travel more readily in warm environments, just because the dogs are interacting with other dogs, and they're also interacting with wildlife, which are also a backup reservoir for the disease. So like raccoons and other canids can carry distemper. So that's why you know, vaccination is very important to try to control this. Because even if we had 95%, of vaccination of dogs, they're still going to be distemper waiting to strike from the surrounding wildlife. But it can happen any time of the year, it can happen any time in the world, even in what you would think of as cold climates. I have had people email me from Canada, I think even Alaska. And I have had people emailing me from all times of year. So it's it's not a disease to be trifled with. It's always there. And we're dealing with a disease and a virus with ourselves right now. So I can only imagine with the dogs and to your point that already already is in wildlife, that we have to get this under control. So the statistic that I found is that canine distemper is often fatal, with a mortality rate of 50% in adult dogs and 80% and puppies, is that current? That's right, that's like you have the same info I have that. I got that from Cornell's website. They have a wildlife database or something of that sort that I saw. Yeah. Well, I would love for you to share your story. Unfortunately, you have lived through this several times. So why don't you share your story with us? Sure. So this goes back to 1997 when I was a reporter for The Los Angeles Times. Mmy wife, Amy and I adopted a dog that my sister Karen had rescued from the streets. His name was Galen. He was a chow/lab mix. He was a little bit psycho, but we loved him. And it was but it was like, just a few days after we got him, we realized that he was starting to show those early respiratory signs of canine distemper. He had the cough, sneeze, the gunky nose, the fever. And we realized that something was going on. We got him to the vet, the vet diagnosed him with canine distemper, and we were just absolutely devastated because we had just gone through losing two puppies to this disease the year before. But while we were trying to save those puppies, one of the things that we heard about was that there was this vet up in Lancaster, California, which is an hour north of Los Angeles. It’s up where Edwards Air Force base is in the desert. and that we heard that he had a serum that could cure canine distemper, but we didn't get a chance to call him until… we did call his clinic. Just as the second Puppy was starting the neurologic phase. And it was too late to save that puppy. It had to be before the neuro stage hit. So Galen had not hit the neuro stage yet. So we had a chance. So we decided to go with this and try to get him up to see Dr. Sears. So I had to work. So my sister Karen volunteered to drive him up to Dr. Sears’ clinic. And then two days later, Karen and Amy went up to pick him up and brought him home. And when he got home, he walked through the door of the backyard. And was completely strong and healthy. The cough, the fever, the gunky nose, it's all gone. There's just little bits of dryness leftover in the eyes and the pads of the feet and the nose. And those were treated with ointments. But he was hale and hearty when he came home after that two day visit. So if he had beaten the virus, then so we were absolutely amazed by this because we knew how bad canine distemper could be. It's just the, you know, dangerous, fatal, often fatal disease, as you know. So, like I said, I was working for the LA Times at the time, and I decided I wanted to write a story about this, and I tried, but I couldn't. And the major obstacle was that Dr. Sears had never gotten his discovery published in a journal. He didn't know how to go about getting acceptance, and he didn't know how about going about properly documenting this. But what had happened was that back in the early 70s, in 1972, he read a journal article where researchers found that Newcastle's disease vaccine could boost levels of interferon in cats. Newcastle's disease is a virus that attacks chickens. But it is also known to create a reaction in the cells of mammals to make interferon. interferon is a protein made by cells to inhibit the replication of viruses and some cancers. Okay, so I just dropped a lot of science on you. No, it's good stuff. All right. So Dr. Sears when he read this, he was in the midst of dealing with boxes and boxes of dogs, dead dogs who died of distemper, and he was trying to find any way he could do to control this. So when he read this article, you know, the light bulb went on for him and he realized, well gee, here's an antiviral treatment that we haven't tried yet maybe this can help dogs with distemper. So he set about the try to create canine interferon using NDV (Newcastle's disease vaccine). So he goes about doing this, and this results in a serum. And he sends a sample of it to Cornell. He asked Cornell to test it for interferon. In the meantime, he gets a dog comes in the door, almost immediately has canine distemper. He doesn't know if it's gonna work or not, but he's got a dog that is probably gonna die. If he doesn't try. He tries it on the dog. The next day, the dog is completely well, other dogs come in to his office, like a handful of other dogs come in. Not too long afterwards. He treats those he's seeing them recover, too. In the meantime, Cornell finally comes back with the study of well, the results of the lab test and they say the serum sampling sampling you sent us does not can't contain interferon, we suggest that you don't use it. Oh, he writes them back to say, Hey, I used it and it cleared a dog of distemper almost, you know, within 24 hours, and they didn't reply to him. And I'm gonna stop you there. This is oh my gosh, I can't wait for the rest of the story. We are going to take a quick commercial break and we will be right back. Sponsor Ad I'd like to thank our friends at HAPPYBOND for sponsoring this episode. HAPPYBOND is not your average joint supplement, but a patented collagen building formula that gets real results within weeks. 99% of dogs taking HAPPYBOND have realized improvement in mobility. It's backed by science, clean, human grade functional nutrition to help your dog stay healthy throughout their lifetime. Loaded with exceptional ingredients to help support joint and hip health, energy, digestion, skin and coat. This tasty supplement just gets sprinkled onto your dog's food. And within two weeks, my 12 year old dog Winston was no longer going on walks. He was running! Yes, running like a puppy! Thanks to HAPPYBOND, he obviously feels better and has so much more energy. See for yourself how HAPPYBOND can extend the health span of your dog by going to HAPPYBOND.com and be sure to use the code WOL20 for 20% off of your order. Okay, we are back with Ed bond. And he's telling us about a miraculous interferon serum that is helping dogs diagnosed with canine distemper. Ed, Okay, so Dr. Sears gets word back from Cornell …take it from here. Yeah, so Cornell says your serum does not contain interferon. And what Dr. Sears when he thought about this later on what he what he concluded was, well, if this serum doesn't have interferon, it perhaps there is some other material that we don't know about that might be responsible for helping dogs get over this disease. But he didn't have the means to figure that out for himself. But everyone he tried to talk to about this either laughed at him or dismissed them. And it's because he really didn't know how to go about documenting and presenting this. It didn't get published in a journal and it didn't get acceptance. Now, this is something that I think that many clinical vets have they have a business to run. They have to treat every animal for every type of ailment. They work long hours just to keep their heads above water. And it's hard for them to have the time and the resources to properly document a new discovery. And that's something that I've seen in the course of writing this book. So Dr. Sears couldn't get acceptance. So he just decided to just keep using his serum and treating dogs. And what he told me that in the course of the ensuing years, he probably treated about 600 dogs with canine distemper. And if he could get to them before the neuro stage hit, they could, they could save about 90% of them, or more than 90%. Wow. But it was because when I came along, he hadn't had this published, I couldn't get this in the LA Times. So shortly after this, I leave the LA Times, and I go into a job teaching college journalism. And I sort of forgot about the Dr. Sears story until three years later, I'm getting ready to teach a class. And I'm looking for writing examples for my students. And I'm going through my notes, and I find the old Dr. Sears story with my notes. And I said to myself, Oh, gee, I really wish that I had gotten that out into the world. And about the time at about this time, I was thinking about starting my first website. So I decided to post Dr. Sears’ story to my new website, Edbond.com. This is in May of 2000. And so after that, within a few months, I started getting Thank you emails from people saying, I got my dog to Dr. Sears and he saved me, saved them from canine distemper. So when I posted this, I wasn't trying to fight for Dr. Sears I wasn't trying to prove that he had this effective treatment. I wasn't trying to get involved in in the world of science. My only goal was that I regretted not being not having a chance to tell the public about this before and I just wanted at least people in Southern California if they could get to Dr. Sears to have their dogs treated, they can do so. But I didn't want to fight for this. I knew enough about the world about science to know that I would not be equipped to fight that battle. So later on Amy and I moved to upstate New York. In 2006 Galen died of liver trouble. He'd never been bothered by distemper again. And shortly after that Dr. Sears retired and moved to Utah and that should have been the end of the story. But it wasn't. in 2008, a woman in Romania named Matta Luxandrew tracked me down and asked if her vet could use Dr. Sears’ serum to save her dog from distemper. Now, again, I didn't want to get involved in this, I didn't want to get involved in this emergency on the other side of the world, I had a life to live. But I told her the protocols were there on the website for anyone to use, just go ahead. A few months later, she messages me on Facebook. They weren't able to save her dog. But when the vet made the serum, he saved at least five dogs with it. This got my attention. This is when the light bulb went on for me. I'm not a scientist. But I know that in science results need to be repeatable. A vet on the other side of the world had followed Dr. Sears’ protocol to make the serum and has similar results. Now I wanted to fight for this. I really regretted sitting on this for as long as I had. So this is 2008. I've been sitting on this for 11 years, and I felt really guilty about not doing anything about after all that time. But I'm still I'm not a scientist or a doctor or a vet or a researcher. My background is in journalism. I was working as a copy editor for The Star Gazette of Elmira, New York at the time. And there's no reason in the world for anyone in the science world of science to listen to me. So I didn't even know how to ask for help on this in the right way. But I came up with a plan and I sent this ask out into the world. Here's Dr. Sears’ protocol, use them. make the serum. treat dogs with distemper and then report back to me what outcomes you have. I sent this message all over the world and in every way that I could think of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogger, WordPress, etc. This is 2009. Later that year, my sisters Jane and Karen founded a small nonprofit called Kind Hearts in Action. Their goal was to rescue street dogs and find them homes. Remember Karen rescued Galen off the street and found him a home. She made a habit out of that. she kept doing that because she’s that kind of a person. So they founded Kind Hearts in Action in order to make that more official and more formal. They brought me in as a volunteer on canine distemper because distemper hits street dogs often. And so I used that website to promote Dr. Sears’ treatment and collect stories about the outcome of cases. My goal was to do whatever I could to save the lives of the most dogs and to me, that meant that we needed to get this documented and published in a veterinary journal. My hope had been that if enough of these stories could be collected, maybe somebody somewhere would take an interest and do a real study. But we had a catch 22. The experts wouldn’t look at this because there have been no published studies. And there were no published studies because they wouldn't look at it. So the information I collected was entirely anecdotal. And I knew it was. the diagnosis and the records of these cases that were sent to me were not done systematically. I just accepted what the dog owners, the caregivers and the vet sent me. Sometimes I got lab reports and patient files. Sometimes I got before and after photos before and after videos. But this was all inconsistent and anecdotal. But my end goal had always been to see all this put to the test, and have the scientists evaluate this on their own terms. I just foolishly hoped that some scientists would have the light bulb go on for them and say, Oh, yes, I should do a study. It didn't happen. But from 2008 until 2016, I kept track of hundreds of these anecdotal cases. And this was now with three kinds of treatments. There was the NDV serum for dogs who are not yet in the neurologic stage. There was another protocol which didn't rely on making the serum, it was just putting an injection of NDV into sick dogs. That was not ideal, but it was, but it also had a chance of saving dogs before the neuro stage. And then there was the NDV Spinal Tap, which was an attempt to save dogs in the neuro stage by injecting NDV directly into the spinal canal. Nearly half of those dogs recovered after treatment, which is amazing, since most dogs who reached that neuro stage are typically euthanized. Right! Now there is a real question I have to say about NDV spinal tap. And that's because we did get a study on the NDV Spinal Tap by a professor at Kansas State. But he came away from it unconvinced that the NDV was saving these dogs, he just felt that if you give dogs enough time, to outlast the virus before until it goes silent, and you give them enough nursing care and support, they have a chance to have a decent quality of life after that. But it still either way, one thing is clear to me, which is that we give up on these dogs who hit neuro stage too early. From my experience. In many cases I have throughout the book, many of these dogs can survive and have a decent quality of life. For years, even after neurologic stage begins, I think it really comes down to if they have a willingness to live, they have a good chance to survive. And the adage is, if they keep eating, there's still hope. That means that they're still willing to fight and there's ways to help them keep eating. But anyway, the the full breakdown of all my anecdotal information is in the book, but I want to tell you about a couple of key pieces. We had 611 dogs with distemper treated by vets using at least one of Dr. Sears’ protocols. Of those, 72% of dogs survived. of the 611, 305 of those were treated by the serum before reaching the neurologic stage. of those, 86% of dogs survived. So like, as you said before, according to Cornell 50% of adult dogs that get distemper die 80% of puppies die, that's according to their numbers using the approved treatments. And I honestly believe that we can reverse those numbers. So the good news is that after all this, I just finally know a better way to ask and that's what's in the book. I am sending out a new request out into the world. I think what we need are three people to get together. We need a veterinarian, we need a medical science writer, we need a medical writer or a science writer. And three we need a head of a dog rescue or an animal shelter dealing with canine distemper and what I suggest is that this vet make Dr. Sears’ serum, treats dogs in the pre neurologic stage of distemper. Perhaps when a dog rescue or animal shelter is dealing with an outbreak, the medical writer or science writer would properly document every step of each case, diagnosis, treatment outcome etc. And the goal would be for the science writer to work with the vet to either write a paper to submit to a veterinary journal or to make a presentation to a veterinary conference. I have another more elaborate plan that's in the book that involves how we could do this and have a double blind study and things of that sort. But what I gave you is the bare bones simplest way to move this forward, I think has the best chance for success for this would be if some organization or nonprofit with the resources to do this pick this up. You know, as I said, I've had a lot of individuals from all around the world respond to my first ask, they've helped by using these protocols and using them and reporting back to me but I've done as much of this as I can, as a one man band, and I don't know how much more I can do on my own. But I'd be glad to hear from someone else who did want to attempt this and I I'd love to hear from them. So my I would say for more information about all this or to reach me I would point you to my websites which are SaveDistemperDogs.com or https://www.kindheartsinaction.com And or you can also go to the Save Dogs from Distemper Facebook page, the book, : SAVE DOGS FROM DISTEMPER: The ‘Impossible’ Cure of Dr. Alson Sears is available through Kindle and Amazon print on demand. Wow, you have done so much already. And I do hope that there are others that pick up the ball. The question I have this Newcastle's disease vaccine is that very common and prevalent? Do most vets have that already, so that they can do the protocol? Yeah, it's very easy to get. It's the most easy is most one of the most easily available materials that induce interferon. When Dr. Sears went to create his first serum, all he had to do was go down to the local agricultural store and buy it off the shelf. And I think at the time back in the early 70s, he bought, he bought a case of it for 10 bucks. It is actually available online very easily. And basically any anybody who does supplies for chicken ranches, they would have NDV available as well. There was a there's a story in in the book about dog named Nilla, where this farmer in South Dakota, had this dog that his the neurologic stage of distemper and he was the one who got his dog to Kansas State. And it took a weekend of calling all over because he was trying to do it on the weekend. But he was actually able to pick up he was in South Dakota, he picked up the NDV. Well, I think, Iowa and then drove to Kansas State so that they could do the NDV Spinal Tap on his dog there. But it but it is it is a readily available material. Okay. Well Ed I can't thank you enough for all the work that you have done thus far. It's amazing. But obviously, you've lived it. And you saw how this protocol changed your dog's life. I mean, you saved your dog's life by reaching out to Dr. Sears. So if anybody is interested in speaking with Ed about this, or you have a connection to a university or a veterinarian or medical writer, please reach out to Ed because he has done so much work. You know, even though it's anecdotal. A lot of times we say the same thing about raw feeding. Oh, you don't have any studies? It's just anecdotal. But those of us that do it, know. Yeah. So I think especially if there might be a fund a foundation or nonprofit or some other organization that probably has the means to make this all happen, it's just a matter. It's just a matter of the willpower to do it. Right. And I, you know, I see that the the elements are all out there, it's just a matter of just pulling it all together to make it happen. Well Ed thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope we have inspired others to take your work even further. Again, your website is https://savedistemperdogs.com/ And definitely check it check out the book. It sounds like it's just gonna get people really excited with all of the positive stories. Well, by the way, I gotta I gotta tell you, yes, the book has the high it has the positive stories, but as the negative stories we have the successes and the failures, I want people to understand that I'm coming from a place of honesty with all this. I'm letting you know about all the all the failings that I had, but also the successes. There are I want somebody one critic one said something. it's incumbent upon me to talk about both the good outcomes and the bad outcomes and we do that and but the overall message Is that dogs don't have to die from this disease the way that they are now. And I don't like dogs dying from distemper. I don't like dogs dying at all. All right, Ed, well keep us posted. Thank you so much for being on and listeners take action if you can. SPONSOR AD Thanks again to the team at HAPPYBOND for sponsoring this episode. See why dog behaviorist, Cesar Milan also recommends this incredible formula by going to HappyBond.com and use the code WOL20 for 20% off. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About it page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?

Hello dog lovers! Thanks for tuning in to another informative episode of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast! Today we have my friend and fan of the show, Stephanie Cassidy who is going to cover Paws off Xylitol and her experience with this toxic ingredient! What do Dentyne, Mentos, Trident, Juicy Fruit, kid-favorite Airheads, and Hershey’s Ice Breakers all have in common? they all contain Xylitol, the number two cause of all dog poisonings after chocolate. What can we do so that our dogs don’t become a statistic?

Hello there this is Krista with episode number 119 On the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? These are products that I've tried on my dog Winston that are both safe and effective. Just go to https://www.wagoutloud.com/ and check out the Partner Products section, and I've negotiated discounts for most of them. What is it with dogs and butt scratches? The reason most dogs like their rear scratched is because that is a very hard area for them to reach themselves. And it's the muscular area right in front of their tail with a lot of sensitive nerve endings, which may be the reason for the pleasure that many dogs take in having their butts scratched. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hello dog lovers we are in for another great Wag Out Loud episode as Rita Hogan, Canine Herbalist is here to share some very important knowledge. And today we're going to be covering Herbal Solutions for Pancreatitis in Dogs. Rita, Could you please introduce yourself and share how you got into the specialty of holistic canine herbalism. Um, as Krista said, my name is Rita Hogan and I have been an herbalist for approximately 19 plus years. I learned farm herbalism from my father and I picked it up again. When I was about 29 years old, I started working with dogs. And because I had a pre boarding facility, and I just saw all these really sick dogs coming and boarding with me. And I just knew there was a better way. And I just kept looking at all the similarities between all the dogs. And it was, you know, kibble fed diets, lots of over vaccination, lack of exercise, just not any preventative care. And so I started working one on one with those clients. And it just built from there. And here I am. Well, we appreciate you being here. You're awesome. Thank you. And if people haven't caught Rita, I mean she speaks at conferences and she is a regular contributor to Dogs Naturally Magazine, one of my favorite periodicals. So Rita is so knowledgeable and we are so lucky to have her here. Rita, I was telling you before we hit record that I selfishly wanted this topic because my dog Winston has had pancreatitis, and it was awful. So why don't we first start with what exactly is pancreatitis? Well, the pancreas is a little organ that's near the liver and it is responsible for insulin, how insulin is produced and utilized in the body, which is not, you know, the facet of pancreatitis. And then it's also responsible for creating enzymes that break down food. And those enzymes travel from the pancreas, to the digestive system, the stomach, and they're not activated, okay. So they kind of like are shielded, and they go down the chute into the stomach, and then they get activated in the stomach, or what happens with pancreatitis is those enzymes are activated before they get to the stomach. And that is not good, because what it does is it leaks these enzymes into the stomach and small intestine. And these enzymes eat the tissue on their way down. And they that causes tons of inflammation. It can cause internal bleeding. It definitely causes tissue damage with premature cell death. And we don't want that and it's very, very painful. Because those enzymes are eating tissues that they're not supposed to be eating. And you got to get everything to calm down because of the extreme pain and get the pancreas, the pancreas to work again. Right? Because when the enzymes leak into the abdominal cavity they eat through its lining and they damage the digestive track and we don't want that to happen, because you can't reverse that right? Well, you know, you can heal the mucosa for sure. But if it keeps going, they could eat right through it, which would be a terrible situation. But the problem is, is it's very painful for your dog. And you know, people get pancreatitis, and they can tell you that is some of the worst pain. I know that if pancreatitis is not addressed, that it can really lead to serious consequences, like you mentioned, internal bleeding, cell death, organ damage. So there are two types of pancreatitis, acute and chronic. Can you tell us the difference between the two? Yeah, so acute pancreatitis can sometimes just happen like one time. And it's usually something you never forget. And it comes on quickly, but it can be very severe. It also can have very mild symptoms. So it is just a disruption in the pancreatic activity, but it doesn't usually happen multiple times. And when it starts happening multiple times, it becomes chronic. Okay, and chronic pancreatitis is when a dog gets pancreatitis more than one time. And it's also usually an enzyme deficiency. And you see it in dogs with nutritional imbalances and that have low absorption that don't absorb the nutrients like they should, or endocrine disorders. And those type of conditions lead to the pancreatic insufficiency. And then usually you'll see an entire imbalance in the entire digestive system, which includes the liver, pancreas, and spleen, and the gut. So with chronic pancreatitis, you're going to address all of those things. And is it true you were mentioning nutritional imbalances, so what are they low in vitamin wise? That varies, it's just completely varied. But one of the things that is different with chronic pancreatitis, Krista is that a lot of times it can be asymptomatic, from like, just like this obvious perspective, right? Like, just like when he's a little, you know, he's been a little weak, but, you know, he looks normal, he's doing everything normal, but some of the symptoms of chronic pancreatitis, one of them is a dog that, you know that yoga move the downward dog.? A lot of times dogs with chronic pancreatitis, do the downward dog a lot. And they also arch their back a lot, like more than normal. And then they tend to have like a lack of appetite. They don't feel like eating a lot, a lot. They can have irritable bowel syndrome, they definitely usually have chronic loose stool, and they do chronic vomiting, and chronic loose stool and chronic vomiting, aren’t like vomiting, like on a Tuesday, three times, that's not chronic is they vomit, you know, often throughout the month, and they have loose stool throughout the month. It's consistent. It may not be every day, but it's consistent. And that can also be a symptom of chronic pancreatitis, where acute is just so much more severe and you'll know your dog, you know, they kind of go down. Yeah. And they definitely a lot of them need acute pancreatitis. A lot of them will need vet care for the first couple of days to manage the pain. And then you can bring them home and deal with it. If it's severe. And if it's not severe, then you can manage it at home. Well, as I mentioned, Winston had it. We were camping. And he got something, you know, something he ate there at the campsite that was left. He was so sick and obviously in so much pain. He was doing the Down Dog and the up dog and hiding in the closet and whimpering. So I always thought it was just eating too much fat that triggers it. But there are other causes, right? Yeah, there's lots of causes. So just to go through a few. Kibble diets are a huge one. high fat, like very high fat, like if you you know if you kept giving your dog let's just say the Grizzle off of a pork chop. Okay, that could cause pancreatitis, or if you kept giving them let's just say that you gave them all the fat off of your bacon. That could cause pancreatitis, Poor fat. can cause pancreatitis like treats that are made with like canola oil, or peanut oil. Not necessarily peanuts, but peanut oil is very processed oil, being overweight, over eating in general. And one of the things lack of exercise, lack of exercise, the average American dog gets 15 minutes of exercise per day. Which is Sad but true. That's the average. Yeah, proper nutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. disease and that's pretty much across the board that you know, everything's connected in the body, the dogs and ecosystem. So when things start to get off balance, the pancreas and spleen are very temperamental. autoimmune disease can cause pancreatitis. Usually it's chronic pancreatitis, being hypothyroid can cause pancreatitis. Some pharmaceutical medicines, especially anti histamines can cause pancreatitis, stress, painkillers, NSAIDs, both all can have an effect on the pancreas. So with all of those causes, it must be a pretty common ailment. Right? Acute is quite common, actually chronic Not, not so much. But acute. Yes, definitely. Quite. I think it's pretty prevalent. And I think I read that diabetic dogs tend to be prone. But it can also be the other way around where pancreatitis can also cause diabetes. Yes. And diet, because there's already an imbalance in the pancreas. diabetic dogs usually suffer from chronic pancreatitis. So, especially when I would say, within one to two years of having diabetes, or leading up to being diagnosed with diabetes. So we take the dog to the vet, because they're obviously in pain. They've been diagnosed with pancreatitis, given fluids, pain is controlled, and then we bring them home. So we all know about this Show that we like to explore natural, holistic treatments. So you're saying that herbs can definitely help. So what is the best way to care for our dogs holistically Once they're home? You want to look at your dog as an ecosystem, you want to kind of just take a step back and say, How did this happen? Right? Want to look at what your dog is eating. Now. You want to look? Have they gotten like your dogs, it got into something. So you kind of know, like, Oh, that's probably what happened. But you want to do a little assessment. Some people automatically start feeding their dogs, there's kind of two camps, where you fast and rest your dog’s system for about 20 to 48 hours, kind of giving, you know, electrolytes and water, the vet might give some sub q fluids. And then there's another camp where it talks about an alternative theory that you shouldn’t rest the pancreas. And if your dog is vomiting, you should feed them small meals, and kind of forego fasting. So there's two camps in that one. I say, you know, do what's best for your dog, they'll definitely let you know right away what what's gonna happen, and then you start giving small amounts of like bone broth, or you can cook for your dog. If your dog eats raw, that's fine, too. And then you start looking at herbs and homeopathy or supplements that are going to help the healing process. Okay. homeopathically like right away, I tend to give a homeopathic remedy called Aconite or Arnica. 200 C for the inflammation and the pain, and then gently massaging your dog is also good. The entire abdomen. kind of getting the kind of getting it flowing. And then I start administering herbs. And also we make sure that they're on a good diet. Dr. Judy Morgan, I don't know. Yep. Okay. So Judy has a book that talks about cooking for your dog. She has a great, what does it begin? Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs: Maximizing Health with Whole Foods, Not Drugs. Yes, she has a pancreatic diet in there that I have used for quite a few dogs in my practice. That is good for that, you know, kind of like that coming home from the vet. And it's nice. It's a nice neutral diet. She has one of those in her book. That's a good source. You want to just make sure that they’re kind of eating neutral foods, you want to get them back on their feet. And then we go for herbs. So here I'll just go over some of the herbs that I like for for different types. I want to just go to a quick commercial break and then we'll come back and you can tell us about these exciting herbs. I can't wait to learn more, so we will be right back. Sponsor Ad We are so grateful to the Original Mine Pet Platter for sponsoring this episode. This has to be one of my favorite products ever! The Mine Pet Platter is designed to benefit the health and wellbeing of your dog and promotes the ultimate natural feeding experience for both meals and treats. What is it? Well it's a patented, bone shaped platter designed for your dog's feeding instincts. It includes scoops and ridges, that naturally slows down your dog's eating routine and makes mealtime fun. After watching my dog Winston slow down instead of inhaling his food from a bowl, we've never gone back and now he explores, sniffs, paces, walks around the platter and licks it clean. It's BPA free, made in the USA, dishwasher safe, sustainable, recyclable and it has 100% money back guarantee. There are too many benefits to fit into this ad, so I encourage you to learn more by going to https://minepetplatter.com/ and learn that HOW you feed your dog is just as important as WHAT you feed them. And as a bonus, Wag Out Loud listeners can take advantage of a 10% discount by using the code WOL10. at checkout. Okay, we are back with Rita Hogan and she is going to tell us about some fantastic herbal remedies for canine pancreatitis. Rita take it away! Great. So a couple things to keep in mind. There are remedies for chronic pancreatitis and there are remedies for acute pancreatitis. Okay. One remedy that I like for chronic pancreatitis and it is a this is definitely for the beginner like someone who just wants to try something out. It's a herbal formulation called GastroElm, and it's I believe it's GastroElm.com, and it's a mix of slippery elm and I believe there's marshmallow root in there and milk thistle and just maybe some licorice root. It's actually really good for dogs that are prone to pancreatitis. So that's a good one to try out right off the bat. Not so much for acute but for chronic pancreatitis. I do like that blend. And again, that's GastroElm. Okay. So single herbal remedies. Okay. When there is acute pancreatitis, I like blackberry leaf, and I use what is called a glycerite. So it's a glycerin based extract of blackberry leaf. And it's really good for inflammation. And it helps dogs get through an acute situation of pancreatitis. the glycerine extract, I would use 4 drops for extra small dogs, 6-8 drops for small dogs, that like a pug is a small dog. And extra small probably like a, you know, a mini Chihuahua. 10 - 12 drops for medium dogs. That's like Springer Spaniel. 15 - 20 drops for a large dog. That's like a golden retriever or something bigger, like a big lab, and 20 - 30 drops for anything bigger than than a lab, like a St. Bernard. Okay. And that really helps with any type of bacteria and inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. A remedy for I would say, acute and chronic pancreatitis that I I love. And the only thing you don't want to use it for dogs that have had seizures, but it's called black currant gemmotherapy. And it's ribes nigrum is its Latin name and you can use it for an anti inflammatory. It is wonderful in chronic cases of pancreatitis along with acute, it helps with inflammation. It is a tonic for the entire digestive system, it increases the immune system. It's really high in antioxidants. And you can use the 1:200 which is what you're mostly find in commercial searches for this it's called black currant gemmotherapy, You will use 8 drops for extra small dogs, 10 - 15 drops for small dogs, 15 - 20 for medium, 20 - 25 for large and 25 - 30 for extra large dogs. and you give that two to three times a day, two times a day for chronic and three times a day for acute. and then you can adjust the doses to see what your dog's doing. Another one that I really love and this is for acute pancreatitis. Okay, so what could be one for a dog like yours, Krista is called European Walnut and this is also a gemmotherapy. Gemmotherapies are based on plant stem cells. So they treat at a cellular level. They're using the embryonic buds and shoots and barks of plants. So this one is from the European walnut tree. And it's really good after and during an acute pancreatic attack. Okay, it helps strengthen the pancreas. It brings down inflammation. It also helps support the liver which we need to do and it helps heal mucous membranes and it also helps regulate insulin in the pancreas. So it helps balance out the blood sugar because sometimes that can be affected during these types of episodes. Another thing I like about it is it helps balance intestinal flora and regulate which is very important. during an acute attack it regulates pancreatic enzyme production. So, you would use a 1:200 gemmotherapy. 8drops for extra small dogs, 10 - 15 drops for small dogs, 15 - 20 for medium, 20 - 25 for large and 25 - 30 for extra large dogs, and that would be given twice daily. Another nice, easy to use remedy is ginger. And these are for dogs that aren't like if you think your dog is a little warm, you don't want to use ginger. But if you don't think if they're not in the Oh yeah, my dog is so warm all the time category. Ginger is really good as you make it as a tea in hot water, let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes and give just small amounts. Usually dogs will sniff it that are in need of it and actually just drink it. If it's nice and cool. They know that they need it. But the dosage for it would be like one half teaspoon for extra small dogs, One teaspoon for small dogs, Two teaspoons for medium, one tablespoon for large and two tablespoons for extra large and you'd give that as needed. And it really does help with that and sometimes pancreatitis can cause nausea. Another thing for chronic pancreatitis is you always want to help the liver. You can give milk thistle for that. GastroElm uses the milk thistle for chronic pancreatitis. I also like there's a company called Adored Beast. Yes. And I really liked their their Liver Tonic. It's a nice glycerine based liver tonic. with chronic pancreatitis, you always want to make sure you're supporting the liver. So I like to use that as well. Another remedy that is in the https://www.gastroelm.com/ , but can be used for acute and chronic. So you use it by itself for acute. It's slippery elm. And that really helps coat everything it soothes the gastrointestinal mucus, if there's any has been any damage. So it's going to bring down the pain, it's going to support the the GI system. It's safe for long term use in small amounts. And I just really think it's a good one and easy to use at home, you would just make a kind of like a grool by adding just adding a little hot water to the powdered herb and you add a little added at a time so you get a grool. And then you just give it to them by the teaspoon. So one teaspoon for extra small dogs, two teaspoons for small dogs, one tablespoon for medium, two tablespoons for large and three tablespoons for extra large. You kind of give it as needed, you'll you'll notice that it's it helps improve it right away. And it's just a really soothing remedy, especially if again if those enzymes are eating tissue. And let me think if there's anything else to consider, like right off the bat. So that's about it. I mean, those remedies are really good. And when you say give them how are we giving them Is it a tincture? Do we put it in food? Do we put it directly on their gums or in their mouth? Okay, so good question. So for the BlackBerry Leaf, that's a glycerite. you're going to just put it right in your mouth, okay. And the black currant is also a glycerin extract. It has a little a small amount of alcohol and glycerin. You just put it right in their mouth. It tastes actually quite good. Let's see what else other the European walnut is also a liquid right in the mouth. And if your dog won’t take it in their mouth, put it on a little treat or in in some type of food. The ginger is a liquid. So that's an infusion, it's like a tea. You're going to put it in the mouth or have them drink it. Milk Thistle. You can use a glycerin extract for that you can put it right in the mouth and as a powder if they're eating you can put it right on the food. slippery elm is going to make a grool. it's kind of like a thick, a thick liquid very thick liquid. You're going to have them drink it or give it to them by the teaspoon. Or you can put it in a little bit of a syringe with a kind of a thick tip. And Rita as we were wrapping up where do we find these herbs? I know you mentioned the Liver Tonic from Adored Beast but the other remedies where do we find them and how do we know we're buying quality products? Okay, so the gemmotherapies depending on where you live, in Europe, you can find them at https://www.santi-shop.eu/en/ In Canada you can go to https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada.html , which is a homeopathy site and get them there. Or you can get them from a company called https://www.herbalgem.fr/en/ . And the ones that I'm talking about on this interview are called 1:200 and they would be on the label. one colon 200 you can get them in In the United States from a company called Gemmo, you can get them from https://www.boironusa.com/ . You can get them from a company called Genestra or you can go to my website at https://www.canineherbalist.com/ , and I can get any of these remedies for someone, they just have to send me an email. And some of them are in my shop. Okay, what do you say that makes it easier just going to you one stop shop? Yeah, some of them are in my shop. If they're not listed, just send me an email. And I have most of them. I use a lot of the Phyto embryonic therapies in my practice, those are some places most people that make most companies that make the gemmotherapies are quality products. Okay, there's not a lot of them out there. So there's, there's a few companies and and most of them are really good. Awesome. The slippery elm and the powdered products, I like to use a company called https://oregonswildharvest.com/ . They make really, they have good sourcing, all of their herbs are organic. And it's Oregon's wild harvest, or a company called HerbPharm also makes good products except for they don't have a lot of the powdered herbs. And then there's https://mountainroseherbs.com/ , which is out of Oregon, they they're wonderful. And just so everybody knows all of these links of all of these companies will be in the show notes. And if I didn't mention it before this interview came out of an article that Rita did in Dogs Naturally Magazine. So I'm gonna include that link in the show notes. So you have her exact protocol, you know how much and when and all of the How to administer all these herbs. So we are about to wrap up any last words Rita on pancreatitis and the healing herbs? I would say just go slow. Always start at the lower dosage and work your way up. And if your dog is in extreme discomfort, bring them to the vet for pain management and fluids, definitely. Great. And in case anybody's interested, Rita is making all of our listeners an amazing offer,. you will get 15% off anything in her online store, 15% off of a consult with her or she has a new energetics course. And that is 15% off one discount per customer. You just have to use the code WOL at Rita's site https://www.canineherbalist.com/. . Rita is that also where they go to find out more information about you and your practice? Yeah, absolutely. Great. So again, https://www.canineherbalist.com/ Rita, thank you so much for being with us and giving us this amazing information. We so appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Hello there this is Krista with Episode Number 118 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast . Did you know that Chihuahuas share a common trait with human babies? Both are born with soft spots on their skulls that close up as they get older. Did you know that? Sponsor Ad A big thank you to our friends at Bonne Et Filou! Like many of us, they believe that our dogs should be treated like royalty and that’s why they created French-inspired dog macarons. Bonne and Filou, were the two favorite dogs of French King Louis XIV that were treated with a private chef, satin sheets, diamond collars, and more. And we want to pamper our pups too! These are not your ordinary dog treats, but handmade with human grade, all-natural ingredients, in packaging that looks better than what you buy for yourself. These are definitely the best gift for the dog who has everything. And unlike human macarons, these are actually healthy for dogs. Handmade in small batches right here in the US, these look so decadent that you’ll want to try one! Isn’t it time to give your dog the royal treatment? Use the code WOL to receive a 15% discount off of your first order at https://BonneEtFilou.com Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. A big thank you to our friends at Bonne et Filou. Like many of us, they believe that our dogs should be treated like royalty and that's why they created French inspired dog macaroons. Bonne et Filou were the two favorite dogs of French King Louie XI4th that were treated with a private chef, satin sheets, diamond collars and more. And we want to pamper our pups too. These are not your ordinary dog treats, but handmade with human grade all natural ingredients and packaging that looks better than what you buy for yourself. These are definitely the best gift for the dog who has everything. And unlike human macaroons, these are actually healthy for dogs, handmade in small batches right here in the US. These look so decadent, that you'll want to try one. isn't it time to give your dog the royal treatment? use the code WOL to receive a 15% discount off of your first order at https://bonneetfilou.com/. That's https://bonneetfilou.com/. You can also find the link in the show notes. Hello, dog lovers. we so appreciate you for advocating for your dog's health. And today, our friend Emily O'Neil is going to share how You Can Take the Leash and Help Your Dog's Health. Emily, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us about why you are, “crazy for canines”. Emily is mom to Flynn, a 5-year-old Border Collie, as well as host for the podcast Dogs are the Best Friends where guests share stories about their best friends and Emily shares some hard earned wisdom on training and care. Emily and Flynn are about to travel in their tiny home on wheels to see her birth parents who she just found in the summer of 2019. She is sharing her story and travels on her YouTube channel: Emily O'Neil. Thank you so much Krista. I appreciate being here. I have my own podcast and I had you on I want to make sure that people know to go and listen to your episode as well. And I'm so grateful to have a friendship with you. Because we get it we are crazy for the canines. And we love our dogs so much they've taught us so much. And they inspire us all the time. And so on my podcast people, you know, they share their stories, their love of their dogs, what they've learned from them from training or health or whatever it is. And I'm grateful to be here because I learned a huge lesson through my dogs of how to advocate how to be pro dog and take care of my dogs in a way that sits well with me. And we all have to do that we have to be in charge of that we understand that, you know, we can take charge in that basically. So that's why I'm here today to do that. And I'm grateful to share my experiences and and to just, you know, to be able to speak on that because it's so close to my heart. I'm a researcher by trade. I'm a dog mom. And it just this is this is what I believe in. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. I am so thrilled you're here. Right now you have Flynn, who is adorable. Why don't you tell us a little bit about him and what he means to you, you know the bond that you guys have? Yeah, Flynn is five years old. Now. I got him when he was one and a half. He was not a puppy. And I still can't believe I did that. Because I always said, Oh, they have to be a puppy so you can bond with them. But I had lost my beloved dog she was I call her my soul dog. That was my Mazie. And she was another Border Collie. And she passed on at 13 1/5. And sadly, it was due to cancer. I'll tell you that story, you know, in a little bit, but I was heartbroken. And I was so lonely and devastated that I thought I'd never want another dog part of me and the other part just couldn't live without a dog. So three months later, ended up finding Fynn and I went to find a puppy. But the the man said no, you know, you might like this dog. He is a year and a half. He's a very nice dog. And I went thinking No way. I'm going to get a puppy but I saw Flynn and he was so happy to see me and we just bonded in that few hours that I sat there and and petted him and played with him and get to know him. So Flynn is just a joyful friend that I'm so grateful for. He's definitely become a heart dog and I don't know he must be on the way to a soul dog too. he's a wonderful inspiration. Yes. That’s a. great story. Well, am I right that you've had three dogs so far? As an adult. as a as a kid, we had a bunch. Yeah. And we weren't the best owners. I have to admit, up front straight up. Oh, gosh, definitely. And that the first dog Morgan, I learned a ton with her. I was not the best dog mom with her in the beginning, because I was so green I she was not well behaved. And I didn't feed her the best food. And yeah, she's the one that started off the learning process for sure. Yeah, what's great to say, I can start .Yeah, Morgie, Oh, my gosh, well, I got her as a puppy. She was adorable. She had just been spayed. I got her from the SPCA up in New York State, I lived in western New York at the time. And she was just so cute. I just was in love as soon as I found her, but I took her home and, you know, feeding her I'd like to say the brand, but you know, just really bad food. And the poor dog developed horrible skin problems. And she's this gorgeous dog, but she literally smelled and she had skin problems. And like she was itchy. And, you know, like the worst situation you can pick, you know, like the hot spots, everything the poor, the poor dog. And so I started to try to figure out what was wrong with her. And you know, you take them to the vet, and they say something, or they want to give them you know, different shots or different medicines and things. And I already was on the path of not believing in and just going ahead with what other people told me to do. So I started asking other people what they did, and doing research and looking into it the best I could. And the more questions I asked the more, you know, of course, more answers you get, but also it gives you you start to see patterns, like and people that you feel that you can trust, and you understand their point of view. And they also if they're somebody that really cares about the truth, they'll lead you to like, you know, different articles or books or whatever, that have great information. And I'm so grateful for the people that led me in the right direction for poor Morgan because she, you know, was just a tortured soul. I think to that point, because her mom just didn't know any better. But once I learned about raw food, and you know, like that, right there cleaned up 90% of her problems, getting her on the right food that was crucial. And then also just her mental health, I had to get her out more right walking and taking better care of her and training her giving her boundaries. So all that came together. And again, I'm grateful to the people that helped me, because that started me on the right path of looking for more natural ways to heal and heal myself. Right. We learn through our dogs sometimes. Sure. And then we realized we can apply it to ourselves, which, you know, sometimes it's backwards, but that’s us humans. were we sometimes care more about our dogs than ourselves. So yeah. Ok. So, there's a happy ending with Morgan. How long did that whole process and journey take to get her back on the road to wellness? You know, this is like over 20 years ago. So trying to think I think it was, you know, it took months to detox. There's all that junk that was in that food, like corn, corn is like the worst thing for dogs, right? So there's things like that, I'd say, probably a year before she didn't need a bath every week, we could go like, you know, and Morgie never got to go beyond like a couple months. My other dogs can go beyond a couple months without a bath. But Morgan, I think because of that start, you know, and then I also let her get all the vaccinations that they always told me she should have. And I believe that is another reason that poor Morgan needed a bath like every four to six weeks. But yeah, I say within a year, she had detoxed a lot in her skin, and her body and her stomach, everything was just so much better. And speaking of vaccinations, just really quick, I have to make sure I share this, I would let her get the distemper shot because of course it's recommended every year. And the last time she got it. She was almost five years old. And she came home and she was a completely different dog. And I know that sounds dramatic and ridiculous to some people but she literally was not my Morgie. She was not as sweet, or as patient or anything. She just became a different dog. She was not. She didn't want to be touched, you know, like snuggled anything. And so that was a huge red flag to me that I needed to research like, are these things really needed or not? And so after that, with Morgan and every dog since I do not over vaccinate, I refuse to give my dogs everything that they recommend other than what I have to do by state law, which in Florida and New York state where I used to live you know, that's rabies. But yeah, I'd recommend people really do some research on that too. Just so your dog doesn't become a different dog. It broke my heart but I learned again on poor Morgan right. my first dog so yeah, Well, she was there for a reason. She was your teacher. Yeah. Very true. Yeah. I hope she forgives me. Thank God. Yes. Is True, very true. Okay, so that was Morgan. And then your second dog. Yeah, Mazie. So Mazie, I guess, I would say that Morgan was so smart, I had to get a border collie, because Morgie was a mixed dog, she was supposed to be a German Shepherd. And actually think she was a German Shepherd or a Malinois and a coyote. I know sounds ridiculous, but it's true. So I got a border collie. And Mazie was, again, my soul dog. I just loved that. We just clicked and she wanted so much to please me and do what I want. And that's one of the great things about their brains, but they’re high energy, and I also called her Crazy Mazie, because she was. So Mazie Lou, she, Oh, my gosh, when she was nine months old, I was already in love with her. She developed this tumor on her throat, that just kept growing, I felt it grow all the way up to the size of like the top half of my thumb, it got to be pretty big. And I took her into the vet. And the vet said, You know, I could cut it out. It might grow back, I don't know what to tell you. And she did withdraw a syringe full of fluid out of it. And it took a couple of days. And then she got back to me, called me and said, You know that fluid is pre cancerous. And that was devastating because I thought I could lose my dog in months. Or maybe maybe she'll even be around a couple years. But you know, you're already crazy about your nine month puppy, and you don't want them to go anywhere. So what happened was my friend had been bothering me, I call it to try what she I called it her crazy energy medicine, which I know sounds not very nice. But that's what it was to me. I did not understand the concept of it at all. And so I told her, I said, Well, my dog has been diagnosed with pre cancerous fluid in this tumor that will stop growing. And the vet doesn't know what to do. So if you and your crazy energy medicine can fix my dog, I will believe in it. And so what happened was that my friend tested her and discovered that she had all these different toxins in her body from the vaccinations, like the cocktail shots, that they like to give puppies, and yes, very scary. And so we detoxed her and I kid you not, with that one first remedy, but went all the way down to the size of a pea within like a week, maybe two weeks or something, it's been a little while sorry, it was like within two weeks. And then it went down to nothing, and it never came back. And so that was my that was that convinced me that there's obviously other ways to heal the body, whether it's dogs or humans, or whatever it is. And so Morgie started me on the path of eating right and looking at those things. But then Mazie started me on the path of looking at completely different types of modalities that I might never have considered before. Because they just seemed just not logical to me. But once I started studying, and looking at the different ways that people are able to heal, and your shows, your episodes really help highlight that. There's so many different things that people are using to help their dogs, whether it's CBD oil, or you know, whatever you have, of course, food always and like you said you had mushrooms on recently. So there's, there's so many ways that people can help. And I know that can seem overwhelming. But I would just say start looking start asking questions. And you might be surprised at what can actually help your dog heal. A lot of people don't believe in homeopathy. I do. I've seen it work I've seen it help heal. Well, me and my dogs to be honest with you. So I think that if we let ourselves learn, like you said, Morgan was my first teacher, Mazie was my second teacher, I'm learning things with Flynn as I go. And if we let our dogs teach us, you know, it's just, it's amazing. It can literally be the difference between death and life. Now, I did lose Mazie years later to cancer, but that was 13 and a half? Well, let's say she's nine months or so, over 12 years later. So I got 12 years with that dog. I mean, and what amazing 12 years we had. we traveled all over and just had a wonderful life together. So was it worth it? Yeah, it's totally worth it. And I'm grateful. So again, my second teacher. Yes, it is. So when you say homeopathy with Mazie, what was that? Yeah. Besides the energy work, herbs, or did she have acupuncture or anything else as far as treatments? Yeah, yeah, good question. That's a really good question, because I don't believe in just one modality. So in her case, we did this thing that, you know, basically, it's really hard to explain, but I'm going to try to do it. And I actually became a practitioner, I studied and I became a practitioner because I became to believe in it so much, and I would work on dogs and people up in New York state when I used to do it. But what happens is you can actually test the body, through kinesiology to see where the weaknesses in the body, you know, so let's say in the heart, and then you can test to see which toxins are actually making the body sick, it might be just one, it might be a few different things going on. And you can actually carefully detox it out of the body so that it can heal. And then you can go on and keep helping the body heal and see what comes up the next time. So that is actually what we were using with that first initial remedy, that helped get rid of that tumor. And then I kept going, and we kept detoxing, and they explain it and I think someone was on your show before they explained this too, but it's like, an onion, and you have to pull off the layers, you know, to get get down into really, how we're supposed to be much healthier, and we are healthier when we're born. But all the toxins in our environment, our food and everything really add up. And so it adds on these layers that your body's trying to fight through. And we can help our bodies. And that's one of them, that's one way to do it. And there's different practitioners that do that all over the world. And so that that's something that I still help, you know, work on myself and my dogs with that. And then also homeopathy dovetails nicely, because that is, that is like, something that's natural that the body knows how to deal with. But if the, you know, how do I say…the symptoms, if they're looking like that, then and even if it's not related, let's say it's like a bee sting, like you're having the symptoms of a bee sting. And if you give your dog, you know that remedy, the homeopathic remedy can actually help the body know what to do, and heal that as well. And then there's Yeah, there's acupoints like hands on pushing at different points to their bodies that can help them heal. So there's so many different ways that we can learn. And I know people might seem over overwhelmed at first. So just start with one start to learn about one and figure out what you're comfortable with. I've used everything from tuning forks, which I, when I first heard that, at that, that was crazy. But let's face it, when we hear music that we enjoy, that lifts our spirits, it is healing. And so the same thing with the tuning forks. Yeah, it's like this, again, it's kind of energy, but it's, it's the tuning forks, I have are musical notes. And there's just, it's beautiful. And I was able to help a neighbor the other day, who is in extreme pain, and we were able to reduce her pain. And she had more movements, like within 20 minutes in her neck, which was totally frozen before that. So these things are powerful. They get, like, I hate to say it, but you know, often what Western medicine doesn't take them into account. And if you can find a doctor that's open minded, and does, you know is willing to entertain that that's wonderful. But it can be tough. And sometimes you have to take their advice and maybe even use their medical tests or something if you want and then look at other possibilities. like find other ways that you can help your dog heal. And and yourself. To be honest, I think this goes along with all living beings. There's different ways I was even able to help a llama I used to have with a remedy. So yeah, it can be for anybody. It's a big deal. So now you have Flynn. And he's five years. Yeah. So is he 100% healthy? Or did he bring you something that says, Hey, Mom, check this out? What should we do? Right? Yes, he's the most difficult dog I've ever had with his stomach. He likes different foods, he'll grab different things. See, but it doesn't mean his stomach will like it. So we've had to, you know, go, he can't do raw, which just breaks my heart. I totally believe in Raw. So I do the raw of freeze dried patties. And that has helped him tremendously. He is, oh gosh, I'd say he's like 90% better in that area. And it took me it took that actually took about two years for his gut to heal. And that was adding in like some greens and, you know, just different things that I had to figure out. And through Kinesiology and I can, you know, people can actually look it up, you can teach yourself how to test different foods and things to make sure that it's okay for you or for your dog. And it might be okay, one day and not the next. It just depends on our bodies. Right. And the sleep we've had and the sleep they've had or whatever, or even the water what kind of water have they had to drink today or something too. So I yeah, it's interesting. I thought Flynn. Oh, he'll be perfect. I know what to do about everything. Now. No, no. Yes, yeah. And we're all individuals aren't we like Flynn. You know, he’s had I would say probably some trauma. He was flown over from Ireland when he was six months old. And I don't know it was I hope he was in the cargo or something. I don't know. But you know, that was quite a shock for his little body to go through. And then a man that had him before he sold him to me, you know, he had him almost a year, and then he had to change homes again. And I knew that how does that not affect them? So I think he was just a nervous bellied pup, you know, like, he had different nervous things. And he had to know I was never going to give him up. And, you know, now he has me wrapped around his paw, of course, because he's just a wonderful dog. But I think all these things add up, and just like our own trauma can add up and actually damage our body. Same thing with dogs. So Flynn had a nervous stomach, it's come along way. That's not to say that we can have a setback. we will go a couple months and all sudden, you know, he can have some serious problems. And that that means like, you know, diarrhea or whatever. So we have to then figure out what happened and back up and, you know, if I want to change his food, I have to do it. So carefully, like half a teaspoon, starting to incorporate it and change it. So, yeah, just a heads up to folks that, you know, just because you think you learned it all. No, that's not how the universe seems to work. So what do you recommend for people? You know, because most of us learn by Oh, my dog was just diagnosed with XYZ, I guess I better figure it out. Now. What is this? Right? versus? Okay, I have a brand new dog, a new rescue, I have a new puppy. How do I set them up for success? So yeah, you can't learn everything right off the bat, because you have no idea what their body is going to do throughout their lives. So are you saying food for sure. Not over vaccinating, plenty of exercise, both physical and mental. And then learn about these other integrative or holistic techniques that do work. And that when you need them, you know, be open to it. Is that a good summary? Yeah, that's excellent. Absolutely. I mean, food is not cheap. But I would rather spend the money on the food than on, you know, the vet bills. Yeah, totally. Because they're so expensive and heartbreaking. And it's scary. You don't know what's wrong with your dog. So yeah, yeah. All that you said, you know, they need training for their mental stimulation, the physical, the food, everything that you can do. And then there's still going to be things like little Flynn here, you know, there's different things that, you know, set their body off in different ways. You know, and when we're stressed, it just passes on to our dogs. I really believe that. And so, yeah, and I was just sharing with you before we started that, right now, I'm going through a little bit of a health crisis of my own, and that stuff keeps you humble, of course, too. But it also goes to your dog. And so I think sometimes when I'm exhausted and stressed, you know, it's just really, you know, Flynn feels it. So, I yeah, I would recommend that people start with those basics that are so key to all of us, and into our dogs, they really need that. And that's a great foundation, and then look at the different issues that are coming up. And I honestly believe in taking notes. Take notes, like on certain days, if your dog you know, if it's having some problems, you know, and try to see what's going on around you did they just spray the lawn or your neighbor's lawn? You know, look at all the things that are going on. Look at the season, maybe you know, Flynn has horrible pollen allergies, oh my gosh, he's, I cannot believe how bad he was itching a few weeks ago. But in Florida, we just had the pollen just dumped, seemed to dump off in the trees, basically, the oak trees and things and pine was back in February. And it just he'll have ups and downs just from that alone. And he becomes very itchy. And it's not from his food, he doesn't ask him promise because that is because of the environment. So my boy is incredibly sensitive to any kind of thing like that. And so then what I've been doing with him is like the acupoints. And of course the best food I can give him and and he does have to be rinsed off, I don't believe in giving them you know, bath after bath with the soap and things. But I do rinse him off. He needs that pollen and that spray off of him. And that's the thing in Florida, there's major spraying people are, you know, we're really in a humid environment. So yeah, bugs are a problem. But they are trying to solve it, you know, for all these years with spraying. Oh, gosh, yeah, it's horrible. So I think the biggest thing is, yeah, be an advocate for your dog. Number one, go ahead if you want to have the test done and things but it doesn't mean you have to solve it the way that your vet is telling you to solve it. And I'm not saying that they have no value. Of course, ideally, you can find a vet that you do trust, and that you can have open dialogue about you know what you want to do and see if they know anything or are willing to work with you. But also I think we have to go with our gut. There's nothing wrong with saying to yourself, I'm not comfortable with this solution. I'm not comfortable with that idea. So let me go and research it, and take some time to figure this out. So I think, too often we, you know, and we do, we were like, We're exhausted, right? We want to be able to just take what somebody says, go do it. But if you can, step back a moment, go with your gut, and take your time and start asking your friends or ask people that you trust, you know, they, and they might be, you know, the I, that's one of the first people that taught me, I found a wonderful dog food, you know, pet food store owner. And so she actually, not only, you know, sold things, but you know, which, because then sometimes we think, oh, they're just about the sales. No, this woman truly wanted to educate people. And she was tremendous. I can't say enough about her. So if you can find someone like that wonderful. But I think if you can start reading different journals, like I love the Whole Dog Journal, that is a phenomenal journal. So good. And so start there and start reading it, see which writers you trust. And then you know, they might have books or other articles, and start there. And just know that you can empower yourself. There's, I was just looking, for example, at Colorado, like I know, Florida's resources, right, but I wanted to see what does Colorado have. And so Colorado, has completely free databases that you can research and look for articles. And so that's where you can go start looking and looking for, you know, look for articles there. And completely free the state pays for it, use those resources, and empower yourself to, to know that you have your gut, you have your feeling about something for a reason. You might like I had a dog come to me when I was in New York State practicing, and they had recommended this certain type of food. And it turns out their food had cranberries in it, and the dog was allergic to cranberries. So yeah, go with your gut. And if you feel like you know, if you know the food caused it, you know, and if you can find somebody that can help you figure out what's wrong with it. Great. But otherwise, take the food bag, get your money back and try something else. Yeah, I think it's so crucial that and I just as a researcher, myself, I just want people to know that the information is out there. And don't necessarily go to Google. I know everybody wants to because it's easy. But please use some of these really good resources, like the Whole Dog Journal or other things that you've talked about a ton of resources on your episodes. So they definitely need to listen to those. And if they haven't heard them, go back and listen again. Because, yeah, it's crucial. And it's worth it. It's worth it. And don't, don't get overwhelmed. Everybody can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. Well, that's a good point, Emily, because you are such a huge believer and community. And there are others out there who are going through what you're going through. So you don't need to feel alone there. You know, there's groups, there's forums, there's so many resources to your point. Well, as we are wrapping up, again, Emily hosts, the Dogs are the Best Friend's podcast, which is awesome, great guests. great stories. So Emily, what is the main takeaway that you've learned from all of your interviews on the show? Oh wow! that dogs are such wonderful friends to us. They teach us they challenge us, they help us grow. And their love is just like, unlike any other really, there's just nothing like it. I've had people that have shared horrible times that they've gone through. Or, for example, there's one young woman that came on, and she was her dog was supposed to be trained to alert her. And sadly, it wasn't very well trained. So she had to give, give it some more training. And then they came to realize that the dog was not only alerting for her diabetes, but it also is alerting for another condition that she has. So I think if we just remember that, to listen to our dogs, and to appreciate them, and to see what they're trying to teach us like like you said before, Morgan was my teacher. Mazie was my teacher, and Flynn’s teaching me as well. And I'm just grateful for all the stories that people share because they just bring life and light and sometimes encouragement when people need it. Like if their dog wasn't behaving well. And I just hope that people will come and have a listen and enjoy. Like you said, it's a community we love our dogs and are crazy for our canines and and it just helps to kind of bring a little bit of light into those dark times that we have sometimes too. I so agree with you. Well, Emily, where can everybody find out more information about you and your podcast? Dogs are the Best Friends and I know you've already started a YouTube channel as well. Yeah, yeah, it's https://dogsarethebestfriends.com/ is the website and you can find me also on Instagram. @dogsarethebestfriendscom for the account for that, too. And then we are actually on Facebook, we have a small community on there as well just to share fun stories and funny memes and things like that. And also just encourage each other there too. And that Yeah, and then the YouTube I know it's so funny. I don't have enough going on. right but the the YouTube channel is just to share some fun stories about Fynn and I we are on a very interesting adventure. I found my birth parents just in the summer of 2019. And that was huge. That was life changing. So I will get to go see my you know, my birth family as I call them this summer, and I will share those journeys with people in the lessons and also the good and bad of like converting a cargo trailer. Because I've learned from that as well. And I'd love to have people join me on the journey. It'll make it more interesting. Right. So thank you so much for having me. Amazing. We so appreciate all of your insight. And thank you to Flynn, Mazie and Morgan for doing their part and teaching you and therefore teaching us so safe journey. I can't wait to hear about your adventure. And thank you for being with us and being an amazing dog mom. Thank you so much, Krista. You're the best. Truly, thank you so much. Sponsor Ad Thanks again to the team at Bonne et Filou. for sponsoring this episode. Treat your dog like royalty and use the code WOL to receive a 15% discount off of your first order by going to https://bonneetfilou.com/ link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please please share your feedback. Visit https://www.wagoutloud.com/ for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. you're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode? Thanks for Listening! Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the Bark About it section. Or you can click on the social media buttons to share an episode. Special thanks to Emily O’Neil for being on the show. Catch you next time! Also, don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE and please leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Android | Spotify I Stitcher I iHeartRADIO The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. The host as well as guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and Wag Out Loud LLC neither endorses or opposes any particular views discussed here.

Hi everyone, this is Krista with episode number 117. On the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? These are products that I've tried with my dog Winston that are both safe and effective. Want to help your dog to thrive? Just go to wagoutloud.com and check out the Partner Products section, and I've negotiated discounts for most of them. Did you know that there are more than 2500 different species of fleas that exist throughout the world? That's true, but only one is the most common among American dogs and cats. And it's called the cat flea. Fleas not only caused a sharp pain when they bite but their salivary glands give off a substance that's irritating as well. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hello there dog lovers. I am so excited about today's episode, and the conversation with Angela Ardolino. And she's going to be talking about screw canine cancer and the conventional therapies that come with it. Angela Ardolino is a holistic pet expert who has been caring for animals for over 20 years and operates a rescue farm, Fire Flake Farm, in Florida. She is also the owner of  Beautify the Beast,  a natural pet salon and shop, with two locations in Florida. After getting her certificate in Medical Cannabis Biology and Therapeutic use from the University of Vermont School of Medicine, she founded CBD Dog Health to provide high quality, all-natural medical cannabis products designed specifically for pets. Angela, why don't you introduce yourself and your passion for natural dog health? You bet I am a medical cannabis expert and I concentrate on animals and pets. And I became a cannabis expert when I myself was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I was prescribed a pharmaceutical drug that was linked to lymphoma which I was not interested in getting cancer. So I was a pretty natural lifestyle. So I went out and searched for something that would take care of my arthritic pain. And I found cannabis and I tried it. And not only did it relieve all my pain, but it helps my stress and anxiety. So I could not figure out why everybody didn't know about this. So I threw myself into the industry. I was chosen to be in the inaugural class at the University of Vermont School of Medicine for the study of medical cannabis as a therapeutic use in biology. So that's when I learned that animals have the same systems as we do. And dogs in particular are even more sensitive to cannabis medicine. So I knew that was my calling. And that was back in 2016. And back then, I couldn't find anything that was appropriate for pets to take. So I started partnering with some wonderful chemists and essential oil experts sites, I had a pretty good knowledge of essential oils, and came up with some formulations for what was ailing our pets the most. So that's where CBD Dog Health was born. And yeah, this is what I do now. I also have a rescue farm where I rescue mostly sick and geriatric dogs and farm animals and treat them all with natural diets and cannabis and mushrooms and all kinds of adaptogens with amazing success. So yeah, the cancer is is a big one, and I've treated cancer a couple times now of mcps, lymphoma, anything just about all of them and the only one that I hadn't come across yet was osteosarcoma, which is the scariest of them all and my Doberman was diagnosed a year ago with a tumor just popped up on her wrist on her left wrist. And I had a bad feeling that that's what it was. So we took her in to get her blood work and x rays and sure enough, it's osteosarcoma. And I have been treating it holistically and ever since and she's already beaten all kinds of records and I kind of went through what every pet parent goes through when you get that diagnosis and you jump on online and you type in you know, osteosarcoma and you look at what your choices are and then of course I went and joined every Facebook group out there and I kind of you know, feel like I need to to scream from the rafters this message because I see everyone going with the conventional method still. And my gut feeling was why are we doing that? When all the research shows that there are so many other things out there, and that going, the conventional method doesn't get you any more time and costs you a whole bunch of money. You've lived it, Angela. And that's why I'm so excited that you're sharing this because from what I've read is that dogs are affected by more forms of cancer compared to any other companion animal. And according to the Veterinary Cancer Society, cancer is the leading cause of death in 47% of dogs, especially dogs over the age of 10. I just interviewed Dr. Marlene Siegel, who has been in practice for over 40 years. And she said, she used to see one to four cases of cancer every couple months in her practice. And now she says, sees eight to 10 a day. And, you know, the reasons for this is because, you know, after World War II, we had over 85,000 new chemicals introduced into our world, into our food into our personal care products. This is what the FDA is supposed to be regulating and helping us, you know, keep these things out. Imagine what it is now. And then remember that the pet industry is largely completely unregulated, from the food from what gets put on them. So we have to be our pets advocate, we literally cannot buy anything off of a shelf without doing our research and homework because nothing can be trusted anymore. Like, we can't even you know, we find our favorite pet food which takes forever and then the company changes and everything changes. So it is a constant, you know, work and make sure that we're we're keeping our pets safe. And we have to remember they're, being bombarded from the pesticides on you know, our plants and lawns and the chemicals and our carpet cleaners and laundry detergents and the plugins, they can't even get fresh air. And then we're putting toxins on top of them with the flea and tick and the heartworm and it comes from everywhere. vaccinations! they get it from everywhere, so I am screaming from the rooftops because, you know, I started this journey because I lost my first dog at seven years old with no diagnosis. The autopsy said irritable bowel is the only thing that they could find. Well, I now know I over vaccinated her. I fed her kibble I put the flea and tick on it. Everything my conventional vet told me to do and I killed my dog. I don't do that anymore. I'm the opposite and have figured out how to treat everything naturally. So osteosarcoma is genetic. And she's got it and I immediately had to trust what I do know and I know that cannabis kills cancer and the best part and when I say cannabis for those who are listening or are unsure I'm talking about a hemp plant the marijuana plant are both under cannabis plant and I am using both of them to treat my dog both CBD which is you know prominently found in hemp and which is you know, high in CBD and then marijuana which is high in THC, both THC and CBD kill cancer. And both have already been proven to in animal studies. And I'm happy to share the link that shows where the studies are so that your listeners can read themselves. Yeah, I was taught this. I learned it and now I get to put it in practice. And the best part is that research is continuing to come out. Especially all over the world. Italy just had a recent research study come out on how CBD actually helps bones heal and regrow. So, you know, I'm piling on that CBD for her because it's going to help her heal her own. You know, disease. Angela, for those that don't know what osteosarcoma is, I understand it to be very aggressive and it's a painful bone cancer. That affects 25% of large breed dogs. So can you walk us through Nina and how she got her when she got it her diagnosis and what you've done and how she's doing today? You bet. Um, we noticed she was limping first and Nina is very high metabolism energy. She runs through the woods at 100 miles an hour and comes back with giant gashes and you don't even She's not even We used to think she had that disease where she didn't feel any pain. We’d be like, Oh my god, what have you done? So she started limping. And we were like, oh, what you're looking at anything and, and then literally, it felt like, out of nowhere, the bump just appeared on her on her wrist. And, and I've seen the bump before. So I was like, Oh, God, I think I know what that is. And then of course, we asked Dr. Zack about it. And he was like, put some salve on it, I don't know, let's see what happens. So I think we waited like two weeks. And then we went ahead and took her in to get the blood work and x rays done, and that's when she was diagnosed. So I immediately started doing all my research, but I knew that regardless, that I was going to use incorporate cannabis, diet, mushrooms, everything that I know that works, and help support the immune system, because we have this wonderful thing called the immune system, which will help fight off the cancer and get rid of these bad cancer cells. So I called up Billy Hoekman, who was with Answers about a ketogenic diet and came up with her diet and did my research on my mushrooms. So she eats a ketogenic diet which a ketogenic diet is basically we aren't giving the cancer anything to feed off of. So, you know, starches and carbohydrates and grains turn into sugar, which feed cancer, right, and we don't want to give them anything, we want to starve the cancer cells. And then on top of that, and everything we're feeding is to support her immune system and her good cells to fight off the cancer cells. And then, you know, both the compounds in THC, CBD, Turkey tail mushrooms, these, these things are called adaptogens. And when you put more than one adaptogen, together, they become very synergistic. So when you get like three or four adaptogens, like a mushroom and a frankincense and a cannabis, THC and CBD together, you really get something that is amazing for your body. And when you take it, it goes to where your body needs, it adapts to what your body needs, and they go and search out like cannabis literally, CBD turns your cells into natural killer cells that then sends them out into your body and finds, anything that's bad and kills it and does not hurt the good cells like chemotherapy does. So, when I'm researching this, and I'm comparing, you know, okay, if I do the which, I feel like most people do this route. And of course, I'm going by what I've read on, you know, the Facebook groups and the platforms where people are sharing information, they do the chemotherapy, they do the radiation, they do the amputation. So amputating the leg does not get rid of osteosarcoma, like if they've got it on the leg. It's not that easy. It’s not like cut the tumor off and the cancer’s gone. Most of the times the leg is amputated because of pain management, because the tumor’s painful, but a lot of dogs, some dogs that don't do well with amputation, and I really felt that Nina was one of those dogs. Nina also still like she runs without using her leg. But she still stands, balances, walks some times, and she's still using her leg. So it's not like she stopped using it. And, you know, it's too painful that she doesn't she's living her full life. But you know, these people are going through all of it. And they're still losing their dogs, two, fiur, six months. Once in a while will make it to a year. Sometimes I've seen young dogs who got amputated, you know, did an amputation and radiation who are still alive after two years, but that is very, very slim. And but most of the time they still lose their dog after two, four, six months. And it just didn't make any sense to me. Why would I put my senior dog through that? Through the surgery through the Recovery through the back and forth through the trauma of losing her leg, the chemotherapy, the sick, the getting her to eat… all of that. She’s my alphadog it just didn't make any sense to me. And I went with my gut and what I know, and you know, I know how cannabis works. I know how adaptogen works. I know how the immune system works, and I trusted that and we're at her year anniversary and she's still thriving and we have no no spread. Which is what osteosarcoma does is that it metastasizes and spreads. And you know, usually when it gets to the lungs, that's when you know it goes downhill fast. And we've had no issues at all. I haven't even had a scare the, the worst thing that happened is she knocked hit her hit her tumor on the coffee table, and I heard her wince, you know, in pain, which now I knew what noise she would make if she was in pain. But other than that, she runs around, she acts pretty normal. You know, she sleeps hard at night. I even you know, one of the side effects of THC is incontinence. They’ll pee in their sleep. So that was happening. But I also know that CBD dampens the effects of THC. So I gave her especially the side effects. I gave her now to give her the heal tincture at night with the THC. And she no longer pees in her sleep. So that's pretty cool. So I really have like no side effects at all, except sometimes in the morning she’s either a little drowsy still, or super, super hyped and excited. Really good. Well, Angela, I'm going to stop you there so we can take a quick sponsor break and we're going to come back and talk about the actual protocol that you are doing. So everybody's gonna learn a lot, so stay tuned. SPONSOR AD Thanks to our sponsors, CBD dog health. It is one of the very few CBD companies that I feel confident in recommending. And here's just a few reasons why: thEIR full spectrum hemp derived CBD products are extracted from high quality hemp grown here in the US with no use of herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers. They're legal in all 50 states with less than .3% THC, non GMO, full of active cannabinoids, such as CBD, CBG, CBN, and CBDA. Their processing uses supercritical co2 extraction. They're manufactured with 100% food grade ingredients tested by a third party laboratory and available for home delivery to all 50 states. Check out the quality CBD Dog Health products and help your dog find relief at CBDDogHealth.com. And be sure to use the code WOL for 20% off. Trust in a company that is passionate about helping your pet live their very best life. And we are back we are chatting with Angela Ardolino on Screw Canine Cancer! and the conventional therapies that come with it. Angela, you just told us an amazing story of Nina and her osteosarcoma and how you are beating the odds with her, you know what, what can be expected through conventional veterinary medicine, which you pointed out. And I have to agree it seems in humans and dogs, a lot of times with cancer patients that it's those invasive treatments of chemo and radiation that really end up killing us that we are actually destroying the organs. And they don't die. Yeah, and they don't die of the cancer, they die of something else because their immune system has been destroyed. So they go oh my god, the chemotherapy killed the cancer. it did, but it also kills your good cells in your immune system, and you end up dying from something else. So it doesn't get logged is that cancer kills you. You died of COVID or you died of whatever it is that you couldn't fight off because chemotherapy has killed your immune system. And what's funny is that even if you're going to do chemotherapy, do cannabis with it because cannabis is going to support your immune system and you throughout you know the whole process. There's already you know, chemotherapy drugs that goes with chemotherapy that the pharmaceutical companies have already made with an isolate of THC. Well this is really promising. I know the most common cancers in dogs you know we have mast cell tumors, melanoma, lymphoma, osteosarcoma that Nina is going through and are you saying that both THC and CBD can help with all of those different forms of cancer? Yes, so remember that a full spectrum hemp extract, which is primarily CBD does have THC in it. That's why it's a full spectrum and has all the cannabinoids and terpenes in it that you need to fight cancer. The thing is, is that with so mast cell lymphoma, all the ones that you just named off, I've already gotten rid of with a full spectrum hemp extract and changing their diet, keeping toxins out of them. I mean, I have Daisy right now who's 16 years old, who, you know, we've got pictures of her mast cell tumor dying, and exploding and oozing and completely going away. So it’s out from her mass cell and she's still clear running around, you know, at 16 years old, enjoying her life. The thing with osteosarcoma was that it's the most aggressive and the most painful so that that scared me, but I knew that THC is your is the best painkiller that you could possibly do your natural painkiller. So I knew I had it. I just had to figure out how do I give it to her? When do I give it to her? How do I keep it in her system? And that's what I figured out. So how because THC is going to get your dog high, your dog is going to get drowsy. So, you know giving it to her only at night was important. So basically, if you want, I'll tell you what I did is my protocol. Well, my other favorite essential oil for its cancer killing properties is Frankincense. So I have a tincture that's called Ease. That was that I actually created for my Schnauzer when he started getting arthritis. And he was he was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy which I don't even know if that's what that's a true diagnosis or what he doesn't suffer from what he's suffering from before. So what I did is on my horse tinctures, I took my dog tinctures and I made them a lot stronger. So Nina takes our horse, Ease tincture, which is a blend of Frankincense essential oil, 6000 milligrams of full spectrum hemp extract, which is very potent, and tumeric with MCT oil and hemp seed oil. So she gets that in the daytime, a full dose so that I can make sure she is not feeling any pain and she feels good, but she's not high or drowsy. She's still herself. And then at night, because I'm in the state of Florida I get it's called several things it could be called FICO, which stands for full extract cannabis oil, or can be called RSO, which stands for Rick Simpson oil. Rick Simpson was a California hemp farmer, cannabis farmer in California who got skin cancer from being out in the sun all the time, who literally crushed up the flower oil, rubbed it on his skin and cured himself of melanoma. So he is famous for this. So that's basically what she gets. And it's a really thick, sticky crude that you just squeeze out a tiny like a rice sized amount on your finger and rub it on her gums. And that does make her super high, but I give it to her at night. And I give it to her with our dog Heal oil, which is 42 milligrams of full spectrum hemp extract, to kind of dampen those side effects of her feeling super high, her peeing in her sleep, those types of things. And I give it to her every single night. And we also do a goat's milk or cow kefir for at night with a couple sardines so that she's not doing too much digestion at night. She is just working on healing herself. And the ketogenic diet we follow is she gets straight pork or turkey and the whole whole organs, bones, everything. And we add vegetables that have compounds that also have cancer fighting properties in it like broccoli and brussel sprouts and asparagus. She loves broccoli, so it's really easy to get her to eat. A lot of you know steamed broccoli, she loves it like it's you know like you're handing her a pork heart or something. And then my other favorite cancer fighting adaptogen are mushrooms medicinal mushrooms. So she does mostly turkey tail since it has the most research and the most compounds and it also interacts with the endocannabinoid system which is what cannabis interacts with. So cannabis and mushrooms are very synergistic and are doing amazing things. So she gets turkey tail mushrooms every single day. Sometimes we add some Reishi in there, which is also really great for the immune system. Reishi is very bitter so I have to really sneak it in somehow I'll either bury it in the mix it in with the goat's milk or cow’s kefir to get her to not taste it. But that's essentially what I do we add some other things like phytoplankton, which is you know, filled with omega threes and sixes and fatty acids, same within NCT, hemp seed oil. And both of those are building blocks for creating her own Endocannabinoid. So we're supporting her from every possible way you possibly can along Same thing with the water she's drinking. You know that we have the essential minerals in it. And, you know, we'll add the silver hydrosol to it, which is also, you know, got cancer fighting compounds in it. So basically anything in nature that fights cancer, she's getting it. No pain, no pain, no side effects? No, nothing. You know, wondering if she's feeling okay, no weird diarrhea attacks, I'm just thinking about all the things that I went through with Lucy with all the things that they were trying to make her feel better and and now I know, now I know better even knowing better, and being outfitted to go find that or an oncologist or whatever? is, you know, powerful, because then you can be like, yes, no, no, yes. I mean, even when I went to get her blood work, and x rays done, I had to say, you should have heard what they were saying to me. And I was like, I already have a vet. I'm just here getting x rays and blood work because he's in Miami. It's tough. But you have to remember, you know, we did a little tour with because we were working on a documentary and then COVID put it on hold. So we did a tour of California and the West basically where I interviewed Dr. Trina Hazzah who is the chief oncologist at the VCA in Los Angeles which is one of the biggest hospitals and the busiest and she turns to cannabis first when she gets a cancer patient because it is the strongest tool without hurting your immune system and out damaging no bad side effects the quality of life doesn't go away and nothing bad happens. So that's what she turns to first and she that's what she'll go for and use only if she can get it to you know completely save the animal. Which if you catch it in time you can. And Angela should CBD be given internally and topically? So yeah, I anything that has a tumor, I do both MCT tumor, I basically had was able to do experiments where I was like, Okay, let's see if we treat it with just the salve topically because dogs have three layers of skin and they have both CB one and CB two receptors in each layer. So putting a salve, a topical is really good for them for everything from a hotspot to a bug bite to an irritation to yeast, anything. It's also naturally antifungal, antibacterial, gets rid of pain, so it's one of the best things you can do for anything that's bothering your dog's skin. So putting just a topical on a tumor, especially that’s cancerous, will work ,it takes longer. If you can do a topical and do it internally, meaning you get a tincture and put it on to the gums. So that it gets right into the bloodstream. It half the time takes half the time to get rid of that tumor. So with Daisy's MCT. We did that. And I would say within 60 days, it was exploding dying. And it's been two it's two years later, I can't even tell that she had it. It was attached to her spine. Like you could not get underneath it. It was attached to her spine hard. And that thing. That's what's crazy that is that people are used to going and getting it cut off and you don't see it die. So we get people who call are like, I don't know, this thing looks terrible. It looks like it's getting worse. No, it's dying in front of your face and you've never experienced that you've never seen it. So people think it's painful but it's not they're not feeling it because they've got the CBD and you know they got the full spectrum hemp extract in them which is a natural painkiller. So it's messy and gross, but you're not putting your dog under for no reason to cut off something that's just gonna grow back because you're not taking care of it. CBD THC are killing it and making it go away and not come back. She does not have any tumors anymore. They're gone. I am so excited about what you have found out and the studies that have been done and are happening right now. It's just so exciting. So Angela as we wrap up, we don't need to wait until our dogs have a cancer diagnosis. We should be giving a maintenance dose correct of CBD every day? I feel that if you've got a large breed dog, there are so many of them that are getting some type of cancer and most of the time they're getting osteosarcoma. I think once your dog turns, you have it a large breed dog once it turns seven, you should start a full spectrum hemp extract, just keep inflammation down. That's another thing that Dr. Siegel said she said stop naming it and blame it. Stop naming all of these diseases when they're all based on inflammation, inflammation of something we've got to get rid of inflammation in our body. And if we can get rid of inflammation in our body, we can stop the disease from happening in the first place. And that's what a full spectrum hemp extract will do. If your dog is already a senior or already has some sort of disease or problem, a full spectrum hemp extract is absolutely going to help again because as we get older, degenerative diseases and the inflammation in our body, all of that is going to be supported by a full spectrum hemp extract. So I say every animal and every human being should be on a full spectrum hemp extract that is going to make you feel better. You're not going to have those aches and pains. It helps your stress and anxiety. Cannabis will save the world cannabis and mushrooms will save the world. Without making us go broke in the meantime. And it's natural. It's holistic. Angela, you've got an amazing company CBD Dog Health and anybody that is interested in trying CBD for their dogs. This is pet specific, which is awesome. And you guys have tinctures you have salves, you have treats. So where can everyone find out more information about you and your amazing podcast, It's a Dog's Life and CBD Dog Health. You bet. I'm at AngelaArdolino.com and if you type in the search bar Fuck Cancer, you'll find Nina's protocol listed for you and and CBD Dog Health has it on that one article that I just talked about Nina her protocol also have the links to all the research that I mentioned so that you can see for yourself how promising this is. And then CBDDogHealth.com is where you can find the dog tinctures, cat tinctures and the horse tincture if you are, you know either suffering yourself with arthritic pain or your dog is sick with cancer since something like osteosarcoma is so aggressive, I you really have to go at it with a really strong tincture. So when such strong I would go with the Horse Ease. so other people are mixing like the Heal and the dog East so that they can get the Frankincense in the in the cannabis together. But yeah, that's on CBDDogHealth.com. And my podcast is called It's a Dog's Life. And you can get it on just about any platform. And we talk about mostly natural remedies for pets. talk a lot about diet since it's so important and all the good stuff that's out there. That helps our pets heal naturally. Well, we appreciate everything that you do. And for our listeners, Angela and the team at CBD Dog Health is offering an amazing chance for you to try their products. Go to CBDDogHealth.com. use the code WOL for Wag Out Loud, and you can receive 20% off all of these amazing products. So Angela, we are out of time. But I want to thank you for all that you're doing. I know I'm going to have you back because you're going to just find out more amazing information. And I can't wait for that. Thank you so much for having me. I always love talking to you. Wonderful. Thank you, Angela. Sponsor Info Thanks again to our friends at CBDDogHealth.com for sponsoring this episode. Check out all of their amazing products like CBD enriched hemp oils for separation anxiety or traveling needs, extra strength cannabinoid formulations specifically made for more serious conditions like PTSD or pain from cancer, salves to treat dry skin for dogs and other ailments, like hotspots and allergies, and all natural pet treats. All of the CBD Dog Health products are made to effectively treat your pet holistically and naturally. help your dog thrive by using the code WOL for 20% off at CBDDogHealth.com. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit https://www.wagoutloud.com/ for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. you're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston, was that another tail wagging episode? Thanks for Listening! Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the Bark About it section. Or you can click on the social media buttons to share an episode. Special thanks to Angela Ardolino for being on the show. Catch you next time! Also, don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE and please leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Android | Spotify I Stitcher I iHeartRADIO The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. The host as well as guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and Wag Out Loud LLC neither endorses or opposes any particular views discussed here.

Hello this is Krista with Episode Number 116 on the wag out loud podcast. have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? These are products that I have tried, I love them, and they will help your dog to thrive. Just go to wagoutloud.com and check out the partner Products section. And most of the items do have discounts. Check them out and see what a difference they can make in your dog's life. Here's a crazy fact. If never fixed, a female dog, her mate and her puppies could have over 66,000 dogs in six years. Isn't that crazy? Welcome to the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the wag outloud website. I'm your host Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Now here's a product that every dog owner needs to have on hand.!Thanks to our friends at DoggyStat for sponsoring this episode. DoggyStat is the rapid all natural canine anti diarrheal. That works. It's an easy to use food supplement that helps your dog rapidly return to normal intestinal function and typically resolves loose stools within 12 to 24 hours. I highly recommend that every dog owner have DoggyStat on hand. Because let's face it, there will be times when your dog's gut needs a little help. It's easy, all natural made with quality human grade ingredients. It works quickly. And it's for dogs of all ages and sizes and dogs just love the taste. Check out DoggyStat.com and be sure to use the code WAG for 10% off of your first order. Hello dog lovers and welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast! Dr. Kimberly Khodakhah is here today to discuss a topic that all of us, And that means you too, that we can't talk enough about and she's going to cover the Scoop on Poop. Dr. Kimberly, thank you so much for being with us today. If you could just introduce yourself and share with us why you are so passionate about dogs. Dr Kimberley Khodakhah is a veterinarian with 25 years’ experience in small animal medicine and surgery. She is passionate about helping animals and the owners who care for them. In addition to her work as a veterinarian, she directs outreach spay/neuter programs to underserved communities to help manage stray dog and cat populations and provides no cost services to people to need. Committed to the veterinary profession, Dr Khodakhah is driven to mentor and support industry personnel. Her own podcast, Time to PAWS, focuses on empowering veterinarians and technicians through common career challenges. She is the proud parent of 2 teenage children and 5 fur babies. Oh, great. Well, Krista, first of all, thank you so much for having me on your show. It's a great honor. And I'm pleased to be able to talk with your audience. A little bit about me, I'm a small animal veterinarian on the east coast. I am very passionate about dogs and cats, but especially dogs. I do what I call outreach, which is spay neuter programs to communities in need, helping to manage the stray overpopulation problem that we have in many parts of the US as well as the world I actually go all over the place. And I also am very passionate about mentoring and supporting the veterinary community. And I also have a podcast called Time to Paws. So thank you for having me again. Well, you bet. And thanks for all that you do. I don't know when you actually get to sleep It feels good doing it. So it's always a pleasure. Well, you are amazing. And thank you for covering this topic, because we all check out our dog's poop. It's just a thing. So we're always picking up after them. And therefore we're always checking out their poop. So poop is a key indication of our dog's health. So Dr. Kimberly, how can we tell if our dog's poop is healthy? What should we look for? You know, I was going to say that we actually take poop for granted I think sometimes in that it just comes and it's only when we're having diarrhea or issues that this total collapse of, of the system. but the gastrointestinal tract is actually an intricate symbiotic relationship of a lot of different moving parts. You've got the the bowel itself, and you've got the viruses and the microbiome and the fungi and a whole bunch of things that live in there producing hormones and a whole bunch of mutually beneficial vitamins. And so the poop can actually is a window to the soul. Maybe you could say. And and when the poop is good, i.e. it’s regular, it's formed in sort of a large Tootsie Roll sausage, it's a normal, brownish type of color. I think that generally is an indication that things are working well. However, there are definitely times when that's not always the case. Right! Well, I've heard that we should be looking for the four C's. So color, consistency, content, and coating. So do you mind if we dive into each one? Sure, no problem. So color, what is the ideal color of our dog's poop? Typically, and this does depend on what ingredients or foods they're eating. But generally speaking, it's going to be a shade of light to medium brown. you can sometimes have a mustardy, orange type of color. I know that sometimes when they're eating greenies, you can even get a little bit of a green color. But there's a big range of what's acceptable in the color because it is influenced by what you're eating, or what the dogs are eating. However, there is always one color that's a problem or actually two colors. The first would be black, something that's very dark, and tarry. It is an indication of digested blood. And that needs to be evaluated by a veterinarian. that's absolutely abnormal. And then you sometimes can get actually a red. I have clients who have said their dog has red frank blood. Most often, it's a red strawberry jam type mucus on top of the poop, which we can sometimes see with colitis. But that is also an indicator that something might be going on, but not as concerning as the black tarry stool. So that's good information. Consistency. I know that veterinarians use a consistency scale, when evaluating dog poop that runs from one to seven, do you want to talk about that? That's a tool that we do have, I think a lot of owners in reality and and us in the office, we don't necessarily use this because it can be difficult for us to describe. But generally speaking, 1 is going to be a little bit more of a harder, round nugget type poop, usually a little bit overly dry, not necessarily totally ideal. 2 tends to be a lumpy segmented type of poop, where, where it's a little bit of a sausage, but you've got these nuggets kind of loosely compacted. you have 3 generally speaking, your ideal, which is a sausage that has substance to it is formed, but not like 5 or 6, which generally is more like a Nike sausage kind of you know, thin, watery long, and then you have 6 and 7, which tend to be a mound, or a cow paddy, we often will call it and And lastly, just a very projectile watery type stool, which obviously everybody can realize that that's not the way it's supposed to be. Right. And while we're on the topic of runny stool, and we know that even with ourselves, if we have bouts of diarrhea, we really have to be careful of dehydration. So how long do we watch our dogs? If they have an extremely runny stool before we do bring them into the vet? Yeah, that's a great question. And I think it actually needs to be divided in two or possibly three slightly because puppies and older animals or animals with comorbidities are going to be in a slightly different category than your three to eight year old happy go lucky dog. So puppies and the older animals are going to feel the signs of dehydration, electrolyte loss in puppies glucose much quicker, I'd say for the run of the mill. otherwise healthy dogs that who knows why we have some diarrhea, I think it's certainly okay to give it up to 48 hours, as long as the rest of the animal is not poorly, you know, they seem to be fairly alert and interactive. They are trying to drink and holding it down, then I think that as long as you're starting to see progression with some of the tools that you're using at home, I think you're okay. I think that after that 48 hour window, especially without movement in the right direction towards normalizing, then you may be needing some assistance. Okay, cool. That's good advice. If you don't mind me, I'm gonna mention vomiting here is still part of the gastrointestinal tract is just not poop. But the one time where one needs to be very careful about encouraging the use of liquids is with acute vomiting. Because often times, you might get some to drink a half a cup. but it solicits a cup worth of vomiting. So the net effect is a bit of dehydration with that. So one always has to be a little bit careful is actually best to rest the tummy, if there is vomiting, and not be overly concerned if they have functioning kidneys, like I said, this group of animals that are are in the non comorbidity category, because just like you and I, when we sleep, we haven't had anything to drink for, you know, six to 10 hours, depending on how much you sleep. We produce a nice, strong yellow colored urine because our body is conserving water. And a lot of the times that's exactly what's gonna happen with our animal friends as well. That makes sense. Okay, on to content. Content. Wow, if your dog eats sticks or rocks, or has worms, maybe there's a little bit of fur. Can you think of anything else? As far as content? Oh, yeah, hair ties, underwear. I go and get a lot of those. So yeah, I mean, owners owners certainly are going to see those things that you mentioned, mulch, leaves, maybe part of their chew toys, plastic, rubber, grass, grass, yeah, grass. And so there are definitely things that you need to be a little careful about. One of the things that I like to that I've learned over the years is to inform people that animals or dogs eating things require that item to be of a small size, so especially with toys, larger sticks, different things. In order for them to go into the mouth and be swallowed. They actually have to be small. And so the larger the item, the less worry you actually have of them swallowing it and something potentially getting stuck in theory. I mean, that's not a hard and fast rule. But the analogy I give is, if I give you a volleyball, could you choke on it? Or could it get swallowed and stuck? No, you're never gonna get that in. But if I gave you a ping pong, could you do that? or could they do that? and and you know, it kind of helps to visualize the size of things. They do tend to another question I get asked a lot is eating poop. You know, eating their own poop eating goose poop eating other’s poops. Wild Goose poop. And and there are parasites that can potentially be transmitted via poop eating. If animals that in socialized with or exposed to or otherwise healthy and well taken care of dogs. As gross as the poop eating is and as aversive as it is to us, it does not make them sick as a general rule. Okay, so since you brought that up, why do dogs? Some of them they eat their own poop? What is going on? Yeah. Oh, there are probably more theories than vets who make them. Some people tend to believe that it's a socializing, or an early year exposure thing because it tends to be the younger animals. First of all, most thank goodness, dogs grow out of poop eating. But sometimes it's a confusion with house training, you know, maybe they know it's wrong for it to be there. So they're getting rid of the evidence. Or it may be their stuck as youngsters stuck in small crates or cages without very much environmental or social stimulation and what they have to do. Sometimes there is some thoughts about pica, the wanting to eat abnormal stuff, because their tummy is is in fact maybe contaminated or diseased with other parasites or worms or giardia, or viruses. And nobody I don't think anybody really knows for sure, though. Okay, I do have a little trick though, a lot of the times, people have found the use of a product called For-Bid, which other veterinary colleagues have said actually has the active ingredient the same as that of accent meat tenderizer. So if you put that in the food, what the dog eats, tends to taste the same. But what comes out tastes a little bit different. And so it gives you a few minutes to be more effective in your training, and then of itself is not going to take the habit away. But it discourages it. And now you have a little bit more of a training opportunity to do that. But I always say you know, you want to make sure that there's nothing underlying in terms of parasites, gi distress, gas, dietary intolerances, etc. That might also be stimulating the craving. Great tip. Thank you. And what about coating? coating is not good, correct? Are you as in what's coating the stool? If Yeah, if there's any sticky, watery mucus in the feces? Yep. Yeah, yeah. And so that's what I was alluding to before. So there are two types actually, of diarrhea. There's a small bowel and a large bowel diarrhea. And the large bowel is the back end. And it tends to have the mucus secreting cells. And so with colitis or inflammation of the colon, you get mucus production, which is excessive. And so you tend to get this poop with any form of poop whether it be water or or actually sometimes it can come out sausage like but but the mucus you can get that slimy, clear, goopy kind of mucus, and it's also in that type of scenario, that you may see flecks of blood in the mucous if the bowel is significantly inflamed. Okay. And is it true that if your dog is a puppy or a senior, it doesn't matter that their poop should all look the same is that right? In terms of normal should look like, correct? Yes. Yeah, Um generally speaking. So Young dogs, because they have an immature gastrointestinal tract tend to deficate more frequently. So it wouldn't be unheard of to have an eight week old puppy. That's going three, possibly four times a day. Luckily, once they get a little bit older, it goes to twice or once even, depending on the dog and what they're eating. But yes, the color the consistency, again, they you will know perhaps whether it was table food or eating another animal’s food, you know, it can change due to various circumstances. But yes, what's normal for one is generally normal for from young to old. Okay. And Dr. Kimberly, what is your tip, if we need to bring a stool sample into the veterinarian? Should it be in a Ziploc or a Tupperware type container? Should it be refrigerated after we collect it? What do you like to see? That's an awesome question. Yeah. So the most important thing actually, is that it be as fresh as possible. And one of the things that I also wanted to mention while we're on to your audience is, a lot of the times we pet owners will be carefully monitoring the stool and happy that they're not seeing any parasites. What we tend to look for when we do a fecal and look at the stool for parasites are actually microscopic eggs. And so you're not really going to see those with the naked eye when you're picking up your dog's poop. And so having a fresh stool sample is really going to be the most effective way because if it's too late, i.e. over a day or more, or if it's left in a hot car, the eggs actually burst and are not the sample isn't as accurate either. And so it would be ideal to have a stool sample from that morning. You can pick it up and put it either in a deli container or ziplock bag. That doesn't matter so much. It doesn't necessarily if you're dropping it off in, you know, two hours, you can leave it on the counter, but you don't want to leave it in a hot car or in front of a window. And, but if it's going to be a little bit more than that, like, you're going to run errands and you'll do it after lunch, it certainly wouldn't be any downside to leaving it in the in the refrigerator. The one of the thing that I would say that owners do see in the poop are these, you can see with severe infections, beansprout type, thin spaghetti like worms, which are round worms, you can see those usually in either adult dogs or puppies that have are fairly older and haven't been dewormed adequately, because now that is the dying off worm coming out. And then the second one is the tape worm, which are the little rice, short rice worms, which are actually egg casings. So they're egg casings from a tapeworm that lives in the gut. And it's kind of like a train. So it's made up of all these little cars or egg cases. And then intermittently, those come out, and you see them stuck to the hair around the anus. And those are actually transmitted via fleas. And so the flea is the intermediary host. I'm getting grossed out. But it's important to talk about I know. Too much information. clients come in, and they want to they show us these worms, or they'll call and say, I saw a worm in my dog's poop, so I didn't want to be corrected saying that there were never ever any worms. Now, hopefully, they'll have a little more information. Or could look it up. No we appreciate that. Well, as we're wrapping up, is it fair to say that if a dog eats a healthy diet, has a healthy gut microbiome, therefore a healthy GI tract? That they would rarely experience diarrhea? No, I would say they would experience it less. As we all know, dogs, put their tongues on everything, you know, they're in the park, they're playing with other dogs, they're picking up a leaf or a stick. Most cases of diarrhea are what we call acute, meaning something got in wreaked havoc for, you know, anywhere for 24 hours to 48 hours, to some degree doesn't even have to be might just be a softening. And then it runs its course as it were. And so that's that's typically the presentation. And so, barring those exposures, they also sometimes can eat grass that might have been treated with a chemical or mushrooms that are growing in yards or in mulch. But yeah, as a general rule, if they're on a good food, they're not exposed to too many antibiotics and other things then, and good quality ingredients, then yeah, generally speaking, they experience much less diarrhea concerns, yes. Okay. Are there any supplements or pro or prebiotics, that you would recommend that our dogs take as a prevention? Well, there are in some situations, so I think if you're you're feeding, you know, a long term nutritional diet with adequate vitamins and minerals and AAFCO certified, then, you know, I think that that should have many of the basic core requirements in it. The circumstance that I think is helpful is when dogs are perhaps traveling, going to the groomers boarding and sometimes just in any case, having something at home should should they get the runs and so there's a awesome product called DoggyStat that works really well. Having probiotics, a lot of acute diarrhea is a responsive to that. But again, it's less of a preventative other than the boarding scenario. So I don't think there's too much benefit of having them on it day in day out for years if you're otherwise on a good brand of food or source of nutrition. The other thing though, that they're there, I do find depending on the dog, again, not the run of the mill everybody doing dogs doing great, but I do think just like with people, there tends to be a little low fiber content in the diet. And just like with us fiber is a very good prebiotic, it fortifies and nourishes the microbiome. And that really helps to again Keep, keep the gut in good keel and balance. Well, thank you for all that. And I'm so glad you mentioned DoggyStat, because you were one of the people that helped develop this amazing product. Can you just tell our listeners briefly what it is? And I for one needed it once you know, Winston has very few bouts of diarrhea. But when he did, I got to use it. And he was fine. The next morning, it was great. So can you tell us about it and why everyone that owns a dog needs to have it on hand. Yeah, I'd love to. It is an all natural food supplement. And what it does is is it helps to take the dog's intestinal tract from distress, and back to normal to normal functioning. And it's a combination of egg and colostrum products. There are numerous papers actually on the benefits of colostrum. But generally speaking, we find that this optimal, all natural combination of ingredients, just the way Mother Nature made them really has a soothing effect on the gastrointestinal tract, and sooths diarrhea within one dose. The reason why I think it's important and I think people should just keep it in their doggie cupboards, you know, we all have a drawer with the poop bags and the leash and all that. Because if there ever is an emergency in the middle of the night, or the weekends with blowout diarrhea, it can be quite expensive to run to the veterinary emergency service. And as long as like I said those other parameters your dog is otherwise, you know, alert responsive, he just has the the runs, this is a very good thing to buy you some time so that you would be able to get to your veterinary veterinarian in the morning, obviously, if there’s anything. In addition to the GI upset you should really reach out to the emergency hospital. But I think that this is for that low level of gi upset diarrhea waking up every few hours to go out. This is Mother Nature's recipe on how to calm that down. Yes, and it is a fantastic product. And of course you guys, we are giving you a discount to try DoggyStat. So we are offering 10% off if you use the code, WAG off of your order, just go to https://doggystat.com/ And again, that code is WAG to get 10% off. Dr. Kimberly, we are running out of time. So I just want to thank you so much for shedding a light on poop. And was such good information. Oh my gosh, we can't thank you enough. Is there anything you want to leave us with? I just want to thank you very much for for having me. I hope that your audience has found this information helpful and and maybe given a little bit of a rule of thumb on how quickly and when they should speak with their vet about the GI distress of their dog? Well, we appreciate this awesome information. Dr. Kimberly, where can everyone find out more information about you? Oh, well, great. Yes. I'm on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn on there. My name, Kimberley Khodakhah. And if. anyone ever has any questions that can always message me there. I'd be happy to answer any questions or further conversation as needed. Sure. Perfect. Well, we will put all of this information in the show notes as well. Dr. Kimberly, thank you so much and have a tail wagging day. You too. Thank you. We want to again thank the team at DoggyStat for sponsoring this episode. And for making such an amazing product. Why not order your DoggyStat today by going to DoggyStat.com and be sure to use the discount code WAG for 10% off. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. that's also where to visit our bark about it page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. you're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston, was that another tail wagging episode? Thanks for Listening! Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the Bark About it section. Or you can click on the social media buttons to share an episode. Special thanks to Dr. Khodakhah for being on the show. Catch you next time! Also, don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE and please leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Android | Spotify I Stitcher I iHeartRADIO The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. The host as well as guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and Wag Out Loud LLC neither endorses or opposes any particular views discussed here.

Hello everyone, this is Krista with episode number 115 of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. this is interesting. 45% of dogs sleep in their owner’s bed. And speaking of sleeping, all dogs dream, but puppies and senior dogs dream more frequently than adult dogs. I didn't know that. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud Podcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. We appreciate our friends at Finnessiam Health for sponsoring today’s episode. You don’t want to subject your dog to dyes, fragrances, parabens, silicones and other harsh chemicals do you? These toxins, commonly found in most pet grooming products are having a harmful effect on your dog. Why not be confident in using only non-toxic, gentle, yet highly effect grooming products like those in the Finnessiam Health Lineup? I’ve tried several of the Finnessiam products on my dog Winston and am a huge fan! Many of the items include colloidal silver, known to act as an antibacterial and anti inflammatory. Remember, the skin is the body’s largest organ so, let’s ditch the harsh chemicals and synthetic colors, fragrances, and ingredients that can hurt your dog. Treat your dog to the all-natural Finnessiam products at FinnessiamHealth.com and be sure to use the code WOL15 at checkout to receive 15% off. Your dog will thank you! Welcome dog lovers, we have another informative episode of The Wag Out Loud pawdcast and thrilled that you are here. Today we have Wendie Patrick, and she is here to chat with us about What's in the Bottle. It's a quick dive into ingredients and why you should care. So Wendie, please introduce yourself and share your mission of helping your clients lead happier, healthier lives. Originally from Northern Ireland, Wendie Patrick now calls the picturesque Gaspereau Valley in Nova Scotia home, where she owns and runs Dogs of Pride & Finnessiam Holistic Health. Wendie helps her animal and human clients lead happier, healthier lives by identifying nutrient deficiencies, sensitivities or allergies to food or chemicals in their environment. She makes her own line for animals, including a CBD alternative, under the Finnessiam brand which name stems from the three dogs in the Dogs of Pride logo, Finn, Jesse and William. Wendie is happily owned by two dogs, two cats and two horses! Absolutely. Krista, thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be on Wag Out Loud today. And I'm a certified master groomer and I retired actually due to health reasons I had like her have or had Lyme disease. But originally from Northern Ireland, lots and lots of strings to my bow. And from the the grooming side of stuff, it helped me open doors into what am I putting on this dog? What am I putting on my skin to put on the dog? And why is nobody talking about this, or people who have tried to talk about it for years, myself included for the past 10 years. And lots of people still don't actually care. So that's kind of where I'm at at the minute I'm what I work towards is trying to get education out there, trying to help people understand why it does matter. And a lot of things are starting to change in the industry, and in the natural healthcare world and in the cosmetics world. So I think there's a big growth and boom, in the sense of stuff exposing itself and getting exposed and being talked about. So I'm kind of right in the middle of all of that. And I like to stand in the middle with my big spoon and stir the pot a little. bit more. Great. Well, let's start stirring. I am so glad that you're here with us today. And let's start with you and I have both seen you know people that read all of the labels that go into their food and products. And we want to make sure that our family is organic and chemical and hormone free and sustainable products that we use. But don't you notice that a lot of us do not even think about this when it comes to our dogs. So why do we forget about all this good stuff that we're doing for ourselves and not do the same for our dogs? Well exactly Now. I mean you can say that that's very true when it comes to nutrition that everybody reads the labels. And a lot of people are really starting to wake up and read the labels and understand a little bit more about nutrition when it comes to their pets health, dietary wise. But realistically, when was the last time you stood in your own shower and turned your shampoo bottle around? certainly, once we, you know, hit that wonderful age of, I can't see without glasses anymore, the last thing you're going to be able to do stand in the shower, while you're giving your conditioner a minute or two to sit, and you're going to be able to read the back of that bottle because it's too darn small, you can't see that. And they want it that way. There's a lot of ingredients. And sometimes the only way they could get it in there is to make this font smaller. So a lot of people really aren't. You know, if it smells nice, if it feels good, if it doesn't leave an oily residue, or it doesn't over dry your skin or make your skin cracked, people just carry on and keep using it. So they're not going to look at what's going into a pet product. and nine times out of 10 if they've ever even used a grooming product that may have come from a vet initially. And then they're using a groomers. So they're thinking, well, the onus is off me because now it's the vet or the groomer’s responsibility to know what's in that. And I'm trusting them that what they're using is safe. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's talk about grooming products. Why do we need to take a closer look at these grooming products that are going on our dogs? Well, I think the biggest thing that was alerted to me about eight or nine years ago was that a lot of the cosmetics ingredients reviews, or the EWG groups, any of those actual groups who look at the ingredients and test them for safety. Some of those are nonprofit groups, and some of them, basically, all of them, they don't have enough time in the day to look at anything that's labeled for pets, so they don't actually look at anything that's legal for pets. So there's very, very little regulations. Never mind, I mean, dog grooming itself is an unregulated industry, it's all self regulated. So you've got an unregulated industry with a lot of, you know, self starters, or self learnt self taught people which there is nothing wrong with. But there's nothing out there to even educate the groomers, or the pet owners on what are the ingredients in pet shampoo, if it's got a shiny ad, if it smells good. If it lathers up well, if it. leaves it clean. And the dogs nice and fluffy at the end of Mrs. Jones is happy? Well, that's all that, you know, really is considered. And I'm sure dogs really care about how great they you know, they smell like a daisy or rose. Okay, well, I know for a fact that a lot of synthetic fragrances, which are found in most of these products, they've been linked to cancer. And they actually cause reproductive toxicity. I mean, there are studies that show this. So I mean, these ingredients, you know, we look at them, and we're like, well, I don't know what that means. I don't know that word. But if you really strip it down, these are carcinogens. These are pesticides, and all sorts of irritants that actually have a negative effect on what is the largest organ there, Wendie? Oh, that would be the skin Krista. Again, yeah. Okay, well, all of this is being absorbed into your dog's skin and therefore into your skin. So if we can start with what are these ingredients that we need to avoid? Alright, I'm glad you asked. I want to actually pick up on your comment about scents as well about them being carcinogens and stuff. And I formulated my own that it was scent free, not initially. And I bought a lot of scents as well from a very, very reputable company, about possibly putting scents into them. Until I broke down the ingredients in the scents alone. The length of ingredients was mind blowing, and just tons and tons and tons of chemicals. And even at that I stopped and I want I'm not even going to put that in there. But the main thing that we're finding that's already existed in a lot of products, and what is quite amusingly being advertised in the big, glossy, glossy magazines and human cosmetics is the little button that comes up on the screen or on the page. And it says now paraben free. And there was no big hoo ha about that. There was no big fanfare or circus or parade. It just all of a sudden started appearing. now from the ingredient. are the products that I was carrying one I had to unfortunately, I had to drop due to this whole pallava that's going on in the world last year. But one of the lines that I still carry, they've always been paraben free. And that's the kind of people that I work with. And it was like, Well, why, and they showed me the science, they showed me the information, they showed me the writing on the wall, that all of these parabens are endocrine disruptors, where even a nurse validated this were little boys are being born with innies... And we're not talking belly buttons. So the fertility rates are changing. And any skin barrier deficiency, which means as simple as a paper cut, a lot of people go well, I don't have a skin barrier deficiency, because I don't have an autoimmune condition, or bla bla bla, bla bla and open sores, doesn't mean that it means the tiniest little paper cut that allows anything into your skin, or the dog's skin, or how many groomers just got scratched, because they just trimmed the nails on the dog. And they're all back of their hands is wide open. All that stuff's going straight into your bloodstream, including the dog’s. So it's funny because I know you're in the US, and I'm up in Canada. And there was a thing where you could only bring in a certain amount of paraben content and an a product to get it across the border to pass through Health Canada. So they then very cleverly, or sneakily decided, well hang on a minute, instead of calling it paraben, Let's go to propylparaben methylparaben, and break it down to five or seven different ones, where they could be all under 1% each, but collectively could be maybe 6%. Sneaky, so very sneaky. So things like that have been building up. And now a lot of companies are getting rid of them. Because they must know that. You know they've seen that? Well, I mean, if you go to the the Cancer Institute 97% of breast cancer tumors tested contained parabens. So that's just shocking. And it's this kind of stuff that's building up in your system that you can't get rid of. Now you're wondering, Well, why is that important to my dog? Well might not be important to your dog, but your dog doesn't apply this product itself. It doesn't have opposable thumbs. So it's very important to me for the groomers, that they get more educated and knowledgeable about this, because there's a lot of groomers that I've known in my career that have died from cancer. And they've never looked at the products they've been using to make any correlation to it whatsoever. Is there? I don't know. Is there not? I don't know. But there's only you know, so many things that aren't coincidences. Yep. I agree. And not only for groomers, but you know, people like me that I actually grew my own dog. Right. You know, I need to know what I'm using is safe for my dog and myself. Yeah. So I looked up the top. No no's as far as ingredients, and I just would like you to, you know, chime in on what what these are and why they're bad for our dogs and ourselves. How about DEA? DEA is something that you don't want in there. Oh, I wish I could remember the big long word that it actually is Diethanolamine. Even saying. it, If I can't say it, I shouldn't use it. Exactly. Right. And I'll go back to another one of those a big long word in a minute, which we'll I'll teach you how to say. But DEAs, MEAsAs. They're all to do with methyls to a point. So it's like an alcoholic byproduct byproduct horribly synthesized, blah, blah, blah. It's something else you just don't want in your system. So you won't find DEAs or MEAs and a lot of products but they are there. They are there in an awful lot of cosmetics. Okay, and this makes the dog shampoo sudsy? Yeah, great. Wow. SLS (sodium laureth) or SLES (sodium lauryl ether sulfate)? Okay. All right. So SLS is the most common surfactants. So SLS is sodium lauryl sulfate. SLES is sodium laureth sulfate, which is a gentler version of SLS. So if you're looking at your shampoo compared to say, baby shampoo, your shampoo may be SLS, the baby shampoo with SLES. So it's just a milder, gentler, less abrasive, less harsh, less stripping, less drying. Now, there's lots and lots of fear mongering around that. And it's not so much the actual ingredient, but it's the process of how they got there. So SLS was basically fear mongered and blacklisted. From a smear campaign in the 80s in the on the internet, that it causes cancer that it does this that it does that does the other. If you actually research it through the Cancer Institute, there are no causes from SLS. However, the process of making SLS, there can be a byproduct created called 14 dioxane that is cancer causing hands down, no question. So it's almost like saying, Okay, I've got I'm having beef for supper. So is that beef? Dog food quality? Or is that beef, Kobe beef. So there's a huge difference in that whole spectrum as to what side of that that goes on, but it still can be labeled as beef. So SLS would be the same way. Is it coming from a very cheap, quick, fast and dirty production, where they don't care what's off gassing or being produced and doing it or what heat or how fast or what is developing, they're just getting it done and getting it out there? Or is it something is slower done with some better ingredients to begin with. And it's processed a different way that that 14 dioxane never even raises its head. So I mean, I don't know how they actually create SLS. If I was to go into a lab to create it itself, I wouldn't know where to start. But somebody does somewhere. So they know whether that's coming from, well, if you want to say your dollar store quality, or your your Marriott Hotels or whatever, I don't know what end of the spectrum to the other as to what the quality is. And you can usually tell what it's going to be by the price of what that product is sitting on the shelf. Now there's two sides to that sword, that product that's sitting on the shelf at $20. You may never, ever have heard of that company before. You may never have seen the name. And then you've got one beside it. That's also $20. But you've seen the TV ads, you've seen the happy little puppies jumping rind after their owners or playing in the tub, or lovely marketing done, where they've done campaigns where you see the name that's been attached to charities, or road trips, or whatever else it is kids camps, right? What's that $20 paying for? In that well known brand? Yeah, marketing? Right, exactly the same as your dog food. So you want to ask is that there? It's terrible, where we cannot take things at face value anymore. And we haven't for a while, it's just that we've missed the plot. And the fact that we've been just carry on on doing what we're doing and thinking we're fine, and that nobody would ever lie to us. And then you go hang on a minute, something not right with that, or somebody takes a bad reaction or whatever. And then the light bulb goes on, and you really start digging and you don't know where to stop after a while. Well, sure. And you mentioned, this is an unregulated industry. So I've heard that many manufacturers actually buy their source ingredients, and then mix them with other chemicals to develop their own product. Right. So, I've heard the term greenwashing. So they're marketing this as a natural product. And they have very loose claims, of course. And to your point, it's all about boosting the sales and their marketing efforts. So it's awful. Yes, that's awesome. Because as we were chatting earlier on, I was just jotting down some keywords. And I have greenwashing right here beside me on my notepad. Because one of the big things with that is, yeah, you can mix all of these products and all the rest of it. And it's funny actually, that's how I got started and what I was doing and delving into the products because I would go to these big trade shows, go to these manufacturers reps, and go, okay, what's in it? Or what do you want to know that for? Oh, it's proprietary ingredients. Oh, it's a trade secret. Oh, it's this or the other. And then I found a wonderful company called Show Season. And I said, you tell me what's in it. Sure. Here. I'm basically get handed a file with the ingredients for every shampoo. I said, so how come you're going to tell me this? But him him him? him her them over there? are not willing to? And she's like, well, half the times they don't know because they're buying it from somewhere else Exactly. Like you said, right. And secondary is because I will give you the recipe. But I won't give you the quantities of the or I'll give you the ingredients but I won't give you the recipe. Hmm. Big difference. And it was like, Huh, right. So that was interesting. Plus a lot of this greenwashing if you're thinking that SLS is bad Scary and SLES is bad and scary. And then you look at the big long one, which I think is the best one, which is the cocoamidopropyl betaine. Yeah, thank you, Barbara Bird, big shout out to a mentor from the very beginning of my career. But she was the one who taught us in a seminar. If you're going to learn to talk about this stuff, you're gonna have to learn to say it. Yeah. So she had a sing it. So that was, that was very, very fun. And I've never forgotten that as a Yeah, I'm not going to sing it. I won't pierce your eardrums of your listeners. But if you go back to all of this, they all originally start out as a coconut. So SLS is actually in to get to SLS. I don't have the equipment, I kind of do know how to get there. But I don't have the equipment to do it. But you are starting with a coconut. So if you look at this greenwashing and you look at the back and you go, Oh, this is making me feel so nice, because it's just coconut derived. And that's how they label their ingredient. Well, coconut derived can be SLS, with 14 dioxane as a byproduct, which is highly carcinogenic. So how fluffy are you feeling right now? I’m not feeling fluffy. Now, it's almost criminal. I mean, we can be blindsided enough. But when it comes to Fluffy there in the corner, possibly getting hurt or having a toxic buildup of chemicals in his system by the age of five and having seizures or whatever, then to me, that's my purpose. That's why I'm here. And I want to help that from being avoided. Well, we appreciate that. The one thing we didn't cover, as far as bad ingredients are artificial dyes. Not only do we think that the shampoo that our dog is in, has to smell good. And lather well, but it has to be a pretty color. Can you talk to that? Oh, that's a whole other show. It is basically unless it's a temporary color, i.e. food color, chalk, or water base colorant. Critter Color by Warren London is a great one, then stay the away from it. Because you do not want anything else acting on that. And everybody go Oh, well, we don't apply that skin level, go to a florists with a bunch of white carnations and ask them to show you how to change that bunch into 15 different colors. hairs do this same thing. And they wick the color into the skin, which goes into the bloodstream. So yeah, we're not going to even go there. But just don't do it people unless it's temporary. So we're talking about the toxicity that all these chemicals are actually creating in our dogs. And I would think because I already had a dermatologist on the show once and the number one issue is allergies. Is skin irritation is hot spot is constant itching. So these bad grooming products are only exasperating the entire itchiness and dry skin of our dogs. Is that right? Certainly can be absolutely the best to that that I can speak to is you go to a groomer or you go and buy some grooming products that are basically labeled to help itchy skin. Now, unless you know what you're looking at or what you're doing or you’re a professional groomer that's done some research. A lot of these products are so over drying. And if a dog's smelly and yeasty, stinky and itchy, then usually you want to get that cleaned. But if the chemicals or the The ingredients are too harsh, and over dry that skin, all you're going to do is upset the balance of the microbiome. So you've basically now created another issue and you add insult to injury because the dog's skin will go into hyperdrive to over produce sebum, which is the oiliness that creates the smelliness, which builds up and there we go again. So it's knowing how to gently look after that, how to deal with it from a gentle manner on a regular basis rather than a one and done because the one and done is not going to happen. The one I've done is going to continue forever. Unless you're really really lucky. I mean, there's always the one out there that that's going to work for but chances are it's coming back again the same time next year. So get that caustic product out, put the gloves on and away you go in a well ventilated area. Yeah, speaking of which a lot of vet shampoos have that on the label. That should be a huge red flag right there. Look at the vet books. And if you look at all the vet books and all of the the actual pictures in the vet books of a dog, the one thing that's not actually labeled is the skin, The largest organ, yeah. Right. So why is it not looked at? And you said that a lot of groomers are bathing dogs in dawn dish soap? Dogs are not dishes. Yeah, unfortunately, there still are. Put it this way. And this is where it came from. And unfortunately, a lot of people stayed in that mentality and never actually educated themselves or learned anything beyond that. But it started off with, that's all we have. That's all they had was dish soap. They didn't have pet shampoo, like come on. And you know, go back to the 70s, the 60s, we didn't have specific dog shampoo, this is a fad. So a lot of people are still in that mindset that all of these products out there now are just money grabbers. And this is really, really sad. How that that's looked at. But if you even I mean, Dawn dish soap is the one that's most commonly talked about, or named, because they have little fluffy ducks and everything else. But those are little fluffy ducks that were just saved from an oil spill, right? It's not just the little fluffy duck that you had on the back with your chickens. And if you actually write to Dawn, and email them, which you can and ask, Can I use your dish soap on dogs, you will get an email back and go. That's not what the products designed for. So there's that themselves. And they don't want that. It's basically that they agree as well that it's to be used in dire circumstances, when pretty much you've got the choice of degrease or death. And that's where you know, you're going to try and help these one time. Yeah, the animals and this oil spill, that may actually have a chance of surviving then, but it's certainly not supposed to be used for washing your dogs in. lots of people say as the best thing you can use for fleas, well, you know what, any good pet product that's applied properly, i.e. on a dry coat, and let sit for a little bit will also kill fleas. Right? It's as opposed to you don't want the dog done first and then go in with the with the shampoo. Because at that point, all the fleas have run up the nose or in the ears or up the bum or wherever else it can hide. Yes. But if you apply it on a dry coat and you let it sit, then it will actually get a lot of fleas as well. But yeah, I'm sorry, Okay, so we're going to now switch no more doom and gloom. But okay, this is happening. So Wendie, you've created your own line of grooming products, because of this very reason what you saw out there and the damage that it's doing? And many of your products contain Colloidal Silver. So can you tell us what the benefits are? And why did you decide to take this on? Sure. It was one of those Never Say Never scenarios as well where a few people have said Oh, you should make your own. I'm like, What would I do that for the wheel’s already invented and I like the wheel. until the wheel fell off with the pandemic and a lot of my groomers closed and had to shut down and therefore sales of my most popular products disappeared and therefore did not make sense for me to bring it in. But there was two of those products in that line that I absolutely loved and adored as did a lot of my clients. still didn't want me shipping and pallets of it across the country. So I was like, Well, what can I do? So I thought, Well, why don't I have a look into this and I know what I'm sure I'm looking for. And I also know that the Colloidal Silver which I've been making for years, and we also sell the Colloidal Silver under the Finnesiam brand. And I was like well, that would really add to having a nice topical which is gentle antibacterial anti inflammatory to a point. So that would replace a product that I had called Sooth, which of course you can still get just not with me. And that's from Show Season in case anyone is wanting to know and and also their True Tearless which is dye and scent free. So those would be my two top ones that I didn't have an alternative from in my other line that I sell. So it was like alright, let's get to work here and see if I can create something. And long story short I did and it's awesome. Sorry to toot my own horn there because I'm getting validation from an awful lot of people. Yeah, so yeah, with the colloidal it just made sense because I make it so it's an easy ingredient for me to have. Plus it's an incredible ingredient to have and the scent free. There's an awful lot of people who are scent sensitive. And I notice that whenever I moved to Nova Scotia, where a lot of buildings like the Y and all the hospitals, everything else were all sent free zones and They're very against it. And I find out that a lot of it is actually being caused to scent allergies from people who a lot of them worked in the fishing industry out here on the coast and have been using pure bleaches for so long, that it's pretty much destroyed their insides just breathing in the fumes. So the scent free was important. And the more I got into it, the more I thought, well, the olfactory senses of a dog and cat are so much more exaggerated than ours are, then maybe they'd be a little happier with a scent free too because they're not reacting to, when you pick them up from the groomer as to how wonderful they smell. They're reacting and happy about being groomed, because you're happy, right? They're picking up your energy and they're going Oh, my owner’s so happy. I must be so good. And they don't care that they smell like you know, a bouquet of roses or, you know, a manly manly smell or whatever. But they're just happy to have their haircut be pampered. And they're the star attraction for that particular hour of the day. Yes. Well, Wendie we are running out of time. But I just wanted to quickly mention to everybody, I of course, with all of the products that we talked about here, I have to know like and trust. And I did try Wendie’s SCENTsitive, hypoallergenic shampoo on my dog Winston, who is a terrier with a very wirey coat. And I have to tell you, I love it for so many reasons. But I noticed right away that it doesn't smell it has no fragrance at all. And that's what I one of the reasons I love it. So unless your dog rolled in something stinky, they should not smell. And if they're being fed a fresh food, whole food or raw food diet, they should not smell. So I loved that it didn't strip his natural oils. It made his coat shiny and soft ,yet still course with his wirey coat. So I just I love what you are doing. So thank you for seeing a hole in your lineup and creating some amazing products. So Wendie where can everyone find out more information about you and Finnessiam Holistic Health, and your Dogs of Pride? Well, thank you very much, Krista for those kind words as well. And I'm glad you enjoyed the product. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, whether it's under Dogs of Pride, which is the part that looks after the products more than anything else. And then FinnessiamHealth.com, which is our brand and Finnessiam Holistic Health, which is my holistic health practice, where we can delve into all sorts of things as well. You can get me at FinnessiamHealth.com, or https://www.dogsofpride.com/ and our YouTube channel is Dogs of Pride. And you can also watch for Quantumly Yours Podcast as well, which just came out last week. That's so exciting. And Wendie and her team are making a special offer to our listeners to try any of her amazing grooming and health products. So you just have to use the code WOL15 at checkout. And that will give all of our listeners a 15% discount to try any of the products at FinnessiamHealth.com. And I will put all of this great information with the links in the show notes so that you guys can get there automatically. And Wendie real quick. You said that you're also a health care practitioner with clients all over the world. How does that work? If anybody's interested? Yes, ma'am. At FinnessiamHealth.com is the best one to go to on our Contact Us page. You can book a remote consult there. We work remotely, virtually whatever you want to call it. And it's energy testing. We're basically quantum practitioners, we work in that lovely field of everywhere and anywhere. We're all connected, so we can look after you and test for allergy sensitivities, parasites, nutrient deficiencies and all sorts of fun stuff and either yourself or your pets. Well, you are doing amazing work. We appreciate you for that. And hopefully we've changed some of your minds as far as grooming products. And even if you have your dog groomed by a professional groomer, bring your own products. It's your dog and you have to be their advocate. Wendie, thank you so much for sharing such great information today. Thank you so much Krista. It has been a pleasure. Thanks again to the team at Finnissiam Health for sponsoring this episode. Check out the their fantastic lineup of non-toxic grooming products by going to FinnessiamHealth.com and be sure to use the code WOL15 for 15% off! And 10% of sales go toward supporting animal rescues. Thanks for listening, you'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit https://www.wagoutloud.com/ for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our bark about it page where you can suggest topics guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. you're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?