Vital Animal News: December 15, 2024

Pet Obesity / Standing Up to Germ Fears / Pet Insurance Stats Tell a Story / Take Your Time, and MORE.

1. Pet Obesity: Drug Deficiency?

2. Vet Get Blow Back on Raw Food

3. Pet Insurance Data: Revelatory

4. Tasty Tips: Time

5. Along the Natural Path

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Is There a Medical Cure for Obesity?

Time to come to grips with another epidemic.

Clearly man made, as no wolf would ever look like that poor Beagle, right?

The article that picture comes from is in Veterinary Practice News.

There are a lot of fatties around us. Maybe you noticed.

In both humans and in pets, the trend is disturbing.

Americans are now 75% overweight or obese and our pets aren’t far behind at ~60% of dogs and cats packing more fat than is good for them.

Overweight is Underhealthy

Again, true for all species, right?

From the article that inspired this section:

“The health risks associated with obesity are significant in both humans and animals and include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, joint issues, and even cancer.”

Too much fat also brings inflammation, chronic inflammation, not only a drag to live with but, as we’re realizing more now, yes: inflammation is a precursor to cancer.

That understanding inspired me to preach “Get those rotten teeth pulled, for God’s Sake!”

There’s a slow shift taking place in the understanding of why this is fat epidemic is happening.

Old School vs New Kid on the Block

The old theory that’s problematic is centered around calories.

Too many going in, not enough burned, says the old school, in both people and pets.

Shorthand, that’s called CICO (calories in vs calories out), or it’s all about too much food and not enough exercise.

That dying theory has several shortcomings:

• It fails to recognize the significant difference between the macronutrients we all eat:

  • Protein

  • Fats

  • Carbohydrates

For example, it fails to note what we know when we look deeper: the first two promote satiety while the last one promotes hunger.

The three also have different hormonal and metabolic consequences.

A big picture loss when carbs are seen as “just calories” is this:

• Carbs drive hunger.

• Carbs turn to sugar, and sugar turns to fat very easily.

• Carbs push one into insulin resistance.

• High insulin drives fat deposition (even if it never results in diabetes).

“Experts” Stuck in the Old School

The “old school” nutritionists still cling to this supposition of CICO, as evidenced by this highly degreed vet writing in the article I cited:

The most common cause of obesity among U.S. pets, says Laflamme, is a combination of too many daily calories and too little exercise—the same lifestyle that causes weight gain in humans.

Exercise is a very important piece of the equation,” Laflamme says. “Most pets are indoors most of the time, and a walk twice a day really isn’t enough.” —Dottie Laflamme, DVM, PhD, ACVIM (Nutrition), “who spent 30 years in research and development at Purina.”

No kidding on the exercise. We all benefit from more and lose ground with less.

Move or lose it (or maybe better: Move it AND lose it!)

But, unless diet changes take place (what is fed and how often), no amount of exercise will restore a normal weight.

Like a Yo Yo, Baby

Diets based on CICO often get labeled “Yo Yo” diets.

• People limiting calorie intake are miserable, hungry all the time, and probably “hangry” as well. It’s a struggle to shed those pounds. (Ever been pestered by a hungry pet? You know what I’m talking about…)

• Their weight loss, while sometimes impressive, is not sustainable.

• Without understanding macronutrients and time restricted feeding, most CICO dieters return to overweight or obesity.

So, lose weight, regain it, get serious again, rinse and repeat.

Over and over, as health deteriorates from metabolic dysfunction.

New Kid: Looking Deeper

The metabolic theory posits that WHAT we eat/feed and WHEN have the major impact on weight.

More protein and good fats, less carbs equals more satiety and a better “set point” that doesn’t yoyo around.

And Time Restricted Feeding, aka intermittent fasting, does a body good.

For inspiration, check YouTube or Reddit for amazing weight loss stories and pics of people doing low carb and TRF.

Minimal TRF for any pet over 10-20 lbs: once a day feeding. The wee ones and cats, twice a day, but the window of food access is short for everyone (grazing is for cows and horses):

• 10 minutes for dogs (who should come hungry, “wolf” their food, and be done

• 30 minutes for cats

• When the window closes, you pick up the food and move on to other activities.

Kibble is Karby

The greatest mistake comes in conventional medicine’s failure to see what that convenience food called kibble in bringing to the food dish.

Are your pets carb junkies?

In people, it's over processed junk food catching the blame as the carb source.

But what do you call kibble if not over processed junk food?

How about Prescription Diets, though?

Nah, they’re just “expensive junk food!"

Okay, so grain free then? Is that the answer?

Sorry, no.

Those food like particles have to be held together by some kind of carb glue, so you’ll find grain free diets full of other starchy carbs, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, tapioca, etc.

Okay, but Drugs?

First, you probably know by now that drugs don’t cure disease, especially anything chronic (Modern Medicine’s Dirty Secret)

And so it goes with obesity, with people flocking to drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy.

Shortcuts to health?

Not if you dig beyond the TV ads and headlines, no.

Side effects abound:

• GI issues, like vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and pain (the drugs slow stomach emptying, which, along with the other side effects can be very uncomfortable and leads to many stopping the drug)

• Pancreatitis (the drug stimulates the pancreas to pump out more insulin)

• Kidney, liver, and gall bladder issues

So, as usual with drug fixes, there’s a submenu of problems that tag along with the purported benefits.

But, luckily for us, Real $cientists are working out a drug for pets.

Yay! (Or not…)

Sure, we know how hard it is to get pills into cats.

And no way are they going to tolerate a weekly injection, like people are giving themselves with Ozempic.

But no worries, the folks who do $cience have developed an implant that delivers a sustained dose of an Ozempic-like drug to your cat.

For six months. Ahem.

They chose cats first, because, well, it’s hard to take your cat for more walks, right?

Dogs drugs will follow if the cats respond as hoped.

When people are leaving these drugs in droves, even after losing weight initially, why would we think pets will do any better?

Follow the money, honey.

A wiser path

With cats, there’s zero logic to allowing them a kibble diet.

Even worse, a free choice kibble diet that they can graze on.

My article No Kibble for Kitty! will help you understand that kibble’s convenience is greatly outweighed by Ms. Kitty’s inherent nature.

You can do great by those felines (and canines) in your household by feeding them a species appropriate diet.

Appropriate to their wild cousins and ancestors, who along with every domestic dog and cat share the same call:

Where’s the prey?!”

Here’s a page with some ideas on how to pull the kibble and feed the call.

Let us know in the comments if you’re seeing these co-epidemics of pet + people obesity, and if you’ve made any inroads in your own family.

Note: there’s a COMMENT button at the bottom of every issue. Please take advantage of that, as I’ll be reading every.single.one.

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Raw Food Dangers? Listen here!

When we get home, there’s gonna be my dish full of raw goodies, right? Yummm, thanks Mom!

Finally. Another hit piece on raw diets gets its comeuppance from holistic vets.

The conventional veterinary community still drags its feet on raw diets in the face of thousands in the trenches who’ve been feeding this way for decades.

But now, in a main stream conventional journal, the author, one Daniel L. Chan, DVM, DACVECC, DECVECC, DACVIM (Nutrition), DACVN, MRCVS, University of London has been called out for such foolishness.

With all those degrees, can you imagine the ivory tower he lives in?

And lives in fear of bacterial plagues, no doubt.

His title: Risks of Feeding Raw Diets to Dogs & Considerations for Human Health, was published in Clinician’s Brief. (You may or may not be able to open the link)

This quote from the article encapsulates that fear best (and I’ve heard of practices doing just this!)

When caring for dogs fed raw diets, veterinary staff should take additional precautions (eg, wearing personal protective equipment, practicing judicious hand hygiene) to avoid being colonized with bacteria that may be multi-drug resistant.”

Poor Dr. Chan has been put to rights in the comments, and it’s about time, friends and neighbors.

The most well written of these comments came a year ago, when this article must have first appeared, but I’m only seeing it now, thanks to one of my sterling Vital Animal Alpha students:

My practice is a strong advocate of raw feeding and have been doing so for 15 years.

Isolating a pathogenic E Coli from a healthy dog’s faeces within a milieu of 20 trillion other microbes surely suggests that a competent immune system requires exposure to pathogens.

The reference articles make no mention of the role that dendritic cells, T reg and T helper cells play in sampling enteric microbial antigens and subsequent modulation of the immune response in order to maintain immune competence.

Advocating for a sterile or pathogen free world ignores the fact that all life forms originated from microbes - pathogenic and non-pathogenic - and have evolved to survive and thrive in their presence. Attempting to reduce exposure to pathogens will only lead to incompetence of the immune system and ironically increased risk of disease.

Germ theory has had its day but now we need to wake up to the reality that the health and well-being of our species, our pets and our planet is causally linked to a healthy and diverse microbiome. [emphasis mine] This requires a paradigm shift - and these are usually painful, particularly as we can’t see microbes. We need to start seeing our patients (and ourselves) as ecosystems of 20 trillion microbes - after all they outnumber our body cells by 10:1 and our genes by 100:1.

The unprocessed nature of raw food and high bioavailability of the nutrients are, for us, key strengths of this type of food.

15 years of clinical experience advocating raw continues to convince us that this is the right way to go. — Richard Doyle (likely a UK vet, where they go by “Mr.” instead of Dr.)

In short, we live and have always lived cheek and jowl with “germs” of all sorts, and it’s due to their presence that our immune systems have become stronger and more resistant to invaders of all kinds.

And, as Richard deftly points out, it’s our own microbiome’s diversity that’s a key in natural disease resistance.

We also know that gut flora gets carpet bombed when antibiotics enter their domain. These drugs are broad spectrum for the most part, meaning they fail to kill only the “bad germs” while maintaining the good guys.

If you have experience in raw feeding, you are invited to comment on this at the bottom of this issue of Vital Animal News:

• Have you seen any illness related to raw feeding?

• In your animals?

• In your human family?

• How was the health of your raw fed critters changed when you made the jump to raw?

• Was it a difficult transition to make?

And for those who are still on the fence about leaving kibble (convenient but clearly over processed junk food), these folks offer some good training on doing raw safely and well.

We need not throw out germ theory as a whole, but see it in the context of a typical duality that comes from living in a complex world.

Much like the old question, “Is it genes (nature) or upbringing (nurture)?”

The answer of “Is it the germ or the terrain?” is a resounding YES.

Context is everything.

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Big Bucks Payout: Pet Insurance

It surprises me less and less when yearly data come through showing what pet insurance payouts go to.

Let’s take a look at the Top 5 Claims for Dogs and Cats by Trupanion.

They stood at 1 billion USD paid out by 2020, five years after they went into the pet insurance biz.

As of November 2024, that number climbed past 3 billion bucks, paid out to vet clinics and pet owners.

Here’s what they paid for.

In dogs, the top five conditions that got reimbursed since 2020:

1. Allergy and otitis: $128,471,744 in paid claims

2. Diarrhea: $66,742,702 in paid claims

3. Limping: $78,592,984 in paid claims

4. Vomiting: $80,462,404 in paid claims

5. Mass lesion: $103,604,609 in paid claims

Not sure how they ordered these… maybe by largest number of claims?

At any rate, the clear leader in dollars is 100% man made: “allergy” (meaning itchy skin) and “otitis” (inflamed ears, often with stinky discharge and maddening itch).

In truth, allergy is behind both skin and ear issues, with rare exception.

The “mass lesion” category (why #5?) was the second largest payout, and includes everything from benign lipomas to malignancies.

Common Threads

As a homeopathic veterinarian, bent on preventing the damage done by conventional “prevention,” the causation of these top winners is the same:

Vaccinations.

How do I know?

These are both examples of immune systems gone awry.

The first, The Itch (in skin or ears or worse, both in the same animal) is the prime example of what I’ve long termed “immune confusion.”

That well oiled system, honed over millennia in the ancestors, and primed to fight foreign invaders and save the species from infectious disease, is now so confused it’s turned on its fight mode towards benign substances that should be ignored:

• Pollen

• Grasses

• A flea bite

• A bite of chicken

And, in its wild over reaction to these benign, “always been there” substances, your dog is suffering, keeping the family up at night, and emptying your savings account slowly but inexorably.

Costly? My, my yes!

Priced Apoquel lately?

It’s the top drug prescribed for allergies these days, and it’s the only drug I’ve ever seen sold by the pill (see my previous issue on this here).

And guess what it’s chief side effect appears to be, as Zoetis assures you it’s going to make everything better?

Why, it’s none other than cancer. “Mass lesion” above, coming in at #2 in payouts.

Take a quick cruise through the comments on this, my most popular article: Apoquel: Dog Miracle Drug With a Dark Side to read real life stories from people caught by this drug’s promises with no mention of what was to follow.

The Other (Expensive) Shoe Drops

It’s not happenstance that the payouts for canine cancer are so high.

“Mass lesion” sounds benign, like a surgeon could just cut out the lump and toss it in the trash.

And sure, some masses are treated that way.

But, as in human medicine, the “standard of care” is often poisoning, radiation, and surgery addressing the mass, ignoring what caused it to appear.

More cost to you (or your insurer), with rarely much long term success, as you’ll know if you’ve had a pet or a human relative go through this misdirected mishmash of intervention.

Homeopathy has recognized the relationship between cancer and vaccination since the days of smallpox.

The Also Rans

Diarrhea? Vomiting? My Vital Animal Alpha students know how to treat those at home, as they are most often acute, self-limiting illnesses.

A proper homeopathic remedy, chosen based on the symptoms, can sort those out in half the time as allopathic meds, with nearly zero expense and none of the immune compromising antibiotics that Dr. WhiteCoat is likely to prescribe.

Ditto for acute “limping” that cost insurers $78M.

How About Kitty?

Well, the cats are talking once again.

1. Renal failure: $9,618,255 in paid claims

2. Vomiting: $18,401,635 in paid claims

3. Diarrhea: $6,128,976 in paid claims

4. Diabetes: $5,822,469 in paid claims

5. Hyperthyroidism: $3,456,438 in paid claims

There we are with vomiting again, though with cats it may be a more chronic version which a homeopathic vet could help.

If acute though?

My Alpha peeps would turn it around in an evening. At home. Ditto for most diarrhea.

The more interesting are the chronic problems and once again, they are 100% man made.

The big cats in the wild are not sick with failing kidneys, diabetes, or hyperthyroidism, you can put money on that.

More “Vaccinosis” at Work

Renal failure is probably #1 because it’s the commonest insurance claim for this mini lion. Very common in our feline friends.

The reason vaccines get the blame is pretty convoluted, but greater research minds than mine have brought the causation to light, as I pointed in my Vaccination: Safety article.

In short, vaccines are made by growing viruses on tissue culture plates.

In cat vaccines, those cells are often, wait for it… feline kidney cell cultures.

Once grown, the viruses are “washed” from the culture media, but guess what?

Some of those kidney cells sneak through into the final vaccine product.

And, injecting another cat’s kidney cells into your cat?

A stimulus to make antibodies to kidney cells, seen in this case as clearly a foreign threat.

Hey! Those ain’t my cells! RED ALERT! GET EM!”

And your Fifi then “sees” her own kidneys as foreign as well.

That’s why cats have so much more kidney disease than dogs (and I’d bet, more than people as well): immune systems chasing the wrong thing.

Thanks, Doc!

Diabetes? Really??

That disease really deserves an entire article.

In what world would an obligate carnivore (yep: your cat) get a sugar processing disease?

Sugar laden rodents?

Or something we talked about in reference to macronutrients above starting with C?

Stay tuned, I’ll tackle that another time.

Hyperthyroidism

This is a caused by a tumor.

Scroll up in case you’ve forgotten what homeopaths has known about vaccines and tumors for, oh, a couple hundred years.

Both diabetes and hyperthyroidism, now common enough to make the top 5 list of cat diseases, were virtually unheard of in my vet school days in the late 70’s.

The take away

From the insurance data to my keyboard to your mind: Be careful out there.

What passes as “prevention” these days is the commonest cause of the top diseases of pets.

As vaccines are your #1 most important decision (predictive of chronic disease more than any other piece of “prevention”), let me suggest you check out my free series that includes vaccine safety, efficacy, duration of immunity and more, all from a veterinary standpoint.

And for a deeper dive on “immune confusion” and healthy alternatives to vaccines, grab my very affordably priced Smart Vaccine Alternatives short course.

When you are well informed, you’re far more able to stand against the push for “up to date shots” and other silliness.

Keep your pets naturally disease resistant and keep your bucks in your wallet.

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Tasty Tips: Hard Deadlines?

Oh no! Time to face my vet!

Sometimes, I’ll get an email that’s a bit frantic.

There’s a looming vet appointment on the calendar, and strategies or answers need to be in place before the confrontation over vaccines crashes down.

A recent example,

I am IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE advice because we (me and my westie Quincy) are up against a situation where his veterinary behaviorist is bullying us into having a rabies shot during his upcoming "sedated" exam (no risk to her or staff since he'll be knocked out) next Weds, Nov. 20 because it's "the law". If we don't comply, he will be dropped as their patient.”

So, first the IMMEDIACY, then let’s discuss this nasty behavior on the part of the ‘veterinary behaviorist’ (??).

Since when are vet appointments unchangeable?

Cancel the thing if you’re not feeling prepared!

Is that out of the question in any practice you deal with?

It’s better than the dreaded “no show” which leaves a hole in the schedule of the professional.

Just call up and postpone. Easy peasy.

Take your time to get the answers you seek and reset for when your confidence is where it needs to be.

(Confidence which might include inner conversations like:)

• Wait a sec. I’m PAYING this person for services, right?

• This is my hard earned money. Is bullying me into something I don’t want to do to my dog okay or do I need to fire this outfit?!

• Is this “behaviorist” (vet, vet tech, etc.) deputized to be sure the “law” is carried out in my state?

• If this stance is adamant (“no shots, no service”), maybe this isn’t my best choice for a service provider…

• Who but me should be “calling the shots” for this innocent animal?

Bottom line:

“I’m the one who’s on the line if my dog gets sick from this (likely) unnecessary shot! That kind of sickness is usually chronic. And besides all the suffering for both of us, there’ll be more expenses only I will have to bear.”

And if you’re hit with demands for treatment or “prevention” in the midst of an appointment, and you’re not prepared mentally, keep in mind that this is a perfectly fine answer in the spur of the moment:

Thanks for your suggestion, doctor. We’ll take some time to research this further and will call you if we opt to take part in what you’re offering.

That’s the long version of the shorter, complete sentence that will do fine when confronted with risky recommendations for the animal who’s put their life in your hands:

“No.”

Time. You can control more of it than you may think.

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Along the Natural Path

The fog of winter, Uttar Pradesh style

While I’ve never seen snow in this part of India, cold temps in the morning often result in fog. That fog can stop speeding trains dead on their tracks, while passengers give up on hoped for arrival times.

But, out here in the sticks, it can be beautiful.

Mustard cash crop

Tis the season when veggies once again become abundant here. Greens of all kinds, cole crops like broccoli and it’s poorer cousin, the far more common cauliflower fill the vendors’ carts. Pumpkins, green onions, deep red carrots, and beets have shown up, along with the ever present potato and red onions.

It’s a good season for variety and thereby more healthy choices.

We’re not far far from the guava capital of India, Prayagraj, where these vitamin C laden, low glycemic, bowel friendly babies fill the kitchen with their tantalizing fragrance:

We’ll make you a regular guy!

Rice straw is everywhere, some of it gathered in small fires that draws the early risers out of their beds to huddle around, some of it serving as breakfast for a handful of wandering cows or bulls.

Nothing exciting but hey, it’s breakfast

Morning bike rides in the chilly air may soon give way to hikes, which, unsurprisingly, give me a whole new perspective on my surroundings. Speed has its downside.

Pay no attention to the bike rider with a phone up against his face.

The upside of winter here: insects are pretty much history. You can add more clothes as needed and wool is one of my fave fabrics. (In summer, you can only take off so much, less so in an ashram setting).

The downside: the tile floors and tap water are damn cold. Luckily, solar hot water was added several years back. Asanas are restricted to the mat, hanging over the edge is shockingly chilly. Bare feet are history, fuzzy slippers a must, as is a space heater.

All in all, I like this season better than summer, and though it’s much shorter than the hot weather, it gets old by the time spring shows up in late February. Such is the spoiled mind, always wanting something better.

The clocks don’t change here, and winter life starts later for the locals, my buffalo milk boy arriving an hour later and schools starting later. Kids naturally don’t want to get out of bed in the cold darkness and who wants to milk cows pre-dawn?

We adhere to our same schedule though, with 4 am devotions and evening darkness closing in well before our evening program starts at 6:30.

Speaking of kids, this morning we hosted some 5000 of them from surrounding villages, giving out cozy hoodies and a warm blanket to each.

You can get a sense of this morning’s temps and how welcome these hoodies were.

Where ever you find yourself on this amazing spinning globe hurtling through the darkness of space, I hope you’re well and continue to wisely think your way through the health options coming your way.

If we’ve learned anything through the past few years, it’s that we can’t take every recommendation at face value. I hope I’m able to help you sort out what veterinary decisions you want for your pack and which ones you can politely (but firmly) say no to.

Until next time,

Will Falconer, DVM