Vital Animal News: July 20, 2025

Pet Obesity "Misinformation?" / Purina Still Stinks / Titer Test Savings / Kefir v Yogurt / and MORE

Pet food in the news, Purina sued for bad smelling air, how to avoid crazy high charges for rabies titer testing, the dairy probiotic face-off, and “monsooned” coffee. What? Let’s dig in…

Misinformation? Or Just Ignorance?

I didn’t getting this way hunting mice…

You’ve likely run into the word “misinformation” since we went through Covidiocy a few years back, right?

It was (and still is) the paint brush dipped in hot tar to obliterate any messages counter to the main stream narrative that TPTB (the powers that be) want us all to buy into.

So, it was brandished against ivermectin (“You’re not a horse!”) and hydroxychloroquine (“Studies [at way too high a dose] show it’s harmful!”) and it still is against dirt cheap and apparently widely effective chlorine dioxide/MMS solutions.

Well, leave it to vet med to misuse the term.

This Vet Practice article points out our “pet obesity crisis” and sees that you are probably swayed more by social media on nutrition topics than, you know, consulting your vet who’s the clear nutrition expert (hahaha).

It seems these conclusions of misinformation come from another study done by, erm, Royal Canin. Surely no conflict of interest possible when a kibble manufacturer presents “data” related to pet food <cough>.

Findings

The Royal Canin study of more than 14,000 pet owners and 1,750 veterinary professionals across eight countries revealed nearly one in five pet owners turn to social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, for information and advice regarding nutrition, healthy weight, and obesity in pets.”

44 percent of veterinary professionals believe pet obesity has increased in the last few years, and nearly half (45 percent) agree pet owners underestimate the risks associated with overweight and obesity in pets.”

So far, so good. Obesity in pets surely must be following the increase in obesity in humans. And the average human probably underestimates how harmful that state is both in themselves and in their pets.

No earth shattering news yet, right?

Causation?

The old story of confusing treats with love ranks highly:

When asked about factors contributing to pet obesity, 41 percent of pet owners said they give their pets special treats when they seem sad, bored, or lonely.”

“Feeling down, Poopsie? Let Mommy give you something to make you happy again!”

Whoops.

And then, misinformation from the veterinary/Big Pet Food side:

Three in four feed their pets human food, with 31 percent believing doing so causes no harm.”

So, almost a third of surveyed pet owners have seen the light on “human food.”

Or have they?

If they’re obese and sharing their Happy Meal with Poopsie, they clearly are still part of the problem.

Or sugary processed food, you know the drill.

But, if Sadie gets a nice trim of raw steak before it hits the grill?

Or some raw eggs cracked over her kibble?

Big upgrade over the stuff the Royals want you to buy.

Stuck in CICO Land

Clearly more misinformation from the vet side, still somewhat common in human obesity land as well:

There are so many choices when it comes to pet foods, as well as an explosion in the number of treats, many of which are very high-calorie," says Gaylord. "Over-feeding is often the result of a lack of understanding of the calories contained in pet food and how much they should feed their pets daily. In addition, we're more sedentary, so lack of exercise can also play a role in pets becoming overweight or obese."

CICO?

The old, slow to die theory called “calories in/calories out” goes like this:

“You’re just eating/feeding your animal too much, and not getting enough exercise."

It completely misses the facts that macronutrients differ in their ability to jerk insulin around, with carbs being famous for spiking blood glucose, while (good) fats and proteins have a negligible effect.

And, as Dr. Robert Lustig ably points out, “you’ll never lose weight if your insulin remains high.”

Here’s a great YouTube video from him that I bookmarked on this very point for you (though it’s well worth watching in its entirety).

So, while exercise is good, all the walks around the neighborhood won’t bring weight down if the diet is high carb and frequently eaten. That combo keeps insulin high, and that hormone creates all sorts of issues, especially as we (and our animals) age.

Of course, like so many kibbles, carbs are a huge percentage of Royal Canin’s offerings. Here’s one example:

I count 5 carbs in the first 8 ingredients of their “Medium Adult Dry”

Feed that twice a day (or more), add in a few treats (also typically high carb, unless it’s jerky or dehydrated organ meet) and you’ve got insulin happily pushing those fats cells into hypertrophy.

So, where’s the misinformation?

In large part, Big Pet Food can’t be trusted to give us the straight scoop on nutrition, historically tied as they’ve always been to cheap carbs.

The industry stays alive through misinformation of their own.

And if this helped clear any misunderstandings, well, I’m grateful to help. Obesity is no friend to animal nor man.

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Drive-by Nose Assault

Even I find that offensive!

Let’s stick with food a bit longer.

Purina’s being sued again for putting a huge stink in the air around Denver. I smelled this personally some years back while transiting from that airport to a convention downtown. Ewwww! Bad news.

Fined twice earlier for this same charge, Purina carries on making bad smells for its neighbors.

One plaintiff describes it like this:

It’s like someone barfed in your back yard and then it baked in the sun and then you put a fan on the smell to keep it circulating.”

If you cook at home, or make your pet food, you know this is a long shot from anything you’d ever smell in your own kitchen.

And yet, pet food labels love to portray a cornucopia of mouth watering images that seem to promise a very different reality…

Interestingly, these images have largely left the bags. I remember posting about Dr. Randy Wysong bringing suit against several Big Pet Food companies, including Nestle Purina for this practice years ago. (Local news coverage from 2016 is here.)

Searching reveals no decisive victories were reached but the tides have clearly changed in bag images.

This is one that was a newsmaker back in the day for showing healthy human ingredients on the label and actually causing sickness and, according to a suit, even deaths of dogs eating the food.

The earlier brouhaha against Purina causing pet deaths just quietly disappeared, it seems.

As has Bird Flu, apparently (same VA News issue):

Maybe gain of function research really HAS stopped? It’s definitely been defunded, thanks to RFK Jr’s efforts.

Here’s hoping we can all breath easier, especially those poor folks in Denver.

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Cheap(er) Rabies Titers

Photo by Dmytro Glazunov on Unsplash

I’ve run into this a few too many times, so it needs to get its own spot in the newsletter.

The complaint goes something like this:

My vet charges $350 for a titer test! He says it’s much cheaper just to vaccinate!”

While that’s a cheap shot (pun intended) to get you to vaccinate (and often indicates a lack of understanding by the vet about how to interpret titer results), the deeper issue is the #@%^$! PRICE.

Only One Lab for Rabies Titers in No. America: KSVDL

No matter where you get the blood sample for a titer test to assess your pet’s immunity to rabies, the end point for every sample will be Kansas State Vet Diagnostic Lab.

[Quick review, if you’re rusty on titers: A titer is a measure of the antibodies in your animal’s blood for a given disease agent. If you use the search box at the bottom of any page on my site Vital Animal and drop in the word TITER, you’ll pull up articles and podcast episodes with more details.]

The glorious good news with this?

This lab is very, very affordable! Only a vet can submit samples, but it costs nothing to open an account.

The Rabies Test You Want

As rabies is a human health disease as well as an animal one (aka it’s a zoonotic disease), there are several tests offered at the KSVDL.

You don’t need most of them, and the expensive one is only applicable if you’re exporting an animal to another country who demands a rabies titer for entry.

All you need is this one, costing your vet a mere $35.70: “Micro Rabies Screen Titer (RFF-1035).”

Here’s the lab’s own brilliant description [emphasis mine]:

The MRS test, is a serum neutralization assay based on the RFFIT designed to give a rapid screening for evaluating the need for rabies boosters. The level defined as an adequate response is 0.5 IU/mL. *Pre-exposure vaccination coupled with a … titer at or above 0.5 IU/mL indicates greater assurance of protection than does current vaccination status.*”

Translation: however long ago your animal was vaccinated for rabies pales as measure of protection compared to this test result.

But Why Get a Titer?

In simple terms, the main reason to get a titer is to lessen the need for unnecessary vaccinations, each of which has the potential to cause harm. That seems more true for rabies vaccines than the others, by the way.

Take my free Rabies Short Course if you want more details on that…

If “Sadie’s vaccines are DUE” is based entirely on a calendar, you have every right to question that assumption.

Remember, immunity is not like a gas tank that runs out nor is it on a timer.

It’s typically longgg lasting, perhaps for a lifetime, per veterinary immunologist Ron Schultz, PhD (RIP).

Why Are MY Vet’s Titer Tests so Expensive?

One reason only: he’s sending his blood out to an independent lab like Idexx or Antech. These labs send that sample on to KSVDL after charging a substantial fee.

So, your vet has every right to charge you for a blood draw, maybe an office visit, but when he sends Sadie’s tube of blood off to Antech, they’ll ding him and he’ll pass those charges along to you.

That often means hundreds of bucks in your bottom line when you check out!

Share this link to get Dr. WhiteCoat signed up (free) with Kansas State, and suddenly, titers become affordable!

The Bad News

You probably knew this wasn’t going to all be wet noses and roses, right?

Sorry, but the state of affairs now is that not every governing body recognizes titer results in lieu of “up to date” rabies vaccines.

(The other diseases like parvo and distemper can be titer tested at KS also, but you’re under no compulsion to revaccinate for those other diseases [only rabies has “laws” wrapped around it]. Unless your vet is a tight ass who’ll withhold services for “out of date” vaccinations. Time to start searching for a more open minded vet if that’s the case…).

But! If you want to know your animal is a “good citizen,” and immune to rabies regardless of how long it’s been since the last shots, a titer is a solid piece of info to obtain. Worth having in your file.

Similarly, if you opted for “one and done” on rabies, a killed vaccine, and you live with a significant rabies risk, this tool of titer testing is even more important.

You’ll want to know if immunity is solid or not. And that usually comes because two shots, some months apart, are necessary with a killed virus vaccine to get protection.

Bottom line: no need to empty your wallet to get titer testing. Check with your vet about having a Kansas State lab account and expect a very reasonable bill to get your results.

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Tasty Tips: Kefir v Yogurt

Room temp baby, and the magic happens!

I used to make yogurt. Heat the milk to kill any stray bacteria, cool it to just the right incubating temp, stir in some live yogurt culture, and keep it warm by hook or by crook for several hours, and if all went well, yummy thick yogurt.

Then I got a life.

Someone shared their kefir “grains” with me and I learned all the temperature gymnastics was totally unnecessary.

Toe to Toe Comparison

As probiotics are valuable to all species, let’s compare these sources, and if you haven’t already added my fave to your daily food and that of your pets, maybe this will spur you on.

• Kefir grows at room temp. So, ease of prep is a no brainer. You just keep a daily (short) time slot to separate those lively grains (really, that means a rubbery mass of LIVING beings that makes the transformation of milk possible). No more thermometers, blankets, water baths, etc. Pour the cultured product through a sieve, re-use the grains for tomorrow’s batch. Next?

• Species Diversity! Yogurt is typically a few species entity, most often a lactobacillus and friendly strep. Kefir is a whole host of good guys, a symbiotic colony of many bacteria and multiple gut friendly yeasts. Here’s a breakdown:

  • Common Bacteria in Kefir:

    • Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens

    • Lactobacillus kefiri

    • Lactobacillus paracasei

    • Lactobacillus brevis

    • Lactococcus lactis

    • Leuconostoc mesenteroides

    • Streptococcus thermophilus

    • Acetobacter species

    Common Yeasts in Kefir:

    • Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    • Kluyveromyces marxianus

    • Candida kefyr

    • Kazachstania unispora

• Yogurt Passes Through, Kefir Colonizes the Gut! This is written about, but it’s become more obvious to me daily, as I separate the kefir grains from the consumable product. The glass jar I make my daily brew in gets cleaned every few days, and it’s not just a rinse. Those guys want to stick around, even on that perfectly smooth glass! Depending on how long I’ve let a given jar do its daily incubation, I’ve got to scrub those milky remains out. Kefir can persist in your gut for days or weeks! And, with a daily habit, you’re adding to that gut microbiome diversity and multiplying the chances of friendly colony establishment with every hit!

• Friendly yeasts in kefir out compete the bad ones, like Candida. Yogurt has no yeasts at all.

• Kefir grows continuously, so your supply of culture material is endless. Yogurt cultures tend to weaken over time and need replacing.

• Kefir “grains” are usually free. In India, I buy mine from a vendor on Amazon, but when I lived in Austin, I found them easily on Craig’s List! “C’mon over and I’ll give you a bunch” was common. If you’ve got too big a mass of grains, you can simply eat some in your next smoothie.

• Kefiran: Research suggests kefiran may have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting properties. It’s in kefir, absent from yogurt.

• There’s no easier fermented food to make. And we all benefit from fermented foods.

• Finally, kefir is adaptable. While I’ll never go vegan and love my buffalo milk, you can search out other options. I’ve heard of coconut kefir, for example. If you value milk, ideally you’ll find it raw from a local farmer you can visit. That’s an entirely different product from store bought pasteurized homonized nana (what we used to call it at camp). Here’s where to search it out. A serious resource, this, updated daily:

  

  How to dose?

• No need to worry, it’s food

• Be generous, but maybe a bit slow to start

• Even if you are lactose intolerant (or your cat is), kefir’s microbes break down more lactose than yogurt, so it’s still worth a try.

Get some culture in your life! Give kefir a go!

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Along the Natural Path

Moisture above and below. Happy people, croaking frogs.

Monsoon season is full on and moderating the summer heat very sweetly on the days it takes charge of.

The rains here, like the thunder, is unique.

While we can have downpours that look like the sky has burst, there’s also a very fine misty version that’s actually soothing and refreshing. I never experienced rains like this in the various states I lived in, from Wisconsin to Hawaii to Texas.

A recent distribution of free household goods to neighboring villagers was just such a misty day:

Thousands came, and their new chairs served as umbrellas for those who didn’t have one.

Coffee drinking is a thing that gets more press during the monsoon season.

I can see it: sitting outside under a porch, sipping the brew, and enjoying relatively cool respite from the 106º blasts that preceded it in April, May and June.

There’s even a unique coffee roast here called “Monsoon Malabar,” discovered, so the story goes, when boat loads of Indian coffee beans got caught in the monsoon rains on their way to market:

In the 19th century, coffee beans from India were shipped to Europe in wooden sailing vessels. The journey took several months, during which the beans were exposed to moist monsoon winds and rain as the ships traveled around the Cape of Good Hope. This exposure caused the beans to swell, lose their acidity, and develop a distinctive mellow, earthy, and spicy flavor.

The result was so prized that now, even in modern times, roasters here imitate the process by aging their beans in open warehouses along the Malabar coast.

Everything slows a bit during this season. This bull is chilling, slowly chewing his cud on the side of the road, oblivious to traffic, horns, or passers by.

The goats who get out to graze in the morning are the most spritely. These are nearly sprinting, ears flapping, moving on to the next browsing opportunity before they get herded home:

Pick it UP, kids, Mom’s calling!

The jungles on either side of my bike route threaten to swallow the little road. An especially aggressive legume, while pretty to look at, will shred you if you don’t steer around it. Such is the growth during the warm and wet monsoon season.

My inner biologist wonders why the mosquitoes have disappeared now. They are seriously hungry and out for blood when Spring comes, but with all this heat and water about, I’d expect them to be everywhere. Yet, nary a one is in sight. Just odd.

Well, that’s it for this issue, and until I see you again in a couple more weeks, let me know in the comments what resonated with you or brought on more questions. I’ll be looking for you there.

And, as always, keep making wise decisions for those innocent lovers in your care. They take whatever you give or allow, so it’s good to stay smart. And remember: you rarely have to make a snap decision about a treatment offered.

A perfectly fine response?

“We’ll get back to you if we opt for this recommendation, Doctor. Right now, we’re heading home to think a bit and study up on our options.”

Will Falconer, DVM