Comments on Reason #2 to Fire Your Vet: Raw Food Attitude

We have had many dogs in our life. Currently we have 5 dogs, 2 labs and 3 Greyhounds. We have been feeding Raw for 5 years now. We grind and make our own food. Our dogs get a Raw chicken foot everyday. We also feed fresh Meaty beef bones strait from the butcher. (Femurs, Knuckles). The only vaccinations our dogs have ever received are when they were puppies. We keep them bathed and sprayed with only natural oils that keep them smelling good and not attractive to pest. And we do not have fleas or ticks on our dogs. The only reason we really ever see our vet is when the time has come for Euthanasia for our old dogs. And I pay extra for my Vet to come to our house to do this. Our dogs have all lived long healthy lives. But over the years I have had some unpleasant discussions with different Vets about Vaccinations and Raw Food. And what is funny the look on their faces when they witness our healthy dogs is priceless. Thank you, Dr Falconer or all your education, research, knowledge, advice etc etc. Knowledge is EVERYTHING. And having confidence to politely agree with, disagree with, and or fire Dr. Whitecoat is very important.

Hi Dr. Falkoner
Any assistance for temp relief for dog, and homeopathic input.
I have group of vets here in PA, one is trained in herbal acupuncture other two are traditional based, but know benefits of raw. They do not think my dog is hypothyroid, but I was worried and they took blood so I could send it to Dr. Dodd's (homeopath). My vets here agreed to treat, but did not think it was an issue even though his results were off. Could this have been due to illness? His T4 (1.22, range 1.4-3.5) and Free T4 .84 (.85-2.3) were below range slightly and T3 (81.3, 30-70) and Free T3 (3.7, 1.6-3.5) were above range (which is not typical in Hypothyroidism). She thought T3 levels were off because of metabolic response. Tested negative for auto-immune (before rabies vaccine recently given), before, starting .5mg Thyroxin.
My 1 yr/8 mon. Lab has been on raw since June. He has done much better w/digestion issues, growth, etc. No worms, usually no fleas and ticks, and then boom, ticks in fall from where I was exercising him. So that was not good on my part. We live in PA so I had to get his rabies booster a week after an Amoxicillin treatment, for possible infection of Lyme. He never had Lyme vaccines, but he was diagnosed with “Pano” in Aug/Sept. He tested positive for Lyme in Nov. We live in high Lyme area and I pulled a number of tick groups off in fall, which could explain that. He was not symptomatic Lyme, (I am sure he had fought off Lyme in summer/tested negative), but they treated him just in case. I brought him into vet early because he had some type of reaction/incident after scraping his tail on fence (he was holding it out funny, also gland issue. Dr. Dodd's says that low thyroid dogs have sudden change over 3 months. I think we missed UTI or possible infection down there that caused gland issues too. IDK. Looking back that could have caused allot of anxiety, as he was peeing and struggling allot. This is what sent me to vet earlier than scheduled. But I didn't associate it with urine issue, just gland (mild constipation) issues. He always has good poops, fed 2x/day and generally goes 2x. They think behavior issues was just male hormones kicking in and training. My husband didn't think so either, and he too has seen behavior changes, especially after vaccine. His behavior got worse, then normalized after starting. I gave it one week and he still seemed off at full dose. IDK what to do here. Amoxi helped him, but do you think this may have caused secondary infections/possible thyroid levels off. This guy has never had that. I have dealt with that with another dog, not this guy. Vet said he was good bill of health before shot.
Now, after one week into thyroid treatment, behavior is much better, but he has possibly original problem that I never thought of, UTI. His urine test had some protein, some sperm, normal spec. gravity and some bacteria, vet thought it was ok. I am at a loss. He does not associate anything with vaccine detox issues. His penis is now enlarged at time and has texted bumps. So he is crying a bit at night again. I think he had this all along, I mentioned he was licking, I said I was worried about kidney stress with high dose of antibiotic, but they assured me that is not typical. Looking back, he was straining and peeing allot when he had trauma thing. So Amox surely helped any infections there. Over the weekend I gave him Nux Vomica, diluted dose mentioned in dognaturallymagazine.com.
There was no blood in urine a week ago, and vet thinks I am overreacting. He is not a homeopathic vet so does not know about treatments for that. It did seem better, than before than got worse. I realize this could happen with homeopathic remedies. My Lab is anxious again (milder version, but uncomfortable, mostly in evening). Should I try Mercurious? or be patient?
Please, any imput to give this guy some relief. The Nux Vomica was (30c, 3 pellets crushed in 1/2C DI water and 1ml given 2-3x daily. It's been 3 1/2 days. I did not move to Mercurious because I wasn't sure. I also wanted to give Lyssin 200c and/or Thuja 200c, but I never did this before and wasn't sure if this would make things worse. Shot was given last week with follow-up. These vets have never used homeopath stuff before, so they don’t know how to advise with that. Overall he looks really healthy, hair is a bit dry and flaky (as I think he is detoxing), couple annoying dry patches that won't go away. I would say he has been susceptible to fungal ear infections and UTI irritation before. I was using milk thistle (for liver/kidney support), w/tiny amount of dandelion, fennel and licorice (stopped out 1 week ago for rest bit), plus probiotic while on Amoxicillin (750mg 2 X/day for 3 weeks). He gets all human grade raw meat (no saline) and I try to give him grass-fed organs w/raw prey diet.
My push for thyroid is because he was shivering in cold weather, skin and behavior seemed to be getting worse. He is an intact male, so some hormonal changes would be normal. But he stopped listening, had trouble focusing, etc. since low dose medication he seems way calmer, normal heart rate. But after a week, full dose 0.5mg Thyroxine. All looked good till last evening, his heart rate seemed to go up last evening, but he did settle down. I decreased back to half dose, maybe it is too much IDK. Dr. Dodd's said half dosing for initial day or two was fine, he didn't have high and lows on half dose, but after one week in the full dose seemed to give him highs and lows. My vet is mad and thinks I can't tell when his heart rate is elevated from normal. I am just so upset. I thought we were heading in the right direction. I have used herbal remedies for years, and have never not trusted my instincts with things. Am I totally wrong here? Can I use glandular supplementing? I know nothing about this; but I am Hypothyroid, myself.
Any suggestions. Especially with homeopathic remedies and his general symptoms now?
Kim

I got my cat 2 months ago. I have no idea what her history is. Her previous owner brought her to the shelter to be put down because she had uncontrolled diarrhea. But when they looked at her they couldn't put her down. Poor cat had a load of coccidia. That wasn't hard to treat, but 2 antibiotics. They gave my poor sick girl a vaccination at the shelter, about 6 letters long. About a month later she presented with a UTI. Any connection, doctor? 3 antibiotics this time. I had put her on Stella & Chewy's from the first. The vet gave me no grief over it. But when they did the 3rd blood panel, they started talking about. chronic renal failure and wanted her to eat a kidney diet. So I gave her commercial canned food for over a week. But she was down a whole pound from 6.4 pounds and terribly bony. So I started adding the raw food, too. I added probiotics, PDF and DentaTreat as soon as I could afford them. She is getting a nice covering on her ribs and her spine is nowhere near as prominent, so I think I'm doing her good. She looks lovely too, dark red-brown tabby with green eyes. Her coat is so soft and lush.

We do feed our two toy poodles a raw diet and have since they were about 2 years old. Our vet is a holistic vet and when we took them to her to see why they were *itching*, first thing she asked was what we fed them. So we switched to a raw food diet at that point. Itching disappeared, and we had already stopped vaccinating them at the end of their first year - we weren't real sure what we were *doing* but it just didn't seem right to be getting those injections all the time, and we're glad we did that. We do have a question we hope you can help us with though. Our dogs are now almost 15 years old and they have been having tooth problems for the last 3 years or so. We have had their teeth cleaned once, but will never put them through that again. That vet/DDS also pulled quite a few teeth in both dogs, one half of them and the other not quite half but still a lot. Because they are so small, we had never tried giving them raw bones. We started that apx 5 years ago, but only one of them will chew on them (his teeth are the best). We were using the smallest beef soup bones we could get. Our other dog just looks at the bone like what is this?? We want to give them raw chicken bones, thinking maybe whole chicken wings? But we worry that they might choke on them. Do you have suggestions? Or perhaps we should just brush their teeth because of the few they have left plus their age? We will appreciate any advice/ideas that you can give. Thank you. Must say, we were very happy to find your extremely informative website!

I have a 11 pound intact male Miki who is 2 years old. I finally made the move (I was scared at first) to raw, it is a raw food that is a complete raw meal in comes in medallion's (have rabbit, beef ,lamb, chicken, turkey,salmon and they also have organic beef, lamb and chicken. The organic is a different texture like small noodles, my dog just seems to like the organic lamb the best. I was wondering is it harmful for him to just eat the lamb? he's not I rotate it but are there other food items that I can add to the chicken, beef, etc. to get him to eat it without throwing of the balance. The food is called Pets4life and a few veterinarians sell it as it's a raw food that is formulated to meet the requirements. Also I bought some dehydrated chicken feet from a company that's called Nothing Added, at first I was scared he would choke on them but he loved them with me watching scared ,( and he did choke a bit near the end with three toes in his mouth )I also give him the small beef marrow bones which he loves again scared he will chip or crack his teeth since he has an overbite on the lower teeth, but so far no problem. Like I said I was scared going raw but as time goes on I will feel better. Any advice would be appreciated. I live in Tillsonburg Ontario Canada and pet stores with raw food is increasing which is good to see.
Thanks for all your advice and column.

My conventional vet is actually good with raw food! What a good guy, and we're lucky to have found him! Now to nudge him gently down the rest of "The Path"... ;-)

We feed raw. Artemus likes his raw, except when I whip up a batch of goulash. Than I have my husband and Artemus salivating in the kitchen! LOL
Raw food, lots of fresh herbs, fresh water, and no vaccines. You guessed it, we walk a lonely road. I explain that we’re not followers, we question and educate ourselves as we consider ourselves to be good pet guardians… “and your dog has allergies, upset stomach, diarrhea?” “You should perhaps give it a try, your dog might get better soon”. The proof is in the pudding – raw works and seeing is the ultimate truth… P.S. people don’t bother arguing with me.
In fact, Artemus’ Irish Wolfhound clansmen are all on raw, and they are CKC Champs like he is. Cool way to put the punctuation at the end of the sentence to vets and the so called pseudo-experts who push harmful chemicals and poor nutrition.
We love your articles Dr. Will:)

Lizzy, how wonderful that you are providing your senior a quality life! I loved reading your story. May he enjoy many more good years and teach others about vital health.

Well done article, Dr. Falconer!
I'm here to tell y'all what a positive change I have seen in my recently adopted dog, a vaccinosis ravaged 10 year old lab. Before he came to live with me, he'd been on steroids, antibiotics, antifungals, vaccines, heart worm meds, flea meds (sometimes 2-3 doses per month), etc.
His whole life was full of grocery store dog food and Whitecoat approaches. In the end, he lived with suppressed and palliated symptoms of chronic ear/skin, allergies and infections.
Within three months on a very BASIC raw diet, I have a new dog. He detoxed, for sure. Yes, we're working diligently with him constitutionally using homeopathy and some well-chosen supplements. That's making a world of a difference.
Considering that he started as a flea-ridden, poisoned, dull and smelly old dog who was about to be euthanized, I'd say he's made tremendous leaps in the direction of cure.
Now he's quite bright, bounds all over the place, and keeps up with my young dogs. He's a lovely and vibrant senior citizen who is also working on ridding himself of heart worms.
You should see the SPRING in his step! There's no more itching so hard that he inflicts damage to himself. And, the nights of excruciatingly painful ear infections, resulting in cries of desperation are gone. There are no more nights where I'd need to bathe him at 2 am because his skin was on fire.
Raw, real food is his pleasure of the day. Basic ingredients on a budget have given this old pup the energy to heal his long-ravaged body. The energy to repair, to restore, and to rebuild comes through his food, not meds.
Whitecoats who I've not invited to do anything more than diagnostics only remark about how gorgeous he is and how lovely his coat is. Then they find out he's a raw fed dog, even at an advanced age (as if old=weak). Let's just say we've turned some heads and done some educating. No resistance, just admiration has come our way!
I appreciate the inspiration and the confidence Dr. Falconer has given so many, myself included, on this topic for so long. Great work, Doc.

I have fed raw and given no vaccines since1996, when my first cocker had a seizure following his one year shots.
The dog was treated homeopathically for fourteen years. His seizures were never cured, but he lived a healthy happy full life as a registered therapy dog.
I just acquired a one year old cocker. She is loving her raw diet- chicken necks, tripe ... And her tummy seems fine, too. She had puppy shots, but will have no more.
Yes, I get weird and scared looks when I share that I feed raw, do not vaccinate and don't use tick preventatives. I also have them adjusted every eight weeks by a veterinary chiropractor.
BUT isn't it interesting that the first thing everyone notices, is how soft my dogs' coats are?

I am blessed to have a homeopath nearby and another, Dr. Jeff Feinman, an hour and a half away.

Hello Dr. Falconer,
I have to laugh at the stories above because mine is alike. I just took my two dogs for their annual checkup a week ago to their vet and I got the same comment:
-"Ohhh, what great teeth he has, perfect white! no plaque...." "Do you brush his teeth?"
Me: No, I feed him raw.
-"Well, that has nothing to do with it, he has good genetics, then." (Same with my other dog) They both have great genetics for being over 6 years old! Ha ha ha
Then, I got the whole demonizing spill about how the bones can destroy their insides and I tried to educate him but it was useless.
Now, I have to say that this Dr. is very kind and knowledgeable in other subjects so I just decide how to proceed depending on the situation.
Finally, I have heard a lot about Diatomaceous Earth and would very much like to know your opinion on it. Is it an effective parasite/worm killer and diet enhancer?
Thank you so much. Best,
Adriana

Hi,
As soon as we heard one of your interviews we stopped all canned/processed food for our cats and we now only feed them raw food. They are loving it and thriving beautifully! I'm finding that they are eating a lot more of the raw food though then they were with the processed food. Both our cats have filled out beautifully and are looking very healthy. Their coats are so much thicker and shinier since we started the raw food diet. I have 2 questions, roughly how much raw meat should I be feeding them? At the moment they probably go through about 200grams per day each. Is this ok? One of our cats is eating everything (chicken wings, chicken liver, lamb & beef) but our other cat will only eat the lamb and the beef....how can I get him to eat the chicken wings and liver? Thank you heaps in advance for your advice :-)

I'd like to know how to proceed to put our dogs on a raw diet & what that means? I.e. Help I need info ?
Also does anyone know of a holistic vet in San Antonio, Tx? I do use pure / food grade essential oils on my pets with great luck! Many thanks :))

My newest vet is great. He teaches raw feeding classes to pet owners and helps each build a diet (case by case basis) some PMR and some BARF style. He does not sell any kibble in his office.
He also treats each patient on a case by case basis for parasite control and vaccines. If they want them - OK. If they dont, he doesnt pressure them.
So far he is really great :)

We have fed raw food to our cats and dogs for over 22 years. They are all rescues so we don't know what their previous lives were like, but for some of them is was pretty awful. Between raw food, lots of love and exercise and no vaccinations for over 22 years we end up with really healthy critters. But toward the ends of their lives, we see some disease processes. And at that time our vets always suggest the "special diets" that they sell. I have gotten tired of it and my response is, "At this point, when their health is compromised why would I want to feed them that processed garbage instead of healthy human grade food?" End of story, they bother me no more about that critter's diet.
All the vets at that clinic know me and what my stances are on vaccination so they don't bother me with that. But they do always notice how nice my critters smell and how gorgeous their coats are, and just can't stop touching them, but they absolutely refuse to see the connections. Blinded by education..... in otherwise intelligent people!

Since moving to Las Vegas 2 years ago I have given up on finding a vet willing to work with me. My male pittie has been demonstrating clinical signs of hypothyroidism for the past couple years (wide spread hair loss w/o itch or inflammation, nails breaking off at the bed, severe lethargy, easy keeper) but nobody will do a full Thyroid panel, only total T4 which comes back WNL (obviously). Once they find out he's on a raw diet, they tell me his hair loss is due to Vitamin K deficiency (even though the hair loss started when he was still on kibble!) or dilute colored alopecia (I highly doubt it), that I am slowly KILLING HIM due to a lack of carbohydrates and then try to use their scare tactics to get me to buy one of their ridiculous Hill's Rx kibbles and do monthly benzoyl peroxide baths (eek!). Since I cannot afford to take him to a homeopathic vet yet (I'm saving up!) and the one vet I found willing to treat him (Dr. Plechner in Los Angeles) has a love for corticosteroids..I have been doing what I can to assist his body naturally with a raw diet (now organic & grass fed meat/bones), NO CHEMICALS in the house, and rotating organ detoxes with different herbs. After making these little adjustments, his energy level is up, nails miraculously hardened and his hair loss has been put on pause (hasn't grown back though). I honestly believe he would not be alive right now if I had listened to the vets' "advise".
Dr. Falconer- are you familiar with Dr. Alfred Plechner's hormone replacement therapy and atypical estrogen imbalance syndrome (ACEIS/Plechner's Syndrome)? I would love to hear your thoughts on this as I agreed with most everything he had to say (raw diet, no vaccines, enzyme supplements) except for the steroids. Also what is your take on IgA deficiency and how would a homeopath help counteract this issue? I think this topic would make a great article as it seems more and more of us have dogs with some form of hormone imbalance! :)

When discussing my dog with others, and the topic of raw diet comes up, I answer their bewilderment with "yep, she eats just like a wolf would eat in the wild." Many people will reply, "Oh, that makes sense."

Love this article! I fully support all concepts here. I own a specialty canine business and continue to help folks on the better path to health and wellness for their dogs.
Recently, my one of my beautiful, healthy, raw-fed golden retrievers tested positive for giardia. HE HAD NO SYMPTOMS AT ALL-the fecal testing was done as part of our regular annual checkup. Vet wanted to do the typical gut-destroying treatment of panacur and metronidazole. Remember, no symptoms! Really!!! I contacted three different holistic folks, including an integrative vet, and learned a lot more about this protozoa. Apparently it is widespread in lakes, rivers and streams in places in the Midwest, particularly around Boulder, CO, and healthy, immune strong dogs shed it off without any problems or issues. I then consulted with a very knowledgable and well-learned friend who has an organic farm and she directed me to a product called Para-B-Gone for natural parasite control. She has used it for her dogs, cats, goats, etc. as a natural dewormer and used it successfully for years for giardia if it occurred. After consulting with the company that makes it, I felt very comfortable pursing this natural protocol So, in the situation, we used the natural product for only 3 days. I will be testing in the future. My dogs are fed raw diets (Answers), drink raw goat's milk and fish stock bone broth, coconut oil and a garlic bone for flea/tick prevention along with an occasional natural prevention spray. We titer test during the annual checkup. Amazingly healthy, gorgeous dogs!

I cleaned out the freezer and uncovered quite a few chickens that we raised here and froze for future use. So because of the new crop of chickens, I decided to put the old ones in another freezer and feed them to my two dogs. It's a bit of work to cut them up, but my chef skills needed sharpening anyway. I can get quite a few pieces out of a whole chicken.
My vet was none to happy when she learned I feed raw. She went off on a ta gent about having to be careful about protein. I hardly listened. I never did tell her that at this juncture the dogs are getting human food all the time.
Been hiding Golden Paste in between the skin and the meat. My guys don't seem to like the GP. My horse does though!
I also feed raw milk because that's what I drink.
Sprout, the huge Black Lab, had a tick on his neck the other day. Bigger tick, so not Lymes related. After we got it out I put some drops of Protective Blend essential oils on it. End of story there.