In this live, informal YouTube Q&A, Dr. Conor Brady and co‑host Bren discuss a wide range of companion‑animal topics prompted by audience questions, expanding from practical pet‑care advice to broader reflections on veterinary economics and personal finance. They begin with seasonal fireworks anxiety, describing practical desensitisation and counter‑conditioning methods (e.g., graded exposure with treats, use of calming music, creating safe dark spaces) and warn against over‑reliance on anti‑anxiety medication during training. The conversation shifts to kennel cough, clarifying that "kennel cough" is a lay term for infections such as Bordetella bronchiseptica and parainfluenza, explaining vaccine options (intranasal non‑adjuvanted vs. adjuvanted injectable) and the limits of vaccine‑induced bacterial shedding. They then explore herbal and supplemental remedies (echinacea, slippery elm, pumpkin, honey, garlic/ginger) and how to prepare tinctures safely. Seasonal feeding ideas, including warming meats and the importance of sourcing high‑quality herbs, are debated. A substantial segment examines how beliefs are formed and changed, outlining five levels of prejudice (personal experience, trusted acquaintances, authority figures, scientific literature, media) and how bias affects veterinary recommendations. They critique the influence of AI‑generated content, noting hallucinations and the need for critical appraisal. The discussion then moves to the financial side of veterinary care: corporate pet‑insurance models (e.g., VHI, Bupa), the cost‑benefit of long‑term insurance, and the inequities of access; personal finance habits such as avoiding credit cards, using debit cards, and the impact of inflation and cash‑printing on both pet owners and veterinary businesses. Dr. Brady reflects on the sustainability challenges facing practices, describing a "race to the bottom" when low‑cost care squeezes margins, the difficulty of maintaining staff holidays, and the lag in technology adoption (paper records versus electronic systems). Light‑hearted personal anecdotes about a chaotic kids‑hotel stay, discovering soap, and humorous observations provide a humanising backdrop. Throughout, the tone is conversational, occasionally humorous, and the sentiment ranges from supportive (when offering practical tips) to critical (when addressing industry bias, inflation pressures, and unsustainable business models).
Chapters
And we're live.
We are. And we've not got a serious boy. So we've been just tin wagging, forgetting that we should really press the button.
Yeah, having a good time there. I'm noticing for people on podcast, there's a lot of black on my screen. I'm like a floating head. I've got a black background. I've got a black hoodie for those that are on podcast. It says Raw on the front. Very cool, I thought. Raw. I got the idea from—
Always, come on, open your hands.
Why? There you go. So I'm a real person.
I just couldn't see the thing.
Oh, sorry.
It's a bit wrong to say show us your chest.
Yeah, but actually it's Halloween. Actually, it's as close to Halloween, or Guy Fawkes for the British. And nobody even knows what Guy Fawkes is. Just go with Halloween like everybody else.
Do you celebrate the 31st of October over in, um, Yeah, you'd think in this day and age that we were told not to celebrate terrorists. But yeah, true.
Yeah. And here you are, of all terrorists, the one that actually blew up the Parliament. Or didn't? It didn't work. What happened with Guy Fawkes?
No, they found him out, didn't they?
They did. Okay.
Yeah, found him out.
And so do you get a lot of fireworks on actual the 31st of October as we do here, which is a real pagan thing on the 31st of October, or Do you wait for Guy Fawkes before all the fireworks go off? When do the ducks—
So we start with July 4th. And then for some reason, even over here, they celebrate something around July 14th. I'm not going to go into that. That's very controversial. And then we keep going. Let's pretend it's Bastille Day or something. And then, oh no, it's July 12th, then the 14th. And then they go into Diwali. We've got the light festivals. People start letting off fireworks for that.
In Yorkshire? Yeah.
And then you've got people think, well, I can start buying the fireworks, so surely that means I can start letting them off. So that's from the beginning of September. And that carries on pretty much through bonfire night in the major cities around the the UK. So Bonfire Night is after Halloween. That's the 5th of November.
Okay.
Okay. And that's to celebrate somebody trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament. And then if we're lucky, they will finish probably the week after Bonfire Night. But generally they carry on. Right through until we then seem to bring them all out again for New Year's Eve. Just because, you know, we're not that impressed, obviously, with the major councils around the UK celebrating New Year's Eve and doing their own displays. We decide that everybody should let some off in their back garden. And so it's the only legal purchase of high explosives that I know of in the UK. But hey, call me a party pooper. My fear is for all of those poor animals. And I've just done some videos for the practice, actually just saying to guys, you know, please think, I know that you want to act now because you're starting to experience the stress of your pets now. And yes, there are some medications in an emergency that you can see your vet about. Can't go through those online. It's prescription meds. They don't like me going online about those. There are supplements which can increase the serotonin levels in the gut and through calming the vagal nerve, calm the brain, calm your animal. There's lots of great behavioural stuff about obviously putting the curtains up, the blinds, but putting a light, bright lights like we've got here, in my little studio at home, but yet create a dark space for them to retreat to inside of that with more sort of cushions and things like that around so you've not got echoing. And then to put on— there's some great channels on YouTube now to entertain your pets with birdsong and forest noises, and you can turn them right up.
I was going to ask about that. We have a lot of people listening now on Facebook, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. Actually, no, because we want the live answers. If there's any trainers listening to this at the moment, For years we always mentioned on YouTube, there's noises we can put on, there's stereos you can turn up to distract them. Does that stuff, I heard a couple of kind of negative bits about that. I can't really remember what they were. There was always a CD that we used to use in Guide Dogs called Crash Bang Wallop. And it was a way to desensitize the dog to some common loud noises. And the one that always comes up would be at Halloween time, which I used to post about. I thought at Halloween time there was the noise of fireworks and you've got, let's say, 10 levels in your stereo and at level 1, then you feed them their dinner, level 1, Level 1, feeding their dinner, Level 1, feeding their dinner, 4 or 5 times, then Level 2, feeding their dinner. And the noise of fireworks going off is the sound of dinnertime, like a whistle to dinner. And so it shifts them from a negative association with the noise of fireworks to a positive association. Now, if your dog's an absolute basket case around fireworks, seek professional help. Don't be just listening to our advice and going and sticking a plaster on it. But for the average dog, I thought this would be a good way to desensitize them. It's certainly what I was taught on guide dogs. It's what I parroted out then to the guide dog owners when I was doing my bits. And it seemed to work. You know, we had these bulletproof dogs, but we had these dogs doing that stuff from the time they were, you know, 3 weeks old until they were 5 months old. So that imprinting period is just, they're drum tight. They've seen trains 10 times, they've been on buses, they don't care. Other dogs, first time they've heard fireworks, they could be a year old, and that imprinting period slams closed at 5, 6 months old. So if the first time you hear a shotgun, you're, you know, depends on the breed, of course.
I suppose one of the reasons why the Vikings use Labradors is that imprinting period is pushed on compared to some of the little terriers, which would be like 4 or 5 months. And, you know, they're pretty much set in their ways. However, I think that is a bit of an excuse. I think it is possible to habituate older dogs with positive reinforcement, but it has to be very gradual. And now is not the time to be doing it.
Yeah, good point.
6, 7 months in advance you have to be doing. You have to be really careful with those volumes. You know, it's almost barely audible when they start, especially, especially for the really scared ones.
Reactive.
And the problems are that many of the anti-anxiety medications will interfere with that learning process. Because it effectively wipes their short-term memory. So some of those can be great in a crisis to give and so that they don't remember the fearful moment, but it's really bad to try and give something like that whilst you're trying to train them because they won't remember the lesson.
Yeah, that's a good point. You see these Facebook posts rolling out a week before fireworks times. It's like, yeah, that won't touch the sides of the issue, but maybe for next year.
Rolled her eyes when the opening line to my video was, if you're watching this video now, you're 6 months too late.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You should have been doing this. And then had to go on about the other emergency things.
Yeah, that counter conditioning thing is a thing. So dogs have this yes or no kind of setup to their brain that we can exploit to shift a negative association with something to a positive association. And people do it. A rescue dog that's had a, you know, been hit with a broom and And there's ways you can get around that so it's not terrifying for the dog every time you go to sweep your floor. So there's definitely things you can do. And it's the same with a dog that's had a sore ear for a lot and you're going to put ear drops in and the sight of you picking up that medication that he really doesn't like because you touch his ear and it's very sore, that is just like steps, it's like triggers. Bump, there's the medication, she's walking towards it, she's gonna grab my ear. And maybe men can be a little bit more gruff with that approach than perhaps women in the family. And don't mean to stereotype, Things. And so when it comes to the dog that's terrified of the eardrops, there is ways you can counter-condition them, such as a different eardropper bottle. But this time you just pick up the eardropper bottle and throw them a piece of meat and you walk away, pick up the eardropper bottle, throw them a piece of meat, walk away, pick up the— repeat. And so eventually when you put your fingers on that eardropper bottle, they're tail wags because it means treats coming. And eventually then you walk towards them with the bottle, put it back, throw them a treat, and you step, step, step, step until eventually the dog is lying there and you're holding the eardropper over his ear and then you walk away. You didn't put anything in his ear. You walk away, he gets a piece of meat. That you can exploit in the dog. But like Bren is saying, it takes time and, you know, get a trainer, guys. 50 quid, 100 quid to have somebody come out that can do this. Counter-condition them to the sound of the doorbell. You don't have to listen to this stuff for 10 or 15 years. You know, you can really get on top of it or at least take the edge off so people just don't go bananas 'cause the dog goes mad. He's just waiting for that doorbell to go off or the postman. There's things you can do that you can put in place, but the fireworks takes a bit of time for sure. If you try and sort it out now, you'll be onto a loser, but there's definitely things you can do. Happy to hear from the trainers though. Please put your comments in there. Guys, because me and Bren, like, we're years behind even, you know, the last behavioral book I read. So it's happy to hear what is— you're not reading behavior books. Give me a break, Bren. When's the last? It's just those eyebrows. For those on podcast, Bren is shocked that I'm not reading behavioral books.
Are you not keeping up with your CPD, young man?
I mean, to biology and the things kind of took over more so than the behavior. But I loved it at the time. But then things move on fast and the training moves on and the skills move on and you're just a caveman when you try to talk about training now. So I tend to just listen to the pros now. Yeah.
And, you know, just to reiterate, that door closing 6 to 9 months depending on the breed and, you know, slightly earlier for some of those breeds, you know, it's really about the socialization, habituation, getting used to those everyday sort of moments. I think there is always a space for sort of empathic behavioral training working. Otherwise we wouldn't be training gundogs. To pick up birds and things like that when they're 1, 2 years old, you'd just give up. You'd say, no, sorry, they're set in their ways now. They're not going to do anything different. No, definitely not that. There would be no further training for those guide dogs beyond. So trainability is possible to overcome some of those. But absolutely the maximum benefits you can give for habituation and socialization are in those early months.
Definitely, yeah, which is the whole question and issue with vaccinations because, you know, the idea of wrapping your pup up in cotton wool and keeping him in for the first 16 weeks of his life until he's had 45,000 vaccinations, it's like, okay, hang on, there's an imprinting period there where the pup needs to experience stuff and that could close at 20 weeks. You don't want to be coming out at 16 weeks, you've missed some crucial socialization time. So there's— anyway, this is a whole other kind of question really, which will—
because you did have that question, you raised that just before we came live. You were talking about coughs and colds and winter Yes, indeed.
Wrapping up and we'll talk about that. I just had a client who had a cough and I kind of feel everyone calls it kennel cough. And I've just, we, as the last time we did this, we did a kennel cough segment about 2 or 3 years ago. One of you, yourself or Nick, were highlighting that there's many different types of cough and you can pinpoint kennel cough by some simple checks. You can tell us about that. But you know, there's many types of cough that aren't any more scary than they are in us. We all get coughs. I've just had a cough for the last week. No drama. I didn't have to take an extra hour in bed, but there is some things we can do for dogs, I'm assuming, naturally, if they get a cough. What would you do, Brad, if a dog comes in with a cough?
Okay, so to answer the mix of questions there, yes, we did do a video on kennel cough. There is about 20 things that can commonly cause a cough in dogs, okay, including coronavirus. However, we're not even going to go there. For the main ones that we look at are parainfluenza and Bordetella. So that's effectively the whooping cough in children's equivalent in dogs. Okay. And there is a vaccine for those. There is a non-adjuvanted given up the nose option, which is probably the most natural way to give a vaccine.
What's adjuvanted mean for the folk?
So adjuvanted is where they put in something that will irritate the immune system. He's got a cough.
Oh, so it's typical, isn't it? I told you I had a cough before we started doing this. I have to cough.
So with that, you will find that adjuvants are there to irritate the immune system, to activate the immune system against whatever's within that vaccine. Now, there is a non-adjuvanted form, and the way that it works is to produce, use a bacterium from another species that cannot perpetuate into disease within the target species. So as in the dog, in this case, they use a pig version of the bacterium. So it's fairly host-specific, generally doesn't cause severe symptoms, certainly shouldn't progress into months and months of a cough However, it does mean that that is a live bacterium that can effectively go through a few cycles and can be found in the sputum of those dogs which have been vaccinated. So we would sort of expect it, and to some degree it could be passed to other dogs within a small group. And therefore vaccinating one could end up vaccinating the group, but it should not progress to disease. If you have the kennel cough bacterium developing into a disease, quite often it's because those animals have actually had that bacterium on board, you've then vaccinated them in a sick state, just visiting the vets for that vaccine, being held to have an intranasal anything given could mean that they suddenly start to have those bacterium shed. And if you've got the dog bacterium shedding, 9 times out of 10, that's because they already had that bacterium within their system.
Okay.
Yeah, still would say, yeah, vaccine bacterium can be found. That would be expected. That's not abnormal. That's how it gets enough power to stimulate the immune system to effectively activate it against the target bacterium that we don't want them to get.
Yeah.
Right. Now, that is one thing. So they could still get a cough. There's 19 other things that could cause them to cough. And we can't sort of say, that's why kennel cough is the wrong name. It should be effectively Bordetella bronchiseptica in dogs. Okay, that's the reported disease that will cause a horrible whooping cough sometimes up to 6 months, can be really severe with horrible facial mucous purulent discharges.
What's that gag reflex, the test for that to discriminate between that and a normal cough?
Any cough, that's another little myth. You know, any cough that causes throat irritation, you can elicit a cough by tickling here.
I thought that was unique.
No, it's just that in some cases, I mean, God, you put chili powder down your throat and do that, you'll cough.
Yeah, Ben's just pinching his throat there for the podcast. It's like a little pinch of the trachea is what I thought.
So tracheal pinch reflex. Just suggests that there is a lot of irritation within the airway. A collapsing trachea could do it.
Right. Yeah, of course.
Don't go pinching the trachea. If you've got a collapsing trachea and you do that hard enough, you'll make them cough.
It's not helping.
But they could end up just suffocating at the same time. Not a good idea.
Okay.
Just be really careful. But it is something that might give you an idea. Do they have a sore throat? Around that. And if so, if they've got a temperature and a sore throat, sometimes we can, in good dogs, open their mouths. I do talk to my patients and often say, open wide, and they do oblige. And it's great when they do that because owners think you're brilliant. But it's more a case of, I think, intent and people, you know, the patients get that. And you can look at their tonsils and if their tonsils are huge and purulent, then you've got an idea they've got something going on. If it's something you're not expecting, you can do a swab and get that identified as to whether it's that particular Bordetella bacterium. But most of the time, it's just like with us, chicken soup, give them lots of TLC. Okay. Sometimes just something to bring their temperature down. Some great remedies in using things like Drosera and, you know, the other ones is Spongia tosta. So those two remedies are often used for coughs, serious coughs.
Okay, cool. Give us those on Patreon. Will you write down how they are normally given? There's a study, I remember reading a study on natural solutions for a kennel cough, and one came through. I can't remember what it was. Likely something like garlic and ginger or one of those kind of mixes of herbs. But I don't want to wade into this because I don't have it ready.
Echinacea, I think, came up.
Echinacea. Yeah, that's always a good one.
That's an immune stimulant. I think anything that's going to help the immune system, you know, soothes the throat. So usually make it easier to swallow. Even honey.
Cipriol.
Oh, I can hear people shouting, not to dogs under a year old. Okay. I've already gone through that myth because in Pakistan, there were 3 infants that died of botulism.
Oh yeah.
Because of having honey as infants under 12 weeks of age.
Yeah.
And they looked at it. It's a horrible paralysis that they can get and it can cause sudden death. Botulism is found in muddy rivers. And if you're not washing out containers appropriately, such as jars and tins, then botulism can stick in an anaerobic environment where you seal that up with no oxygen and therefore can become a problem for the immune compromised. So they start to talk about this and then it's sort of perpetuated. And now they're saying children under 1 shouldn't have honey. So now they're saying dogs, because they obviously are the same under one, shouldn't have honey.
Yeah.
I think that that's yet to be proven. It has gone around all of the health professionals of the world as a thing. But when I researched really hard to find out why, that's all it came back to were these cases of botulism in Pakistan, which unfortunately their riverbeds as with ours, would contain botulinum. And if you're not cleaning those jars properly and you're just using river water, there is a high risk. Okay, honey, honey is not naturally rich in botulism. No, you know, there's too much oxygen around.
Yeah, and highly antibacterial as well, you would have thought. Yeah, you know, um, but, uh, yeah, so, um The coming off the back of that, you know, echinacea, there's a great slippery elm called slippery elm because it adds like a little mucus lining to your, to your membranes, gut and tracheal membranes and lungs. So it has a little bit of mucus in there. So if you've got a cough, that might be a nice little addition. Garlic and ginger and doses that I'm not quite sure, depending on the size of the dog. How would you give echinacea to the dog?
So echinacea will often come as an alcohol extract. And so for many, so the typical Bioforce one that you get in a pharmacy, you will know if you drop, put drops on your tongue, it will tingle really, you know, quite strongly. And many people would say, oh, that's a good tincture. But you put on 40% plus alcohol onto your tongue, it will tingle quite strongly. And so it's really important if you're going to use an alcohol extract of those herbs, that you effectively make a tea with it. So pour in, if you only want to use a few drops, an egg cup of boiling water. If you want to use a little bit more and use a couple of mils into food or anything like that, a cup, half cup of water from the kettle boiling.
Boiling.
Put in your few drops or a couple of mils of the tincture that's a good idea— steep for a good 2 to 3 minutes whilst that cools. That should evaporate off the excess alcohol, and that allows you then to start using that aqueous solution, that water solution, as a tea to stimulate.
Nice. What about dried? What about dried echinacea? Is that not an option?
It is, but quite often the downside to dried herbs in the UK and I think actually around the world, is that they are offshoots of herbal extraction. So what they'll do is they'll put the herb into an extract situation, create the alcohol, drawing off the goodies out.
Yeah.
And then what they'll then do is sell the remaining herbs as an interesting alternative. You've raised this with the whole green-lipped mussel.
Yeah, yeah. It's a concern. Yeah. Oh, I never thought about that with herbs. Gosh, you just don't know what you're getting.
So that's where you're looking to good, you know, you've got to do your due diligence and look at good quality herbalists, what they're producing, somewhere that's reliable. You know, places like iHerb will do some of that work for you. You know, you'll have Dore West Herbs. They are one of the foremost herbalists in the UK. You know, before they were making pet stuff, They've decades, if you know, if not half a century of herbal history behind the family that do Dorwest Herbs. They are the people that know about how you grow them, when you crop them, you know, the biodynamics of all of that, plus then how you create those herbal extracts. So if there's one common herbal company that I would say they've done their work and they know their herbs, that's Doorwest Herbs.
That's a good veg for that.
I'm not sponsored by them.
We should be. Send us some money, Doorwest, and we will leave this in the podcast.
I will say, you know, I'm sure there are other companies out there that can create really good herbs, but people have to really work hard to find that out. And You know, I know for the work I do with Bella and Duke, oh my word, some of the stuff that we were sent through as options to go in, the amount that you have to do to filter out the dross before you actually plump for one of those, that's what you want your company to be doing.
Do you remember Rita Hogan saying, we just met her there last week, we're over in Steph's pet pantry there doing a bit. But Rita was saying, you know, when were the herbs picked? You know, during the day, at nighttime? You know, where they're picked by happy people. That's what Nick's talk was on one time up in Helsinki. And it's like, what? This, this is stuff. And he goes, yeah, it's all energetics. And it's like, you know, it's way into the weeds for a lot of people because it's very hard for people that don't ever enter these conversations to even think that would be a thing.
I was going to grab you a book off that. There is a biodynamics farming book, but actually the herbal materia medica actually stipulate where the herb was grown, when it was cropped, what the phase of the moon was, yeah, who picked it, how they would— then, then before, you know, so before the actual preparation of the product, it was all of that stuff that came in, what the seasons were like. Yeah, this is so important. This is lost You know, because somebody comes along and goes, oh, I can actually purchase 10 tons of that from that country in that environment. It grows 20 times faster over there.
Yeah, I can get 4 crops a year and I can wrap it up better than she can and I can charge 10 times more, you know, and fancier label.
Or, you know, it on the tin, genetically it's the same.
Yeah, identical.
But is it the same effectiveness? Yeah, that's the question.
Yeah, it's interesting. There's a whole world of stuff I really don't know about. I'm sure Rita was here, her tail would be wagging furiously to make some comments. So look, what about like echinacea as like a winter thing? Do they give that to dogs as like a, as a prep? Is there things you can give to make dogs a little bit more robust in wintertime? Is there anything that you would change about the dog's bowl? I'd like to say yes at this point because I know things I can rattle off. I know what we're going to say here. But I actually don't add in, bar the few supplements Dodds is getting to keep them together, because he's got this, uh, I feel like his, his back could do with a bit of help.
Sprouts, because that's seasonal.
Yeah, yes, seasonal veg. Oh, that, that will come out soon about my, uh, my, my plant, my plant debate. Um, but, uh, so I wasn't gonna force that. Oh yeah, no, I'm not. There will be a time. Now is not it. I need more time. But what about like, you know, I mean, I want to say yes.
Are you going to apologize at some point?
Never apologize. Never apologize. Bloody, I was close to a politician today. I have been trained by 20 years of social media. So anyway, let's not mention the war. So would you actually add in anything different to your dogs' bowls? You know, autumn time, do you recommend it to your clients? Would you say, hey, you know what's great, but echinacea boost of vitamin C would be lovely for the dogs?
Whoa, back off. There's so much more to consider. And that's actually when it gets colder, we can consider warmer meats.
Yeah, nice.
Even warmer dogs, if it's cold weather, if the environment is challenging to them, they will be able to cope with those warmer meats. So often those game meats that we consider wintertime fare, actually have a purpose. They are quite warming meats. So you've got other things. The base proteins could be much better. The things that you may not have been able to feed to your dog through the summertime because they're too hot already and you need to look at that. So certainly meats seasonally, good time to be exploring some of those. Okay. You've then, as you say, some of those warming herbs. Remember, again, they may cope with some of those herbs which they couldn't have coped through the summertime because they are warming. And remember, variety. Don't go giving this day in, day out for the next 3 months because it's wintertime. You know, give them some variety to go through. So I think we need to turn off the I'm just getting some interesting feedback on the subtitles. Apparently some really good subtitles coming up. Hope you're having a chuckle out there, Debbie. I don't see them.
On what? I have no access.
I think there was something about dogs balls instead of dogs bowls.
Oh, interesting. Google away. Enjoy that. The warming meats are like, you know, you've got your game meats like pheasant, and venison. This is very TCVM sort of stuff, traditional Chinese veterinary kind of medicine, that people say that, you know, warming meats, cooling meats. I know very little about that. I don't actually deploy it a whole lot in my thinking when I'm getting dogs back to health, but I'm sure there's probably something to it because everybody is on side of this. Lamb, venison, lobster, if you want to feed them.
You know, we've sort of like, we've you threw in that allergy thing that came up, you know, 10 years ago. Everything was about isolation diets because it's an allergy.
Yeah.
And yeah, we know that it's not because it's an allergy. It's because there's a baseline of inflammation going on and there's so many causes to inflammation that's opening the gut up. But it was really interesting. I think it was 3 years ago Rita was talking about energetics in foods. And a lot of traditional Chinese medicine bases stuff around those energetics. Foods are one of those things. I don't always agree with where they go because there's quite a lot of vegetation and vegan and vegetarian diets discussed in TCM. Yeah, purely because on the human side in traditional Chinese medicine, that's what they would do in certain ailments. They have not changed that across to configuring for our carnivores. Yeah, they have just transposed human stuff. Yeah, exactly, onto the carnivores and not thought twice. And that is why I think certain—
that's where my— that's where my— yeah, that is where my break is with it. It's like, as ever, uh, I'm, I'm totally on side of the TCM. So look, I've seen this. I mean, the, the practitioners are amazing at sorting issues out. And when it comes to using herbs and medicines, I bet they transfer across. But when it comes to the foods, I look at the dog as kind of slightly different, and I think, okay, there's seasonality and everything else with them too, I'm sure, absolutely. But I wonder, does the food stuff transfer as well? But people that practice that stuff probably says it does, you know. But I don't know enough to kind of— I'm always kind of wary, as with any new thing. I'm always like, oh, does that really apply to the dog? Probably does, But I don't know.
I love seasonality, but would I limit my dog's appetite or need for some of the mushroom supplements?
Yeah.
In certain disease states to just autumn?
Yeah, exactly.
You know, why would I?
It's not appropriate.
So I would say, look, just think about, you know, there's, there's certain seasonal things that you can change. I think there's some great things to consider fermenting some of those foods, storing things whilst they are in abundance, you know, creating a bit more of a length of season through those natural things because the postbiotics from some of those can be brilliant as useful additions. I know Conor hates me talking about fermented foods.
I do not. I do not. I am, I am, I have, I'm now in the middle. I am now in the middle. I'm sure everybody would be delighted to hear I'm pretty much the only person that's not on that side. I'm facing that way, guys. It's all very, very interesting.
So there's little bits that you can consider. Remember, you know, in order to crop pumpkins, they kill the plants often with things like glyphosate. So unless you've got organic—
Well, yeah.
How do you think they let those pumpkins stay on the patch as an obvious orange pumpkin and all of the vegetation has died off in one go?
I had never thought about it before.
Okay. Well, you kill the plants and then let those seed pods stand out so that you can go and just pick them up.
Okay.
However, unless it's done organically where they'll snip the stem and, but that's a lot more in, you know, who buys organic pumpkins?
I mean, is there who?
Rodney Habib.
Yeah, he definitely does.
Rodney, if you're watching.
Becker and Habib definitely have organic pumpkins. Hulkans. Rita Hogan maybe.
Somebody asked about pumpkin powder actually at the evening, earlier this evening. You know, is it an okay thing to add to your dog's diet?
I don't mind a bit of pumpkin. I use it, I use it for gut issues sometimes at the start. Yeah, absolutely. Little bit. Hate to lean on it for too long, but sure, who cares? I mean, a little bit of pumpkin is— yeah, a lot of the Polish shops have tins of pumpkin. I find that very easy. But I mean, anybody can cook up a bit of pumpkin. Sweet potato and pumpkin, they are great. The fiber in there does work. As much as I slagged off that plant fiber in my talk, for those gut sick dogs to shore up diarrhea for that first day or two. There is a use for that for sure. I've got two more questions. I really want to get to one of them before we, because we've only got 10 minutes left.
You know what, we are cracking through questions a lot quicker than we normally do.
It's Thompson. Thompson is shit. That's the problem. And now we know. Now everybody knows. So look, if you're watching, he definitely isn't. There's two questions. I don't know which way to go. I got a cracker of a question. Maybe we'll do this in Patreon. How do you change your vet's mind? How do you let your mind be changed? And I thought, that's, that's a gem. And then there's, then there's, I want to chat about the CMA thing, this thing that's come up. I don't know which one to do on Patreon. Which one should we do here? Yeah. What do you want to do? The change your mind bit?
Change your mind.
I think your mind's a gem. Yeah. How do you change your vet's mind? How do you let your mind be changed? That second one, particularly, I think.
I think the root of this sits sits in prejudice, sits in bias. And actually, I reflected on this probably 10, 15 years ago as to why was it that the approach to evidence-based medicine got so mixed up and misunderstood and abused by the profession. And that's because prejudice builds on certain premises. I think the strongest prejudice will be through your personal experience. If you've experienced something, so say you've taken a drug and you've had a bad reaction to it, definitely that is going to be one of the things that you will shout about saying, never touch that ever, ever, ever. It's really, really bad. Okay, so that's number one. And it's going to be really hard if somebody's had that experience to change their mind.
Okay. Yeah.
Because they've had personal experience and they'll say that was so obvious to them. And that's the reverse, you could say, for homeopathy, where you've had a great experience with it. Changing that person's mind to saying it's going to be useless is— yeah, there's no point. Yeah.
And on the flip side of that point is that if you haven't had that experience, it's very hard for you as a person who suffered the issue or benefited from the issue, that the experience, it's very hard for you to put that experience in Bren's head if he's never had the experience. So to say something's great or not great based on your experience is very hard to communicate to someone who's never had that experience. Like explaining childbirth to a man, you just can't possibly get there. So yeah, that's a big one.
And the next one is the experience of those close to you. So a family member.
Yeah, same thing, really.
Same thing, really. Or they may have somebody you trust has said this is, so a professor in a university teaching you something that you have put your trust in has told you this is the way it is.
That's another step. I thought you meant somebody in your immediate circle had an experience and you were there when it happened. I class that as that level 2. That's the same thing. That is your experience. Yeah, it is. Okay, sorry.
So I would say step 2 is when somebody you trust You haven't seen it, but they have extolled to you that this is what happened.
Yeah.
And this is what, this is why they always do what they do.
Yeah.
Okay. And this is where things like neutering can become an issue because they've said to you, look, I've always done it. I've never seen any problems. Off we go. Yeah. The next bit of experience is going to be then looking at the the various ladders of the science, the trusted journals where there's been work done, evidence done. That's what people will look at and go, oh yeah, I'll draw from that. I'm going to invest that. That takes them investing time in researching for it, as in to look for that paper and to read it through and understand it. Totally. So they're investing time, so they will respect that. And they'll, like we do quite often, draw from that and try and spread the news from those sort of journals. And then the sort of last one is the red tops, if you like. Now, unfortunately, these are the ones that often get the biggest hit because having a viewpoint from a journalist who will often either catastrophize something or they will create an argument out of it in order to get your innate brain to process it and be on board and fall on one side of the argument or the other. If they're a good journalist, on their side of the argument.
Yeah.
Becomes the biggest draw because they're often the ones that are the easiest read and often put on everybody's counter.
Yeah.
So you've got to understand a lot of those have a lot of bias in them already. I mean, I remember 3 or 4 years ago you saying that you stopped reading a certain paper because you started seeing a certain bias coming into those. I'm not going to say the paper and I'm not going to say what the subject was.
All of them. I can't read any of them.
You suddenly start to see that. It's like certain news channels, you start to see evidence of a certain narrative that comes in, and then every story tends to be tainted by that narrative, and you start to lose faith. Yeah, you have an inquiring mind. Yeah, in, in that channel, it's a big problem.
It's— I mean, that, that's a great way of laying out the levels, that's a sh— that's for sure. And now AI is going to muddy that a lot more because I— to change my mind, I would have a look. I'd say, let's say if I experience it myself, that's concrete for me, you know. But if Bren or Nick said that something happened, I would definitely put a lot of weight on that and go, oh, that's interesting. And I would far more accept that than I wouldn't accept it. I would fall in behind the person when they said that, depending on who told me. But then I would, if anybody, any lesser source, no offense to everybody else in my circle of friends, but any lesser source had said that to me, I would then investigate myself and I'd have a look what the studies say and see who funded the studies, what the counter studies say, you know, what do the critics say and have a look at their points.
Anonymous shielded phone that's never listened to your conversation.
I don't think anyone does that. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Nobody does. Because the algorithm's already set by the time you research it. The problem is we're all now using ChatGPT and we're using Google. Google's a disaster anyway. It's a dumpster fire. But now you're using ChatGPT and AI is turning itself into a dumpster fire. Very tricky to understand. It's very believable what it says. A lot of the links are nonsense. 2000s. Now a lot of the videos we're watching going, you know, did I just see our Prime Minister, uh, you know, punch somebody in the face? And it's like the videos are so realistic. Sora 2 is the name of the software. Like, it is phenomenally realistic. And this is as bad as it's going to be. Can you imagine how— I mean, if there's a— if God forbid something bad happens in London and there's an attack, you won't know what you're looking at. You won't know how many people were injured. You won't know who did it. You'll say, did this actually happen? Everybody will— it'll be very hard to trust between— so I think actually verifying how wide mind be changed is very, very tricky. I want to pick up one good example of this, in my opinion. Let's say you're invested in an idea. We're all invested in ideas. Raw is best. What would I need to see to show me that raw is not, or fresh food is not good for cats and dogs? You know, how would I shift my mind about that? I would, I want to pick on a real doozy of an argument. I brought up the carbon thing, the cows bit when I did my talk in San Diego, and it went down great. People, I did it with humor and I said, look, this This is the amount of carbon a private jet from one side of the States to the other costs. And look how many cows that is. And that really worked for people. And we all laughed. And I think the humor helps to take the edge off the seriousness of it all. But the carbon thing is interesting. It's like for the people that are invested in the carbon bit, as we all are, we all want clean environment and all that kind of stuff, which isn't the same debate. But let's say we were really worried about carbon, as worried as the Guardian newspaper, really seriously worried about this. And it's going to start affecting us because there'll be carbon taxation put in our products and the meat that we consume and all that kind of stuff. From the pet food. So what would you do? What do you need to see before you might change your mind about the effect of carbon? So a couple of things. If you were to see a graph where carbon was going up and the temperature of the Earth was going down, you go, hmm, those two things aren't as linked as I thought they were. Or if you were watching when what's-his-name was doing his— what was the vice president over in the US? Al Gore was doing his presentation. And the temperature of the Earth, or the temperature of the Earth went up before the carbon went up, you know, complete oxymorons that if you think carbon rises temperature, these things clash terribly with that premise. So it's like, what do you need? I think everybody needs to be aware of this for every position you take on anything in the world, from religion to bloody borders, to all this shit that people are reading and screaming about. What do you need to see before you would change your mind about that? I think that's a huge question. And we don't give it time because our feeds just says yes or no, you know. And sometimes even when you show someone direct evidence, I just had it there on the page a while ago, show me a study that, you know, that where raw dog food is completely clean. And I was like, show you a study where it's like made on the Mir space station, which has bacteria on it. You know, I can't show you that study, but you can show me that study for dry food. And I was wondering the best way to approach it with this girl and kind of say, How do I change? What do you— so I always find myself saying, what do you need to see before you would question your stance on, say, dry food or whatever it is? And that's a hard one for people to answer. It's hard to shift your mind on the big questions, you know. So, but we have to, you know, if we do something wrong or if we, if we go off on one and we have to backtrack a little bit, as I've done on probiotics, you know, I've said all this stuff and—
to be fair to you, You are very good at when something comes across you and you look at it and you go, oh, what I said wasn't quite accurate. Because often it has 90% accuracy.
Yeah.
But there was just an element of what you said that needed upgrading. You have the humility to go on and actually say, look guys, this isn't what I've quite meant.
Yeah.
This is the evidence to say I shouldn't have that bit.
It's the advantage of being an honest broker. When we talk this stuff, it's great when you're not investing in it. You can turn around and say, I bet you're thinking about the plant fiber thing when you said that. I cannot wait to start thinking. I just know you are.
I was actually thinking about that. I know you have done that. You were?
Oh, I've got to get this. I'm going to lump you in. But yeah, no, I think it's a huge question because it's like when you go and approach a vet and they are really dug in on an issue, you know, a lot of vets are on side now and it's great, you know, But when they're really dug in and you want to keep going to this because it's your local vets and you want to have them for all the other things, you just wish they wouldn't talk to you about nutrition anymore. You know, you just wish because you know, you know, you're right, you hope. And but it's very hard to get that message across. I know we bring this up a couple of times a year, but there is no easy way to approach someone whose whole job and their whole life is the kibble behind them. And, you know, the stuff that they've been saying to every client, it's very hard to get that person to move move.
So there's that cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance, yeah.
The thing that they don't want to suggest that they've ever been wrong. Sure, I get that. Honestly, a lot of vets, it's not that they are ardent pro-kibble people. It is that it's the easy conversation. There are a lot of vets out there, a lot of locum vets that I have seen, just because there's a bit of a vet shortage and we're using some locums at the moment, and they're in and out. They literally want the patients in and out, in a nutshell. And what they have started to look for is the sticking plaster. They aren't looking for the solution. They are looking for what will just keep that patient ticking over and it will be somebody else's problem.
Yeah, right. That's a problem.
The big concern is unless you've got somebody who's invested in community, invested in that surrounding and the animals there within that community and they're sticking around, you will have a bit of an issue getting somebody who's invested in looking into how to prevent disease in that way, how to prevent animals getting sick. And I'm afraid to say, look, just because of stressors in our veterinary environment from, you know, what clients will say to them and how they've expressed themselves to, you know, the CMA reports, you're going to get less and less old fogies like me that are invested in the community sticking around in every practice.
Yeah, yeah.
So be careful what you wish for.
Yeah, yeah, that is a fact. The— and also, like, if you've got 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and the vet is getting bogged down in a conversation about dry dog food, it's going to make them antsy. It's going to like, oh, not again. Like, you know, you're going to bounce off that conversation very, very quickly. But the, like, you know, moving— I actually don't have a very quick answer for people of how you change somebody's mind. I think people need to look at how they let their own mind be changed.
And, and actually, for me, therefore, coming back to that, yeah, is help them experience. So find a trusted source, find something that's easily accessible for them to go away, read, experiment, self-experiment.
Raw Feeding Veterinary Society, please just have a look.
And there's a little bit about Raw Feeding in society. But I would say, you know, for me, the simplest way to talk to good common sense health professionals is things like Van Tuliken's book on Ultra-Processed People.
Yeah.
And experience, you know, healthy food is not ultra-processed.
I don't think they'll read the book. I think if you put the book in front of them, no matter how short that book is, you know, Conor, write us a book, show us the evidence. There it is. Not reading that. It's like, oh my God.
But if you are direct directing it towards somebody's own health, own family, you know, commonly conceived ideas of, you know, take it away from the veterinary aspects, look at what it means for them, their family. You know, they've got young kids, you know, what are they doing? Are they— 9 times out of 10, these guys are already feeding fresh.
Yeah, yeah.
They're already on that bandwagon instead of you trying to push a big boulder up the hill, it's like, you know, a little tiny tap and the boulder is running away with them down the hill. I'm suddenly thinking, oh my God, moment.
Yeah, yeah. I like a lightly cooked food. That's often a nice middle ground. What about lightly cooked food? And tell them you're doing that for a while. And look, you mentioned this. Look, there's no point jumping on Patreon because this is a really important point as well. You said about this, they said about the CMA report. I I did a few posts on the CMA report, which is the marketing authority over in the UK who was tasked with having a look at potential price gouging by veterinary corporates in the UK. And it had been going on for quite a while. And then they released their report recently, two enormous parts, Part A, Part B. Part A, what's up, what's wrong. Part B, what we think might happen. And there was hundreds of pages, particularly in Part A. It was a long, ill-read, I gave it about maybe an hour and a half sitting there. And that that's all I could do.
Or did you say ChatGPT, can you summarize?
I 100% use ChatGPT. Absolutely, I did. Absolutely. I got ChatGPT for my leads. And then you go to that section and you just make sure what you're saying is what you— ChatGPT is very good for interpreting reports because there's the data I want you to pull from. There's no space for it to hallucinate. So if you give it a report, it can pull out—
Tell the guys what you mean by hallucinate. Because I used that word for the first time and I had a room full of old vets that were going, what do you mean?
Yeah, it just, it just, it just makes up stuff and it knows what you want to hear and it makes stuff up to suit you. So if you said, hey, is there any studies showing penicillin as effective as Metacam for pain in dogs? And then they'll say, oh yes, absolutely. Here's 3. And you'll go, oh brilliant. I thought so. Because, you know, that's why I asked you the question. And 2 of the links are just complete gobbledygook. It could be a link to poor diet in children and there'll be a link to, you know, something in engineering and you're like, and you'll chastise it and say, stop giving me nonsense links. I only want studies or to give you a link to Metacam. It's nothing about penicillin or paracetamol. So like it makes up these lies. And unfortunately for the public that don't go down each little bit of that, they'll take the link and say, lovely. And top government bodies in all sorts of countries are getting caught producing very serious documents where the link is just, well, that link doesn't say that at all. Now, I would say the AVMA and all those governing bodies, I've caught them myself putting fancy links that don't say that what they think said that. They've always been doing that since time began. People have been pretending that they read the study and they put the study up and pretend the study said that.
So what did they think AI was going to do?
So exactly. So AI learns bullshit 10 or 20% of the time to make a point. If we're desperate and we really want to win, we will cheat. And so particularly with info, or you just get convinced. Obviously.
We don't. Obviously not.
I would never. But, you know, that's so it's learned that and it can't unlearn that, it seems, because they can't get it right. Now we're on ChatGPT-5 and it's just not improving as quick as they'd hoped. There's actually a plateauing now in AI power despite what they're selling you because lots of money invested. Anyway, coming back to the CMA report, I felt it was a bit of a damp squib. I kind of felt like it said, yeah, here's some things that are wrong. Here's some things that we might improve. And they said to the RCVS, here's some things that, you know, it'd be great if this could improve. Improve. It's like you were investigating the RCVS and you tasked the RCVS with improving some bits and pieces in the sector. I kind of thought that was a bit rich. I thought, well, you know, if there was an independent body that was overseeing the whole thing, but there's no point investigating the police and then saying to the police, these are some things we think you should improve. It's like, well, you know, that's just not how it works. There has to be a body above it that controls it. So I felt like I don't think anything is going to happen here. And then the Veterinary Nurses Association there in the UK just released a piece a couple of days ago saying, you know, the CVS, one of the huge corporates, is now going on the London Stock Exchange after the CMA report they did. And they said, well, that really just shows you, the report came out, all was well in corporate veterinary, and then they released this. So there's a lot of smoke around here. I posted a couple of times about it and I said, you know, there is some issues here and prices are going up. And then I sat down and had a chat with you And you made some really valid points, and I know the first one you're going to say. And so let's just have your side of things, Bren, about like prices going up in veterinary medicine as a whole. How do you feel about that?
Look, there's an interesting couple of things, and some of you guys out there may not be happy with me saying this, saying, well, I'm invested as a vet and I'm protecting a business, but I would say One thing I notice when I go down the grocery store is, you know, pretty much 2 shops a week is costing me what used to be the whole shop for the whole week and probably a bit more, £110. Now it seems like every shop, even if you go twice a week, is £110. You know, it's like, I think we've got to recognise since 2016, which is what the CMA report based price rises on, 2016 to 2023, then there has been price increases. And there is a big thing across the world, but the UK did a huge investment within our economy. People thought, this is great. They're paying for furlough. They're protecting us, they're pumping money in to protect jobs. That money wasn't coming from nowhere. That was devaluing the pound. So they artificially raised the overall cost when you went back to work of your food, your energy, your house, your, you know, anything that you did, your building works, whatever you were looking at purchasing, after that money was pumped in. I believe some people will say they devalued the pound as much as 25% in all of the money they pumped into the economy at that time. Not by pulling out the gold, but literally by printing paper.
That's what happens when you print money. The money is invented, it's printed out of thin air, and the more they print, the more you devalue your currency. That is the absolute bottom line. That's what happens. You can see it in the US, nearly $40 trillion in debt, $1 trillion every 100 days. Unsustainable, cannot keep going on. But the UK is the same issue. Ireland has the same problem. France hasn't returned a positive budget in 50 years since they decoupled from gold. Same as London, same as Manhattan. So that inflation thing is huge. Energy prices have doubled in the UK in the last 5 or 6 years. All this green energy where they just invested $450 billion into I mean, where's all the free energy?
In percentage terms, just for the guys out there, because they talked about 63% rise from 2016 to 2023 for veterinary fees, how much is doubling in percentage terms?
I mean, are you asking me a question there? I'm looking up the figures. Sorry, I missed the question because I'm looking at how quickly—
Energy price doubles, what's the percentage terms that it's gone up by?
100%.
There you go. Okay, so just to give you an idea, 100%. Yeah. But there's lots of other factors.
I never thought about that, but I have to give you your dues. When you said that to me, as soon as you said it, talk about changing your mind. I feel like I'm someone that can change your mind pretty quick. I feel like, I feel like when I'm presented with some very obvious points, I feel like, oh, that's a big point. Until you said that, I thought things are going up in the big pet pharma world and the cost of scans are going up very quickly and the cost of visits and everything is going up, but it's not fair when it went up in the veterinary sector, in my opinion. I was on that wagon, and I look at the price of energy and food going up, I'm bitching and moaning about that all day, but I accept it. It's just like, oh, well, that's very expensive. Yes, that's not fair. I understand why, 'cause I did not agree with all the money they were spending. Obviously, that was my main thing that I got chastised for over the last 5 years. And yet I didn't give, and you know, if I look at what I do in my business, increased the price of my supplements at all. My business is just not making any money and it's costing us serious heartache. But we should have been increasing that so I could keep up with my bloody food bills here and the cost of everything. So I'm feeling— and I never did it because I'm such a dumbass at business, and yet I thought it wasn't fair when the veterinary sector was doing it. So I have to say, hands up, because I totally was in there without thinking, oh, prices are going up a lot. It's like, well, they're going up everywhere. What do you think was going to happen? So that's a very obvious, painfully obvious point that makes me step back now from the edge going, hmm, yeah.
And look, you know, I admit costs of health are expensive. You know, you want somebody like me to stay behind to do diagnostics at 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night, sit with your pet through the night, night, looking after them, you know, be there in the morning, you know, deliver all of the news, look at whatever we need to do treatment-wise. You know, I can't do that for next to nothing because I've got to pay the people that are working with me because I can't do all of that diagnostics on my own. I've got to, you know, sort out all of the equipment that we've got to run, the energy to keep that place working at that time.
Has doubled in 5 years.
And, you know, we've, we've got to just understand, you know, the cost of people's salaries. You've talked about the doctors, you know, the vets have gone up a similar amount and are still lagging behind our health colleagues by at least 50% on expected salaries at the same time in their careers. So you've understand that those costs are going up. Yeah, they will continue to go up. And it's all very well that there's some great pharmacies out there that can get your drugs and stockpile them and cut out the middleman, the wholesaler, and they can go direct to drug companies and effectively take that. But the majority of practices, including independents— so this didn't isolate any, you know, corporates, these are including independents, will be paying at least 20% more, at least 20% more before they even get it through their door and store it and stuff go out of date because they need it in an emergency and they're not going to use all of it. Before they get it through there, they're paying at least 20% more than any online pharmacy.
Yeah.
Okay, so there is all of that factor going in, but if you don't want to pay it through the drugs and you want to go through this, all that will end up happening is you'll pay more in service costs. Yeah, because otherwise those veterinary practices will fold and you won't have a veterinary practice.
That's what that nurses piece was saying, the veterinary nurses piece, which I'll post after this, um, talk so people can see it. It was very short and sweet, and they said so So what they've done was CVS, by the way, who the corporate vets are, one of the group of 6 that were under investigation, they own the online pet pharma. They are the distributor for these drugs inside the UK. So they've got not ownership, but all products pass through their hands. And so they got those that suddenly came up in the last 4 or 5, 6 months, these online So when you don't buy your drugs from the independent vet, you buy them online, you're buying them from CVS. So what CVS have done in a way is really pulled the rug out from under the independents because what they've done is they'll say, yeah, you can buy the drugs off us. So now the independents don't even have a prescription to fulfill. So you're going to get the prescription off them, you're going to get your drugs 10% cheaper, that's all, 15% cheaper online, which is the corporates. You're giving to the same people that you're bitching and moaning about and you have it. People are still going to do that because shit is tight at the moment. There's not a lot of money going around. So if you've got a drug bill of €500 a month for a couple of Great Danes with cancer, yeah, I can see why you want to save 50 quid, guys. I'm not begrudging you that. I'm just saying, this is what the veterinary nurse said, that's a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. That where else are the independents going to get their money now? So what do they do? They'll up the cost of their services because otherwise they'll close. And it's like you really are damned if you do, damned if you don't here. It's way more complicated than I gave it thought.
And even then, I see it day in, day out, people saying, oh, I hate corporate situations. I hate corporates. I'm not going to ever shop at a corporate. And yet I see those same people in the local supermarkets because people don't realize I live in the community I serve. And you can bitch all you like about Corporates. But if you're shopping in Asda, you're shopping in Sainsbury's, you're shopping in Morrisons, you're shopping in— you're shopping in a corporate.
Happy to support them. Yeah.
So make your choices. I know there are some great people out there and I know each and every one of you that will support independent farmers. They'll go right to the doorstep and they'll do everything they can to purchase on those. Hats off to you. You, but I still know that some of you will call into the local garage, okay, which is a convenience store usually sponsored by a corporate, and you'll be buying the petrol and probably some extra goodies from that same corporate.
Yeah, it is very, very tricky. I think there's definitely still space to say, definitely still space to say that. I feel like if the report was was tighter, I would say that I'm confident that many corporates would be charging a higher fee for services than an independent vet that's operating out of a— no offense, but like, not a state-of-the-art facility, you know. But if you walk into a corporate-owned state-of-the-art facility right in the middle of town, you know, you are going to be charged private hospital fees. And they may, you might not be able to afford that. There was going to be people that can and they're pulling up and, you know, maybe slightly—
Is that not why many of our high streets struggled in the cost of living crisis? Because what do you pay for when you shop in a centre of a town? You don't just pay for the goods. They are more expensive in the centre of town. I know there's some people out there that will go window shopping and then go and buy it online, but you're paying when you purchase that in town for the higher rents that they're paying, you know, the staff, they've got to pay more for staff to attract them in to work in the central town environment. You know, they're going to have the displays, the marketing guys do so much more. It's going to look and feel different in that store to get you to buy.
So I pay more for my healthcare. My dad was sick for a lot of his life. And so it's like, I've learned a lot from that. And it's like, so I pay a lot for healthcare. Elaine's got a great healthcare policy at work and we get to piggyback on the back of that as a family. And so we have the maximum you could possibly get, which would be beyond most families on an average wage today, probably. And I thank my lucky stars I have it because I feel like when I go in that I feel like the difference between a private hospital and a public hospital, there are some small differences. And you're just sitting in the reception and you're looking around going, oh, this is nice. They've got free apples and it's like a newspaper and it's warm. But like, you know, yeah. And it's not like, it's not, yeah, it's not like I'm faulting the people in either. And I bet the doctors are just as good. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying that, you know, if you had your choice, people will go when you can afford it. You'll go for this private healthcare. And I was offered, I had a knee operate. I just get a particular knee operation.
That you go into?
Yeah, what was that?
Who runs that healthcare environment?
Corporate.
Is it? Yeah. Is it Bupa? Is it?
Yeah, no, that could be like, you know, VHI. It'd be, it'd be, what's VHI? VHI for us. But yeah, it's corporate, you know, it's a business model and their business model is really high-end shit. And if you can afford it, there you go, pay for it. And it's like, and you go, yep, well, I can just about, and so I will. And it's really important because I haven't actually needed it, thank God. But it's actually, you pay it now, which is a cheaper rate as opposed to having to sign on when you're 50 or 60 with them and they'll kill you because they don't want 50 and 60-year-olds, they want 30-year-olds. And so I know it's an investment in long term, but not everyone can make that investment. So there's that as well. And it's like, I'm actually happier to pay that. And I know not everyone can afford it and it's not for everybody. And that is unfair. I know it is. I wish it was probably Denmark or Sweden, whichever it is, where they just say that is the cost. We will take all your money, but you will have phenomenal access to anything you need. You know, when you pay And you pay 50, 60. Yeah, absolutely. So there is that. So it's a much bigger conversation. I was given credit for it and it was painfully obvious when he said the cost of everything is going up. So yeah, the cost of everything is going up. But yeah, it's very—
And if you had this same conversation in the 1980s, and I remember seeing practice and having conversations with clients It was relatively speaking, just as expensive to visit a vet and have that high-end operation as it is this day.
Yeah.
Okay. So it's, you know, that's never going to change because that is the true cost of healthcare.
Yeah. I feel like the costs are running away from the average wage now. Our wages aren't going up and the inflation is driving everything up and they want us to blame everybody. They want us to blame everybody, you know, people coming into the country, and they want us to blame, you know, if it was the blue party or the red party or the green party or the yellow party or black or brown or a man or woman. They want us to blame all that. But this is the cost of runaway inflation as a result of printing a lot of cash. You just can't keep— do you know what's funny? I don't have a credit card. I've never had a credit card. I'm not allowed to have a credit card. It's just, it just won't work for me. It won't work for the business.
So, um, Stop your credit card.
You bloody knew I don't carry credit cards. But what I do have is I have debit cards. And so if I'm going away, the company debit card, I just load it up with cash. And then when it runs out, I go, oh, no money left, and load it up again. It's not a big deal, but I always know that that money is there. And so we are told not to live off too many credit cards. And we look at some, you know, you can see in some countries maybe they're happier to live off credit cards than others. Over in Ireland, it's not a thing. We don't like living off credit cards, so it's less of a thing over here. It can be more elsewhere. Perhaps it's just a whole throwback to history, maybe. But we don't live off credit cards too easy, but other places do. We know it's a bad idea that when you have maxed out your credit card, you probably shouldn't go for another credit card to borrow money to pay off that credit card. And then, bup, bup, bup, you have 3 or 4 credit cards because you're living on 16%, 20% interest. It is a loser's game and it's going to catch up on you. Isn't it crazy today that all our economies are based on that? It's just printing cash and it's like, oh, well, we can't afford to make repayments. Anymore. It's just like, yes, digital. Yeah, even when you get like, I didn't realize I'm about to get another mortgage, I'm moving house, I'm going to need a little bit of money to move from A to B. And it's like they said, yeah, well, like, you know, the bank just zaps that money into your account. It's just, it has created another lump of cash that never existed and just put it into your bank account. And, and it doesn't even exist in your bank account, you just give it to the next person. But that came out of thin air, and that, that goes on to inflate It's not like somebody worked and toiled and then that cash, which put another lump sum into the safe, guys, because Conor Brady's borrowed something. You know, it's like, I never realized that that adds to it. He goes, oh yeah, it's all just monopoly money of gold drops into England. I can't touch for some reason. Uh, I don't think I'll ever touch gold for the rest of my life, you know, buy a couple of rings. But, um, so anyway, the, the inflation thing is very, very relevant, and now it's really come into this conversation, which I've never given credit for it. And I'm going to— I think we should chop the end of this video off, Brendan. We should post it as a single video. So people just have it and say, spare a thought for everybody. It doesn't matter who you're talking about, from the greeter to the energy man to the postman, you know, our wages are stagnant, and inflation is rocketing up. And so, you know, I don't know what the solution is.
I'm not here every time we go for a price rise in our salary, what ends up happening, it fuels more inflation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hmm. Uh, yep, you know, that's a— it is a doozy. I just can't believe it's so obvious. I can't believe that I never considered that bit of it as a business person. You know, I'm feeling this, and I look at my own business and go, I am just not hiking up my prices enough at all. And that's, you know, I'm charging the same amount for a consult I did 4 or 5 years ago. Fella.
That's what it is.
No, no, I'm not. No, I am business naive. Big difference. I'm not nice. I would happily, like, happily would have increased my prices and someone told me that my money is not going as far.
This is the illusion. So lots of people say, oh, that's because you're a nice fella, you know, you're going to give me low-cost veterinary care because you're a nice fella, you know, I know you well, give me low cost. Yeah, the thing is, it's a false economy, guys, you get your vet to do that and what ends up happening? They can't provide the service in future years. So actually, ultimately, you are driving down your own local vets.
Yeah. The chances of them existing in 5 years at that lower cost where they can't meet their bills and their mortgage prices go up and the fuel goes up and do you know what, I can't run a practice car anymore, so I'll just get the bus to work. It's like, you know, now they don't take a holiday anymore, so your vet doesn't have any time off. Off, you know. They are real things that people don't want to think about because they don't have any holidays either, but it's like, it's just a race to the bottom.
And it's like, some of them, they won't have a computer system, so they won't actually be able to really look at how they've improved care over the last 30 years because they've decided, you know, there are vet practices out there that still work on scribbled cards because they wanted to keep costs down.
Our maternity hospital, our main maternity hospital in Dublin, when Holly was being born. So that was 7 years ago, like 7 years ago, which is not— it's not prehistoric times. 2018, there were— everything was on paper and it's like they were writing things and the computers were coming in and the nurses were there as Elaine, you know, in the middle of trying to give birth with the fluorescent lights on. And there was just engineers, young lads coming in and out going, oh, you know, don't mind us. And it's like, well, we do mind you. We— who's this What is he doing in here? I thought I was the only— I was like, it was just, it was chaos. And the nurse was saying, oh, we're just moving to computers, but they're just ridiculous. What's wrong with the cards? And they were like, myself and Lane look at each other and go, oh my God, you write everything on cards? You know, is there no private hospitals that do this? What are we doing in the public sector? This is disgusting. But I'm only joking, guys. I'm being facetious, honestly. So yeah, I can't believe everything was on cards. Just to end on a funny thing here, guys, I went away for a couple of days with the kids. No two words strike fear more. These words on their own, kids and hotel, both can be very pleasant, but together, a kids hotel. Oh my God, lads, it was an absolute car crash of a couple of days. I have to say, it was just— I mean, the kids had a good time, but it was just horrific. It was like going to Ronald McDonald's house for two days. It was just— it was horrible. But I— we were in the nice hotel and we're in there and we're getting and she took a little bit of washed up and stuff and in the bathroom and you look at all the free things. Oh, look, a shower hat. And then it's like, I take everything. I take— I denude the place. Elaine would be mortified if she heard me saying this. I asked her, could I take the glass? There was two really nice glasses. Robbing all the shampoos, conditioners, body lotion. Who uses body lotion? What sort of weird notion after Sharon, man? Anyway, I robbed it anyway to add to my collection.
And then you're gonna put on a load of creamy—
who does that? Not me. Anyway, I robbed. I'll give to my mother for Christmas or something. Um, so anyway, okay, anyways, Zoe's there, she's only 4, and, uh, we'll come to washing and there was soap, and I like soap but nobody else does, and I take the soap and say, here, use that. And she holds it, she goes, what do I do with this? She's never seen a piece of soap before. And I felt like such a caveman. I was like, it's soap. You've never seen soap? I said, you wash your hands with it. She's there and I was like, you wet it. It's like, like you've never seen a bar of soap before. And it struck me because all our things are plump squidgy things. Like, who has soap? Our granny's house. And nobody washes their hands with that tiny little bit of soap in there. So they've never used it before.
Oh, the old, um, oh, the Lux thing with the magnet in. That used to stick to the—
Oh, a magnet, that's very fancy.
Have you never seen soap and a rope?
Soap and a rope is about as fancy as we got. You could use the rope as well to get into crevices. Anyway, this should be all our fault.
This is why the last Patreon— we'll keep this bit off Patreon.
I don't think anyone's listening. Has everyone gone?
They're starting to tail off now. We're down to the last 40 or so hardliners.
I know I'm going to crop off that bit about inflation because it's so bloody obvious. I'm going to stick it up on Facebook and see what they think. Um, you know, it's not going to suit everybody. It's a tough conversation to have, but, uh, spare a thought because everything's going up. But, um, yeah, anyway, that's it for tonight, Bren. That was great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, guys. Thanks for the those guys that have persisted in watching us. And somebody's into Birch Tar Soap.
Lovely. Oh yes, that tar soap is nice. I know exactly what she's talking about. Is that the dark brown one? Is it?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I like that one.
Somebody's saying, that is a rope burn happening, Conor.
Oh, rope burn.
Oh, Sonia.
Yeah, I'm not going to live that one down. Bloody hell. Anyway, I was only joking. Bad mental picture to finish on. Right, guys, we better toddle on.
Yeah, we better head. Okay, take care, everyone. Cheers, everyone.
Take it easy, man. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
