Brendan, Dr. Conor Brady, and Nick cover puppy socialization during the critical 16-20 week window, vaccine shedding risks, raw versus commercial diets, and managing luxating patella without surgery. They stress early exposure to varied environments and traffic, fecal testing instead of routine deworming, and omega-3s for brain development.
Chapters
Good evening. Hello everybody. We're just going to let this young man just try and get himself together and maybe put something in his ears so he can actually hear what we're talking about. We're going to be live any second. It's amazing. Don't you just love it when he's got— Oh, look, he's forgotten everything.
Now, come on. Is my camera the right way, Nick? Is everything all right?
Yeah, it is. I haven't put my phone on, so let me do that as well. Pete.
So you will have to tolerate these total amateurs. Hopefully you're all getting us. Everyone out there, it's great to see you. This is our November Q&A.
It is Tuesday the 25th of November. We are going to be doing Q&As and we're going to be throwing a lot of other garbage into this.
If you didn't advertise a particularly sweet and unhealthy drink, I'd want to be going, Christmas is coming. Christmas is coming.
Yeah, we're close. We are close. I love Christmas.
Have you done your Black Friday already? Have you got your special offers? Have you sold yourself into the commercial elements of Christmas?
No, there was a, there was my friend went on a nice holiday to a place in Italy and their Black Friday deal came up and they're doing 50% off the following year. And so 3 of my friends are going to that spot next year in May. And I thought, lovely, they're all going together. We're not going to go. I'm not going with a screaming baby. But I thought, what a deal. So no, I haven't availed of any deals. I'm miserable. I never buy anything anymore. What about you, Nick? I can't see you shopping for anything.
No, but okay, here's what I did for the Black Friday thing is I got my headphones. I've got some nice Bose Bluetooth headphones. Sorry, Sally, they are Bluetooth. And they are dying. And so I thought I need to get some, but I got them in the States because they're cheaper. So I've got, I've ordered them in the States. I've sent them to Ellie's brother. And he's going to post them over. So I hope that I've got a double impact, a double discount on my new headphones because I use them every day. I use them for work and everything.
Yeah, I also have Bluetooth earphones. I don't apologize for it. They're so handy just not to have the wire. You just clip them on and you're ready. Except when you get into my car, which gets dreadfully confused. And even when you just say, no, no, just connect to the car, I spend like the first 10 minutes just not even looking at the front of the car. It's just like this, rolling down the road trying to get my earphones. And then you look up and you're at the shop. God, I don't even remember getting here. Yeah, you'll be delighted to know.
Don't walk your dog in gray fog.
Your wife doesn't watch this and realize that's your journey to school every morning with the precious kids.
I have to not have any beers now for the next couple of weeks. I'm on call. So, well, she can't see me, so I have to be careful. So, yeah.
Like you're going to deliver the baby.
I have to do the drive, which always panics me. I just forget everything. I just hit the road and I don't know where the hospital is. I don't know what to do. I've got one job to do and I'm just in a cold sweat the whole way. Anyway.
You're not one of those dads that's going to ring the ambulance as soon as the waters break, are you?
No, no, not really. But I am a panicker because she says I'm just like a deer in the headlights. She said when we were at the pre-baby thing that they— I don't know what they show you how to do stuff. What do you call that?
Prenatal classes.
Yeah. And you're there feigning some interest. And then they said, look, all the lads have to do is not have a tuna sandwich. While she's in labor and everyone goes, oh, and I just didn't even hear that bit. But I do remember being in the maternity hospital and Elaine's, and this has gone on, the first baby went on for a long time and poor Elaine. And then I started getting a bit peckish. So you don't want to tell her I'm nipping downstairs for a coffee. So I just went, there was one sandwich left on the shelf, it was a tuna sandwich. I didn't think any more about it because I like tuna sandwiches. So I was like, sweet, I'll have the tuna. I went back upstairs. An onion. Elaine doesn't remember anything about the whole day. All she remembers me sitting in the corner eating crisps and a tuna sandwich, doing the one thing her husband was told not to do.
But anyway, you rebel, you absolute rebel.
I didn't know. I just didn't think, you know, but obviously the smell of tuna is not going to help matters. Anyway. Yeah.
How about you, Bren? Have you got any Black Friday deals?
Oh, no. I've been looking out for all sorts. I'm tempted to a new coffee machine. I found a nice metal, you know, old, just does espresso.
Yeah.
You know, and has a steam thing. And then just, you know, I like my nice coffee. So I've been getting something called Exhale Organic Coffee, which actually they tox screen all of the beans and everything and make sure that there's none of the moulds or anything like that that are quite classically problematic, especially in organic beans.
Yeah.
So they actually do all of the heavy metal screening, all of the mold screening before it goes to market. So it's a real nice— and it's called Exhale.
I think we tried that and I love the idea of it being clean coffee, but it didn't taste very good.
Oh, right.
It didn't. No, it didn't taste— didn't taste great. So we're back on Lavazza, which is full of mycotoxins and Heavy metals and it tastes fantastic.
And so what did you do as far as to make that? Were you using a espresso machine?
A French press, as the Americans call it, or a Bodum, as we'd call it. What would you call it if you weren't calling it a French press?
Cafetière.
Cafetière. There you go. That's a British—
I'm going to cafetière coffee.
Why not?
I just don't feel it gives me the same punch as putting it through an espresso steam production. Perhaps.
You get a lot of it though. You get a nice half liter of coffee that you can just glug into. It's always there. I love that. Something you might buy for your loved one this Christmas, everybody.
Oh, here we go.
I've shown this before.
Oh, I thought there was going to be a red and black book coming in.
Yeah. No books to promote. But this hopper, it looks quite big there, but it's connected so I can't show it to you. It's only the size, I've talked about this before, it's only the size of a saucer. €15, guys, and it's been the best thing I've had all year. It has about 20 different temperature settings. It's a plate, and so you can put your coffee on it, so your coffee or tea is always the same temperature. Oh, it's amazing. I highly recommend it. And it just plugs in the back of your computer and sits there. There you go. Just drink your coffee faster, man. No, 'cause you get distracted. You get on an email and you go off on one, and then it's 20 minutes down the road and your coffee's gone cold, and I don't want it cold. I like it 82 degrees. 82?
I was going to ask you. Yeah, I like it so that you can drink it and you can just taste that velvety— because if it's really hot, you can only sip it. And I don't like just taking tiny little sips.
You were the first person I saw putting cold water in a coffee. I never thought to do that to cool the coffee down. This just makes so much sense.
I've gone even further. I do ice cubes now.
Ice cubes.
Yeah. And we were with Billy Herkman. Hello, Billy. He's great. He's the fermentation king in the raw food world. And we were over with him in Pennsylvania and we went to see the Amish farm and the goats and all this kind of stuff. It was amazing. And we went to a coffee shop just before and I asked for a coffee and I said, can I put some ice in it? Because ice is going to be a small volume of water so you don't dilute the coffee. Oh, but you're going to drop the temperature, which means you can drink the stuff and really enjoy it all in one go. So there you go.
Good idea. Yeah. Less volume of water, but more cold.
More cold effect. Yeah. Works well. Works well.
Like it. Very cool. There you go.
Well, we've got loads of things to talk about tonight because we've all got it.
It's just Ben being the adult in the room.
Yeah.
Christmas is coming. So we've got a load of questions that we usually leave till too late to answer because there's all sorts of things about for those people. I know puppies are not just for Christmas, but lots of people do invest in new pets at this time of year, so lots of people start to ask the questions about what to do with vaccinations. We've got loads of questions. Thank you to Karen for always sorting us out and making sure that we've got questions through.
Karen, where would we be without her?
But I think we should do, if there's one thing, we've got a trainer in the room, I believe, in his historic past. I would think that let's touch on one thing. If you were talking to an owner that was coming to you, what would you advise for them to get the best start for their puppy? I'm going to say puppy to Conor because he doesn't have a clue about anything else.
Behaviorally, are we talking behaviorally?
Yes. Yeah, well, you're a trainer.
My advice would be to remember that that socialization period slams closed at about maybe 20 weeks old, 16 to 20 weeks old. And the vets are going to tell you to keep that dog in and put cotton wool around him until he's 15, 16 weeks old and then release him out. And then you've got a very narrow amount of time to introduce that dog to everything he needs for the rest of his life. I would say get better advice than that. Get up on your vaccine advice. And that's a whole other conversation. Conversation, but your pup needs a lot of experiences and not just how to be a human but how to be a dog because you don't want one of these dogs that's yapping on the lead at everybody that goes past and he's frightened of this and frightened of that. So early socialization is what guide dogs do and they bring the pup out if you're worried about infections and diseases everywhere, bring them out and you can pick them up at the scary times but let them see traffic, let them see a cafe multiple times, let them see a train and a bus and let them meet other little dogs that are nice that you trust and having some little dog-to-dog time so they learn how to behave around you know, older dogs and younger dogs and happy dogs and quiet dogs, how to approach each other. So all those lessons are learned really young in life. And if you get them in repeatedly in that first little window that you have, they'll be much more solid later on in life. Otherwise, you will be training against the fact that you didn't do that. And it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. So that imprinting period is really important. And I feel the current veterinary advice really narrows it down to where people don't have a chance and they go to a hectic dog park and the dog's like, holy shit. It's very hard for a pup to Learn normals, you know, going for a cup of coffee at your friend's house and the two dogs are just lying beside each other. That's a huge lesson for the dog.
And remember, you know, those viruses don't jump, you know, they're going to usually get them ingested or they're going to be nose to nose to get them breathed in, those viruses. If you're carrying them around in the old popoose, okay, and that's exposing them to all of those, the habituation to all of those, you know, traffics and the park and the open spaces and that side of things versus social, true socialization of other dogs that side of things, that can be done in a more closed and family environment with other dogs that you know.
A backyard.
Yeah, or, you know, a puppy— some of the puppy socialization classes where they're doing a lot of biosecurity before they come in, so they're making sure that the puppies are healthy, they've got a little bit more interaction, that side of things.
So really great, as you say, those puppy classes have puppies that have just had kennel cough vaccine, they've been defleaded with chemicals, they've got, you know, Yeah, they've been given parvo shots.
We don't need to do that. No, you don't need to do that. You can do it properly.
You can, but a lot of the classes are run by vets and the sideline for vet nurses, and so there can be a lot of heavily medicated and stuff that sheds. And so we do wonder about the parvo because we know dogs can shed parvo into the environment. It's a smaller amount, but it's live in poo and it'll sit in the poo for 6 months. So it's a real thing, this shedding from vaccines. Has that ever been an issue? Did anyone ever talk about that for parvo shedding before? I've done the poll.
Parvo shedding is a thing. Yeah, there are papers on it. So if one of the puppies has just had their shot, then there is a small risk that there is some shedding.
Yeah, especially some of the early days, the modified lives. I mean, remember, that all came about from vaccinating cats and with a modified live— well, effectively attenuated live, I should say— vaccine that then created the parvo epidemic in the late 70s, early '80s. What was this?
I don't know this.
So that's the origins of horrendous parvovirus. So panleukopenia is a cat parvovirus, and there was a whole course of— this is where it's most likely to have come from, from an attenuated vaccine being shed. And then we went through this whole parvovirus, you know, the escape effectively of parvovirus, and then it's sort of gone through stages. Modern modified live viruses are not the same as those early days ones, you know, so we've got to, yeah, be a little bit careful about just—
are they still live though?
They're still modified live, absolutely, because then you don't need adjuvants, you know, you have a choice. You want to shove an adjuvant into a dead vaccine, okay, then to try and get the immune system to react to it, or do you put in a weak live virus that effectively will provoke the immune system on its own accord.
Yeah, yeah.
Some people would say, is it natural to go by injection? And it should be, you know, put in from a point of, um, uh, you know, oral.
Yeah, so it actually goes through the mucosal membranes, and it's the proper system of identification and tagging and the normal way we pick up other bugs.
Yeah, but then, you know, do you want to vaccinate young? I wouldn't personally. There's lots of other ways to deal with that. And biosecurity, you know, remember, if there's ever an outbreak in your area, don't think about vaccinating, think about biosecurity. You know, how do you stop that virus, you know, from— you know, just clean your shoes, don't expose your shoes to your puppy, put them in the porch, put them in a cupboard, don't walk through the house, that side of things.
But also titer test that dog because they may have really fabulous antibodies, so that's a thought. So I've just had a little look and it is suggested that modern modified live canine parvovirus vaccines do shed live virus in the feces of vaccinated puppies for a short period, usually 3 to 14 days, occasionally up to 28 days. There's a couple of references. Larsen, 2013. DeCaro, 2010. So not the most up-to-date references, but that's an interesting one that we should look at. I think one should assume that they might be shedding afterwards. In a nutshell, going back to the original question of what would you advise for puppy owners, I would be riffing on what you guys are saying and saying in a very pleasant way, do anything to your puppy in that first honeymoon period, that's 16 to 20 weeks, as Conor just said, anything that you are going to be doing later in life. So that would include clipping nails.
Oh yeah.
Giving a tablet, picking up feet, just touching feet as such. Having a shampoo, having a really nice experience having a shampoo, you know, all of those things that you think down the line that you're going to be doing, now's the time to do it.
That's a good one.
And do it in spades before 20 weeks.
That's a good one. I just had Dudley at the groomer there and she said he had a couple of knots between his toes. I don't know when's the last time I checked between his toes. And so since then she said, would he let you near his toes? And I said, I just don't even remember I'd hold his feet now and again, but I'm not looking. And so, oh my God, I went in to pretend and have a go at his toes. He wouldn't let me near them. It'd be pure torment if I had to do that with him all the time. So I've left that one to the days. Yeah, that's okay.
I'm glad I asked the trainer in the room what he'd advise.
Yeah, do as I say, not as I do.
Okay, yeah, I should have asked Nick. Right, so Conor, what would you feed a starter pup? What would I say? I would say the, probably the key things, worm egg counts. Think about, look, don't blindly throw in a load of chemicals to your puppy. You know, give them what they need. Don't even throw a load of herbal stuff into your puppy. You know, take some time, spend some time. We should say this about your kids. Remember this, Conor. Spend some time. Okay. And look, you can do fecal egg counts. They're super easy. Most places are doing them. Even the major organizations are saying this is what we should be doing now. Stop throwing chemicals at your dogs. Okay, test then treat. That would be the, the probably the take-home. I think there's some great stuff out there. There are some places that will guide you through how to develop the immune system in your puppy, finding remote woodlands, all of those sort of things to consider. Low risk, but I think, you know, at least engage in reducing the burden on that poor young thing.
Nice one. I think it's a brilliant one.
That woods one is a good one too, actually. When you think about a lot of these city dogs that never get to roll around in muck and sticks and that kind of stuff, I mean, that's all serious biome stuff. To add to this puppy bit, Nick, so K-K-O-K Cat, I can't imagine that's her real name. But I'll just call her KKOK. And she says commercial diets are recommended by y'all are not for puppies. So what can I add to a commercial diet for adults that might make it more suitable for weaning puppies? And how would you wean the puppies?
Okay, so I'm assuming she's talking about raw because I'm not going to talk about kibble.
Yeah.
So after looking at this and raising 3 dogs from puppyhood, I think there isn't an awful lot of difference between the adult diet and the puppy diet. It was actually James Spratt in whatever it was, 1868, he thought, I know, let's make a puppy diet and repackage the crap that we're making, put a puppy on it, and we can double the price. So well done, James Spratt. They've been doing it ever since. So I would suggest you can very successfully raise a a pup on, you know, big dog food. Let's face it. What do we give children when we are weaning them onto hard food? The first thing that Arthur had when he was a baby, about 6 months old, was a stalk of asparagus or broccoli or something. Yeah. He did. Shut up, Brady. So, Asparagus.
Put me back on, Mum.
What I'm saying is that we didn't go for kiddie asparagus or some kind of baby food. Baby food, fine, you know, but food is food is food. And I think that if you've got a good supplier, a good manufacturer of raw food and your dog, your two dogs are happily eating it and it's very good and it's great quality. Why not just use that for the puppy? Okay, now that is, that is, that will have a lot of people rolling in the aisles and getting very unhappy. The only proviso for me with that is that if it's a really chunky grind, really chunky mix, then the puppy may not like it so much. So some of the, the puppy mixes, which are essentially very similar, they are basically just put through the mincer twice to just make them a bit finer. But if you think, you know, dogs ancestrally evolutionary have been eating mum's yacked up, vomited, regurgitated stomach content.
Yeah.
Yeah. I hope you're eating your dinner while you're watching this, guys. That's what they've been eating previously. And that hasn't been through a mincer. You know, so I would say I'm okay. And what would you add to it? You'd add omega-3s, especially for puppies. Now that is it. So for the adult dog, until they get a little bit older, you might be able to get away with no marine oil in the diet. However, for puppies, it's an absolute must. Nerves and brain development, that's fatty development. That's, that's, they're laying down fats. And if you put rubbish fats into the puppy, you're going to get rubbish neuronal axonal development. The brain is, you know, it's the most complex machine in the universe. And if you put rubbish stuff going in, it's not going to grow quite as nicely as it would if you were putting in some great stuff. I would also add to that some nuts, herbs, seeds and spices and, you know, whatever. DermaDog.com do super greens. I have to say that otherwise I won't get any dinner. Or, or other mixes just to add a little bit, but always give variety, you know, there. You guys, what are your thoughts?
Well, really interesting what you were saying there about more chunky food, because I was speaking to a functional dentist who was actually saying that actually, rather than giving the pulped up baby foods, what we should be doing for our kids is actually giving them far more chunks of stuff. And I actually have a picture when I was not 6 months old at my cousin's christening, sat there with a huge slice of beef. Chewing on the slice. And apparently that's the thing. Make them chew. Form their jaws properly.
There is a phenomenon that the modern jaw— I think they did a study in Finland and there is actually our jaws are shrinking because we don't use them, especially from an old age. You know, if you don't use it, you lose it. So get them kids chewing on stuff really early and get those puppies chewing on turkey necks, on lamb ribs, on all this stuff.
And the Dog Risk Study on periodontal disease, get them started young. If you get them in their formative years of improving the strength, you give them duck necks or whatever to chew on and actually properly have something that's of form. We've got to remember, of course, naturally these puppies would be suckling for longer, so they will get a high-fat food from mum. Brain material is routinely taken out and incinerated from carcasses. So we have to, as Nick said, replace that omega-3. Great news coming. I'm working with some guys, they are in the abattoir industry because the UK— so sorry, this is very specific to the UK— have now been declared of having negligible TSE. So that's transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which is mad cow, prion, BSE, all of those sort of things that actually we may get to a point where we can PCR test animals and then be utilizing that brain material in our pet foods. That will be the best source of omega-3 for food and cut out billions of tons of waste.
Yeah, if we can start to get that, you know, that brain material into food. I think so. I think it is distasteful. And, you know, in the old days they used to slice brain and fry it and apparently it's really fantastic. It's like fatty, like white pudding or something. Yeah, like pudding, white pudding. I would struggle with that, but I do realize how potentially nutritious that would be. It's a bit like tripe, if you like, you know, you know, it's fantastic for you, but it is tripe, you know.
Yeah, there's a K is saying it's the pup loaf, Judy Morgan's pup loaf. It says not for puppies. The reason commercial manufacturers say their adult food isn't for puppies is because AFCO and FEDIAF came out with their puppy guidelines. And the science behind the puppy guidelines is even more woe just than the adult stuff. And so they came up— woe just. Yeah, that's a very Irish word.
Yeah, it is.
That's fantastic.
I'm just going to interject there for 1 second. We've got Conor saying woe just and we've got Brendan saying traffics. This is the quality of personnel that I'm working with, guys. Please have mercy. I missed traffics.
Yeah.
When did I say traffics? You said traffics.
Earlier, you do.
What does traffics mean?
Yeah, quite. Traffic is plural.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Oh, surely not the plural of traffic. Oh my God. Great.
Don't become my lisp.
That's the kind of thing.
You know, next week talking about my neurodivergence.
Come on.
My mother-in-law is Indonesian. All right. And she, God bless her, she's probably the most saintly person on the planet. But she would say traffics, but she would spell it with an X.
Tropics.
Yeah.
My friend, his name is Steven. He's married to a Venezuelan and she calls him Steven. You know the way the Spanish can't say that? Steven. Steven. No, it's actually Steven, isn't it? Anyway, KKOK says it's the pop loaf. The reason manufacturers say that is because there is higher demands for certain nutrients according to AFCO-FEDIAF. There probably is some tiny minute differences between babies and adults. I mean, surely there is. But we don't know what they are. And the studies backing up the claims that have this pup requirements are a bit strange. But look, the point is manufacturers then when they are really dealing with an Excel spreadsheet, they might need even more vitamin E or even more vitamin D or whatever, whichever ones they change for pups. And so they might say not suitable for pups on it. It's kind of like the way they have to say complete or Complimentary.
That is just nuts because by the time you've looked at 5 to 10%, because they're growing pups, of their body weight that you're feeding them. Yeah, I can say doing the studies and then testing the food, if you get it right, you can make a raw puppy food pretty much the same as you make for the adults. The only issue is if you go for scraping over the bare minimums of omega-3s instead of getting the omega-3s right at the right levels, that's when you'll run into problems. So actually, guys, step up to the plate, start adding more omega-3s to those foods and you will get it right.
Yeah, I think we all agree there's precious little difference between adult food and puppy food. And I wouldn't mind— people say, well, pups need more energy. And so, well, unfortunately, a lot of the raws that are being sold today are high energy. They're already one part protein to one part fat, which is fatty stuff. And so that is very puppy food. If anything, the adults are eating the puppy food. So it's not like lean raw dog food is much more expensive to make.
And Carol Higgs, if you're asking, algal oils, please. One thing I've noticed, there's quite a lot of algal oils are just stating DHA. They're not doing EPA within those oils.
I think that's going.
So watch very closely. Okay. So you want a good mix of DHA, EPA within those omega-3s.
The early ones were just DHA.
Early ones.
Yeah, that's 3 or 4 years ago. But they've advanced. They've—
Yeah, well, as I say, look on the label. Just double check.
DHA and EPA. So the thing for me about puppies is, yeah, they need more energy and they need more nutrients, but if an adult eats 2% body weight, a puppy is eating 10% of body weight, they are eating 5 times as much food.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, totally. You don't need to— oh, I think once you— you don't need to get into the reeds there on that. If he's eating that, he's a lucky boy. Yeah, totally. And they can get a bit leggy sometimes. They can get— some of the raw dog foods can be a bit lean, so I would keep them on a slightly more energetic mix myself. But everyone's different. I wouldn't overthink it. People get lost in that. It's pet food, what we call pet food PSD or PTSD, isn't it?
Just before we move on to the next question, just Pauline, we're only half an hour in. I know, look at that. That must be a record. We've done one question in half an hour, but we've had a good chat about all sorts of things. Okay, so just before we go try and get into question 2, Pauline Roy. Conor, this is one for you. She says, a few weeks ago, Conor held up a jar of ancestral grass-fed bone beef organs, and Pauline, bless her, says, how many capsules for a dog up to 10 kilos, please?
No idea. Don't know.
All right.
One.
Yeah. Yeah. Like a day. Yeah. Like you've reduced the water in the meat from 70% down to about maybe 2 or 3% for those capsules, probably. They'd be pretty dry. But like, you, so you could really get the maths book out, but I really don't know. I haven't thought about it. I still take them myself. I don't, not mad in the flavor of them, but they repeat on me a bit. But so yeah, I don't know. I still sneak them into my kids' minces and I don't actually give them to the dog a whole lot 'cause he gets different raws and usually the raw has the organs in there. So I don't waste them on him. It's a really expensive way of buying organ meat. Really.
Yeah, it is.
You know?
Yeah, so my rule of thumb there Pauline would be, have a look on the label. Okay. So if it says for a human, they, the average human, whatever that means is about 70 kilos. If you've got a, and they are recommending 4 capsules per day, your dog is 10 kilos. So approximate down to about a seventh. So on easy maths, that would be a generous half capsule. Capsule.
Yeah.
And you can use that for many, many— in terms of kind of foodie type supplements, that's quite a good rule of thumb. Whereas if you're using herbs, I will equate a 30 kilo dog with a 70 kilo human. Okay, so if on the bottle of your herbal supplement, it says 2 capsules daily of this lovely herbal supplement, and you've got a 30 kilo Labrador, I would be giving them 2 capsules daily and you half it for a 15 kilo dog and what have you. So herbs slightly different to supplements. Supplements, you know, they're dealing with the body.
So can I just— I'd agree. I'd simplify. I would just say absolutely agree. Herbs really important. They have medicinal properties.
Yeah.
Dose related is really important. Don't go overboard. But with organ sort of dehydrated organs and stuff, pretty much that I would just say don't give it all the time. Give, you know, just try and do it maybe if it's 3 times a week, give them the capsule. Okay. Don't worry about if it's a full capsule, at least you've remembered to give it. They will absorb what they need. They will get rid of excess, you know, from that side of things. Realistically, it's not going to be horrendous if you are using a dehydrated dehydrated organ material like that.
And if you give too much, yeah, if you give too much, they're going to squirt. So that's— there's your excess. And don't give it all the time.
I think if you did liver, liver, liver with loads of blood in it, yeah, I think a dehydrated one, I don't see them squirt after that.
No, but if Mr. Jones gives 20 capsules and the dogs get the squirt, then I'm just going to extremes.
Yeah, share my screen there, Bren. Can you see this video I got?
I'm gonna do the solo. There you go.
Check it.
Oh my God, this is, this is chihuahuas, um, a lot.
So when people are worried, can little dogs eat food? And, uh, you know, this is a tiny little—
like watching piranhas.
Yeah, it is. Yeah, I mean, look at the blood pooling in the carcass. And I know it's quite gory for, for some, but I—
it—
there's, there's gorier videos I was sent, but Look at them all. They've all got a bit.
They're all—
damn. Should we, should we have put a health warning in before this?
Yeah, we should have done.
You might be grossed out by the following.
Okay.
Okay. Look at that. Oh, that looks nice, Conor. What's that?
That's the back garden. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, yeah, I saw that. I asked for some videos. I said I'm doing a talk that I'm putting up on the site soon. This plant fiber talk, which is hanging over me and I said I need a couple of videos of dogs eating some, you know, hardcore stuff. And you want to see the amount of people that sent the stuff in. I mean, it's like just rabbits, quails, pheasants, dogs, puppies, puppies in a sea of duck heads. And it was just like, I can't believe everyone is doing this for their dogs.
Popping their head out from between the duck heads.
Yeah, yeah. So I probably should have given you all a warning before I showed that, but that deer was actually found dead at the end end of our garden. And so if that makes you feel any better, it was free meat for our chihuahuas. And so I just thought that was an awesome, very natural— tiny little faces, tiny little mouths, and they denuded that thing in a day, you know. It's crazy. Little piranhas. So when you're worried about little pups eating food and stuff, it's like, they are all— the amount of different pups that are eating different parts, they're just— they just—
they're in one of the hilarious things that we've— so I was doing a talk at London Vet Show great. But some of the other talks, and they were doing, there's no chihuahua that would bring down a cow. How are you feeding them beef? And it was just like, oh my God. Are you still arguing this?
Well, I mean, they can't drive combine harvesters and cut wheat either, but you're feeding them. Yeah, very nice. Oh my God. It's so pointless talking to people like that. It's just a waste of time. Here's a little question from Patreon.
Yes, please. We should.
This is a good one.
35 minutes, we beat the record.
Yeah. Luxating, a luxating patella, because my daughter's actually got a little bit of a wobbly patella at the moment.
Really?
Yeah, she's got, she's, she's, she's how she can bend. The physio straight away said, bend your finger that way. She does it. And then touch the ground and let Holly can just flat on the ground, no problem. And she said, oh yeah, you're, you're, you're legs are hyper— yeah, hyper thing. So she goes, you need to watch that, particularly. I mean, she's tall. So anyway, she's really tidy in the bedroom.
Does she really sort loads of stuff out?
Not really tidy, no, no. But she definitely is bossy. Is that a symptom? Luxating patella, how to treat without surgery? Can I treat without surgery? She's on raw Chinese herbs, that kind of stuff. What can you do?
How old is the dog?
Didn't get it. Kathleen Ward.
I'll catch you on. So, ooh, luxating patella. Look, there's different grades. Don't panic. Okay. Doesn't need loads of stuff if it's a low grade. If it's causing pain and it's, you know, your dog's hopping most of the time and yelping when it goes hopping lame, then please seek veterinary advice. Don't just sit on it saying, oh, well, it should be all right. I can just use these supplements. I would definitely say you want anything that's going to reduce inflammation and improve the health of cartilage. So anything from your collagens through to the joint material that you'll find in most roars to omega-3s are all going to be great for your dog. Think about anything that strengthens the normal movement of that leg. So things like hydrotherapy can be really great to build the muscle, strengthen the muscle around the knee. That's why when you're playing sports like rugby, actually doing some rowing exercises can be really great so you don't end up wrecking your knees when you're in, because you've got the muscle support around from doing that rowing activity. But that's just an aside. So think about out all of the other supportive stuff that you can do for those joints. Don't necessarily think you have to resort to drugs per se.
I completely— the first thing, I totally agree with what Bren was saying. I would say, is this pre-puberty or is it post-puberty? Yeah, because if it's pre-puberty and you do all the stuff that Bren has just suggested, especially getting the dog strong and, and in using themselves correctly, so use a chiropractor osteopath and what have you and get the diet right, then the skeleton is still forming. And so you have some ability to influence the skeleton. Post-puberty, yeah, when the dog is mature, then the skeleton is pretty much— the skeleton, that's the bony bit— is pretty much set. However, you can change the muscular side of things and to a certain extent, soft tissues, tendons and ligaments and what have you. So if you're a person, a human person, person who's got a bit of luxating patella, you will go to the physio and you'll get exercises to, you know, depending whether it's drifting right or drifting left, well, drifting medially or drifting laterally, you will get exercises to strengthen the muscles that will help to secure the patella, stop it drifting about because it ain't good when it drifts about. So use what you've already got, which is all the musculature and the tendons coming from the top and, uh, and, and all those supportive structures. Use what you've got is my top tip.
I would ask— this is a bugbear of mine— yeah, for all of those people out there with Burmese Mountain Dogs, um, you know, you've got even as small as Greyhounds all the way through to your Great Danes that think it's right that we should be putting them in a crate and stopping them from exercising to protect their joints. Can you please stop? Okay? Okay. Don't run them down the track. Don't put them up Great Gable or, you know, some other mountain. Please let them exercise and build normal muscle around their joints to support them, because the worst thing you could do is stop them from exercising. Give them poor development of their bone and structure, and then suddenly go, they're a year old, I'm going to release them. That is the worst thing that you could do for those dogs.
Totally agree. We don't keep children indoors for the first year of their life. We all instinctively know that the child who's out running around, climbing trees, falling out of trees, and all of that kind of stuff is going to be a lot better better off than the child who is cosited in the back garden, for example. Conor, where are you on that stuff?
Not really. I think that adequately answers this.
One thing to say, yes, there is an operation if it goes totally pear-shaped. If you've got a grade 4 luxating patella or something like that and it's out of the way, you can reposition the shin so that it draws the kneecap back in and stops it luxating out. So, you know, those are the— there is an operation, you can deepen the groove in that, the lower part of the thigh bone, so that actually the kneecap sits in that groove more readily. But as soon as you enter a joint, you will risk long-term arthritis. So the longer you can delay that, you know, you Yeah, I mean, that risk— I'm not talking about Mike Davies' risk of bacteria from raw food here. I'm talking— no, the risk is, you know, 80% of those joints will have arthritis as soon as you finish that procedure.
I hate all talks about knees. I think that's adequate on the knee stuff.
Here's a knee problem.
Debbie Glasgow, lip fold dermatitis. I can help help you here, Debbie. I know a bit about this.
Uh, 1943, guys. So let's, let's just round up and let's do that on Patreon. Patreon.
Yeah. Okay. Let's do it.
Oh, okay. Wow. Oh, somebody said, do you stick to the 5-minute rule for puppies? Uh, that must be about exercise. I was going to say, because we certainly didn't stick to the 5-minute rule about advice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or questions or talking about anything of any interest. No, I don't. I read the puppy, you know. So in a nutshell with puppy, don't keep them closeted and definitely don't keep them in crates for hours and hours and hours and hours every single day. But at the same time, don't take them for 20-mile walks until they're mature. Don't tie them to your bike.
Yeah. What does that mean? People go running with their dogs, like they get a boxer and then they strap them to their bike and then they go for a run or go for a cycle on a hot day. It's like you've got the wrong bloody animal tick head, you know, so it's kind of overrunning the animal. So it's, yeah, like, there has to be a bit of common sense. It's a real hot topic. It's a debate for bony kind of muscly people. I put up a couple of times, there's a couple of studies showing the more you use the joint, use it or lose it, I think is the name of the study, where, you know, do we let dogs walk downstairs? Giants use stairs in the first year of their life. And it's like, there's a well-used joint is a tougher joint. And that would be a strong line of thought in the in the more holistic kind of department. But I'm sure there's a number of physios and bone specialists that will disagree with that. But that's the, that's the debate. So I would just, I would be of the thought of just reading the dog and not going bananas and taking it easy, and they will rest up when they're ready to rest and that kind of stuff. I would want those legs used myself. I want to develop good firm muscles, firm joints, um, myself. That's the way I would do it.
And Jane, if you want to know about steroid injections into joints. Would I do them? Not for myself. But then that's a choice that you have to make sometimes depending on your pain, etc.
Stem cells? I'd love stem cells.
I'd actually do a lot of these supplements that stimulate your stem cell release rather than necessarily going for stem cells. There's so many pros and cons and I've seen some bad had stem cell injection issues. So I know you grow an ear on your shoulder. No, it's more about just how much pain you will generate and how much arthritis they will get after certain stem cell infusions. So be really careful. And there's a new hydrogel that they're now sticking in, which is just like artificially generating a chemical lubricant effectively that they stick into the joint to try and mask it. I am still not convinced that that is something that I would do to myself, and therefore I'm not sure I would generate it for a patient. I'd prefer to use things like peptides, get the body to help heal itself in some of those circumstances, and start using, you know, the platelet infusions or the stem cell infusions.
Fantastic way to induce stem cells to be generated within the body is fasting. Okay, so with humans, I think the stem cells— you, you have to fast for what, 2 and a half days or something? And, and that, that's when the stem cells really kick in. Don't quote me on the, on the timing, but it's way at the end of a, of a moderate fast. Um, talk to your vet about fasting your dog because they won't like it. You know, you can make a decision, but the dog will go, where's my dinner? So, but, but just in theory, fasting at the end of that kind of fasting period, your stem cells absolutely go to town. So there's one to conjure with. Right, guys, let's jump over to Patreon, Patreon and have a little chat about lip fold dermatitis. I think this is a fascinating topic.
Yeah.
Cockermouth. Cockermouth is the name for it. I once went when I was—
Sorry, what did you say then?
Cockermouth is what they call it. I once went for a job in Cockermouth, absolutely beautiful place near Carlisle, up that way, and didn't get it. So that makes me think every time I say Cockermouth, I think of that.
Oh, as in the breed.
I see what you mean there. Are you saying cocker, but you just can't say your horse? Are you saying cocker mouth?
No, I'm saying cocker mouth.
Okay, okay, all right, sorry, I thought you were saying cocker mouth because cockers have it.
Yeah, cockers have it a lot because they have big generous lip folds. Yeah, but it's not just— they call it cocker mouth. Cocker.
You see, that's the problem. If you don't pronounce your Rs, guys, I don't know.
Also, what you use in a boat to get you across the lake, my friend. Let's not be, uh, ah-istic.
I think it's, yeah, oristic.
Oh, the guys are having some fun. Yeah, this is, this is what you're gonna miss, right? Okay, so we're gonna see you over on Patreon. Uh, yeah, great. Remember, if you want to access Patreon, all you need to do is go to, uh, patreon.com/rawpetmedics. And you can access the content if you just support us. That would be really great, and we can bring you more of this, even if it's not quite so live-live.
Yeah, still be around, and we're going to be peppering it, all the three of us. Conor less so because he's got a wife. I want to see the baby pictures.
He's going to have little videos of shoving beef down his young child.
Yeah, I'm moving house too, and Cows now come to my back garden and I just cannot wait for that bit.
It's going to be the old moo.
Have you moved? Have you moved?
Moved?
No, not until January, early January.
Moving in January.
Oh wow. Baby for the first month, moving house for the second month.
Oh well, what are you going to do in your spare time?
Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I want, you know what I want to buy? I want to buy a digger from China. I want a digger for Christmas. I want one of those little Kubota diggers.
Oh yeah, you're going to go for a Kubota digger.
Oh, they are the best.
Brilliant. I'll give you some drawings forever.
Yeah, they're brilliant.
Have you got one, Brad? I bet you do have one with all the other machinery in your field. I want—
I'm going to do all of these bits. Yeah, tractors a lot.
Oh cool, I love it. Anyway, that's a serious landscaping to do. Anyway, the only reason I'm saying that is because yes, we'll be shooting a few videos and keeping, keeping the fire, keeping the fire lit, as we say, in the, in Patreon over the next few months. So we'll be doing a bit of that for sure.
We are. So, so the, the take-home message is we are not going away. We are going to be fueling the fires in Patreon, Patreon, uh, with with a few interviews and maybe stuff that we come across as we go along and just any interesting stuff about raw food.
On socials, yeah, we'll do some Facebook and YouTube.
We may do a little bit of stuff there. I'm currently writing a book on raw food, so I am coming across stuff left, right, and center. And if I remember, I will be dropping those, uh, into, uh, Patreon, Patreon as we go along. So stick with us.
Yeah, we've got the website we're going to be really pushing out on as well, so you guys will be able to access. So we've got to upload all of that historic stuff for you guys because, you know, Facebook has nastily taken it away and all of that resource, you know, we've got to give to you guys, got to give you it back so that you can access that. Yeah. And so, yeah, just keep watching, keep joining us. You'll see us. And also got some good news. It looks like we've got Feline Fridays is coming back in the new year. So we're going to have a little bit of Feline Fridays for you all as well.
Cool.
So we're just going to circle the wagons over the winter and then 2026, I think it's going to be really exciting. We're going to be going to South Africa in September. So, and I've heard that if you book tickets now, they are a whole lot cheaper. They're a lot cheaper for So the tickets are cheaper for the African Pet Health Summit, but the flights are very good price at the moment for South Africa. And South Africa is just dynamite.
The best place on earth so far.
It's fabulous.
Yeah, it's cool. Lucky us. Bloody hell. Having that to look forward to.
I know. It's amazing. Conor, are you coming? I am.
I am. I am. I am 80% coming. Yeah. Not that my wife knows that. That. Um, she's confirming some— she's confirming some names. I don't want to— I don't want to steal her thunder, but, um, I was like, what?
Yes, yeah, some big names.
Yeah, yeah.
So, um, you know, uh, I don't feel the pressure. So, um, yeah, but I would love to do— I would hate to not be there. I would hate for you guys to have fun and me not. That would kill me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought the FOMO would kill you. And listen, if 80% of you is coming, could we— could you make it from the neck down? It'll just be much more peaceful and more aesthetically appealing.
Yeah, just the exact same height as Nick, just walking around headless. Just a torso.
Oh guys, you're gonna miss it. All right, okay.
Back. We're doing something in the new year, but we're just gonna, we're just gonna, uh, draw on our wings over the winter and just, um, see what we can do. Guys, it's been amazing. We'll see you in 2026.
Take care.
