RPM TNL: Q&A

We are here again. It's Tuesday, the 25th of October, and we are doing Q&As, and we're very glad to be here. Hope everybody's well, guys. Ah, Brady.

I'm well. I can't see you guys.

Ah, yay, Brendan.

No, he's just playing. He can't see. Oh, he's gone. He's decided to disappear. See, guys, this is what happens. You have a little bit of gin and we start playing about with the intro, and before you know it, Brady's dropping off and it's all going mad. Here we go. Let's catch him drinking. 2, 1, and he's live. There we go.

I must put me thingies in unless I'll get shot.

I want to know what else.

You're back early.

That honestly looked like somebody had stuck something where they shouldn't have.

That is a disgusting drink. I thought, you know what I'll do? I'll just have plain water tonight as a little treat to my body. And I said I'll pop 2 frozen strawberries in it— gross— and a piece of lemon—

gross.

So I've just got a whole big jug of gross water and nothing else. Why didn't I bring wine?

I just—

I have started carrying around a large bottle with me, a liter, not that anybody cares, but I need to start drinking more water. You know, I've got a bit of dry skin in places and dry skin across my shoulders. Wrong. And I'm just not— I'm not drinking enough water. And I, I'm drinking enough of everything else, but I'm not drinking enough water. Coffee, you know, which essentially is a diuretic, you know, I think you get a bit of water out, but over time it's not a good idea. So I'm drinking more water. And it's a good idea to have that because it's like, I have to drink 2 of these a day. Easy when you're in the gym because you're lashing water into your pulse. If you're not— so now I'm forced, so it's an even leader, 2 of them a day. And it's a relatively easy— 2 gone already.

So I want to call you out on that because I reckon that there is some information that this whole thing about making people drink more, which is an internet sensation at the moment. Yeah, I know all of our nurses are drinking loads. Okay, you know, sometimes going through like 4 liters a day, and I'm going, it's no wonder they're on the loo so much. Um, I want to call you out as to whether that is absolutely on the button, because I think that there there's some people out there that think that you don't need to drink as much as you think.

Yeah, I agree with that. I've had this conversation with nutritionists and they're just really sensible, not kind of highfalutin people, but really, really down-to-earth nutritionists. George Cooper in Bristol, actually. Hello, George, if you're there. And he says, drink when you're thirsty. And don't mistake hunger for thirst. Or yeah, and don't drink wine when you're thirsty. Okay, so just drink when you're thirsty, and that's you. I think that that's—

yeah, but I mean, I'm drinking like, I'm drinking 2 large coffees a day, 3 or 4 cups of tea. Who's to say I'm not really chasing water there for some of those? You know, in the— you know, that's not right really to be sitting down to 2 cups of tea one after the other after dinner.

Is that like, you know, well, that will be dehydrating you, so you're going to have to overcompensate. It's— yeah, both of them do.

Yeah, both have caffeine in wine.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So you'd have to take that into account. But I think— I think— yeah, not drinking. They say— I think— think about what you think, what you drink, what you eat, and what you do. I think there's a kind of a mantra of the importance. What you think is the most important. What you drink, what liquids you put into your body is next. Then think about food, then think about what you do, you know, and maybe even breathing or something like that. I don't know, but I thought, I think that's quite good. So good for you. Yeah, I think hydration. No, I'll tell you what I was going to put. I've got a really good mate, he's super, super fit. He does kind of half marathons, he goes to the gym all the time, completely sickening. And he drinks when he goes, drinks water when he goes to the gym, but He has just had kidney stones, which he says is the most exquisitely painful thing, and he had to get them zapped and he had to get, or whatever, to get them fixed. And it's because he wasn't compensating for the dehydration effect of going to the gym and, you know, doing lots and lots of exercise. He was drinking, but he just wasn't drinking enough.

So there you go, you see. That's kind of the other side of it. I'm drinking that because I'm thirsty, my lips are dry, I've got bits of dry— like, where else is my dry skin coming from? I've got a pretty good diet, you know. I'm just assuming I'm gonna lash water. I'm using this new oil-based product actually for my skin, for dry skin.

There, right there. Okay, can I just say there's a difference between the level of systemic hydration, okay, and compensating for how much your skin is losing because you've got insufficient omegas in your skin layers. So just think about, you know, if your skin is dry, is it because of some other issue with your nutrition and what's going on with your skin and your general health rather than necessarily just water?

Yeah.

Do you think about omega-3s, but also think about vitamin E? Vitamin E is all about integrity of the cell walls. So yeah. And it's difficult to get vitamin E. You know, you're talking nuts and seeds, fancy seed oil.

Yeah, I use very, very posh olive oil for toppings for stuff. So I see that as more like a medicine. And I've got slightly less posh olive oil for cooking with, just ever so slightly less because this sort of stuff is mad expensive. So I drink a good bit of that and no other crappy— but yeah, it's not like I'm getting a lot of omega-3s. It's not like I'm really focusing on that. 'Hey, okay, I'll try both of these approaches. I'll start, maybe I'll lash in a little supplement for a while and see what happens.' I never take supplements. I'm always talking about these things, I never take them.

I'm sure there'll be lots of volunteers out there for rubbing oil into you.

All right, geez, that's a quick answer. Only 37 minutes in.

That's what happens when you're drinking too much water, obviously.

You've totally changed your background.

Guys, I've got two really, really important announcements now. I just wanted to get these in at the head of the the, the program. So the first one is that we have started the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society, uh, community page. And Brendan, if he can focus on the keyboard, will— there we go. We have started— on my screen it's below me here. So we have started this, um, and we're putting lots of content on there. So it's free, it's a community page. We're trying to get everybody there talking and getting the buzz, uh, within the raw feeding Veterinary Community. And on there you will see that tomorrow night— I've advertised it on here and we are advertising to say that tomorrow night at 6 PM UK time, I'm going to do an open Zoom that anybody can come and join. And we're just going to sit and we're just going to have a chat for 40 minutes. It's, uh, it's called At Home with Nick, and you are welcome to come along and just have a chat. It's free, it's fun. Well, I hope it'll be fun, and we're just going to see what happens. So I just wanted to say those two things, and, um, that would be great. Maudie's creams, by the way, are amazing. I had cracked feet and she made me some cream for the cracked feet, and they just improved overnight.

Old man feet.

Conor's face then.

It's just like, is that there's a company— I'd love to promote this company in Ireland that does this miracle cream that we use for absolutely everything on the kids, on us as well, and it's just brilliant. I got what I thought was something like, like eczema. It was on my elbow and it started to grow a big angry red itchy patch, and I thought, ew, eczema! And I thought, I don't want to be going around with eczema. So I started to panic a bit, and I contacted my brother who has psoriasis, and I thought, here, bro, help me out with your weird skin issues. And he tried all these creams. And then eventually I go on to this natural site, they said this miracle cream from this little cottage place in Ireland, and they sent out this miracle cream. And I didn't have any faith in it really. Rubbed it on, 2 weeks later it was gone, never came back. It gave up.

What's it called?

I can't remember. It's downstairs in my fridge. And before tonight, I'm gonna, I'm gonna call it up and show it to you. So, and they also make proper pseudo cream as opposed to the crap pseudo cream we grew up with. This is just really clean, natural zinc cream for nappy rash and stuff. So I bought the two of them and they're just fantastic. So anyway, the purest, most natural person in the world, Karen Rosenfeld, I think put me onto them. So it was, I think it was Karen, it was one of them. Anyway, guys, FAQs tonight. Thanks everybody for your ideas and your questions that came through to patreon.com/rawpetmedics. That's where you can find us. We've been doing our bit on the side there and I'm sure we'll get a couple of FAQs in there later on as well at 7:45. And so thanks to everybody for, you know, price of a cup of tea or a cup of coffee each month. We deeply, deeply appreciate it, really, really helps. And for those of you that can, great. If you can't, it doesn't matter, we're here anyway. But guys, we got a furious amount of questions today, or in the last couple of days, on the actual public Facebook page. Well, can I just get straight into one of these and see what you think of this first question? Okay, conkers and acorns. Where are you on conkers and acorns? There's a dog here stuffing acorns into him. How do you both feel about those two kind of different food groups? But where are you with conkers and acorns?

Somebody, Brent, do you want to jump in? And then I've got some nice little herby stories about—

Yeah, I mean, loads of people like to do the zoo pharma. Surely if they're eating them, they're going to need something out of those. And quercus, you know, quercetin, maybe within the acorns and that side of things, you know, quercus is, you know, the oak. So I think there is some question in there. But the big thing to be aware of, depending on the size of the dog, you've got to be sure dogs are not a chew it into a fine pulp and swallow. They are a chomp, chomp, swallow. And therefore there is a risk that they're going to take conkers in their entirety into the gut. And if they do that, there is a risk of obstruction. Okay. It's just like taking a rubber ball. It's perfectly possible for that to go straight into the intestine and obstruct. So I would say if they're going for conkers, please don't. And conkers are not sweet chestnuts. Okay. There is a difference between the two. So horse chestnuts, yes, the chestnut family, but you don't eat horse chestnuts roasted on a fire, you do eat sweet chestnuts roasted on a fire. Different elements within those two things. Okay. Interestingly, homeopathically, horse chestnut, really useful for piles. That would suggest that actually if you eat enough of the chemicals within horse chestnuts, you would get piles. So that's a little—

Isn't horse chestnut the basis of that product you guys like to use? Atrantil. Before you give probiotics. Is that not, is that not based on chestnut products?

Aesculus is the herb.

Hang on.

Yeah, so it's in a Trantle. It's definitely heartwood, peppermint, and I think it is horse chestnut for the extract.

Quaybracke.

Hang on, it's Quaybracke heartwood extract and horse chestnut extract. Yes.

Isn't that interesting? So on a zoopharmacology basis, if you're, if Caroline Ingram was listening seen them and be delighted to think she was. But she would kind of put down most of these kind of ferreting around behaviors as a dog needing something. But as you mentioned previously, Brian, as we were discussing what's one of the doozy questions to talk about, you said like, you know, the dog may be looking for something, but perhaps the conker was the best option available to them. Whereas it's probably, is it the most suitable option available to them? Perhaps if Carolyn Ingram was there and gave them 5 or 6 different options, horse chestnut would not be the first thing they chose. So I do I do like that idea. What about you, Nick? Where are you with acorns and chestnuts?

I think acorns, they contain a lot of tannins, and tannins in moderation are very, very healing. We use, you know how you use black tea for eyes, for sore eyes, because the tannins will kill bacteria and they kind of tighten up tissue. And so that's really helpful, help with inflammation. So the odd acorn for the— for here and there for a dog is okay because even if they swallow them whole, they're not that big and they'll just go straight through. So the odd one, if they are eating loads and loads and loads, you've got to think that there must be something happening, something wrong with the diet or something wrong with the dog. Little story that we were taught in terms of herbs is after battles, the Roman doctors used to wander around the the battlefield, you know, when people, they'd have their arms chopped off and great gashes all over themselves. And they would put, um, uh, sawdust from oak, which would be high in tannins, and they would put those into the wounds. And the tannins would probably sting like hell, would congeal blood, and would stop them bleeding to death and begin the healing process. So there you go, there you go.

I love that. All right, cool. That's interesting. So that should answer two people had acorn and conker questions there in a row. This is the very next question underneath. That is a doozy.

And very seasonal, can I just say?

Very seasonal indeed.

I love that, you know, when you've got a seasonal question.

So here's a girl at— my girl post-spay persistent pseudopregnancy, and she's at her wit's end here. I feed her a raw diet, but the endocrine specialist rather disappointing, has asked me not to as he says raw food contains too much hormones that will surely exacerbate her symptoms. She also has elevated muscle enzymes that are being monitored. What's your advice and thoughts on this, please?

Okay, I'll start with this one. The first thing is I don't think eating raw meat will give you, will change your your hormone system for the worse. You know, does it contain hormones? Yes, it does, but they go through the stomach, they are digested, they're proteins. So the amount of hormone that actually gets into your system I don't think will be significant. I would feed the dog with, with a raw food diet because it's the healthiest way to feed any dog in any situation. What I would suggest, I think we're into herbs, but most especially we are into homeopathics. Homeopathics are very, very useful useful for endocrine disruption. For example, Cushing's disease often will respond well to homeopathy. And things like— oh, I used to dose my mum. She was menopausal, and so I would give her progesterone and estrogen in potency, and that helped her a lot for her menopause, bless her. And So hormones and homeopathics, I think, are really good. Brent, what's your experience?

Hormones. Tell us what a phantom pregnancy is, Brent. Can you start off with that? Describe to people that haven't seen one what a phantom pregnancy is in a dog.

Yeah. So look, dogs are a brilliant organization of when they have a hormonal cycle, they will still produce the same hormones even if they're not pregnant from the ovaries. And it's only the pregnancy is developed by very much by the prostaglandins released by the fetuses that changes things about when they give birth, etc. So that means that even if the non-alpha female is in the pack and the alpha female gives birth to a litter, they can actually still end up nursing those puppies for the alpha female whilst they're out on a hunt, or, you know, if one of them's left to protect the pups, which is a brilliant way for a pack structure to work. You know, if there's an injury to the alpha female, they can still maintain the pups and all of the rest of it, which I think is brilliant. Yeah, but for dog owners, it becomes a little bit of a nightmare because they're the bitch that's gone through a season literally that 2 months later can still have that hormonal change which will allow mammary development and milk production. And we call that a false pregnancy. Now, sometimes there's even a level of behavioral change with regards to that. And depending on whether they become really clingy to you or get really snappy can determine which of those remedies you might use for that. Not just about the milk production. Now, conventionally, some of the wisdoms were, oh, what you do is cut their food by half, reduce their water by a third, and effectively shock their systems into not producing milk because you're restricting nutrients. Some people say that's brilliant. Other people would say, look, actually, you just need to let them work their way through it. It will go as long as you don't try and milk them out. Okay. Many people end up messing with the mammary tissue. They're worried about mastitis. They end up fussing around there, trying to see if they're still in milk, et cetera. I would say please don't do that because that's mimicking puppies suckling. Okay. So that's stimulating the oxytocin release, et cetera. There is a level of can you reduce their oxytocin? Now, we release oxytocin when we stroke them. They get oxytocin released by being stroked. So anything that would reduce that should reduce milk letdown. But there is a whole hormonal element that, as Nick pointed out, that I would certainly enter into. And homeopathics, I think, are really effective if it's following being neutered. There's a couple of things to make sure of. This is one of the reasons why we try and avoid neutering dogs which are coming into season. Okay? Because if they're in season and then you take away some of that ovarian activity, it can mimic some of those hormonal changes and they will end up coming into a false pregnancy sooner than the classic 2 months. Sometimes if you've asked for an ovarian sparing spay, which I absolutely advocate, you've got to realize that the hormones are still cycling within that one remaining ovary. So still expect if your dog has been predisposed to forming false pregnancies that they may still continue to do that. And last but not least, if you've not asked for an ovarian sparing spay but you're seeing repeated hormonal cycles, there is a possibility that there is an ovarian remnant remaining And that's not necessarily that they've left a piece of ovary, but in formation, the ovaries track to their position and sometimes shed cells which remain elsewhere within the abdomen. And you can actually have ovarian activity from that. Very rare, but it does happen. So those are the reasons why you might have still a cycling dog if you've gone for full spay.

Good stuff. Well done, Bren. Can I just say Fiona has asked if we can put the link for the community page, Raw Feeding Veterinary Society community page. Would you be able to pop that in the thingy below for us, please? Oh, we've lost him.

Yeah, sorry, sorry about that. I'm muting myself because I've got the dogs in the hotel room, so they keep finding themselves a bed and cycling on. It's a really nice hotel. They've given me dog bowls, dog beds. They've given me treats, poo bags, just about everything. Little notes to say welcome. It's all very cute. But yes, so I do mute myself just because Artie was finding a comfy spot on the bed, which is slightly rustly because it's clean and new.

While you're putting up that image there, on the back of what we were just talking about there, there is a person here who we're all up for going adults bearing techniques, okay, you know, the snip and whatnot, if we had to do it to them. But what about chemical castration? This isn't the first time I've heard this. I just had chemical castration implant in August, the 6-month version. So we'll get your thoughts on that. And then they go on and say, as testosterone levels drop, my dog has become very itchy, a bit of sore skin. He's raw fed. I cut out poultry in the natural and did the bits and bobs. Is there anything else I can do to help them? Vet advised Apoquel or Cytopoint after giving them chemical castration for 6 months. What's the story with that, guys? Is there any, like, what is there any side effects to chemical castration? Do you stand over it? Where are we with that?

I think you mess with the endocrine system at your peril. You know, we don't know enough about it to be going and you're saying, oh, you know, I don't like the look of that, let's get rid of it, you know. So I think if at all possible, I am, after many years of saying neuter, neuter, neuter, I am now saying try and avoid neutering if you can possibly help it. If you have to, you have to, but if you can avoid it, then do. If you can avoid using even chemical castration, I think that is a good idea. And if you do have to use, you can see all sorts of strange side effects because you've got this endocrinologically active pellet in your body pumping out these exogenous synthetic chemicals, and your body may well react to that. And so all sorts of things can, can be seen. I think I would let the thing wear off and the dog may settle. Once it's out of the system, but it might be a response to having a high level of hormone and then that dropping, and it's that relative lack which might be inducing the itch. So I think, again, homeopathy can be very useful, but just going back to basics and just saying, right, let's get the food right, let's make sure that we haven't got fleas, that the environment is as natural and there's and not man-made as possible. And just kind of try and buy yourself some time to see if the dog can sort themselves out. They may well do that.

Yeah, Karen's made a good point there. Like all the contraceptive pills and implants for women, do they have the same issues? Do they have— yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do they make you itchy, ladies? Can they when you're coming off or going on? Yeah, it's a good question.

I would just add to that, look, we've put posts up before. If you just search back through the SARS reporting form, if you have any adverse reaction, yeah, doesn't have to be known, it could be suspect, you should report it through SARS so that the veterinary profession as a whole has a better picture for any report. Don't just complain, don't just suggest, put it through SARS. Actually, you will get a report back from the VMD as well, okay, to say they've looked into it, if there's an issue or not, etc. I would say at least with the injection for the Supralarin injection for castration simulation, at least it's something that should reverse after 6 months if you use the 6-month one, or a year if you use the year one, rather than if you go in for castration. And you are making that final decision, you can't reverse that. Once you've done it, you've done it. So you need to think— I agree entirely with Nick. You do have to work out a little bit of peril situation, work out the relative risks, make sure you do informed consent, that you talk it through with your vet to ensure that you're doing the right thing. But there are all sorts of changes to do with hormonal hormones, such as behavioral changes too. Okay. Anxiety levels. We know with total neuters for females, it's like going through a very shock menopause. And we know that there is a percentage of people that suffer from menopause have that anxiety, that hormonal-led behavioral change. I see this in dogs as well, so there is no reason why it shouldn't also happen. Yeah, shouldn't also happen in male dogs. So with caution, if you have any adverse reaction that you suspect, please report it. Don't just complain, don't just, you know, do anything else about that. You should report it through the official channels so that everybody gets to know, is that a real thing?

And the official channels, the easiest way is just go to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate website, VMD. Yeah, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and just follow your nose. Yeah, and you'll get it there.

Yeah, we do, we do tend to complain about these things, but God, we've so rarely— like, you know, we dare not mention the most recent thing that was going on, but how many people complained about, like, you know, I think of the 5 or 6 women in my, in my life, like 2 or 3 had like delayed periods by like 3 months forms. Nobody complains, nobody registers that anywhere. And that's why studies of the, um, the VARIS system over in the US, which they brought in after, um, after thalidomide, um, that they reckon 1% of the side effects— they reckon it's a 1% figure you're looking at. So 1 to 5% maximum, never 10%. So you're looking at side effect issues, uh, and, and that should be multiples because we just don't ever complain enough. We really don't, or we certainly don't go through, and the paperwork can be really laborious, particularly for VARs. It can be hard, but it's good with the VMD. Apparently you can do it yourself and you don't need somebody else to be holding your hand, so that's a good thing.

And not only that, you know, it's not— don't ever see it as a complaint. Don't, you know, it's reporting a suspect adverse reaction.

It's—

nobody's going to come around and say, you bad person, you've done this wrong, and you are a one-off and it's not a reaction, actually it's data. They will look at it and aberrant sort of ones which are off to the side will be taken out because of the numbers. Okay? So never think, oh, I don't want to, I'm a bit nervous, somebody will mark my card. It's not like that at all. Please report it.

Yeah, I think we are obliged, guys. I think we're actually obliged. Us three and everybody watching here, you, we, us, we are obliged to do it. Because if, if you don't let the manufacturers know that there is a certain problem with a certain drug, how are they going to know? They're just going to continue saying this drug is great, we've had no complaints, we've had no adverse reactions whatsoever. And, and so I think we need to tell them that.

Yeah, I think that's why that's often had the FDA work over in the US. It's not like they're going around sampling things all the time. They respond respond to what's going on. So like in the '70s when DCM was laying out cats and dogs, tens of thousands, from this lack of taurine essentially, and they stopped putting meat in dry pet food. The FDA noticed when the reports start coming in from pet owners, you know, often universities do try little things, but that's what alerts them to act. So it's not like the authorities are sampling things all the time, making sure everything's okay. They do respond to things like this. So you're right, we're obliged to kind of flag when stuff goes wrong. Diana's made a real good point there. Um, Diana says tonight at 9 PM on, uh, Dr. Judy Morgan's Naturally Healthy Pets, she's doing a thing on cytopoint. So if anybody wants to see some of the horror— she's been doing this for the last week or two, posting about the 10 spooky drugs of Halloween or something, and, uh, they've been great. And this tonight is on cytopoint, guys. So while the— you just need to check this thing out. This is, uh, what they call an insurance drug. It's just fantastically effective, and unfortunately The bigger the front, the bigger the back. In other words, the more effective things can be, the more problems it can have in the background. I have to ask this question, guys, because I know so many people have them in their old dogs. We've covered it probably before, but let's just dash through your top 3 tips here each. Lipomas in an old dog, any remedies whatsoever to try to shrink them? And what are they actually, just to help people out?

Okay, it's the classic fatty lump, and you should get your vet to put a needle in to do a fine needle aspiration. Desperate because it could be a nasty lump. You don't know it's a lipoma until you know it's a lipoma, which sounds obvious, but I think that's a good idea. The things that I would be looking at, first of all, clean up the diet. These fatty lumps don't come from nowhere, but you can see raw-fed dogs with lipomas. Okay, so it's not the whole scenario. And the only remedy that I— the only homeopathic is belladonna. Which is bizarre because belladonna is all about pain and fever and, you know, screaming, angry kids and things like that.

Yeah.

But this is in the literature. They talk about like belladonna. So you try a 30C twice a week for quite a long time, maybe 6 months, something like that. I would go along that way. What about you, Bren? What are your thoughts?

So interestingly, Pulsatilla has fatty lumps in the materia medica, so it's another one that I've used. So that's the windflower. It's a homeopathic medicine made from— that's quite a common remedy. It's one of the polycrests, we call it. They tend to be quite clingy dogs. They, they love to be affectionate. They can be quite jealous at the same time, but they have, you know, they'll push in a lot to try and get between you and, and somebody else so that they can get the affection. All sorts of other things to do with that, thirstless, etc., etc. But it is a little area that I looked into when dealing with a lot of these cancers, and fatty lumps is within pulsatilla as a remedy. So I have had success with that.

Cool, that sounds good.

Just another request, Bren, could you get the, put up the address of the community page please?

I'm trying to, it's, I've just had to re-log in in order to get it. I'm just, this is why I'm looking off this way whilst you guys are talking. I'm trying to do 3 things at once, look at the comments, All right.

Deal with that.

Yeah.

I did a bit of shopping today.

I had to go down to the post office and I had to order lots of stamps and lots and lots of them. And the machine that spits them out, I don't know if you've ever had to order a lot of stamps, like 200, 300 that have like special number on them. And the machine goes like one at a time this day and age. And you're sitting there going, mother of God. So after like 5 or 10, it's like, I have to go, I have to leave, I'm getting— I'm just going out. So I went into sports shop and I bought myself a hat. I don't know why I'm telling you about this, but I thought— because I thought you were shopping. So there, look, I'm going to go back to wearing a peak cap. Do you think it suits me?

Yeah, it's good. It's good.

Boy zone. It's very boy zone.

No, it's not boy zone, Dad. Give me a break. Jesus, it's raining, it's cold. I also bought a woolly hat. I don't need to try on the woolly hat. I've got another—

sorry, sorry, Bren, Conor, talk to Ellie about postage. Yeah, we've got a very nifty system that doesn't involve stamps. Oh yeah, have a chat, have a chat with her. Yes, I don't know whether it works.

I also say, also say, guys, if you're in the UK, you have 100 days to use up stamps with the Queen's head on them. Did you know that? Oh, 100 days.

I thought that was legal tender. I didn't think they ever aged. I thought that was— somebody was saying that.

Well, they didn't while the Queen was alive.

Okay, interesting stuff. No way.

I watched that and I was gobsmacked because I'm one of those Yorkshiremen that always has a first class stamp somewhere in the back of a drawer to use. And just for the life— I'm sort of really proud of the fact that I probably bought that for 29 pence 10 years or 20 years ago.

Yeah.

And it's now worth, you know, 89 pence or whatever it is.

Yeah.

All right. I know the pound has taken a dive, but it's not billions. It's quite the lira.

It's a good thing if you're trading with Britain. So we'll keep going on.

Would that be the stamp that you use when you're taking the drinks orders to reduce expenses.

Yeah, I've got one more here, guys. I've got, um, a thing about French clay, okay? And, uh, I have to be honest, I had to do— I— we all know what French clay— does anybody use French clay to detox? So guys, put your comments in the side because I know some of you do. French clay, bentonite clay, monomoralite clay, or something like that, which is probably the— oh, thank you, there you go. There's actually hundreds of them, okay? So it all depends on the rocks and where they form. They're volcanic little tiny volcanic silica, silicate kind of particles, as we all just found out beforehand. We were examining exactly what are these things. But I remember looking into it a while ago. My pet nutritionist, to give her her dues, wrote a piece on it. And I think, oh yeah, is there good science behind this bentonite clay? And there bloody well is. It's so interesting. I just went into Google Scholar there talking about bentonite clay, and the top one that just came out just, just recently, a study from Egypt they were trying to reduce mycotoxins in baby formulas because, you know, you don't want that being in there. Mycotoxins are just a very, very nasty fungal thing that can produce very nasty toxins indeed. Aflatoxin is the one they're most worried about. And so they examined how effective calcium bentonite clay was in absorbing these bits, these nasties out of the product. They're porous and they kind of suck it up. As Nick said, adsorption or absorption anyway. And they found that it was between 93 and 97% effective at removing mycotoxins. And I thought, bloody hell, that was interesting. What else does it do? And this is Dogs Naturally magazine, which is always good for a couple of leads. And there's a whole heap, but every time they mention something, they don't actually kind of link to the studies. You can copy paste into Google Scholar to try find the studies. And sure enough, It's been used to detoxify bodies, to damaged organs. It's a good time to use it because they start shedding off a whole heap of stuff. There is, let me see, what was the other, there was a great one here, for kidney disease because it's actually a natural phosphate binder. And I thought, ooh, that's a good one, a natural phosphate binder, looking for that. So that was a great one and lots of studies in dogs of that. So I thought, ooh, that was cool. You want the aluminium-based one, that which is the word that Bren just used, which I can't repeat. That's the aluminium one. Treats and prevents parasites. Haven't actually gone into that too much yet. Immune function, gut health, all sorts of stuff. So yes, and I was thinking, guys, would this be a good time? Bentonite clay, actually, the difference between zeolite and bentonite, the fact is there's just lots of these different types of clays, and some of them do slightly different things. But if you just Google and you can have a quick look yourself. But this zeolite stuff and bentonite, they're the two most common, and they are both kind of volcanic material, crushed little powder, silicon content. But after Chernobyl, when the reactor imploded, they used 500,000 tons of zeolite clay, was poured on the top from initially helicopters and then trucks. To encase the reactor and decontaminate water, soil, objects, animals, and humans. So there is seriously solid stuff behind this. Bentonite is the white or gray version of volcanic origin as well, and that is the one you use for absorbing gut health, detoxifying the body, 8 times more effective than the other zeolite clays. Anyway, yes, there is plenty of good science behind that. Not sure how to dose it, but Green Dogs Naturally magazine said to give it in water. A quarter to a half a teaspoon. So it's not something I use a whole lot of, but I definitely want to look into this. There's something to this. I mean, detoxing, I did never really believed in this, guys. Where are you on this? Like, I thought it was kind of a Mickey Mouse kind of Americanized version of something. And then, and then you keep on trying to get me to read this book Toxic, which I have on Audible, Brent, and I really have to get into it. Where are you on detoxing and when do we do it? And and give me some info on that.

All right, okay, look, uh, one thing I would like to say about detoxing, because you asked about detoxing, not about clay in that particular question— I will come on to clay— detoxing, I think this whole thing of, oh, they're getting horrendous diarrhea or they're purging and vomiting, and don't worry, it's just about detox, okay? Or their skin has flared up and it's like 100% worse and their pustules dripping off. Oh, don't worry, they're just trying to get the badness out.

Oh my God, guys.

Okay, I'm going back to homeopathic principles. We should be healing them gently, not putting them through trauma. So if your dog is detoxing to that extent where they're getting dehydrated through vomiting and diarrhea purging, please at least look to a holistic vet to make sure that their welfare is being looked after. You know, there isn't— I don't think that we should be putting people or animals through that sort of level of detox that causes trauma to them. Okay, there are ways to do that, and this is what the Neil Nathan Toxic book talks about. Do it gently. You've gone too hard, too fast if you're causing a massive reaction like that and you need to ramp back quite dramatically what you're doing. Okay. Clays, love them. Absolutely love them. I've used them topically on wounds. I flashed up a few people's comments there. I've used them on yeasty skins. I've used them internally for diarrheas. You can get the green clays. Directly and just use those and mix them up. I use them on food. I don't necessarily just use them in water. I think, I think they are great mixed with probiotics, a way of absorbing to the gut lining to protect it from, you know, the sort of aberrant toxic bacteria, the toxins that some even of those friendly bacteria, if they die off in waves, can actually irritate the gut lining. So actually the green clays absorb those toxins. Okay. And protect the gut lining in many of those cases.

So adsorbing for people, because I had to Google it before we came on, adsorbing is where molecules are attracted to the surface of the thing. In this case, Brent was talking about protecting the inner lining of the gut. So if there's something protecting that from being hammered by these toxins. Doesn't that make sense? And absorption is where the actual substance is drawn into the tissue like a sponge absorbing water. So adsorption to the surface, absorption into the actual body itself. So you were going to say a second part to that, Brent. What was the second part?

Oh, no, you know, it's about the clay. That's the first part was about detox. The second part was about the clay. Absolutely.

What about you, Nick?

No, I don't use them. I was actually approached by a guy who was, who was doing a lot of work on zeolite, and he had some science and what have you. And I, and I, and I remember meeting him in, in a London, uh, restaurant 15 years ago, and he's saying, you know, this is it. And he hadn't got the packaging right, and he, he hadn't got his spiel particularly off-piste, and it was all a bit, it was all a bit amateurish. So that kind of put me off, and I've been slightly put off ever since. I've had a million conversations with a million people using bentonite clay and what have you. And Caroline Ingraham, for example, is a massive fan of bentonite clay. She's been using it for 20 years.

Yeah.

So I'm going to re-look at it because everybody's saying it's just the best thing in the world for diarrhea and wounds and all sorts of things.

So I'll do a summary piece, Nick. I'll do a summary piece for Patreon. Okay. And I'll have a look around. I'll see what studies I can dig up, see as much dog stuff and cat stuff I can dig up. I'll put it on Patreon and we can all have a little learn on that. But yes, I'm getting more into bentonite. I actually bought some. And so, uh, yeah, I have some and I want to start thinking about how to use it more, but I want to see the science first of what's out there. But I'll do that.

Is that for your dry skin, Conor? Are we gonna see you next week with a green clay mask?

It's not usual. Normally my skin is grand. I don't ever think about it, but I don't know, as I turn 42— do you know what else I'm being very vain now as I get older, but my teeth, for some reason, okay, I used to have pretty, pretty straight teeth, and now my tooth is starting to kind of buckle here, okay, just a tiny bit. This tooth is moving out, this one's moving in. I'm like, what the fudge? Why, my teeth are moving around? What else is going to go wrong here? My hair is coming out my ears. I was like, okay, uh, so I go to get a bit of help from the dentist. They don't do that apparently, so let's go to an orthodontist. Oh my God, bloody hell. And the orthodontist, you can get these You can get these here. This is FAQs. This is my FAQ.

So really sorry about the Irish.

What I've got to say now is get something else for next week. I apologize to all of those wonderful Irish listeners and viewers, but ultimately I think that what he's trying to do is change into a leprechaun. He's going to paint his face green with green clay. He's getting teeth which are going into odd shapes.

Check out my—

before you know it, it'll be wearing a little hat.

I got serious fangs, lads. So anyway, I've got to get my teeth straight. Do you know how much he quoted me for? You have to get 20 of these clip-in kind of braces so you don't end up speaking like this or anything. It's not like the olden days, but, uh, it's a clear thing that just clips in. And my brother had them, his teeth were looking perfect, and I thought, great, I'm gonna check that out. 5 grand. And now I'm thinking, okay, I'm not probably not going to do it now, but now when I'm looking at videos of myself my tooth is kind of hanging down like, oh, like I can just see it, it just sticks out there again. I'm like, I'm not having that.

Uh, so anyway, he's so vain, he might think this song is about him.

It's just one more thing before we go. Emma Huey just said there, I've just switched my dog to raw and he's not drinking any water anymore, and so they started adding water to his food. Now everybody, this is great because everybody's already dealing with these questions down the side. I don't think anybody's really listening. I think it's a social group. But so everyone's already told them that, you know, yeah, you jump to fresh food and the water is in the food. So what you're seeing is this is really how much the animal drinks and cats almost completely cease drinking. So this is kind of how much water the dog needs. And as Bren said, you know, you don't need to trick the animal or me into drinking more water. He'll take water if he needs it. I think adding water to the food is a mistake because what all you're doing there, he's got a little half an egg cup cup of digestive juices waiting for his meal, all you're doing is diluting them and making that slightly less able to digest his meal. So I don't really believe in adding water to the food. If he needs it at the side, I'm sure the two of you guys agree, he'll take the water. You don't need to trick him into eating it.

You know, it's really, really common, really common that they— I know dogs who stop drinking altogether when they go on to raw. Usually they just drop it by like 80% or so. It is virtually impossible for anything like a healthy dog to deny themselves the liquid that they need. Okay, Conor, you might not be drinking enough, but a dog, you know, they're just hardwired to drink. They don't have coffee, they don't have tea, and they don't have these stupid diuretics like a glass of wine.

Yeah, yeah, perfect.

Okay, guys, Karen, thank you so much. I know you're on it.

Yes, yes, Karen is, yeah, we're lucky to have her. So guys, okay, so it's off to Patreon now. Let's do a bit on the side and let's do that. That was great. We only got through the top 4 questions and the 70 comments there. So sorry about that, guys. That is just the way it is. Great questions.

So, you know, you know, if you want to join us, join us at Raw Pet Medics so you can join patreon.com /rohrpetmedics. You'll be able to join us on there in about an hour. We will publish the video that we're just shortly about to record. Look forward to seeing you guys. It's been a pleasure again. I love the comments, I love the interaction. Thank you so much.

Look forward to seeing you next week, and please come and join us on the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society community page. Just follow your nose, you'll get there. That'll be great to see.

Cool, see you there, guys.

Okay.