RPM Tuesday Live: Q&A

Right, we're back.

We are back. Are we glitch-free, Bren?

Are we glitch-free?

It says we're now on. I really do apologize to everybody on Facebook who, um, we seem to want to go over the other side of the pond, but not over here. So apologize.

Well, we have the Americans. Look, let's get straight into the FAQs, and we have so many racked up. They're building up. Let's try and burst through a few of these tonight and get some rapid-fire answers out as much as possible. Who wants to start off?

Okay, Bren, I thought you wanted to— you've got one up your sleeve.

Yeah, let's go for one of our questions off Patreon, actually. Thank you, Patreon followers.

Thank you, Patreon.

Follow us on patreon.com/rawpetmedics. You can join us there. We will be re-releasing Connor's exploits in Ile de Ré as a separate video reel after this show, after dark.

But for now, if you pay, if you pay enough, or if he pays even more not to put it on, maybe that'll go straight on to Patreon only.

That'll just really encourage you on. Okay, so we have a wonderful question. So thanks, Rowena, for your question. Can I ask about confirmed Malassezia yeast, please, in ears and any recommendations for products to use? Unfortunately, I've tried everything you've mentioned so far, including Ingenious for months and months, Lucilin, helping the gut, feeding no yeasty fruits and veg in his raw. So we're doing steroid ear stuff at the moment. Just had a third treatment, however, still brown inside both ears. Any thoughts? I have some.

Yeah, I've got loads. Go for it, Bren.

No, no, I think— well, let's do it from Conor. Conor, what would you think if you saw Malassezia? What's your go-to?

I think, um, oh, my go-to— she's probably tried our go-tos because my go-tos will be simple enough. The garlic oil with mullein, which is a handy one, but it sounds like she's tried that apple cider vinegar, which, you know, I'm sure they tried that, the ear cleaner that Nick recommended, Eco Ears, which will be available on the Holistic Vet Shop, which will be live from the end of August, the Holistic Vet Shop, where all these goodies will be available. Cool, that's good. So like, I think if they watched our ear show, then it's possible that this girl is— we don't— I know her name, so I know she's a watcher. So you're kind of— I don't have any kind of magic solutions after that. I know that I remember those— is there a kink? Isn't there neck issues that can lead to ear issues? Isn't that what happens with human children and car crash people? Yeah, isn't that that you can— there's a kink, there's some vertebrae.

Is that not to do with the closure of your eustachian tube and the increase in mucus and middle ear disease.

I think I'm not sure.

Middle ear infection, glue ear, and all of that.

I heard that difficult births can lead to a little bit of neck trauma in babies, and that's why some kids are more prone to ear infections than others. And it's interesting, and you can see it in some kids around us. But look, the only other thing is another product recommendation, and again, just like Nic had said, it's coming soon. There is a type of— not probiotic, but it's another yeast and it's called Pithium, and it's hard to source. It's under patent, but it's coming soon to Ireland and the UK. And Pithium is a parasitic yeast, and it's friendly, and it goes after and eats other yeasts. It sends out its hi-fi fingers and finds them, and when it finds them, it not only digests them, but it sends out little spores to find more. And it's also antibacterial. It releases goo that keeps bacteria away while it's feeding. So this, this thing is unbelievable. And it works on horses and hooves and nails and whatnot. And the product is found— you can only get it from the Czech Republic at the moment. It's called Dermison.

Okay.

And you can ask, you find that online. I'll send you a link to the company, you'll find Dermison oil, you'll find— actually, just go to my website, you'll find the product where I talk about it, and you can link out to them. The problem is the shipping is mega expensive from Czech it's gonna cost you £60 just to ship it, and it's only a small little box. I don't understand what's going on, but we are sorting it out, and then hopefully within a month or two we'll have this on the shop. But that product has done wonders for stubborn issues. They do an ear product, they do a fizzy tablet you can put in the bath and wash them with it. So yeah, I don't know, if it's definitely yeast, by the way, when they said they checked for yeast, you can go to fec.lab, F-E-C-L-A-B, and they can send swab kits, £40, and you can swab the dog and send it back, and they can tell you if it's a Malassezia infection. This lady's already done that, I'm sure, but it's a cheap and cheerful way of diagnosing.

Well, that's, that's an important point because I would say from my answer before you come in, Nick, would be brown wax is not necessarily just, you know, that's yeast. Okay, there's many, many dogs who will have an increased waxy exudate. Almost their constitution will predispose them to a waxy exudate. Doesn't mean they've got an excess of yeast. So yeast, I often will say sour smell. When you smell the ear, if it's a sour smell and there's inflamed skin down that ear, and then when you've done the swab, you've got a yeast excess, absolutely, and they say it's Malassezia, you know, bang, you're there. Absolutely agree. But just be cautious. I've seen many dogs which have had everything under the sun, and people have come in worried that there's still an ongoing yeast issue, and all it's been is an excess of wax, sometimes in response to an aqueous solution being applied down the ear. Okay, and it may be that simply an oil, a gentle oil that's miscible with the wax, will be enough to keep the wax cleaned out. Okay, but wax is a normal exudate of ears as a protection. Okay, so just remember, keep checking. Don't assume that the first check or the second which showed malassezia is what's currently going on 8, 9 months down the line. Because it may no longer be yeast that's in there. Okay, so that's just my small addition. Nick, what's your thoughts?

I would say if it's primarily a yeast problem and you've got rid of any sensitivities, and I'm going to talk about sensitivities in a second, then Eco-Ears, I think, is just absolutely amazing for many. Pseudomonas ears, which is a persistent infection, which is very difficult to get rid of. Even something as hardcore as that, Eco-Ear is remarkable. We stock it, we bring it in from the States at vast expense, but I do that because it is a wonderful product. However, if you are treating just the ears, you are treating the tip of the iceberg. You need to look at what's under the waterline and what usually provokes these itchy ears is that the dog has got a hypersensitivity, a sensitivity to something. There are 3 types of— 3 main types of sensitivity. Number 1 is to pollens, number 2 is to indoor allergens, and number 3 is to food. So if you're getting— because killing yeast is quite easy, you know, you've tried half a dozen products, yeah, you kill the yeast, but if it comes back, it's because the fundamental— the soil, the skin of the ear is unhappy and And if you've got a dog who's manifesting sensitivities in the ears, the Americans talk about ears, rears, and feet, then if they're doing that, if you don't treat the fundamental sensitivity, you're not going to get, you're not going to get the response that you're looking for. So talk to your vet, talk to your holistic vet, talk to Conor, talk to Bren, talk to whoever it is about, has my dog got pollen sensitivities, grass pollens, tree pollens? Has my dog got indoor sensitivities, molds, house dust mites, house dust mites, etc.? Okay, so because if that's driving the ears to be red and hot and slightly wet, that is a playground for yeast. You killed the yeast and they just come back because the ears are fundamentally hot wet and attractive to these bugs. So that would be my peneth, eco ears, and make sure you haven't got an underlying allergy. It's not an allergy, but it's a sensitivity to something else which is provoking the ears to be attractive to yeast.

There you go. And I absolutely agree with that. I think from a point of view of, you know, if you've got persistent problems and it is yeast coming back, that chronic inflammatory stuff, whether that's gut in origin, whether that's skin, even, you know, somebody said about fleas. Well, that's just down to the reaction, the inflammation that comes from that, not necessarily the fleas. It's not literally a flea in your ear. It is literally that you've got that underlying inflammation. So, you know, all of those things really, really important to understand. Yeah, anything that heightens the inflammation may also increase discharges, including in anal glands. All the way through to any waxy discharge. But don't get suckered into it's always yeast. Ecosyn ear stuff and the Dermacin oil, am I mistaken or were they not from the same company?

They're all the same thing. They're all from, yeah, they do 3 different products and they do, there's a few differences in the ear product and a few differences in the skin oil and eucalyptus and a few cool little additions. And the tablet is just the effervescence of what, of course, carbonation, what's it, what makes it fizz, can't remember, and just pythium. So that's, it's more used for horses and bathing and feet where you don't cover them in oil, you know, for obvious reasons, and they're transferring around your house. So, and horse hooves, so because they're very prone to it, so that they actually started off as a horse product. So works for all animals, it kills all yeast, athlete's foot, all sorts of things. It loves to eat it all. It's cool. And then when it's no more food, it just in cases and falls off. So there's a— you don't eat it, it's not for internal use, tissues.

Um, okay, what I'm going to do, let's do some rapid fire, and we should do, um, you've literally got not an explanation but you've got a paragraph on each for the next, the next 2 or 3. Should we do that? And we can—

yeah, I've got a good one for a quickie, for a quickie. I've got a good one from here, from, from Liz H on Patreon. Thank you, Liz. Uh, good morning, question for tonight please. As my dog is on thyphoron, which is thyroxine, which is a thyroid hormone, T4 thyroid hormone. Can I add ACV to his food? And my answer to that would be yes, you can. But the, the really important thing with thyphoron is that, as Jean Dodd says in The Canine Thyroid Epidemic— she's written a book called The Canine Thyroid Epidemic— and if you've got the slightest doubt about whether your dog has thyroid disease, like they, they can't lose weight, for example, or they get recurrent skin issues, for example, then read that book. And you need to give the thyroxine 1 hour or 2 or 3 hours after, because food will change the absorption each day. So you'll get inconsistent absorption of the thyroxine. So the easiest thing is all thyroxine is given 1 hour before food, roughly 12 hours apart, and off you go. An ACV in the food— you can put anything you like in the food. Okay, as long as you give the thyroxine at a different time.

I would like to say I totally agree with you, Nick. Therefore, we're going to move on to the next question because I think this should be directed towards Conor. This is a wonderful one from Gillian Coop. Thank you, Gillian, for your question. I follow Conor's raw food recipe, but I find it difficult to gauge how much to feed a 10-kilo dog of raw. Clearly I've been feeding too much, around 150 to 180 grams. Okay, just so you've got that for a 10-kilo dog daily. But this is the crux, with 20 grams of biscuits for breakfast and half a rabbit ear for pudding. As I would rename him Tabletop, that's why he's obviously feeding too much. Okay, he could probably balance a plate on his back. He gets a tiny bit of meat treats for his training, about very small handful per day. He's a Romanian rescue, so no doubt has incredibly efficient digestion, but is manic about food. Husband can't resist those big shining liquid eyes. I think might be a clue here. So I think he gets more than I know about. What's your thoughts, Conor?

I would say a 10-kilo dog is 7 times smaller than the average human. Okay, so every time you give them a sausage, it's 7 sausages. Every time you give them a biscuit, it's 7 biscuits. And you would never sit down to 7 biscuits. If you ate 7 biscuits, you know, boom, I've eaten a lot of biscuits there. That's a Friday night thing. So I thought you were going to bring up that Hills poster again. Yeah, yeah, this is how many donuts a chicken is. What? Um, so like, yeah, the first of all, if you're trying to get on top of weight, the number one thing is you've got to get accountable. Of what you're feeding the dog. And so you, for the easy thing to cut out for the moment is treats. You just got to get a handle of where you are. So the treats need to stop because you just can't trust everyone. Said, I didn't give him anything yesterday. Oh, I gave him one little bit of carrot. And I think I gave him a bit of banana, tiny, tiny little bit of banana, which could have been that size and he's only 10 kilos. So, you know, very few dogs put on weight when they're underfed and at 180 grams for a 10 kg dog, that is not a lot of food unless you're feeding very, very high fat mix, which I doubt you are because you seem to be following recipes. So 180 grams, 20 grams of nuts, that's the carbs. So that's your sugar. So that is not gonna help the waistline. If you're gonna add in food to, add in meat and veg, you know, but particularly meat, lean meat. So I would say cut out the kibble. There's not a single benefit to it. That's the carbs, it's spiking your insulin and it's fueling a little bit of obesity there. But the main issue, like, you're not feeding a lot of food at 200 grams there. That's nothing, even, you know. So stick to your fresh food, it fills the dog up for longer. Stick to nice lean meat, feed them a decent feed. I mean, 200 grams, 250 grams, that's fine, but keep it at 200 grams for the moment for this dog and monitor your treats very, very heavily. And the only treats he can have is lean meat, so pieces of dried lean meat, and they need to be very carefully monitored. Maybe leave out 2 or 3 lean meats treats in a tub each day and you know he has them or 2 or 3 sprats and so people can give the dog a treat but once they're not in the bowl anymore they're done just for 2 weeks and then put a cloth measuring tape behind his waist or weigh him every week and hold yourself to account, write it down, why is his weight not coming off and if it doesn't and after a month and you're being very stringent and cutting back the food a little bit or just making sure lean options, start thinking about the thyroid because that can be an issue but these dogs are often very heavily vaccinated when they're brought in and stuff so that's my go-to but it's almost always the food you're putting into the dog. Dog almost always.

Yeah, I love that answer. I so want to add something. I might just add it on Patreon, uh, just because there's that whole thing about if he's been a rescue, has he downregulated his metabolism? How long has they taken to recover him, get his metabolism back up, speed his metabolism again? But anyway, let's go on. Uh, Jenny Meredith, top fan, thank you for your question. Uh, colitis. This is going to be for Nick, I reckon. Um, please can we have some suggestions on supporting acute bouts of colitis with raw feeding, please. So this is really common. People ring the practice for us and ask this question, my dog's got diarrhea, what do I feed? Because they're so used to hearing chicken and rice. And so let's give them a proper raw option for dog's got diarrhea, colitis in this case, what to feed. How long for, what supplements to add or avoid, and when to seek further help?

Okay, I'll give, I'll give a minute and then you can jump in for a minute, Bren, perhaps.

Okay.

So if the dog's getting colitis, it's because there's most likely a protein going in the front door which is then going trickling down into the colon and it makes the colon unhappy. So I would suggest the thing to do is to do some food trials. Food trials are very easy to do. You just got to make sure you use one protein for a minimum of about 2 weeks. Okay, 1 week is too short, 4 weeks can be a bit too long. So about 2 weeks will tell you where you're at. And what you're looking for is, are there any proteins which provoke colitis? Okay, so you get, you line up 3, 4, 5 proteins, you say, right, nothing but venison for 2 weeks. But the key thing is that you make sure that the treats are dried venison so that the treats match the headline protein. Don't bother with anything that's got more than one ingredient. Okay, so it's just a food trial. You can— when you jump from the venison to the rabbit, say, or from the venison to the duck or whatever you fancy, then you can just do that overnight if the dog's got anything like a robust stomach otherwise apart from the colitis. If you get provoked, if you provoke colitis within hours or 24 hours of that new protein, there's your answer. If your dog is a scavenger, then you're going to have to just work on, on that, I'm afraid. And, you know, some dogs will always do that. If that was the case, I'd be looking at just making sure the gut was as healthy as possible with probiotics, with anti-inflammatories, with anything to help avoid leaky gut like bone broth and what have you. But it's usually protein in the front door which causes colitis.

Yeah, totally agree. You know, when you're looking at prevention and you're looking at that side of, you know, trying to help in the long term for this colitis, I'm going to move on to the acute bouts and what to do because there'll be so many people saying, do you know what, I'm faced with this, what do I do right now? Okay, there's a couple of suggestions gone on there and I think what to feed, I would definitely look look at bone broths, you know, so restrict back their proteins, give them a bone broth. If you know they're allergic to beef, don't go and give a beef bone broth, okay? But there are so many other options that are out there. I want to reach for, um, yes, I do have—

I'll give them a try.

Yes, yes, these are now being produced, okay? But there's so many flavors from, um, the, the classic beef all the way through to goat to, um, venison. You know, they've got all of the options in there. So have a look at Boil and Broth. You can make those up. Sometimes I've got people say, I just can't get them to drink it. I don't mind if you add a little bit of electrolytes. So if you use a little bit of Himalayan salt in there just to provoke a bit of flavoring, even a bit of garlic added into that can be really useful just to get them to, to take that bone broth on. To that, Adding a bit of fiber can be really useful. There's a number of options. VetPro, which is the same as NutriVet, do a sort of fiber supplement, which is psyllium husk with a few other things. Getting that lovely balance between soluble and insoluble fiber to just settle the gut flora, to effectively get things back under control and hold the correct amount of moisture and bulk in the feces can be really useful as well as protecting the gut lining. If you're really suffering with blood and stuff, the clays, the edible clays can be wonderful. So edible green clay, that's what bentonite clay usually is in the pastes, the probiotic paste that they give you. So I'd certainly look at that. But remember, having a colitis and inflammation, if you're adding anything like clays, it will reduce the absorption of any medications they may be on, and that includes any herbal medications if you're giving it for joint protection, etc. So expect them to be a bit stiffer. Don't go walking them expecting them to be the same old, same old. Rest them up whilst they're recovering and do look at then at least, you know, 24-48 hours. I'd be expecting improvement with a view that they should be right within 3 days. If they're not, you should be seeking further help. Okay. Now, if there is vomiting or liquid diarrhea with blood in it rather than on it, that's also just cut to the chase, getting them checked just to make sure they haven't sneakily picked up something that's got stuck.

Okay. And while the poos are, if the poos are mega soft, to ease off that fiber because the fiber is going to make that, particularly psyllium husk, is probably not going to help in the middle of that liquidy poo. Another one is the cruciferous vegetables need to be cut out. Sulfur aggravates colitis, so you need to ease off that. A few meats are higher in sulfur. I wouldn't worry about that, but your cabbages and your Brussels sprouts, if that's a top food option— there's a few things. If you just Google foods that aggravate colitis, you'll get an idea. And Nick's thing about the single proteins, for sure. I've, of course, there I've got a whole article written. It's free to view. It tells you, I call it that, but that's what people think it's called. So, and it's a whole article on it. It'll explain how to do that very tight exclusion diet. So you can say this is or is not food related. You need to know, you need to find out, and you should get rid of that one because that's your main culprit right there, as Nik said.

Just a thought, Penny Wood, who is amazing, and we must get her back on the show, she said green bananas. I guess that's insoluble and insoluble fiber. Which is a great idea. She later on says about Jerusalem artichoke for fiber and inulin, which is really good. They work well together. So that's really— green banana, I've never heard that. You ever heard of green banana?

I've heard of green banana being a cool thing. Not the most pleasant thing to eat, I have to say. I love a ripe banana. And here's one, here's one for Bren. Actually, Judy Morgan's already answered it, but I'm just going to read it out from Judy Morgan's page. We get getting a lot of followers from there. I just want to get them one question from them. And she said, had a leg vibrator. You know the way you— a leg vibrator? You've got a vibrating leg.

You know, what did you get up to on holiday?

Oh, Conor, that's kind of good. Let's edit that bit out.

You know the trembling paws? I think, I think it's a real spaniel thing. The Dudley gets it. He's a bit going to walk because the front leg's trembling. But some dogs get it when they're at rest and just when they're sitting up And Judy, both of you guys, I mentioned this at the start, I thought this would be a nice question, but both of you said the same thing, magnesium. And that's the first thing Judy Morgan said. This here, listen to Judy Morgan's answer, it's classic. Check magnesium is optimal in food. This can be increased using amino acid bound versions to increase uptake. Look at Bio-Optimizers with 7 amino acid forms, very good for muscular tremors, but not the only possible diagnosis. Oh, that's Brendan from Raw Pet Medics.

I was waiting for you to get to the end of that.

I didn't read the very end of it. That's class, man. I just thought that's a wonderful concise answer and it's from Ben. I definitely wouldn't have read that out and said it was wonderful if I had known Brendan had written it. So now I'm caught. Look, here's one more. Okay, I'll stick with Ben. Let's shoot this to Ben. Okay, we've got a dog.

I've got one more thought for the the vibrator leg. Yeah, go for it. Check out an osteopath or chiropractor. They are dramatically underused in the veterinary profession and they should be used much, much more. Yeah, everybody is stiff after they have had an operation of any sort, after a general anaesthetic. See a chiropractor. If the bitch has had puppies, needs to see a chiropractor or osteopath. If the dog has been, I don't know, fallen down the stairs or done anything or is just walking a bit funny, see a chiropractor, osteopath, worth their weight in gold. I use a guy called Tony Nevin, N-E-V-I-N. He's called Zoo Ost, and unfortunately he doesn't pay me to promote him like that. But there we go.

We're all done. Sounds good. So here's one that we've never mentioned. Lungs. Any vitamin or supplements good for normal deterioration of old age dog lungs? So first of all, Deterioration in dog lungs, is that normal? You hear all the other organs complaining, there's an -itis for everything, pancreatitis and hepatitis and dermatitis, but you never hear of lung-itis.

Bronchiolitis maybe?

Ah yeah, that makes more sense. Pete, edit that out as well, please, please.

You can tell he's been on holiday.

This is not good, I'm turbocharged and extra large here, but I'm just, my words aren't even coming out, I need to get back in them. Oh well. So has anybody got any tips for old age dog lungs?

How does she know that the lungs are—

X-rays. There's lots of x-rays. She's put up lots of x-rays on the page.

Oh, she has. Okay.

Normal deterioration, which surprises me. Normal deterioration in dog lungs. So what is that?

Yeah, no, I think the thing that we've got to be aware of, it's really hard to look at x-rays and we shouldn't be looking at specific cases. But if we're talking a small dog, Westie, for example, You know, we know that genetically their inflammatory process seems to predispose them to bronchiolitis. So we, chesty westies, we used to call them, they sort of get a real crackle emphysema on the lung. Those could be really nasty things. And I definitely would say I support the immune system. Somebody mentioned NAC. There's things like Vetri DMG I've often used for those cases. And I would just say get the immune system supported. Secondary infection will really be the thing that will get them. There are some great remedies, Drosera spongii, that can help with the sort of chronic coughing. Tuberculinum even can be really useful in these cases where there's chronic inflammation. That's my very quick answer. It's not total and it's not specific to your dog, but it's certainly something that you may want to look into. Nick?

I think, I think see a holistic vet. Go and see a holistic vet if it's that serious and you're taking X-rays and you're thinking, crumbs, what can I do? But make sure if the dog has got, you know, ground glass changes or your bronchiolitis changes in the lungs, what's to say that doesn't also have a stiff neck or a stiff back? So just make sure that there isn't arthritic-y stuff going on there and that's what's slowing it down. Make sure the heart is in great shape because that can slow you down as well. And obviously, that will relate to lung health, how your heart is. But that is— there's Fiona Murray trying to put me off my stride. So I would say it's kind of a whole body picture. You know, if the lungs are going in that direction at that rate, I would be looking to make sure that the liver health was great, that the kidney health was great, the skin health was great, that the mental health and of what have you, because if the lungs are going there that way, maybe lots of other tissues are. And if it is just the lungs, you've got to think, why is it just the lungs? I'd be cautious about over-vaccinating. That— I'm not anti-vax, but I would be cautious about vaccinating an unhealthy dog. I'd be cautious about any pharmaceutical intervention, especially the drop-ons, because they really do have quite a profound effect on the dog. On you, on the planet. So it's kind of broad spectrum advice, but I'd say see a holistic vet in order to— it doesn't need to be me, it doesn't need to be Ben. You may be in the States, there's loads of amazing people, Judy Morgan, for example. See some of these people and they will give you the best advice, I'm sure.

And that Michelle's put a good point in alongside many, many others about your household cleaners and the amount of stuff that you've got to be careful in there, but also household toxins. So things like the, you know, the molds, okay, remember they can really aggravate lung disease, okay. So be aware of, you know, if you're in a moist area of the country, especially over in the States, you know, black molds on any of the walls where moisture's built up, you know, that could be a real reason for your dog's suffering. Okay, because they're in the house.

Neil Nathan, Toxic, is Bren's favorite book, and I've got halfway through it, and I just found it—

I got to the third of it. I use it to go to sleep.

It's obviously a good read.

Oh, it just gets too in-depth. I can imagine Bren's tail wagging all the way through. Yeah, it's a horror story.

Yeah, be careful with— yeah, your living room, or whatever you want to call it, should not smell like a forest glade. It should smell like a living room. Yeah, so I'm not sure in the States, I think they may be predisposed to using these more. I may be wrong, guys, I'm not judging. I just think that you're bombarded with a lot of product a lot of the time. In this country, Everybody I talk to is like, oh no, I never, never touch them. But I have— I do have a certain demographic who come and see me. Yeah, don't use these chemicals in your house. You know, even those little, you know, the way where you have a, you have a pot and you have the sticks coming out and it looks really nice and you have them in your loo, that is punching out crappy, horrible artificial aromas into your house. Even be careful with essential oils.

I was going to say, I'm sure everybody watching is actually using the best quality essential oils on those little sticks.

I would hope so.

Not anything—

I bet they're real people and they haven't got time to go and research the essential oil, so they just go down to the local shop, pick it up because it looks nice and it's on offer at Sainsbury's, and the loo smells great.

We stay— We lived with a couple in Australia in a small enough house and the lady of the house, I'm not going to mention her, I know she's not watching, used to have this. Go on, say it. They used to use this product that's sold in Australia. It's just citrus. It's just citrus oil, orange citrus oil. And so when the house smelled of citrus oil, you know someone's had a poo. And so now when someone cuts an orange anywhere near me, I just think it's a Jack's poo. Anyway, so that's the effect of you. Something to cover up.

Yeah.

Lynn Hobbs is just saying books, books, books. I buy them and never read them. Lynn, I was the same. I've got dozens of books up there that I will never read. And so I went on to Audible, okay, about 2017 or so. And it just means you can do the— you can read books while you're doing the shopping, while you're doing the house cleaning, while you're cutting the grass, while you're— I do it when I'm chainsawing. It's very, very, very good indeed. So that's the way around it, because even if you pick up less, a book completed on audiobook is better than a book on your shelf that you haven't read. Okay.

Yeah, that's feeding dogs.

Yeah, it's great. It's great. So, Feeding Dogs, is that coming out in—

I really hope I'll get it in before the end of the year. That's my dream would be to have it out. But I think it needs to— if I'm going to do it, I need to freshen it up. You know, it'll be coming on— it'll go into its fourth year by the time I do it. So I kind of want to freshen up a few bits, add a few bits in. But anyway, look, let's not talk about that.

Are you going to narrate it?

I am definitely going to narrate it. Oh, are you? Yeah. Oh yeah.

And let's put a live chat on for you.

We could do it.

We could each do a chat. To, couldn't we? Just go around in rotation, putting on Conor's voice.

We can do it in our best Irish accent, how about that?

That would be great, lads. I would deeply appreciate that. That would make me so happy. Thanks for the offer. I will get back to you on that. Here's one from Sue. What age should I be switching my puppy to raw? Should I wait until they've completed their puppy vaccines? How worthy is their immune systems able to fight off pathogens if mother was not vaccinated? Thank you. Just really quickly, lads, one sentence. When would you switch dogs to raw?

I put pups onto raw from 3 weeks. As soon as they get interested in mum's food, boom, you're off to the races. I think we're conflating vaccinations with food, and none of the pathogens in food are vaccinatable against. So I would separate those two thoughts into two separate areas.

Yeah, so absolutely, just look, think about good quality raw, you know, find something that's reputable, you know, if it's got Raw Safe or some, you know, mark of quality that's on there, you know, that's going to be an advantage to you. Or you really know the producer or butcher and you know that that's fresh, you know, and mum is already on it. Absolutely. When you're feeding the mum a ground-up raw option, let them be feeding around mum whilst they're also still suckling. So they're still getting lots of the omega-3s, they're getting EPA, DHA from mum's milk, they're getting lots of brain food effectively. And that alongside, they're getting an idea of what is normal food, what is good quality normal food. So I'd wean them. I'd wean them. And actually, if you're going to join us at the RFVS conference, It's all about the next generation feeding. So there's all the stuff about how to get puppies and kittens started on raw super early. So we're going to be going through all of that. There's loads of great speakers about, you know, getting the biome right, getting, you know, the food right, getting the vitamins right, getting all the nutrients on spec, a little bit about breeding bitches and things like that too. So do maybe—

when is it, Brent? Have you got a link?

That's the 11th. 11th of November, and we have a link. It's already been on our page. We'll put it up this week, but that's a good one for the puppy people out there.

11th of November in Yorkshire, the fine county of Yorkshire. And yeah, it's getting— what's it called? Getting Started?

No, Feeding for the Next Generation.

Ah, love it.

Good title.

Very good.

Martina Cassie added at the back there, how do you reconcile the worming of pups and raw feeding? I think there's a little bit of a kind of a misunderstanding out there that there's just heaps of worms in the food chain and that's where worms come from. But, you know, dogs get worms from other dogs if it happens at all, and there's not like, you know, there's no meat in like, you know, the chicken and beef off the supermarket shelf or your vegetables really. Any worms that are in those are not worms that infect dogs. So like, you just It's just a thing that's thrown out there that that will be one of the risks of feeding real food. Fresh food isn't any more dangerous than say dry food. Dry food has its host of pathogens, so it's not like you have a safer option than feeding kibble. All you're doing is cutting out vital nutrition such as, you know, joint building compounds, glucosamine, chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, all the stuff that's not in dry food. So like, you know, when you're building young pups, you don't have a choice. It's very fresh and healthy, and if you're really panicked about it, you can do lightly cooked meat, you can just do a tin of sardines and ease the dog. But honestly, a fresh meaty bone, let the pups pick away, learn what real food is, on you go, dead easy.

If the meat is frozen, parasite problems gone. You just don't need to worry about the parasite thing. Okay, so you get good quality raw frozen meat from a good quality supplier, zero parasite worries. Yeah, it's as simple as that.

It's regulated and clean and worrisome as the dry food sector. It's not like there isn't—

It's a lot less worrisome than the dry food sector.

I'm trying to be Yeah, one more from Patreon, guys, before we, uh, hit the road. It's quarter to 8.

Should we do— what about— this is a quick one. Joe Taylor: Hi guys, I was wondering if a woman took HRT, would it have any effect on the bitches around her, even if they are spayed, so effectively have no hormones? Thanks, Jo.

That's Jo Taylor, HRT. Cheers, Brad.

She did not say HRT. She asked the question, yes, if any woman is taking HRT.

Okay, I'm going to jump into this because I think this is fascinating.

I'm trying to work out whether that's sunburn or you're blushing.

Anyway, okay, so HRT is— so I'm not quite sure whether the question is is the, the, the woman's HRT going to have some hormonal negative effect, or even positive, I guess, uh, on the dogs? I think that's pretty unlikely.

Behaviorally.

Okay, behaviorally, yes, I think it could, because hormones change your skin and your sweat and your everything about you. Okay, so if you change scent, shall we say, then the bitches might detect that, and therefore behavior may change because of that. And I'll give you an example of this. About 15 years ago, I had a lovely client. She had a cat, and we were treating the cat for— I can't remember what— but she said within 6 days of conception, her conception of her child, the cat's behavior towards her changed, and thus she knew she was pregnant in 6 days.

Wow.

So isn't that cool?

Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. I don't doubt it. There's no, there's no doubt. There's a whole kind of smell bit to it as well. I mean, hormones, of course, most likely, you know.

Look, you know, how else do we explain that people will start to cycle together when, you know, there's women together? They start, you know, I'm working in a practice with, you know, 30 women, I'll tell you what, they all start to know when everybody's cycling. You know, it is one of those things. And absolutely, a lot of those hormones, they're not distinct to humans. They are distinct across— and we know, you know, wolf packs, dog packs, do they all come in at different times? No, they generally start to produce together. There's a reason for that. If they want puppies, you know, to be able to feed across other mums, you know. So you've got nursery dogs, you've got the dogs that go out for hunting, you know, and they're able to swap over, they're able to swap and take over the care of the puppies if necessary. All of that is made possible by them cycling together. So of course, although individuals of you may not have noticed it out there, there is definitely that possibility that they're going to pick up the pheromone release caused by the estrogen being given, and that will also bring them along, give them some behavioral changes.

And the hormones are shared across species as well, so it's not like, yeah, it's not like testosterone is going to be completely different in a dog, but, uh, you know, from androgen to all sorts of things, estrogen, um, you know, they're shared. So why wouldn't there be some sort— you never know, it's a very interesting You never would have thought you shared your biome with a dog until recently, you know. So it's kind of interesting. You never know. Um, it's a great question. Now I just want to Google.

A couple of thoughts there before we go on to Patreon. I'd like to do another couple of questions on Patreon. Um, yeah, a couple of thoughts. Number, number one is the— if you like this kind of thing, like really nitty-gritty and getting really granular about hormones and stress and you know, changes and what have you. Robert Sapolsky has done a really amazing book. It's in about 5th edition so far, and it's called Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. And he has a whole, whole, a whole section on this effect where of cycling together actually has a name because it was discovered in a women's college in the States in the '70s, and I can't remember. I bet Penny would tell me because it's like the Hell, I could not.

Come on, buddy, give us the actual name of the book, not just that it's a great book.

It is. No, come on. It's— so, no, the effect of cycling together, of women cycling together, has a name. It's like, it's not the Framingham because that's a nutrition study, but it's like the Farrington effect or the Fromingham effect. But there you go, that's just a useless fact and a very, very good one.

Rachel Mack says, I wonder if men at work enjoy a group of women. All the same time you've got 13, and that's treading on very dangerous, dangerous water.

Yeah.

So look, that was great, guys. I have more questions from Patreon that I want to read out, and I feel like we need to do them a service. So let's jump over. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, guys, awesome. Thank you so much. But before we go, I would just like to say for all of you who've been hanging on tenterhooks trying to work out when we're going to get access to these tickets. Let me tell you, we've got some brilliant access coming up on 10 o'clock on Friday. So this is the release date that you want to look out for. If you've got access to Eventbrite, okay, refresh your password now, get yourself ready. Okay, you will be able to purchase tickets for a wonderful day in edutainment on the 2nd of December, um, with Raw Pet Medics as a whole, the three of us. But also you get a little bit of Feline Fridays too. So we've got Amaya and Julianne joining us, uh, to do a little bit of cat stuff too. And we are so looking forward to seeing so many of you who've you know, had an interest in joining us. So have a look on Eventbrite, search Manchester Raw Pet Medics on the 2nd of December. You'll find tickets available from 10 o'clock on Friday. Anything to add, lads?

Anything else?

Oh, it's going to be an absolute hoot. We're going to do lectures in the morning. We're going to be all very clever and, well, try at least, you know. Well, I will be. Trying to be clever as usual. But, and then in the afternoon, we're just gonna have some games and fun and quizzes and just let our hair down and just, you know, have some fun. So it should be really, really great.

My kid has gone absolutely ape in the background here. So I'm using my microphone on and off. So it's hard to come in. Yeah, it's going to be a party. I can't wait. I just want to have one big session at Christmas time and this would be be a great time to do it. So it'd just be great to meet up. It's always so therapeutic meeting up with everybody. So I'm happy that we're injecting in like, yeah, we do a bit of maybe a couple of kind of lectures at the start or a couple of course talks at the start. But I like the idea of 4 lectures and a Q&A.

We've got 4 lectures, we've got Q&A. They're going to be working us hard that day. Yeah, apparently.

And so I like the idea of a bit of a quiz, bit of fun, you know, a bit of crack and couple of drinky poos, bit of mulled wine, you know what I mean? That's, that's what I want. I want a nice Christmas party.

We're going to have that. So we get at the end of the day, so you're going to get food, you're going to get fed, watered, and some drinks. Okay, so you know it's going to be a great crack.

Yeah, cool, cool. Yeah, looking forward to that. Brilliant.

Okay, for everyone else, uh, if you want to join us over on Patreon, uh, we look forward to seeing you guys soon.

Thanks guys, see you soon.