RPM Tuesday Night Live: Preparing for CHRISTMAS!!

With the red nose as well.

Red cheeks, red cheeks. I feel very red from putting the kid to bed. Yeah, it's all, you know, that stress that you get, and then you rush down and sit at the laptop and I'm on.

Hi.

Anyway, if the bells start to annoy, we'll take them off later.

Jingles. I'm going to call you Jingles from here on in.

Yeah, I'm going to get progressively more dressed up as we get closer to Christmas.

Anyway, Nick, I interrupted. Do you want to do the intro? People are joining.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is seasonal festivities.

And on that note, he's jammed.

Joy. I thought that was me.

Give me a heart attack. What are you doing?

It's like granddad's passed out after Christmas dinner. Yeah.

There's all of those poor people in the north of Scotland who've had all of their power blown away and sitting in the dark trying to tune in on their mobile phones. And there's Nick sat in his comfy office down in the soft southern south and he's still freezing. Oh no.

How's it going? Very nice.

It's cold out there.

I like a bit of that. Did you see?

Yeah, I'm in a shed. Guys, if I didn't have that fire on, I would have icicles dripping from my toes.

It's not really my definition of a shed. That's like a mid-50s, very successful. That's definition of a shed. It's got a pot-bellied stove, lovely walls, an armchair, computer service. I mean, we drank cans, we sat on lawnmowers. That was a fact.

Can you imagine? I think next year we're all going to have to do one from our sheds and just see what it's actually like. Our man sheds. See what it's actually like. I'll have goats around me. Nick will be sat in his posh joint.

Did you see those guys in the pub up the north there somewhere in Britain where they got locked in with the snow and they got locked in for 3 or 4 days? Yeah, yeah. Why doesn't that happen to me? Like, that's amazing.

With a knockoff Oasis band.

Oh, heaven. Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. Oh God.

Anyway, yeah, but by the 6th set, I mean, you'd have got bored of them.

Yeah, I mean, do you know any other bands? No, do you know any Blur? Anyway, um, So, uh, happy Christmas.

I don't know why I was—

it's not that am I losing—

I think I'm losing my audio here.

You are.

Anyway, I'm gonna carry on. I'm just gonna carry on. Rach Mac, it is that cold. Seriously, I would be frozen if I, if I didn't have the fire on. Anyway, that's my shed, so if I want the fire, I'm having the fire.

Absolutely.

And I'll do what I want to.

Yeah, it's my shed and I'll do what I want to. Great, man.

So there you go, you put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I got a great share from you, Nick, this week, um, that share you gave me on the Vyral by Zach Bush.

And I want to tell us a little bit about that because what I was going to do is I was going to share all the good stuff that I've come across this year so that if people haven't heard it before, they can get into it over the Christmas holidays because I suspect the Christmas holidays is going to be quite a long and drawn out affair. And we were supposed to have a holiday booked for 2 weeks, and I really don't think it's going to happen. It's because of Omicron.

Yes.

And so what we're trying to do today, guys, is to look on the bright side, be positive, and look at all the good stuff that's happened and all the good stuff that's going to happen next year and how we can really get on top of things. That's, that's my thought.

So, um, yeah, almost you're going to go into a Monty Python script then.

Anyway, I think it's a good plan though. We do need a bit more, we do need a bit more crack these days. It's getting very, it's getting a bit glum, so I am more than happy to have a bit of fun tonight. And if we can keep it dog-related, I think it's great, but it doesn't sound like we're going to be completely dog-related because I wasn't really planning. I Googled how to make a Christmas cake for a dog, but yeah, the wire-on thing, okay.

Just, just by the way, is that this guy Zach Bush? I came across him at the weekend. I went for dinner with, with two vets and all our better halves, and we drank a lot too much wine. And we were talking about philosophy and we were talking about health and we were talking about viruses, as you can imagine. And this guy Zach Bush came up. And so I trust the guy, lovely guy Howard, who I was talking to. And so I looked at it, it was the viral one, and just within 5 minutes of watching this, I thought, this guy has more brain power than the 3 of us put together, which is not that difficult, but literally the 3 of us put together and multiplied by 2 is about his IQ on a bad day.

It was so well delivered, wasn't it?

So I shared it, I shared this thing about viruses and things with, with uh, with Conor. Uh, Conor, do you want to give us a little— this is him, this is the great—

this is what, uh, yeah, exactly, that's what left off the page for me. I actually shared it from my Facebook page there this morning, even though, yes, that which shall not be mentioned or debated live in public was mentioned in it, the big C. And so that kind of killed his growth. So Facebook didn't actually show the post to anybody for 30 minutes, and the guy was just simply talking about the virome. And even when he said the word— look, I did virology for a year in college, and like, so that would have been 20 lectures, it would have been a number of practicals. And even still, when I considered the biome and the gut flora, like when you start doing raw feeding, you start getting interested in gut flora and the biome, and I still lumped in bacteria. Um, Omicron B is no crumble. Yeah, that's a fact. Uh, that's good, I like that. That is depressing. Why is the ivy over my face all of a sudden? I can't see, I can't see. Oh, there I am. But yeah, so this, uh, something this virome thing, they were like, I always thought that the biome considered of like bacteria and fungi, yeasts, protozoans, swimming things and all that kind of stuff and viruses. And he said, well, you know, biome implies that these are live critters in your gut, but viruses aren't alive at all. They're just a clump of DNA and a little protein sheet. And he said, they're a different thing altogether. This is the virome. As soon as he said it, I thought, oh my God, this is so interesting, even the way he delivers it. But he said his facts were brilliant. But What it reminded me of was that, like, I always thought viruses were a bit malevolent, that it was all negative and they're out to kind of hurt you and get you and make you sick, and like a bit of a parasite is the way I viewed it, because we always lumped viruses in with the land of the living. We looked at them with germ theory because that's what we understood— germs and maybe fungi and viruses. And so we lumped them in that and considered them the same thing, but they're not at all. They don't behave that way at all. So he started saying that, like, he started implying that the viruses aren't there—

are kind of—

they're not benign. They're actually there to try and help. They're there to try and update us. They're I couldn't help but think it was like a computer getting, getting an update. And it's a good thing, but it takes a little bit of RAM from the computer. And if you have an old computer, or if you have no spare RAM because you've got an autoimmune disease, then suddenly it becomes more difficult to take this update and you can have these issues. So when I start thinking about an update, that's exactly what these viruses are trying to do. They're trying to update your DNA, they're trying to make you slightly fitter, you're trying to fit into this new environment, and they're delivering this message and As soon as I started thinking about that, he started explaining we've got 20,000 genes, more than half of them are the results of viral inserts. We wouldn't have a placenta if it wasn't for a rotavirus insert getting into us. We wouldn't have stem cells if it wasn't for an RNA insert, RNA virus insert. I was like, what? So all these amazing leaps we've had have been as a result of these viral updates. I highly recommend, guys, despite Facebook killing the growth of that video please check it out on my Facebook on this morning, or if Nick has shared it. It's 30 minutes of just the best viewing where you go, yeah, it's so interesting. And it's like, why aren't we getting this information online, like, or the radio or the TV? It's like, it's just fascinating. Now I know it's not actually a threat. It's, you know, it can be a little bit scary for some, but I'm treading dangerous water here. Anyway, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Did you watch it, Brent? I did.

Some really interesting points within it. I think definition of life, okay, we have to maybe concern whether viruses are alive or not, because obviously depends how you define life. I guess, you know, anything that wants to replicate itself, you could say is alive, you know, whether it's conscious, whether it's, you know, sentient is a different matter, you know, being alive versus being sentient, there's a different difference there. I think the other aspects of I am sure that there were plenty of viral inserts which went horribly wrong and ended up not progressing. And evolution is testament to the fact that where those viral inserts helped, that's when we, you know, we say, oh, that was brilliant. But actually, there's probably for every one that helped, I wonder if there's 20,000, 100,000, 200,000, 2 million that actually weren't so good.

Yeah, he addressed that. He said there's like 10 to the 30 viruses in the air, 10 to the 31 viruses in the soil and the water. You are just inhaling savage amounts of viral particles all the time. The body doesn't take in things that it didn't think was going to help you out. No, we actually do need this little message here. But when they take it in, if you're— but this is what I got from it anyway. So anyway, it was all good news in my head because I needed it. So I just latched on to that. What about you, Nick? What did you take from it?

Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, I got onto it early on Sunday when I, when I told you guys about it. And then I absolutely binge-watched about 6 of his things. Yeah, exactly. So actually, I can't remember a word, word of it, but if I watched it back, I would, I'm sure, recognize it. Yeah, I'm absolutely blown away by the breadth of this guy's knowledge. He started getting into regenerative agriculture, and then he started talking about waterways and water degrading soils. And so I went down this rabbit hole of those and started reading a book on how every civilization— I've actually mentioned this probably about a year ago— every civilization you can think of, the Mesopotamians, the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Greeks, they all abused their soil and it then degraded, went into the sea or blew away, and that was them. And guess what? We are doing exactly the same thing. And this is what Zak, with his farmer's hat on, is talking about as well as viromes and what have you. So that's not very jolly, but it's not too late because there is some wonderful stuff about regenerative agriculture which I'd love to share with you today because that is very positive and it's it's really fun and it deals with manure and sunlight and grass and chickens and cattle and turkeys.

Come on, I'm gonna pull you guys back. I swore that today was gonna be about seasonal festivities, happiness, and joy. We're gonna include some stuff for Christmas, we're going to include some best treats, some best recipes for raw feeders, we're going to do a bit of dos and don'ts. I think we should really address that. You know, I think from, you know, things that they can ingest, but also things for holistic health and actually including a little bit about behavior. Some of you guys will know this inside out and do beg your pardon, but there's other people who are novices to this that are going to be joining us. And probably this is a good forum just to talk about that too. So, you know, I think let's, let's keep to that sort of thing. There's so much more going on, but I absolutely want to hear about the regenerative farming that's sort of coming in, and we're going to be talking more in the new year about that as well. So we've got some exciting information about that to come. So go for it, Nick. What's your—

I've got some, uh, no, no, just at the end, I've got some book recommendations and I've got some prezzies that you may not have thought of. And, um, and is that things for the Santa's list? A couple of videos that, that will entertain you through the winter.

Lovely, thanks, thanks, uh, Saint Nick. That's, uh, that's lovely. Yeah, did you know that, uh, holly trees are male and female? Because we always go picking holly. I don't know if it's a tradition there in Britain, but in Ireland we go picking holly and, uh, we all have our own little spots. And you always want the holly with the berries, and we like the dark green holly. We don't like— it's a particular species with the dark red berries, and they have to be in a certain part of the leaf. They can't just be all clumped at the very end. So were very particular. But yeah, there's female holly trees.

Do you know, I believe in the depths of my memory that actually the difference is that for some reason I think the male holly is the one with the berries, which seems around the wrong way. But no, just have a look at it. But yes, you're absolutely right, there is a male and female. Yeah, I was really surprised about that. I think it's just down to the genetics of what's in it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, guys. We're on Patreon, uh, patreon.com/rawpetmedics. So, uh, we really appreciate any little help you can give us there. A price of a cup of coffee or tea does help us put in the few hours into preparing for the show. And so that's where you'll find us scrolling across the bottom there. So it really helps. Thanks to everybody so far this year because we have accumulated a bit of cash. We are preparing our podcast. Pete is working away on that. We are working away on the testing that Nick is driving through, so I appreciate that, Nick, on testing a few pet foods and finding a few questions. So we're going to use the money relatively wisely, and then once or twice a year maybe have a few beers. But, uh, aside from that, we really appreciate the help on that, guys. The price of a cup of tea or coffee or mulled wine, if you have it, it's great. If you don't, don't stress. But, uh, if you do, we do appreciate it. So thanks very much, appreciate that. So who wants to start off with something? I propose But I have prepared for tonight very little, I have to say. And I have got a top 10 top dog gadgets I thought will keep it nice and easy, and how to make a dog Christmas cake, which was absolutely ridiculous thing that I googled earlier saying what is the best sort of dog Christmas cake, and some of the things they can eat off the Christmas dinner, which is virtually everything in my opinion because I am definitely no purist. But Nick, did you want to start off because you were kind of itching to tell us your favorite bits from the year and what people can maybe get, get tuck into over Christmas?

Cool, cool, cool. Yes, yes, yes. Let me grab my— I've done a cheat sheet here which I used. So I'd love to take you through 3 books that I found absolutely mind-changing this year, and I'm just going to give you a little, a little, uh, taster of them. If, if you've listened to a lot of our RPMs, you may have heard them before, but I'm going to re-emphasize because these will be really mind-stretching for the Christmas holidays if that's your cup of tea. If you haven't discovered Audible, you know, where they do audiobooks, that's one of my recommendations for a Christmas present for yourself because then you can listen to books while you're out walking the dogs or, you know, running or doing whatever sports you may do. But these are 3 books that I've— that really changed my mind. And so the first one is called Metabolical. I've put them all on Patreon, by the way, so you don't need to take notes. So everyone on Patreon, have a look there. It's a big long list with the references and what have you. Okay, the first one's Robert Lustig, Dr. Robert Lustig, Metabolical. And he starts his book with, did you know that 62% of food in our supermarkets is not only processed but Ultra-processed. This is for people, because I always, always say that if you think of this is what they're doing to us humans, what on earth will they be doing to our poor dogs? And so he says that Robert Lustig persuasively presents a stark exposé of how our addiction to processed food, aided and abetted by the food industry, Big Ag, Big Pharma, institutional medicine, and the government is behind the lethal increase in major non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, and dementia. And he says that the solution on both a personal and societal level— he takes it out to the big, to the planet. And so there's a positive aspect to this. The solution on a personal and societal level is to return to an unprocessed and Dr. Lustig offers a doable plan for us to heal and restore our own health and the well-being with real food, and in the process boosting our immunity to viruses like COVID-19. So heal yourself, heal your dog, heal the world, and, and help immunity against against any viruses that might be coming through. So that's my first book that I would like to put on the Christmas table for you.

Um, on the back of that Lustig thing that you're saying there, Lustig is fantastic, okay? And I mentioned them in the book. When— there's no way I can actually comment on the thread on the right-hand side, is there not? I can't import a link here so people can look at it.

If you go to the bottom, does it let you?

Yeah. See you.

No.

Can you not see the ability to—

I don't have the ability.

I think it's only the host who can do it.

It's only the adults that are allowed. It's like windowproofing. Jesus, I won't write anything rude. I've had 2 beers. 2 beers. So here's the video for everybody to look up. It's called The Skinny on Obesity by Lustig. Okay, and if you want to understand the obesity crisis and where I got 3 or 4 of the best pages on carbohydrates in my book. Lustig gave them to me in this free series of 4 videos called The Skinny on Obesity. And you can just skip to part 3 where he explains the role of insulin, but he explains it so digestibly, it's unbelievable. It's like 15 minutes of, oh, that's how it works. So he explains why eating sugar spikes and rams it into your fat stores, and it's just undebatable. And so he's the guy that found out about fat-blocking leptin and stuff. He's the absolute boss, Nick. So that's a great recommendation. So if you say that's a good book, I am definitely picking that up.

I would jump into that. It's, it's— he's, he's kind of— because he's reaching the end of his career, he can really have a go at all these institutions. So he has to go big pharma, big ag, a lot of— he has to go a lot of prominent physicians in the States and food scientists in the States. So it's no-holds-barred. I did it. I had some long journeys during the summer. Carrying various things around, and I just could not put it down. It's just a roller coaster and really good. And the guy who narrates it, because I did the audiobook, the guy who narrates it's really gritty and no nonsense.

Sometimes the narrators don't work. Very memorable.

Just to double-check, is it this one, Conor Brady?

The Skinny on Obesity, that's it. Yeah, it's a 4-part for, I think it's San Francisco U. So I think that's the one. Yes, yes. Fantastic.

That'll be well worth it.

Yeah. What was the second book, Nick? Oh, you want it all?

I don't want to hog the limelight.

No, you can hog those three. You've only got three.

Yeah, I've got three books.

It's like I said to Gran to tell a story at Christmas.

Second book is called The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. And Michael Pollan is one of my favorite American authors. He does his own— he narrates his own audiobooks, and he's very, very eloquent without being pompous. Just lovely choice of words, and he tells a wonderful story, and a very clever chap. And he has done— what he's done, I'm just going to pick out from the summary that I've got here in front of me. Here we go. So in— it's, it's a story of 4 meals, very, very simple, 4 meals. Number 1 is he follows a calf from a pasture in South Dakota all the way through a CAFO, a concentrated animal feeding operation, into the abattoir, and then into McDonald's. And he has a McDonald's meal with his family in a car because most Food is designed to be eaten on the move nowadays, shockingly. So, so that's the first meal. The second meal is he goes to Whole Foods and he looks at how whole is actual Whole Foods, all these mass-produced organic foods, how organic actually are they? And there's some surprising conclusions that he brings to bear there. Then in his third meal, he goes to visit one of my heroes, who is Joel Salatin, who is a no-holds-barred Virginia farmer who hasn't used any pesticides or any chemicals on his farm at all. No wormer, no, no, no vaccine, no nothing for 40 years. And he takes some of his pigs and some, some chicken and what have you and makes a wonderful meal for his friends there. And then the final meal is he grows food in his garden, he goes out and hunts a pig, which he is horrified to do, but he thinks, I've got to do this properly. He grows mushrooms and he gets all those foods together. He takes about 3 days to prepare this amazing meal that he has either raised or killed or brought together himself. And he contrasts those four different processes of the way we can get food to ourselves. So entirely and utterly fascinating. So if you want something, something gentle and something that will, will not, will not challenge you too much, but at the same time will just keep that brain ticking over over the Christmas period. I think it's a wonderful, wonderful book. And the final one is quite easy. It's by Joel Salatin, who is this, like I say, no-holds-barred. He just calls a spade a spade. And his book is called Folks, This Ain't Normal. And he narrates it himself, and he just talks about his farm and what he thinks should be. You know, he thinks we should be using loads and loads of pesticides— ain't normal. Using loads and loads of fertilizer— ain't normal. Not having cattle on your farm— ain't normal. You know, he knows he sells directly to every person. Everybody who gets his food knows him. He's looked them in the eye, and he thinks that that is normal. And I think the guy is just just a wonderful, wonderful— there is a hashtag on Instagram saying Joel Sellatin for president, and I'd vote for him. So there you go, there's 3 books. I'm going to hand it over to you guys because I'm sure you've got lots to say.

Rachel Mackier was on point, she goes, oh no, not Conor's book. I'm mortified for you, Nick, that my book didn't appear in those top 3 groundbreaking books.

Mate, I shouted about your book book twice a week since—

Yes, I've got to throw one of my books out in order to mention Conor's now.

It's like, don't make it a sad Christmas for me, this is not nice. But yeah, yeah, like, uh, so look, thanks for those recommendations. I have actually bought Omnivore's Dilemma on, uh, on Audible and sitting there waiting, but I haven't got around to about half the books you've mentioned because you guys are plowing through books this year, and this year I have just gone on a complete sabbatical. Of digesting books and it's annoying me. But Deep Nutrition, I thought, would have been one of my top 3. I'm not going to go through my 3, but Deep Nutrition rocked me because I've been vegetarian for so many years and listening to what Shannon was putting down was just very changing for me and it instantly helped me understand why my knee never fixed. So I was forced to stop playing football. I had 3 bad operations and good operations on my knee, but it kept destroying it. And I never gave a good cause to being chondroitin higher on the gastric collagen, all the stuff that we get from eating meat on the bone and stuff. It's like, oh my God, all the stuff I keep talking to people about. I've said that before during the year, but that was a big change for me because now that's changed how my family are eating and what I'm talking about. It got me into the regenerative farming that Nick started— had been talking about for a long time. And then I started listening to you and I thought, oh, and then suddenly when I saw how cows eating grass is actually a far better way of sequestering carbon than growing trees, which takes so long, and it's like, oh my God, mind-blowing that they poop out the soil, essentially 50 pounds of poop out into the ground, carbon sequestered. Oh my God, of course, that's where soil comes from. And it's like, anyway, look, so yeah, those books, Nick, most of the stuff you recommended to me this year and Bren definitely have kind of rocked me. I'm gonna do something in the middle, Bren. I'm not sure what you've got planned. I've just got simply 10. This is very ridiculous now, and this is coming from a guy with plastic antlers on his head.

So, um, and jingles.

Yes, and jingles. I was looking for 10 of the best dog kind of presents that you can get this year, and the number one hottest thing last year was Dogopoly. So it's Monopoly with all dog-related streets, dog-related icons, dog-related like stuff. It was brilliant. Go to the pound instead of go to jail. It was great. You could have it. We hired— anyway, so, um, a doggy DNA test. Does anybody know anything about doggy DNA tests? Is there any truth to those doggy DNA tests? Does anybody know?

Oh, oh, to what mix is in your dog?

Yeah, that one.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I have so many clients that do those. Uh, it's so interesting. It's, it's mortifying when the pedigree breeders do them and they suddenly find that they come back with, oh yeah, from the wrong side of the bed.

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was the doggy DNA test was number 2. Number 3, this is last year, by the way, Last year was the nose paw and print kit, which is only a fiver, and so it's just ink essentially, I think, and you just squish it onto his face and then you just have his nose for the rest of your life on a page.

No, no, can I just stop you there? You know, before you end up with nose prints all over the house for the rest of the year.

In your crotch.

Smudges everywhere. Don't do it in permanent ink, whatever you do. No, there are now these wonderful little molds that you get, which basically you can put their paw into it and it creates a mold, a 3D mold, or indeed the nose print, but really detailed. So it even takes up the little creases and stuff. Much more predictable than putting the actual prints on. We struggled for years. We love to do paw prints for people, for puppies, for, you know, people who want to remember their dogs, things like that. And struggling, you know, to try and get the ink around the hair and everything else that's on there. But these came along and they're actually great. So if you just look out for these actual paw moulds, you just stick their foot in and it really— it's not even clay, it's much more— it's dry and it's much more malleable around the toes.

How nice are you guys? How nice are you, Brian, your clinic, that, you know, Considering the amount of putting to sleep that you have to do with these pets and the sheer trauma that that will be dealing with that client, I was absolutely— I don't want to get into this on Christmas time, but Jesus, the last dog, particularly Meg, of all dogs, I was an absolute mess. I couldn't get into the clinic. And, but how nice is it that your vet would turn around and go, look, we've got a little paw print here and a little putty case or something like— I mean, imagine if your vet did that. And when it would cost very, very little and of course it's going to affect you the same way. I think that's a brilliant idea, Bren. If you've ever done that, fair play. And I'm actually nearly— of course I've had 2 beers, I can barely even talk about that dog still. Number 4 was a genuine leather collar produced by this guy in Manhattan who did a GoFundMe to produce like these ridiculously expensive collars. And he does like, uh, Swarovski— is that how you say Swarovski crystals? Swarovski crystals, whatever that word is.

Swarovski? Swarovski.

Okay, best to mess. That's gonna come from Holland.

Do we?

I'm from Holland. Swarovski. And so anyway, he makes these ridiculous collars that nobody wants to buy, but apparently some people do.

It's the things that Conor buys for his wife instead of dogs. Yeah, yeah.

Look what I got, Dudley. LED dog collars. Anyway, look, I put up on Facebook today, just to finish, wrap up this very short segment, inane information. I have to say, this is nearly beneath me. But, um, yeah, I put it on.

How much are these colors? Come on, Conor, I want, I want a price tag for the colors.

All right, watch it. I'll go find your man. I'll send a link to the Manhattan dude, whatever, whatever he was. Just ridiculous. The last thing was I put up on Facebook today and said, guys, what was the most— oh, oh yeah, what was the most, um, you know, give me some ideas for ridiculous dog things I can talk about tonight and pass off your ideas as my own. And somebody, somebody came up with this gem of an idea where you can buy a box where it looks like that's what you got for your birthday present, but you've actually put something else inside it so you can watch how disappointed they are when they open the box. And I thought, that is a brilliant idea. So this girl had bought a dog, a dog jumper serving platter. So there was a picture of a pug with this jumper on and a cake platter on his back, and he had all these like sandwiches and things. So when the guests come along, your dog can bring the food. It's just so ridiculous. So she had bought this serving platter for this girl's dog's pack. Anyway, money well spent. Anyway, of all presents I despise, I just want to come in with traps here. Do you know what I absolutely hate? Those automated treat dispensers. So when you're at work, you can pop out a bit of kibble from this little machine that walks around the house, as if that is going to do it for your dog. I just think that, that really annoyed me. There's various different types of those available now, bones that move around the ground and all this crap. But anyway, I just wanted to have a little rage about those because they just—

please, please, can we make a concerted effort between us all not to buy some inane plastic trash? Yeah, yeah, dumped after 2 days. Uh, Nylabones are included.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, crappy squeaky toys and socks. Look at the socks, come with these disgusting green and red treats. Well, everyone on here knows they're crap, but those squeaky toys are like soft plastic. You know what I mean? I chew through one of those toys, let alone a moderate chewer, you know. So I remember my neighbor's dog used to have a toy every Christmas, and they'd wrap the toy up in the same wrapping paper that everyone else's presents was wrapped up in, but the dog still knew which toy was his, and he'd tear it apart and he'd have the toy gone in seconds as soon as it was there. But those little squeakers, all pure plastic crap. Just don't bother with any of that stuff, guys. Anyway, Bren, what did you want to say tonight?

Yeah, well, other than— don't forget, you know, the big don't for me is going to be please really avoid those, you know, reconstituted, you know, rawhide bones which have all sorts of horrible chemicals added to them. Not necessary. All of the ones that are restitched to look like little slippers and stuff like that, the number of times that I've seen dogs chewing those out and ended up with is ultimately the soft parts jamming in the backs of their throats, and we've got to stick our fingers in to try and pull those out. So rawhide off the list for me. Some great— come on, guys, there are some little tips here. If you want to create some homemade great treats for your dog, take some raw meats, okay, whatever you like. Liver, strips of turkey, strips of beef, strips of venison. Goose, whatever you like. Stick it on a cake airing tray, okay, the one that you cool your cakes down on. Strip them out on that, stick it in your oven at 50 degrees with the front of the oven just tilted open, leave them to dry carefully, and they will just dry over the next 1 to 2 hours. You've got perfect homemade treats, better than you can buy from a shop, okay, done at home. I think that's a big do that you guys can do at home yourselves. They're readily available, I know, by certain other treat companies. But if you want to know what's absolutely in that product, you can do it yourself. There are dehydrators available, so, you know, you want to ask for something on your Santa list. I think a dehydrator from any other good online store— I'm not going to say the big A-word— and yeah, so that's a good one. And I think, you know, don't forget, do not waste that turkey carcass. Carcass. Okay, you can make a bone broth out of it, you know. Please don't waste the turkey carcass. Never mind saving stuff for endless curries and soups and all of the other stuff to try and feed the family with for 2 weeks afterwards. Why don't you boil it down, make a brilliant broth for your dog or cat? Okay, brilliant. And both of those things you can make for your dogs or cats. Okay, and lastly, I would say please treasure the environment for your pets. You know, we love to see family around, we love to have people around us at this time of year. It can be so disturbing for our pets that don't understand that process, and all of the Christmas poppers and bangers and, you know, us getting drunk and falling over them and, you know, various other things. And after 2 beers, you can see how drunk Conor gets. And so I would just say Bear in mind, give them a safe room, okay, that they can retire to, you know, that's secure. They've got a hidey-hole in there, well-lit but somewhere dark they can hide within it, you know, great for that. And bear in mind, you know, there's lots of people letting off fireworks every single day over the festive period now. You know, if your dogs have or your cats have noise phobias, look at all of the information that these available for, from supplements through to foods that you can feed through, you know, to enhance their biome and their natural serotonin release, but also then how you can manage their environment to effectively reduce that stress. So give your dogs and cats a stress-free Christmas.

I like it.

That's where I would go to those.

Bren, Gina says, uh, can you post a recipe for the bone broth? Please.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can do that. Yeah, I'll give you a really easy, you know, so all you do, you know, if you've got one of those slow cookers, so that's another thing that can go on your Christmas list if you don't have one already, but most of you will have one right next to the sandwich toaster and the waffle maker, usually at the back of the cupboard underneath the sink. Yeah, but if you pull that out and actually dust it off Okay, they usually contain about 3 litres. Put your carcass in, okay, whether that be ribs from lamb all the way through to long bones smashed up with a hammer from the roast beef joint, or to, as I said, turkey or chicken carcass or whatever you like poultry-wise, maybe pheasants, you know, depends how posh you are. And then literally cover that with water Let it simmer for, you know, the 8 to 12 hours. I personally add apple cider vinegar at about 200 to 300ml per 3 litres at the beginning of the cook and then let it simmer through. And I will add the same at the end of the cook, okay, just to effectively help add some pectins from the apples that are within there in the sediment that's in the mother. As you do. So that's a good prebiotic that adds to the extra sinews. Now remember, when you come to the end of the cook and if you've added garlic or ginger or peppercorns, they've all got great anti-inflammatory properties, great gut settling properties in those, then you can just sieve out the big bones that sort of effectively are left, the big chunks. Anything else, don't worry about the little tiny ones. Take a hand blender, just blend through it so it emulsifies all of the fats fat and liquids together, okay, creates more of a soup than some people would say a bone broth is, but I'm quite happy with that. And then you ladle that out into muffin trays, okay, stick those in the freezer, freeze those up, you've got a perfect muffin-sized amount to stick into a mug, pour on boiling water, you reconstitute a lovely bone broth pre-meal for your dogs.

You can get Christmas tree—

that's it in brief.

Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, good tip there. Marty says no chocolate, no low-hanging chocolate treats on the Christmas tree, which is definitely right.

Oh boy, I've had that loads.

Yeah, what is that? What is everybody's opinion, guys? Is it Roses or Quality Street? Just type in the right-hand side. I want to see who wins, Roses or Quality Street. I'm a Roses man. I get disappointed when I walk into the house and see Quality Street. I always go, well, Quality Street, that's a bit cheap.

He's trying to, he's trying to find out what to buy his other half.

What's going on? What about you, Nick? Are you Roses or Quality Street or some sort of extravagant chocolate from Switzerland I've never heard of?

I'm of an age where Quality Street was the go-to, especially the fudge.

You remember the fudge in Quality Street?

Now that is quite a good thing.

Oh, I had him down for a Black Magic guy, you know.

Yeah, it's the thing that does it, actually. Yeah.

What's your favorite Christmas movie, Nick? Oh, it should be straight off the top of your head.

Boom!

Come on, it's gonna be out. It's gonna be out.

Sound of Music. Sound of Music.

Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one, but it's not— it's not— it's not—

what about you?

It's good. L for me. Bye, buddy. Hope you find your dad in Elf. You know Elf? Have you seen Elf? Jesus, Nick, I hope you haven't seen Elf. I hope for your sake you haven't seen Elf.

I haven't.

I haven't. Oh, I wish I was you. I wish I was you. There's a show on Netflix about the making of TV, the movies that made us. It's really good if you're having a couple of beers by yourself and you want to watch how they made all the movies that you care about. Some of the cool horror movies and some of the, like, you know, RoboCop and anything from the '80s, uh, you know, Dirty Dancing's in there and stuff. But Elf is in there and it's hilarious where they get all the lines came from and stuff. What about you, Bren? What's your favorite Christmas movie, Bren? I've already said—

I've already said Elf before you.

Oh, you said Elf?

Oh, me too. Virtual high five. A Wonderful Life as well. A Wonderful Life for a warming tale, but you have to watch watch the whole thing. I like that. Not like that? No, I always give it a little tear at the end. Not for you? I like the old one. Uh, also the other old one that I like, uh, what's the other black and white that I like? Where the place—

I'll tell you what we watch, Life with Brian.

Oh, Life with Brian, quality. Can't beat it. Yeah, Brian, love it. Yeah, or Holy Grail. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, and Indiana Jones, any of the old stuff. Indiana Jones, can't wait. Can't wait to watch Star Wars with my Part 4, 5, and 6 and show them, but I can't wait till they just turn and go, that's his dad! I can't wait. So only 3 or 4 more years.

The thing is, Conor, I have to disappoint you because I tried this with my daughters and they just kept looking at me like, don't say that.

Girls like Star Wars. Girls like Star Wars. Do girls not like Star Wars?

No, not until it gets into the latter ones where the female role models actually start coming up and they start to actually watch it then. But the early ones, they're just like, yeah.

Oh God, I don't believe I had them. I was so disappointed.

I was like, Conor, come over, come out. When we're doing a first showing for Arthur, he's still saying, oh, I think it's a bit scary, and he's probably right. But on the first showing, we will invite you and you could come and enjoy. And with the boys, and Wren, you're very welcome to come as well. And It's the first one.

Just 8 hours. Send everybody else out and just say, son, there's something you need to watch. It's 8 hours. And you sit there and try not fall asleep halfway through. That's the L fellas.

Don't say it like that, Conor. Don't say it like that because that's great.

Anyway, well, guys, what are we doing next week as we get progressing?

Well, no, you haven't even talked about— come on, guys, we should be doing the warnings out there for all of those people that haven't necessarily seen, you know, what we should be avoiding. So some big ones out there, especially for the cat owners, please watch out for the tinsel. Cigars?

Yeah, tinsel.

Tinsel?

Why? Do cats eat tinsel?

They end up playing with it and before you know it, they start ingesting and it becomes a long linear foreign body nightmare to get out.

No way. Wow.

Absolutely nightmare. So I would say my big one that lots of people won't know about is tinsel. There's the obvious ones like chocolates, like cake, you know, with raisins, plums, Christmas cake. Yeah, all of those. Um, you know, uh, I won't even talk about the Christmas that we took out a 12-inch carving knife from a Staffordshire Bull Terrier that actually managed to get to the chopping board whilst they were sat down at the Christmas table and managed to swallow it with meat on. Down effectively handle first, okay, obviously that's the only thing that saved its life, but trying to take that out of the stomach blade upwards without cutting— drunk?

It was Christmas time, I thought it was Christmas Day, it's not Christmas Day, no?

Oh my God, man, we're not all in Ireland. Anyway, oh, that was—

No way. I was like, crispy. Sorry, I can't believe a dog could need a knife.

Yeah, well, it had meat on the end, but you know. Yeah, yeah, that was a nightmare. So other than, other than those, so those are the really big ones. But, um, and we've talked about obviously stuffing because it's usually got onions in, things like that. Okay, not that any of you guys are purposely going to be giving them all of the carbs with the bread crumbs and stuff like that in the stuffing. But, you know, just remember they've all got onions in most of them, whatever they're made with, even the meat ones. So just be careful. Um, uh, can you think of mince pies? Obviously come in with all of the plum puddings and everything else. Um, although my mother used to swear blind by giving her old dog a mince pie at Christmas, and I used to just hold my hands, you know, I had my hands and just think, what a very Very wisely, it says lilies.

Do some people have lilies at Christmas? We don't, but, um, perhaps that's the thing for some people.

So especially if you've got cats in the house, the stamens and the pollen are really toxic.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I thought lilies were like a— is that not a funeral flower, a lily?

Yeah, they put them in just about every bouquet these days.

Yeah, yeah. Um, I, I just want to say the first person to spell frankincense in the comment section gets something free from my shop. Frankincense. Spell it correctly.

Teeth clean.

There you go. Nick, you're going to do something off the back of your shelf as well.

Okay, right. Yes, we'll do. Uh, Sasha's also said the little silica packets that you get to keep, to keep, um, toys and things dry.

Okay, yeah, well done, Heather Payne. There you go.

Yeah, can you, can you direct message us so that we can get your details and, uh, okay, we'll make sure that Connor sticks to his, uh, yeah, sorry guys, I can't give them all to all the Frankincenses.

You just copied the first one and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give this bottle of DermaDog Itchy Shampoo which smells amazing. It's what we use for us and for the kids, okay? Because we've got—

you don't wash it—

a lot of it hanging about, apart from me washing my hair.

Yeah.

And, and the question will be, uh, how do you— as in, uh, Pekingese dog— how do you spell Pekingese?

I would get that wrong. I was gonna check on the Google.

I was, I was asked, actually asked that in my surgery There's loads of people arguing that actually, Conor, yeah, they're saying that there should be a K in there, not a C. A K?

Yeah, there should be a K, not a C. Okay, the person that I announced as the winner, whoever was the first one to spell it correctly. Oh yeah, there should be a K there. Sorry, Heather. There you go, Heather. How did you not spell that right? I don't know. Okay.

On the Pekingese, Michelle, well, Chardin. Michelle, uh, it has a G in it. Email me. Yeah, email me, nickthompson@holisticvet.co.uk, and we'll try and get this to you. Unfortunately, she lives in bloody Chicago.

That's why you should send things in Ziplocs.

You know what, do you know what, I think that's going to be personal delivery.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. Chicago. Chicago.

Yeah. So I'll see you in May.

I'll see you in May with the itchy from Nick. Okay. There we go.

Yeah.

Flying out that way. I have to dash. I have an outing to go to tonight, which is why I'm having a couple of beers. So my friends are waiting. So I am going out for an event. Christmas do. A type of Christmas do. And it happens every year on the 30th of November. So tonight is the night, so I'm very excited. So I've been keeping it together while they have been out earlier. So, okay, so I will see you guys next week for something I'm sure we have planned, all part of our strategy that we have done.

We've got a secret thing to do next week. So secret we don't know what we're going to do.

Yeah, we're like ninjas. We're just like, pow, here's our next thing. Facts!

Okay, guys, yes, yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for coming.

Thanks for staying with us through all of this. It's been great to see you all with us. Good luck to all of those that are waiting for their power to come back on, and hope you're all warmed up soon. See you next week.

See you.