45 responses

  1. EL
    September 28, 2015

    I’m a vet student and at one of the clinics I did my rotations, there was a practitioner who did this. I was just floored, it was so hard not to laugh. She kept excusing herself by saying, “I know it sounds weird but it really works.” There was a nice combo with homeopathy where some of the ‘allergens’ that were being tested were little vials of water that supposedly contained the ‘essence’ of various allergens. She said that while holding the vial she just had to think of the substance while testing the arm strength of the person holding the dog.

    The consult ended with the client being told that the dog mustn’t come into contact with any of the allergens they had treated that day for the next 24 hours. In order to do this, the “vet” recommended that the dog be left in the car, since it was otherwise impossible for her to avoid both carpet and grass.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      September 28, 2015

      So difficult to fathom how anyone can believe this nonsense! Such ignorance not just of science but of why we need science and how unreliable our subjective impressions can be.

      Reply

  2. v.t.
    September 28, 2015

    WT(censored)!

    You’re right, we could all die laughing if it weren’t so terribly tragic.

    Reply

  3. Beccy Higman
    September 29, 2015

    What the hell kind of car was it that didn’t have carpet? Even if the rest of it wasn’t complete junk … which obviously it was.

    Reply

  4. EL
    September 29, 2015

    I think the idea was that the dog’s blankets were in the back of the car (hatchback) and the blankets weren’t one of the things she was “allergic” to.

    Reply

  5. Art Malernee dvm
    October 2, 2015

    I’m a vet student and at one of the clinics I did my rotations, there was a practitioner who did this.>>>
    The practioner will probably next use the fact her clinic did rotation for the vet school to get herself appointed to the state board. Did you at least complain to someone at vet school about what kind of mind they were using to shape your education? I would wait until after the rotation clinic gives you a grade

    Reply

  6. lorac
    October 3, 2015

    Amazing! The ingenuity of quacks and the gullibility of pet owners is just gob-smacking. Unfortunately, one or two of my agility friends are the gullible. There’s nothing that I can say that will put a crack in their belief.

    Reply

  7. Hayes
    July 15, 2016

    NAET does work. My daughter is living proof and also many others are. I am speaking from a human prospective.We tried western medicine for years and all it done was put a band aid on the problem. WE got to the root of the problem and she is now allergy free thanks to NAET. You can call this person a quack but, don’t knock it until you have done your own research.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      July 16, 2016

      Unfortunately such stories prove nothing about whether the product “works” or not. As I have pointed out many times, anecdotes like this exist for every therapy ever tried, including things like bloodletting and ritual sacrifice which no one today would recommend. Anecdotes are a test no treatment ever fails. They are inherently misleading, and the unprecedented success of modern science in more than doubling our life expectancy and improving our quality of life tremendously has come about by specifically decreasing our trust in such anecdotes and placing it in controlled research instead. Science works and stories don’t, so the reason to challenge stories like yours is to help people avoid being misled, as we have for thousands of years, by such stories.

      Why We’re Often Wrong
      Testimonials Lie
      The Role of Anecdotes in Science-Based Medicine
      Why We Need Science: “I saw it with my own eyes” Is Not Enough
      Don’t Believe your Eyes (or Your Brain)

      Reply

    • Amy
      January 30, 2017

      Great! Yes it does work …so thankful for such an amazing discovery ..it’s fascinating really ..a woman I met was allergic to shrimp I said I have a cure for that she was defensive said her dad was an allergist …(you know science based medicine ) but then why can’t he cure you ? guess she will never be able to eat shrimp !

      Reply

      • skeptvet
        January 31, 2017
    • Ryan T
      January 15, 2020

      I have had terrible allergies to mountain cedar and other allergies. I went to the hospital for tests and did the injections for a while. I began to get worse and worse and stopped. I heard of naet went. I held over 40 vials and to my surprise the vial tests were the same results as the injections to find out what I was sensitive to. Its been 3 months since I was treated and I have felt 100% better. We will know how well it worked when June comes and the allergies start up again.

      Reply

      • skeptvet
        January 17, 2020

        Unfortunately, you won’t know if it works regardless of how you feel in June. Trial-and-error like that has never been a reliable guide to what works and what doesn’t in medicine.

        Here is more about why anecdotes don’t tell us the real story.

        Why Anecdotes Can’t Be Trusted

        Reply

  8. Mike
    April 1, 2017

    It is certainly laughable…. To those of us with a sufficient amount of common sense & the familiarity with actual biology. HOWEVER. It is also dangerous….. Especially for those pet parents that have a fur baby that is suffering from severe/acute allergies. Those that have tried everything & anything yet have had very little progress & have researched, spent thousands of dollars, leaving them in desperation & their pets still sick & suffering. I’m one of them. My dog is allergic to EVERYTHING under the sun. Everything. Dust, pollens, grasses, food ingredients of every sort, his own dander…..& On & on. You eventually get to a point in where you’ll try anything, anything at all. But the teaching & spreading of this complete & utter nonsense should be criminal, in my humble opinion. It’s malpractice. It’s negligence. It’s INSANITY. It’s like telling a patient to hop on one foot while rubbing their abdomen in a counter clockwise circular motion while they attempt to touch their tongue to the tip of their nose & tell them to expect a full recovery from an auto immune disease….. It’s horrific. “Doctor” Khalsa should be brought up on criminal charges.

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  9. Paul
    April 6, 2017

    I have a customer that had her chiropractor “diagnose” her dog with this technique. He came up with the dog being allergic ot anything with feathers because of how much her arm was lowered or some nonsense.

    I can’t convince her that 1. It’s crap and 2. Not all animals with feathers are related when it comes to protein sensitivities.

    Then again no one actually wants to do the work of an elimination/challenge diet protocol in order to find out if there is a sensitivity. That’s too hard and too time consuming when some idjit can just tell me by waving a jar over the dog’s head and pushing on an arm.

    Reply

  10. Lisa Overton
    June 25, 2017

    Thank you for this article, I am very glad I stumbled across you. I, like many have an allergic dog who until recently was on a combo of apoquel and pred to manage (successfully) her itching. That is ubtil about 10 weeks ago when on and off she has suffered from intense stomach pain with sickness and finally with heamorragic diarrhoea. She had to come off her meds and our vets played a guessing game of what was wrong with her until we eventually had enough and found a new practice who referred us to a specialist. Because no one really knew what had triggered this new problem, we were advised to try to stay off her meds. I also became manic on internet ‘research’ to the point where i am now afraid about her flea/worm treatment and most of this is down to so-called experts pushing untested and unproven ideas. During these 10 weeks, my poor girl has had every lotion, potion and essential oil, all miricles of course and the only result is that I have discovered that many products, natural included are actually harmful to my dog. Two weeks ago, one week before the specialist, she went back on apoquel because she was so uncomfortable (even her little paw pads had swelled up she was biting so much). She’s now being managed with a combo of apoquel and a steroid spray which isn’t great but she is a lot better. Steroids did mess with her personality and she now has bags more energy not being on it but the only things that have helped are scientifically proven medicines. we don’t know what has caused the tummy problem but according to science it is more likely to do with her allergies than it is long term meds. We need more posts from the vet community that counters all the mumbo jumbo, like the stats for meds with positive outcomes, not just negative, often attached to some book the false scientist wants to promote, Deva is a classic example of this.

    Everyone thinks they are an expert these days and we need to educate ourselves on what is knowledge and what is myth. We were in a natural pet shop last week when a frenchie came in, stomach red raw, apparently it hadn’t responded positively to the colloidal silver they ‘prescribed’ a few weeks ago, instead of telling the owner to go and see a vet, they told her to change her washing powder.

    Complimentary therapies have their place but they do not replace conventional medicine.

    I could go on for pages about all the natural ‘miricles’ we tried when our girl was first diagnosed with allergies when the only option was pred. Nothing we tried worked and everything we didn’t try was because research showed the ‘remedy’ (garlic, aloe) can be harmful to go dogs.

    Reply

    • Peter
      December 2, 2017

      Hi Lisa
      You might want to check that apoquel isn’t the possible cause of that “tummy issue”? As one of the main/common side affects of the drug IS vomiting and diarrhoea. Info is on the website. Their fact sheet has info of side effects etc. It’s also worth a read of the (quite limited) studies that were done on the drug, to make your own mind up about the drugs efficacy vs some of the untested potential side effects.

      Regards
      Peter

      Reply

      • Lisa
        December 4, 2017

        Hi Peter, thanks for taking the time to post on this. I am aware of the side effects of Apoquel and the limited testing. With us, it does seem to be that the pancreatitis was either something entirely unrelated or linked to the steroids. Apoquel seems to be fine for her although as the info says, very little known about the LT effects. Our dog has to take some kind of medication, right now Apoquel is the best of a bad bunch. If it was for myself, I would also make the same choice. Next step is CADI but same issues as with Apoquel.
        We have discussed allergy testing at length with our vet and done the food thing and decided that as immunology is usually ineffective on its own so mollie would still need Apoquel anyway, we aren’t going down that route right now.

        Reply

  11. greg
    August 1, 2017

    “One day, after eating a carrot (a known antigen for [Dr. Nambudripad]), she developed an immediate and severe allergic reaction”

    well, no sh=t. Why would any medical professional eat something that they know they are allergic to?

    Reply

  12. Kathy
    August 28, 2017

    Dear Skeptvet and other Vets that have posted their comments here,

    What is the scientific, veterinary solution for curing, or avoiding dog allergies?

    My dog is miserable and harming herself with all of her scratching.

    The only option I have received from my local vet is to treat the symptoms by suppressing her immune system. This is not a cure, and you don’t need a medical degree to know that long term suppression of the immune system will lead to terrible side effects and problems in the future.

    PLEASE – point me to a scientific based solution that does not require a lifetime of immune suppression medicine and then more medicine to address the side effects of the immune suppression medicine.

    You have spent a lot of energy debunking NAET and belittling those who are involved in it. Seems like it would help more if you provide treatment options for us us pet owners that won’t cut our dog’s lives in half.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      August 28, 2017

      There is no cure for allergies, but there are many effective therapies. No treatment that does anything useful is completely without risk, but the idea that medications “suppress the immune system” is a bit of a misconception. Some medications do this, but then the problem is an inappropriately hyperactive immune system, so suppressing it is actually exactly what is needed. This is not the same as saying these medications turn off normal immune function or necessarily increase disease risk. And there are plenty of allergy treatments that do not directly reduce the overactive immune system at all.

      The best bet is always to see a board-certified veterinary dermatologist, who has the widest range of appropriate treatments to offer. Here are two articles looking at the scientific evidence for many available allergy treatments to start you off.

      Evidence-based Canine Allergy Treatment

      Reply

  13. L
    August 28, 2017

    People are so cheap. They don’t want to pay to go to a veterinary dermatologist, get intradermal skin testing, consider allergen specific immunotherapy.
    And yet they will listen to wackadoodles on various forums that give veterinary medical advice anonomously, without a license. Homeopathic veterinarians (most of them quacks) Try useless supplements, shampoos, dog foods, etc.
    and in the end spend more than they would have if they had just gone to a specialist in the first place.

    Reply

  14. Brianne Cameron
    September 3, 2017

    Im posting here as a plea for help. Im on the internet searching and searching for answers. My best friends dog has the worst case of skin allergies, I have seen. Injections, Apoquel, Atopica, special diets, oatmeal baths. Everything the vet advises, she tries. She is just constantly super red with skins just falling and peeling off, and the worst smell I have ever experienced. The dog is in so much pain. I don’t think I’ve seen chest or neck hair on the dog in years at this point. The redness will subside for a week or two then come back full force. If the naet thing is a bad choice, and we have tried so many other things, can anyone give advice of where to look next?? This is completely heart breaking. My friend is spending hundreds a month (which she is happy to do) but seeing literally little to no results.

    At this point I am willing to hear any suggestions? Thanks.

    This is a terrier mix, about 6 years old, allergy issues for 3 or more years. The vet says this is one of the worst cases she has seen in her personal experience. If you know anyone to refer to we are in upstate south carolina.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      September 3, 2017

      I’m sorry your friend’s dog is experiencing this. I would suggest consulting a board-certified veterinary dermatologist or the nearest veterinary college dermatology department, not the internet, to find the best treatments for this dog. Good luck!

      Reply

  15. art malernee dvm
    December 4, 2017

    peter, Lets see a study apoquel side effects of vomiting and diarrhea are greater than placebo. My guess is as soon as they show you can take it for the rest of your life and not have a increase risk of cancer the stuff will be over the counter for people.

    Reply

  16. L
    December 4, 2017

    Maybe a little off topic, but, does anyone know if allergen specific immunotherapy (desensitization shots) stops working after a few years?
    I have found it to be a very effective treatment, but lately my dog has had a couple of bad flare-ups.
    She will be going in for her annual soon, so I will discuss with the vet.
    She sees a veterinary dermatologist once a year and he thought she was doing great as of last May. In fact, he encouraged me to extend the time between shots.
    As long as she gets her shot every 15 days she is stable, when I try to extent the time to 18 days between shots, not so good. So, maybe that’s my answer, plus she is a senior…..

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      December 4, 2017

      New allergies can develop, and immunotherapy only covers a small fraction of potential allergens in the environment, so intermittent flares and changes over time are certainly possible. It’s not that the immunotherapy “stops working” so much as that it can’t treat every possible cause of symptoms, and these causes can change over time. I would definitely discuss options with your dermatologist.

      Reply

  17. L
    December 4, 2017

    Thanks for your reply. I will give her dermatologist a call ( before her next annual appointment) if she has another flare-up.
    Since we have had temps below freezing here, she seems better.

    Reply

  18. ScottyB
    June 11, 2018

    I was fighting with my wife a lot to where I couldn’t stand to be around her. One night I cutoff a chunk of her hair and got NAET tested. Sure enough I was allergic to her and took me a week in a half of treatments before I could deal with the woman again. I also hated my job and used my work ID card to be NAET treated and that helped as well. Currently, trying to cut a chunk of my evil sisters hair to be NAET treated. I believe it works! Science gives us pills w/ lots of side effects

    Reply

  19. Jo Singer
    October 2, 2018

    These techniques may well work with humans. But cats? Cats can be instructed to do the things to participate in the treatment in the way that humans can? I can just imagine telling my cat to please “resist” downward pressure when putting a suspicious allergin close to him! “Now, Kitty, please resist” and the cat looks at me like I have lost my mind. Yes, my cat can understand “find your toy”, or “playtime”, or “give me your paw”, but “resist downward pressure”. While veterinary allergy testing has a LONG way to go to perfect the methods used, at least they make sense and have helped many kitties. Thanks for a really excellent article.

    Reply

  20. Amanda S
    March 8, 2019

    I don’t know about pets, but I have been a patient of NAET since about 5 years back. I did the initial protocol which took months to complete. Prior to NAET I was experiencing an anaphylactic type response plus lumps under my arms and facial rashes to penicillin which my very expensive conventional doctor laughed at me about. I also had developed a nut allergy which gave me hives and bloating every time I ingested them or had contact with them (peanuts and tree nuts) I was suggested NAET by a friend in New York who said it worked for her. I have seen practitioners in London, New York, and Los Angeles due to travel for work. I didn’t tell each new NAET practitioner I saw how far along I was in the treatment, but each one was able to tell through muscle testing, the same results I had kept up to date with on my notes. The initial protocol I completed had me completely free of reactions from penicillin, and my nut allergy ended up at an extremely low level, to the point I could eat them and hardly notice any reaction at all.

    About 4 years later from my initial treatment, I had a severe bout of stress from a family situation which was almost making me faint several times in one week and my bp went erratically high during that period too. Suddenly my nut allergy came back, even so severe that there were nut oils in my skin care products that I had been using for years that suddenly had me erupt in rashes and boils. I started going to NAET treatments again and slowly the rashes are fading away. This time I will actually go further and treat with actual nuts to get the reaction completely free. I am still non reactive to penicillin so that’s a plus. Many of my initial treatments in the protocol have held thank goodness, so my practitioner could get straight to the reactive allergens. One thing to note, when I am treated for allergens I have been severely reacting to, I wake up the following morning with a racing heart and low grade fever. I have even had conventional doctors appts the following day and they have asked me why my temp is near 100 deg f. I just tell them it’s allergy treatments bc otherwise I felt completely fine. I would love to do conventional medicine for this, but unfortunately they don’t really have a treatment that does not involve drugs with side effects. Also lupus runs in my family so I really don’t want to take my health lightly. If it works it works, I’m not going to question it. Modern medicine still dosent have an understanding of how allergies work, maybe in time with more people like me publicly posting their experiences, we can have more acceptance of alternative solutions. The reason many people don’t post is because they really don’t like to put their medical issues out in the open. It can harm their ability to get insurance, and from my experience it’s frowned upon by friends and family. It dosent hurt to try though. Keep an open mind, because in the end it’s all about the result.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      March 8, 2019

      Glad things have worked out for you, but it’s just another story, and if we go back to using anecdotes to tell us which medical treatments work, we might as well go back to faith healing and bloodletting.

      Why Anecdotes Can’t Be Trusted

      Reply

  21. L
    March 27, 2019

    My dog was recently started on Apoquel by her dermatologist. She was stable on immunotherapy for several years but that does not seem to be as effective anymore.
    The good news is that she may be able to be tapered off of the immunotherapy in late fall/winter, we’ll see. For now she will stay on the Apoquel.

    So far, positive effects from Apoquel and no side effects noted. She is also on antibiotics to treat a bacterial skin infection, this is common with atopic dermatitis.

    Reply

  22. Eric Edwards
    April 21, 2019

    Counter to your argument….

    Western medicine can not explain all treatment modalities of mechanisms of action. Acupuncture has been around and lasted for thousands of years.

    I’ve seen plenty of people treated with acupuncture for allergies, even to shellfish and are no longer allergic.

    There should be a double blind placebo study done on this modality.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      April 22, 2019

      The fact that science can’t exlplain everything doesn’t mean that any alternative explanation we make up must be true.

      The fact that acupuncture has been around for a long time doesn’t have anything to do with its risks and benefits. Bloodletting lasted thousands of years too and did more harm than good. For all the thousands of years traditional Chinese medicine was predominant, we never achieved the improvements in health and in the length and quality of life we have in only two centuries with scientific medicine, so the time it has endured is actually an argument against relying on it.

      Anecdotes don’t prove anything, which is why science is so much more effective than traditional ways of understanding illness. Every crazy idea anyone ever invented has had anecdotes to support it, so this is a test nothing ever fails.

      No reason to waste time or resources or expose people to the risk of testing a treatment until there is some rational evidence to suggest it might work. Since this treatment is largely made up out of nothing, until it undergoes the same lab testing to prove the basic principles behind it that real medicine has to undergo, there is no reason to run a clinical trial in actual patients who could be harmed.

      Reply

  23. Eric Edwards
    April 21, 2019

    At what point does an anecdote become statistically significant? For example there is a hospital in NC that treats sepsis with IV Vitamin C and Steroids. Their mortality rate is 83% lower than the rest of the country. Patients with sepsis typcially have low C levels. Look it up. I think we need to be cautious but the fact remains that oftentimes those being called quacks are correct. It wasn’t that long ago mother’s died after giving birth because doctors weren’t washing their hands or before we knew ulcers were caused by H. Pylori.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      April 22, 2019

      Never. Thousands upon thousands of people have been consistently wrong for centuries about many things. the kinds of errors that make anecdotes unreliable aren’t fixed by having more of them.

      Reply

    • skeptvet
      April 22, 2019

      What you are missing is that the reason people didn’t wash their hands and now they do, and the reason we stopped blaming “stress” for duodenal ulcers and recognized H pylori as the causese is because of science! Scientific research figures those things out when ordinary observation and theorizing failed.

      Reply

  24. Eric Edwards
    April 21, 2019
    • skeptvet
      April 22, 2019

      And here is a discussion of why that is an interesting observation that has not yet been adequately tested to see if it is a true discovery or due to any of the multiple errors that cause such hopeful observations not to pan out. The key thing you need to understand is that the way things appear often isn’t how they really are because the world is complicated and our brains are full or opportunities for error.

      Reply

  25. L
    August 3, 2019

    Update: After 5 months on Apoquel I have noticed some concerning side effects, recent seizure activity made me decide to discontinue Apoquel.

    I will bathe her every day and continue the desensitization shots as prescribed by her dermatologist and hope that she will remain stable.

    Also noted, some panting/heat intolerance and weight gain. Otherwise the Apoquel was effective and provided relief.

    Just thought I would mention so others can keep an eye out for side effects if their dog is on this med.

    Reply

  26. MS
    December 14, 2020

    I just came across this discussion. I know it’s old, but I can’t help but to add a comment.
    Every health practitioner has gone through long studies and they do it because they want to help people or animals that are suffering. Above all do no harm is in our hearts. And also – do everything you can to help.
    We all see things from slightly different angles. Who can say about others they are wrong unless they themselves try to see things from the other’s perspective? It is easy to criticize. But always be careful so you don’t have to feel silly later on, when through life experiences you learn more.
    I was very science based when finished vet school many years ago. Over the years I become frustrated dealing with conditions that decreased quality of life for pets and their owners and antibiotics, steroids and surgeries were not appropriate or did not help. The truth is that allopathic medicine is wonderful for saving lives but not so great in dealing with non life threatening conditions that make animals and their owners miserable. I took vet acupuncture course 24 years ago to disprove this nonsensical modality….and I was humbled. Unless you experience it in your own hands, it is hard to believe.
    My daughter was treated with NAET for severe asthma at 4 years of age. Of course we continued her allopathic treatment, which was managing her condition, but not curing it. The results I saw with NAET were shocking to me. She responded to the NAET treatment very well, and her improvement was visible shortly within the treatments, was definitely attributable to the Tx. Was off medication within a year.

    Please treat others with respect. You may still have a long life in front of you, who knows what you will still learn…and you may be humbled.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      December 15, 2020

      To promote belief based on one’s personal experience is a lot less humble than to recognize that personal experience and anecdotes are fundamentally unreliable, and to defer to science in evaluating medicine. Far more harm has come from our will and willingness to believe without objective evidence than from being critical and skeptical of unproven ideas. There would be no shame in changing my mind if the evidence emerged that a therapy I was skeptical of really worked. That is how science is supposed to work. But believing in, and more importantly selling medical treatments without evidence is the real threat to our well being.

      I’m glad your daughter is well, but the experience proves nothing about this or any other therapy. Here are some discussions of the details of why (and a bit of humor to make the same point)-

      Why Anecdotes Can’t be Trusted

      Reply

  27. Deborah Newman
    February 21, 2021

    I am a retired Certified Veterinary Practice Manager who worked in the profession for 46 years. I have managed a number of Veterinary Emergency, Critical Care, Specialty Practices across the nation. My husband was a veterinarian and we owned and operated four veterinary practices.

    In my youth I experienced almost daily migraine headaches and frequent digestive upsets. My youth was also characterized by profound rejection. After many years of suffering, unsuccessful diagnostics, and myriad treatments for food allergies, I finally gave up my crusade searching for the genesis of my physiological issues. Eventually I resigned myself to living with the headaches and digestive disturbances.

    Then in 1998 I accidentally stumbled upon a local NAET practitioner who was able to successfully diagnose and treat my many food and underlying imbalances. For the first time in my memory life was no longer a mine field for me and I no longer had headaches and digestive upsets. The treatments I received have had lasting effects in my life.

    In 2008 I managed a veterinary specialty, emergency, rehab practice that employed a NAET veterinary practitioner.

    I especially remember one patient, a Bulldog, who had full-body allergies (red and itchy skin from head to toe with only patches of hair left on its body. The owner had tried everything known to man to treat these profound allergic reactions. When she came to our practice she was desperate for help.

    Our NAET practitioner treated the Bulldog and our staff members saw a marked improvement in this dogs skin condition. At the time of my retirement and departure from this practice the Bulldog was improving greatly with every treatment.

    I sincerely hope you will post my reply as NAET can be a life-saving treatment for our beloved pets. Thank you for your consideration.

    Reply

    • skeptvet
      February 22, 2021

      Unfortunately, anecdotes like this are deeply unreliable. If it were this simple, we would have cured every disease centuries ago. We need controlled scientific evidence to know what works and what doesn’t, and relying on anecdotes like this sustains ineffective therapies. Here is some more information on this issue:

      Why Anecdotes Can’t be Trusted

      Anmecdote

      Reply

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