Category Archives: Nutrition

One of the most popular subjects for discussion and debate in pet health for many years now has been the relative merits of commercial pet foods and unconventional diets of various types, including homemade cooked and raw diets, commercial raw … Continue reading →

The subject of raw diets is a constant and controversial one in veterinary medicine. The controversy stems mostly from the fact that some people are passionately committed to the idea that raw diets have health benefits, but there is no … Continue reading →

Nutritional therapies and dietary fads for humans often find their way into veterinary medicine. Sometimes, there is a plausible physiologic rationale or encouraging lab animal research to justify testing specific dietary interventions in dogs and cats, and such interventions may … Continue reading →

A client recently asked one of my colleagues for an opinion on an infomercial by Dr. Marty Goldstein for his new commercial raw cat food, Nature’s Feast. There was little new or surprising in this video, but since Dr. Goldstein has a … Continue reading →

IntroductionAmong the timeless questions that are debated endlessly from generation to generation, such as “What is the meaning of life?” and “Does the refrigerator light go off when the door is closed?” is one that veterinarians and cat owners are … Continue reading →

Pet owners frequently project their beliefs about human health onto their companion animals. Anxieties about purported harms from vaccines in children, for example, have spurred an anti-vaccination movement among vets and pet owners.1–4Beliefs in alternative medical therapies for people, such … Continue reading →

The FDA has released a new update about the ongoing investigation into dogs developing the dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a serious heart disease, which appears to be associated with the use of grain-free or exotic protein diets. The agency has received … Continue reading →

Here is an article from Veterinary Practice News responding to the ridiculous marketing ploy by Petco declaring a ban on “artificial” food ingredients. Since the late 1980s, individuals and organizations have been trying to warn the public about a deadly … Continue reading →

A reader recently sent me a link to this little advertisement.  This is an illustration of a popular bit of alternative nonsense, the idea that raw milk has magical health-giving properties. The idea owes a lot to the Appeal to Nature … Continue reading →

I have been following with great interest the emerging evidence about grain-free and exotic protein diets as a possible risk factor for heart disease in dogs. I first raised the subject in response to several cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) I … Continue reading →