A Book from the SkeptVet
Please follow & like us :)
0
Set Youtube Channel ID
Author Archives: skeptvet
We can’t prove it, but….Faith-based medicine and special pleading
CAM proponents often engage in the rhetorical fallacy known as special pleading. Wikipedia’s definition of this is adequate: “a form of spurious argumentation where a position in a dispute introduces favorable details or excludes unfavorable details by alleging a need … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
Oximunol–The latest in marketing masquerading as science.
A couple of “news” articles, which were essentially truncated but often verbatim reprints of a company press release, appeared today about a clinical trial looking at a mysterious new veterinary product with grand but vague claims. Naturally, this caught my … Continue reading
Posted in Herbs and Supplements
7 Comments
wooTAG–uh, I mean shooTAG–Pest Control Device
I recently received a tip about a pest control product for pets (and people) that has woo written all over it. Anaglyph over at Tetherd Cow has written about the shooTAG pest repellant device, and has posted a follow-up response … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous CAVM
7 Comments
CAM Word Salad
I often find that rationalizations of alternative medicine are garbled and hard to follow, but I recently ran across a site promoting veterinary alt med that combines the usual fuzzy logic with an mechanical or straight-from-the-dictionary translation into English, with … Continue reading
Good Old Days Before Scientific Medicine
CAM proponents are very fond of citing the antiquity and lineage, fictional or not, for their methods. Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and many herbal nostrums are promoted as “time-honored,” with the implication or explicit statement that anything people have been … Continue reading
Posted in General
Leave a comment
129th Skeptics’ Circle!
Good eveni…Is this on? Can you hear me in the back? Good, ok. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 129th meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle. I’m SkeptVet, and I’ll be your MC this evening. Sorry, it’s my … Continue reading
Posted in General
6 Comments
Two Studies of Fish Oil for Canine Arthritis
One of the most popular nutritional supplements these days is fish oil. It contains a high proportion of omega 3 fatty acids (EFA), notable eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). This supplement is purported to have a broad range … Continue reading
Posted in Herbs and Supplements
24 Comments
Hill’s Criteria of Causation–What Separates Science from Faith
Mark Crislip at Science-Based Medicine recently discussed Hill’s Criteria of Causation, but after looking at Dr. Hill’s original paper I felt obliged to examine the subject here as well because it is central to science-based medicine, and key in differentiating … Continue reading
Posted in General
3 Comments
CAM=Miracles, Science=Death?
I really shouldn’t be giving this guy so much attention, but after our little tiff I’ve taken to checking in on his blog, and the vicious and self-serving marketing strategy is offensive enough to stimulate a response. Dr. Shaw Messonnier … Continue reading
Posted in General
6 Comments
Dr. Shawn Kerfuffle Update
I notice that Dr. Messonier has deleted my response to his blog post defaming me. I guess polite, reasoned criticism is intolerable to him. He has also written another post full of strawmen and cliches. He begins by trying to make … Continue reading
Posted in General
7 Comments