Could it be that the tides are turning?!?

I am afraid to say something too soon but...

May has been quite a month!

There have been so many shifts and transformations my head is still spinning! 

Polarities in Abundance

The world continues to be polarized and politicized. Veterinary medicine is no exception. This past week alone, I had another case of whiplash.

On one side were the unexpected topics discussed in a conventional veterinary medical conference on pain management - things might actually be heading in a GOOD direction!

As most of you know who have been following me for any length of time, I have been speaking out about the overprescription of pharmaceutical drugs that are either causing harm, even overdoses in some instances, or not really relieving pain, but rather sedating the animal so it looks like they are not in pain, ie gabapentin. 

I am required to have a certain number of continuing education credits every year in conventional medicine and there just happened to be a conference on pain management in my neighborhood. 

The conference was produced by DVM360, a mainstream conference organizer. I fully expected to hear nothing more than what and how many drugs to prescribe. In fact, I was eager to hear where all the information was coming from regarding the use of some of these high-strength opioids, along with trazodone and gabapentin which are the new favorite go-home meds. 

Lo and behold! I was in for a big surprise! It does appear that the pendulum is swinging in a different direction. 

My dreams came true when the board-certified anesthesiologist proclaimed that there was NO EVIDENCE that gabapentin had any analgesic, ie pain-relieving properties, at all! I nearly jumped up out of my seat cheering! 

And then the board-certified neurologist spent an entire hour on acupuncture, Assis Loops, AND Chinese herbs!!! It was the first time I have ever heard someone lecture on Chinese herbs in a mainstream veterinary medicine program! Acupuncture, yes, Chinese herbs?!? 

I made it a point to thank and congratulate all of the speakers for introducing these topics on holistic modalites like acupuncture, herbal medicine, CBD, nutraceuticals and even emotional well-being!!

We may just be witnessing history in the making! It may take a while for it to drip down from the ivory tower to your neighborhood general practitioner, but these modalities can no longer be ignored. And with pressure from pet parents on the other side of the equation, we may be looking at some REAL change for the better.

Here is a short video I put together that includes some direct quotations from the conference proceedings and a few other tidbits worth knowing about:

On the opposite side of the aisle, I was gaslit and shamed for my recent PDF discussing how to switch cats to raw food by the admin of a RAW FED CAT Facebook group! Go figure! 

She attempted to shame me as a veterinarian by regurgitating propaganda from our friend, Dr. Lisa Freeman, the one who started the fake news about grain-free diets causing heart disease in dogs. It appears that she wrote an article claiming the ingredients on a label of dog food tell one nothing about the final product so just tell people not to bother reading the label. 

Right: wheat gluten, chicken by-products, sucrose, corn meal, corn gluten, etc do not tell me anything about the final product except that it is most likely filled with glyphosate, possibly aflatoxins, and is made up of industrial waste products from agribusiness. 

And "as a vet you should know that." I loved that part. She promptly canceled me so I would not have a chance to respond, but boy did I receive a lot of traffic to my social media pages.

To check out the utter madness and have a laugh or two, go to my Facebook feed.

I do believe the pendulum is changing direction! People are getting their news and information from sources other than the propaganda machine, like here on Substack, and a giant swell is happening to turn the tide - can you feel it?

Happy Memorial Day!