Polarity Whiplash + Hot Dog Soup

Too much of a good thing, and too much of a bad thing, where do we find the middle road?

Balance is hard to come by these days, even regarding veterinary advice. Sometimes I find myself with a good case of whiplash by the end of a day of social media.

*It has taken me a good 10 days since the United States Presidential election to write this. It contains my thoughts on the politicization of health care, food, and medicine, something that needs to change before more people and pets lose their lives or suffer needlessly. You are more than free to have your own opinions and to scroll on by at this point. I am not here to argue. But for me, the days of sitting on the fence with these issues are long past.

Healthcare, both human and animal, should be at the forefront for all beings living in a physical body. We have gone through four years of being lied to, gaslit, and coerced into allowing human-engineered genetic material to be released into our bodies, the bodies of our animals—pets and food animals—and into the environment.

Many people, worldwide, through both choice and mandate, are suffering the consequences of having their cellular machinery hi-jacked and given instructions to make a bio-engineered form of spike protein. We are now seeing the short and long-term effects of this. Although you will not find the information on the daily news, the scientific data continues to roll in.

Every week I see clients, acquaintances, and friends having their lives cut short by side effects from the COVID-19 injections that were never tested for safety or efficacy.

Every day I see dogs and cats injured and dying from recombinant monoclonal antibody injections that were never tested for safety or efficacy.

The medical establishment have come up with names for new syndromes to side-step the real causative effect, like “micro-clotting disorder”. They make excuses like “they were old anyways, it could be anything”.

Just this past week, a “self-amplifying RNA” vaccine for canine influenza was released by NOBIVAC. Anyone who knows anything about genetics should be quaking in their boots about this. Once this man-made genetic material is let loose in the environment, there is no taking it back. We have no idea the effects it will have on the DNA blueprint of living organisms. I remember an ethics discussion I had back in 1985 with my Advanced Placement biology teacher regarding the ethics of genetic engineering. What is going on right now is akin to the splitting of the atom. Science is breaking into and manipulating the holy grail of life itself, the genome.

When I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, the hippy and progressive movement was very much interested in health. Health food stores began popping up selling unprocessed grains, bulk spices and herbs, and nutritional supplements. My two older hippy sisters dragged the whole family to a naturopath to have our irises read, our colons cleaned out with colonics, and spoonfuls of cod liver oil swallowed before heading off to school or work in the morning. Alternative medicine popped up alongside the antiwar movement and civil rights.

What happened to the hippies of the 1960s? What happened to the Democratic party that was anti-war, pro-health, and democratic? The past 4 years have seen more money go to more wars, more drugs that have not been tested for safety or efficacy, more chemicals in our food, and the most un-democratic thing of all: a presidential nominee not being elected in primary elections, but being appointed ?!?

So now the people have spoken.

We found out and now know that our votes and voices count.

We now have a man at the top levels of government who is ready to remove corruption from food, drugs, and medicine. This is the opportunity that many of us in the healthcare field have been waiting for, to end corruption in the FDA, USDA, AAFCO, and all those government agencies that have been bought off by big money. Of course, the people making that money are screaming from the rooftops that he is not capable of the job at hand, even though he has made it his life’s work to prosecute these companies in a court of law.

Let’s get back to pet nutrition.

Nutrition is a hot topic in veterinary medicine and pet care these days. Pet food is a multibillion-dollar industry with Purina alone making over $22 billion in 2022.

On one side we have Big Pet Food, consisting of multinational corporations making highly processed pet food out of agricultural waste products. The food is ultra-processed, with long shelf lives, and super convenient to the pet owner, just pour it from bag to bowl.

On the other hand, we have a world of fresh, minimally processed pet food. This includes precooked or gently cooked frozen foods made with human-grade ingredients, prey-model raw, feeding raw animal parts, and everything in between.

Conventional veterinarians are taught from day one of veterinary school to feed Big Pet Food, as they are handed free bags as they cross the veterinary school threshold. They take jobs in clinics and hospitals whose lobbies are filled with bags and cans from the same corporate pet food companies that bought them pizza and sponsored conferences.

Many veterinarians are skeptical and suspicious of any nutrition advice that does not come from Big Pet Food. They often recommend veterinary nutritionists to clients who are feeding DIY diets or fresh food diets to make sure the diets are balanced and do not lead to nutritional deficiencies or imbalances.

BUT…and this a BIG BUT…

.. board-certified veterinary nutritionists are being educated by the same Big Pet Food companies that make the highly processed kibble. And what exactly are their recommendations?

I recently got a glimpse into the world of board-certified veterinary nutritionists thanks to a new client who sent me the report she received from a $600 consultation with one of them.

Her 6-year-old F/S mixed breed dog was diagnosed with kidney disease, inflammatory kidney disease, most likely immune-mediated. She had been feeding a fresh food diet until her dog was given an injection of Librela, and within weeks was diagnosed with protein-losing nephropathy. She refused the kibble formulated for dogs with kidney disease and took the second choice of having a nutritional consult with a board-certified veterinarian.

Here are the recommendations that got my attention, following a list of highly processed foods, including hydrolyzed protein diets, many of which are made from chicken feathers hydrolyzed into individual amino acids.

Treat Recommendations:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables were recommended with the caveat that “adding these types of vegetables and fruits (apple, banana, watermelon, blueberry) is more "filling" than nutritive and more can be fed once the full daily nutrient intake has been consumed. After washing, they make great treats fed raw or cooked but should not be relied upon to provide substantial amounts of nutrients.” I guess she never learned the vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant content of fresh fruits and vegetables.

• Her further recommendations: “Rice cakes, original flavor Cheerios, air-popped popcorn, or vanilla wafers are acceptable treats in small quantity.”

My favorite, out of the whole sheet of recommendations was the Hot Dog Soup Recipe:

Hot Dog Soup

This recipe uses the flavoring from the hot dog to help promote water intake. We are not feeding the actual hot dog. Use any type of hot dog you like.

Makes 8 oz (1 cup)

Dice 1/2 hotdog into small 1 cm chunks and add to 4 oz water.

Microwave for 1 minute, stir, then microwave 1 additional minute. Liquid will be very hot.

Decant/ strain hot dog bits out and discard. Save liquid – this is your hot dog soup.

Add 4 oz more cold water to cool liquid for safe consumption.

Add Hot Dog Soup to homemade foods, to kibble, or offer separate as a treat at the recommended amount.

To extend shelf life, you can freeze hot dogs in 1⁄2 pieces to keep longer. Place 1⁄2 hotdog on a flat pan and place into freezer for 2-3 hours. Once frozen, remove from pan and store in a Ziploc baggie.

After reading this report, I can fully understand why pet owners are rapidly losing their trust in veterinary medicine. I can understand not knowing much about nutrition, but this was a $600 consult from a specialist.

We are long overdue for some kind of change.

There is so much disinformation and misinformation, aka propaganda, regarding health and wellness out there no one knows who to believe anymore until the recommendations become so absurd they leave you speechless.

Trust in major institutions, federal agencies, universities, corporations, and health professionals has eroded to the point that no one knows who to trust.

And I can understand why.

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash