From time to time I get inquiries from pet owners who are experiencing a crisis with their animals and are seeking other information besides what they get from their vets. I’m always amazed at how these individuals sometimes set the bar very high for *new*/alternative information compared to the very low standards of credibility and discernment they use to filter conventional info.
For example, someone emailed me yesterday and said that his dog was presently at the vet having a tooth removed. The dog had been raw fed for 3 years, following Dr. Tom Lonsdale’s book. He said he couldn’t ask his vet if the problem might be food-related because he knew the vet (like most vets) was opposed to raw feeding. When I told him that it most definitely was related to how the dog was being fed, he wanted to know what he was doing wrong. Of course there’s no way I could know that unless I had a great deal more information. When I told him that, and that the only way I could know would be to do a $50 consultation, he replied that he didn’t want to invest the money because he didn’t “know who to trust”. This is a person who just handed over his precious dog to a vet who only profits when his dog suffers, and to whom he probably forked over a few hundred dollars for the loss of his dog’s tooth. When I pointed out that all that showed a great deal of “trust”, I didn’t hear back from him. Obviously it’s not that he didn’t know whom to trust, it’s that he doesn’t trust information that comes from ‘unconventional’ sources.
This person, like most pet owners, apparently doesn’t realize that the system that trains vets is concerned with one thing and one thing only — sustaining itself. If its mission was to resolve illness, it would long ago have figured it out. Its mission is to sell substances and treatments that delude owners into thinking that illness has been resolved. Ensuring that illness will return is part of the plan all along, even though individual vets may not realize it. This sick system would die a quick death if it used its ill-gotten credibility to teach those who hang on its every word how to properly care for their animals so that symptoms do not recur. This is proven to us over and over, when our animals suffer perpetually recurring health problems that are easily resolvable. Yet those receiving all their information from this inhuman, financially-motivated system — vets — are the ones who have our trust. Everything else is viewed with suspicion, no matter how much sense it makes or how successful it is in practice.
What is the definition of success from a dog or dog owner’s perspective? A dog that is energetic, happy and symptom-free! What is “success” from the perspective of the veterinary industry? Lots of dog owners coming through the door with sick dogs. Think about it.
Disease, in all its various incarnations, has real-life, determinable, understandable causes. That disease “just happens” and that nothing can be done to avoid it is the biggest lie ever told. Powerful, monied, established industries like the medical and veterinary fields do not concern themselves with causes. The system knows that if ordinary people like you and I can figure out what’s causing our problems, we won’t need its harmful and convoluted ‘fixes’.
It defies logic and reason to think that understanding causes is not important. In fact, it is the most vital piece of the puzzle in determining how to deal with a problem. Isn’t it? For my part, I’m just so thankful that I suspended whatever suspicion I may have had long ago when I was first exposed to “alternative” information and that I allowed my common sense to lead me. I encourage others to do the same.
Just a caveat about prey model feeding, and Dr. Lonsdale’s recommendations in particular. Mistakes can be made even while following these programs to the letter. It’s impossible for me to list all of the possibilities in a blog post, but I do make a fair attempt to do so in the Dog Nutrition 101 ebook sold here for $19.95. For a very small investment, there is a great deal to be gained if a person is sufficiently receptive.
Best wishes,
Nora