Just Think

It's enough to make a girl want to stop even using the word "holistic" anymore.

I'm referring to the continuing flood of lies, unfounded assertions, and half-truths being swallowed whole and sadly, regurgitated, by the gullible hordes who are out there looking for suggestions on how to care for their dogs. This is nothing new, and neither is my impatience with it. But for some reason I've had even less patience lately than I usually do (which is not much at the best of times) with sloppy thinking.

Last week I was sitting in my vet's office while she did acupuncture on my dog Rosie for her arthritis. (The skeptics out there can scoff and ridicule me all you like for doing this - but Rosie is not the first dog I've owned whose objective measures of comfort have visibly and dramatically improved while being treated by an acupuncturist, and who noticeably got stiffer and less active when an appointment was missed or delayed.)

While I was sitting there watching Rosie snooze with her needles in, I was flipping through a pet care magazine aimed at the holistic market, and saw an article about how to choose the best protein source for your pet. I got a bad feeling in my gut and should have just put it down and read People instead, but my vet doesn't subscribe to People and anyway, even though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn't stop myself.

The author began by citing a human nutritional writer, Peter D'Adamo, as the source of her inspiration for this canine quest for nutritional excellence. Since I think D'Adamo's  whole "Eat Right 4 Your Type" thing is a load of crap, I didn't have a heck of a lot of confidence in the dog version either. But D'Adamo has a thousand, a million, times more science to back up his theory than those people who have constructed the "Bratwurst for Schnauzers" school of canine nutrition.

Ummmm... Bratwurst for Schnauzers? Sure. Didn't you know that you should be feeding your dog according to the land of origin of his breed? Haggis and oats for border collies, fish for sled dogs, that kind of thing. (Please don't ask me what my neighbor should feed their chihuahua/shih tzu mix.... sweet and sour tacos?)

You'd think the author might possibly, when making outrageous statements such as "I have found that when we gear the 'foundation' meats, fish and vegetables to the regions our dogs developed in, magical health changes occur," offer one single shred of evidence to support it?

She did give an anecdote about a Siberian Husky whose eye discharge cleared up when put on a fish and sweet potato diet, attributing the magical cure to the inclusion of fish. That's great, although I'm not sure where sweet potatoes fit in. And of course, the fact that most likely the dog had an allergy to something in the previous diet that wasn't in the "novel ingredient" diet he was switched to doesn't get touched on at all.

I don't really care whether this theory is true or false. I think it's a load of hooey, but if someone proves me wrong, I'll cheerfully eat my words and let my Scottish Deerhounds chow down on all the haggis they can consume.

No, what I care about is that we have simply got to learn to use our brains and apply our powers of critical thinking to our consumption of holistic pet care recommendations. Just because you read it in a magazine, website, or yes, even a book written by a veterinarian, does not mean it's true. Is the theory substantiated by reseach, reason, or significant amounts of anecdotal data? Is it in harmony with basic scientific knowledge or heck, even common sense? Does the writer have the slightest familiarity with, I don't know.... FOOTNOTES? I'm not saying we have to have forty double-blind, randomized, crossover studies to back up every food choice we make for our dogs; I'm saying we have to ask for more than we usually get in the way of evidence from people trying to sell us pet food, and even from people "selling" us ideas, theories, and ideologies about pet care.

Sometimes the consequences of this are even more serious than in the dietary realm. That's because it probably doesn't matter what type of meat your dog eats, and there's really no harm in feeding fish to sled dogs, and probably a lot of benefit. Where this gullibility really bites is when it's applied to medical care for our dogs.

I own a pet health email list called BeyondVaccination, and we frequently get people asking about holistic alternatives for the prevention and treatment of canine heartworm disease. Now, I am a bit of  a skeptic about some of the "conventional wisdom" about canine heartworm disease, but on one issue I'm a fanatic.

People say they want a safer alternative to the drug Immiticide that is usually used to treat dogs with adult heartworm infections. So naturally they look to herbal medicine to provide it. This isn't necessarily an irrational thing to do; there  are many herbal remedies that have long histories of traditional use for a number of conditions, that really are safer overall than conventional drugs used for the same conditions - or at least are equally safe and effective.

But that is not the case with canine heartworm disease, for two basic reasons. The first is that there is no traditional herbal treatment for this disease; the herbs commonly used for canine heartworm have  traditionally been used for treating intestinal worms and skin and coat parasites, not for treating a parasite that lives in the circulatory system. There is also no study or research that supports or even suggests the safety or efficacy of using herbs to treat heartworm in the dog.

But the second reason is far more critical. No matter how you kill heartworms in the dog ... with conventional drugs or with herbs, even if the worms die of old age ... the greatest risk comes not from the substance you are using to kill the worms, but from the presence of dead worms in the dog's circulatory system. These dead worms form clots that can kill a dog. Dogs treated with conventional drugs are hospitalized during the administration and the owners are supposed to keep the dogs completely inactive - as in, CRATED - for at least one month, sometimes more, while the worms die off. Even among dogs kept very quiet, there is still some risk of clots going to the lungs, especially in dogs with many worms.

One loony site about herbal heartworm treatment that someone posted the URL for into my holistic chat a few months  ago insists that her herbal treatment causes the worms to dissolve so completely that there is no risk of clots.  This is plain nuts - what do you suppose would happen if you put something caustic enough to disintegrate a worm into your bloodstream? Are people even thinking when they write these things?

And even more importantly, are people thinking when they READ them?

Comments

[coturnix]

Quacks in human medicine are bad enough, but in veterinary medicine they are absolutely outrageous! I hope you submit this post to the Skeptic's Circle.

[Nancy Freedman-Smith]

Great post (as usual!)
Nancy

[Nancy]

"And even more importantly, are people thinking when they READ them?"
___________________________________________
No. No, they don't THINK. They want magic bullets that will cure their pet without any risk or discomfort. If someone has the snake oil and pretty words that makes them feel all warm and fuzzy inside they're going to go for it. Damn common sense, damn the ability to think past their knee-jerk, emotion riddled reactions.

I saw someone post to another list that they would NEVER have surgery and are now scared to have their pet neutered because they SAW a TV SHOW that *supposedly* made the statement that many anesthetics don't work like we think and that pain is felt and there is SUFFERING.

I am ashamed to admit that I didn't even find her post worth responding to since she's already made her decision. If she can't think past one lousy tv show then how on earth would she be able to wrap her mind around anything I might say.

[Gil.]

Lol! I saw that post, Nancy, and really goggled at it. You know me, though, if it meant the dog could keep his balls, I wasn't about to try to talk her out of being dumb as a stump.

Still, maybe I should have and maybe you should have, too. I remember years ago when my first college English teacher boiled me alive for "sounding like a billboard" in a paper I'd written and told me I had to "support" what I was saying, not just spout opinions, mine or anyone else's. I guess he got me told; my writing improved dramatically as a result.

A lot of people come to these list with minds like blank slates because they haven't used them in quite a while and all their critical faculties have been erased, at least in reference to their dogs. Being challenged might just wake them up, those who can be awakened.

[Clark Bartram]

"Rosie is not the first dog I've owned whose objective measures of comfort have visibly and dramatically improved while being treated by an acupuncturist, and who noticeably got stiffer and less active when an appointment was missed or delayed."

I enjoyed your article. I have had a run in or two with alternative vets who push homeopathic remedies and other nonsense. I would like to point out however that anecdotal evidence is meaningless in a scientific context. The placebo effect has been clearly shown. While the placebo effect will not effect an animal it has been clearly shown to effect animal owners.

[Alison Cummins]

No idea what the TV show in question was, but there are cheap and easy to use drugs that immobilise the animal without providing pain relief. They are specifically *not* recommended for surgery by veterinary boards, but some vets use them anyway.

If you are concerned (which you should be), then ask exactly what anesthetic protocol your vet will be using and look it up to see if it’s recommended for that sort of procedure.

The poor practices of some vets are not a reason not to have your animal neutered, but they are a reason to do your homework.

(I had my dog neutered at the SPCA for very cheap before I had internet access. I now wonder whether he had the kind of anesthesia I would have wanted for him. He is, however, currently happy and healthy.)