Articles | Vital Animal® § The Natural Path

Last updated on February 2, 2020 By Will Falconer, DVM 33 Comments

Beware This Costly Tool

When your dog loses control and falls to the floor with a seizure, it’s a really scary time. Not only is she helpless, but she’s often grotesquely contorted, wild-eyed, and may be vocalizing in odd ways. At that point, you desperately want to do everything you can to help her right NOW.

Other than speaking in soothing tones with words of assurance and keeping her body from harm, there’s little you can do: when a seizure is over, it’s over. That’s usually less than 2-3 minutes, though it seems an eternity when you’re attending an animal in this state. [Read more…] about Seizures + MRI: Do You Really Need One?

Last updated on December 29, 2019 By Will Falconer, DVM 6 Comments

How About You? Time to Just Say No?

Drugs. They are everywhere in our society, and busy ruining lives and lining the pockets of Big Pharma players. Antibiotics are one significant class of drugs. They are over prescribed and often wrongly prescribed and cause more harm than good in many cases.

I was schooled in them, of course. Vet students, like med students, are likely still taught that they have saved countless lives and are one our greatest discoveries, capable of saving humanity. At least until we’re overrun by the “superbugs,” but that’s another story.

Let me relay a personal story of why I’m a veterinarian who uses zero drugs. Since 1992.

My Own Cat At Death’s Door

Last updated on December 17, 2019 By Will Falconer, DVM 21 Comments

Calling BS on Big Pharma

As if it weren’t enough that the commonest drug prescribed for the man-made itchy allergies your dog suffers from (Apoquel) appears to have cancer as its chief side effect, now Big Pharma wants you to believe its your dog’s fault she’s dying of malignancy.

This is both disturbing and an insult to your intelligence.

Jennifer brought this to my attention as she related an all too common heartbreak following Apoquel’s immune system suppression:

Our cocker years ago was put on Apoquel when it first came out. She got cutaneous lymphoma which is actually rare in the breed. Now it has come out that if dogs are “predisposed” to getting cancer (they) can get cancer from the drug.

Last updated on December 5, 2019 By Will Falconer, DVM 53 Comments

And Now They’re Playing Dirty

Hacked! When I first wrote about this very popular drug that shuts down part of your dog’s immune system, Apoquel had already been on the market for several months. It was actually scarce, as demand exceeded supply, and people were buying any size they could and either cutting the tablets or adding tablets together to make it fit their individual dog.

And oh! The promise: stopped itching within hours!

It was expensive, prescription-only and, as I shortly came to find out, quite dangerous.

Hence my post, which I titled Apoquel:Dog Miracle Drug with a Dark Side

That article pretty quickly climbed to the top of the search results for people looking to find more information by typing Apoquel into their Google search field. In fact, the only pieces that ranked higher (and therefore showed higher on the first page of results) were the propaganda pieces put out by the makers of Apoquel, the multi-billion dollar Big Pharma corp Zoetis, who had recently gobbled up Pfizer, the drug’s original designer.

That’s When My Website Went Dark

[Read more…] about I Annoyed Big Pharma

Last updated on December 5, 2019 By Will Falconer, DVM 26 Comments

Don’t Settle for a “Diagnosis”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been noticing a ton of allergy testing services out there for your pets. In fact, this article is prompted by a “case report” from NutriScan, a service that tests your dog’s or cat’s saliva to learn about what food sensitivities could be causing him to have itchiness or other immune problems.

An email came with the enticing subject line: “NutriScan case study: It was not a cinch.”

What was the tough problem that must have surely been “solved?”

A young Aussie Shepherd named Cinch had been through the vet gamut, trying to fix his “severe diarrhea” which started at 18 months of age. He’s now 2.5 years old.

[My mind is now engaged: WHY does a young dog have severe diarrhea for a year? Isn’t that odd? How many dogs his age do you know who’ve been battling diarrhea for a year?] [Read more…] about WHY is My Animal Sick? ASK!