Episode 407: Food as Medicine for Dogs with Laurie Johnson, DVM

Are you curious about how to apply food-as-medicine to your furry friends? Want to know more about the optimal diet for dogs? Looking for information on reducing toxicity when it comes to flea, tick, and heartworm prevention? Tune in to hear us interview Laurie Johnson DVM, Integrative Veterinarian and cover all this and more!    In this episode, we pick Dr. Laurie’s brain about everything from assessing your pet’s constitution to how to transition to a raw or real food diet. We discuss supplementation when it comes to your pet, how you can individualize your pet’s preventative regimen, and how to best work with your veterinarian to get the best care for your pet!    Dr. Laurie’s Bio: Dr. Laurie Johnson is an integrative veterinarian practicing in Austin, Texas (AcuDog HerbalCat Vet). She is certified in Acupuncture, Food Therapy, and Tui Na from the Chi Institute, and Integrative and Chinese Herbal Medicine through the College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies.   She has over 15 years of experience with a diverse background in wildlife, emergency, shelter, small animal medicine, dermatology, soft tissue surgery and dentistry.    Find her at: AcuDog HerbalCat - Veterinary Medicine in Austin, Texas   Also in this episode:  Keto Reset Program Starts 8/21 Dr Laurie’s Story TCM and Assessing ConstitutionEpisode 383: Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Optimal Diet for DogsSoCal Raw Fed Dogs Instinct Dog Food Smalls (cats) A Pup Above Chi Dog Farmer’s Dog Petdiets.com Nom Nom Barking Creek Kitchen Just Food for Dogs Why Consider Delayed Spay and Neuter Gut Health for DogsRebuild Spectrum Probiotic GI Immune Builder Supplementation for PetsNordic Naturals Omega 3 Liquid Herbsmith Heartworm Prevention Flea PreventionWondercide   More Resources from Dr. Laurie: VDIlab.com:  lab that has a lot of special testing that most integrative vets have access to. I use them most for GI vitamins and allergy screening. Much more affordable than a standard lab.  DNA heartworm testing-  I've sent to Canada in past- very tricky with customs. Apparently Auburn offers this test. Any vet can set up an account with Auburn's lab to be able to run the test. Ideal when pet parents choose not to use a preventative. Detects living heartworm DNA - positive much sooner than standard testing. Heartworm - Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. Animalbiome.com is an excellent company. tons of high quality research on microbiome health in dogs and cats and specific research on gut health with raw fed animals. Pet parents can test their pet's biome. I tend to recommend this with all of my GI cases, chronic skin, immune health cases. Results vary a lot. Some pets have severe e-coli overloads and practically zero beneficial bacteria so they need fecal transplants and specific pre/probiotic and fiber sources. Inulin might be a better fiber source than psyllium in some cases. Some pets don't have pathogenic bacteria but they have no good flora so they will also need fecal transplants. Best to work with a vet when this is needed as most of my patients need more support when they are undergoing fecal transplant. I reach for S boullardi /FOS a lot. This is not found in standard small animal formulas. Their product line is amazing! Vax/Titers: puppy /kitten vaccine protocol with titer testing recommendations from Dr. Jean Dodd's foremost authority on endocrine disease and immunology in small animals. One of her projects is the rabies challenge fund. vaccine protocol | HemopetPuppies and kittens need their vaccine series per the protocol to protect them from deadly diseases. We think of these as core vaccinations. We start them earlier in Texas because of the much higher risk here. These vaccines are extremely effective. I usually run titers when the pet has already had one 3 year vaccine because they tend to be better protected and if they are protected, we can run the titers every 3 years when the vaccine would be due.  Rabies is a legal requirem