The ancestor of our domestic cat ate small mammals, reptiles, bugs, and birds that were very moist, crunchy, high-protein, high-fat packages. So why do we care what our cat’s ancestors ate? Because there is an important link. [click to continue…]
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With a title like that, I have to be selling something…right? Do I want to draw people to my website to buy my book? You betcha! Can the info in the book prevent tumors? I believe so. Let’s talk about it.
Dogs have several classes or different types of “masses” or growths that grow on the skin or under it. The most
sucking cells out of tumor or mass
common type is a papilloma or warty growth that slowly grows on the skin in middle-aged to older dogs. Next is the lipoma, or fatty growth underneath the skin or between the muscle layers. The nastiest and most dangerous skin tumor spreads locally and internally (metastasis= Meta (change) + stasis (stays in one place)). Its name is the mast cell tumor. This is the skin tumor vets want to rule out by aspirating a suspicious lump or mass. Looking at the cells we suck out of the mass often lets us know what we need to do. I say often because [click to continue…]
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Does your dog hold his or her head to one side? Scratch at his ears? Shake her head from side to side? Have a moist yeasty smell and grayish yellow gunk coming out of the ear? 
These symptoms are some of the most common ones that veterinarians see daily, and they can be the hardest to [click to continue…]
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Here I am with the first copy of Dog Dish Diet. I'll soon have books for sale here on the site
I suppose one doesn’t actually CELEBRATE National Pet Obesity Awareness Day. Overweight dogs and cats are becoming as common as overweight people. And that’s not a good thing. Furthermore, we’re seeing increases in diseases that are related to obesity–most particularly diabetes and joint injury/arthritis. [click to continue…]
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Einstein spent a great deal of time looking for the universal theory that would unite the theories of the very large things around us (universe, galaxies, black holes) and the very small things (neutrinos, quarks, leptons) inside and around us. His well known [click to continue…]
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This tick is engorged with the dog's blood
Tick-borne diseases are those carried and spread by blood-sucking ticks, which inadvertently ingest these “hitchhikers” and transfer them to the next victim. If the immune system of the new host doesn’t fight them off, a tick-borne disease can cause the animal to become ill. [click to continue…]
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I was in the supermarket buying provisions for my hike to the top of Mount Whitney, located east of Bakersfield, California. This year we are taking a more leisurely trip to the top, so that my two buddies that had altitude–and attitude–problems won’t be affected. I love strolling through nature’s beauty and am glad we do not have to push through the remnants of a late August snowstorm or traverse icy, slippery rocks near the top at 14,000 feet.
"Fresh," smoked kippered herring
So I’m in the store, and when I walked past the tunafish aisle, I spotted kipper snacks and remembered eating those as a kid. This produced an instant craving, and I bought a few for the trip up. Then I realized that these little oily sardines may make a pretty good and economical treat for my dogs…and cats. So I bought a few more [click to continue…]
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My name is Greg Martinez, DVM, and I am a recovering kibble-aholic. I assumed like so many of my colleagues that a dog’s health was assured if you fed a “complete 
and balanced” dog food. I thought that most kibbles were good as long as they contained the right percentages of recommended nutrients. I was proud, too, that I was able to recommend different kibble diets that were developed by a veterinarian (Mark Morris, PhD, DVM) in [click to continue…]
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When I first came up with the idea for my book, I thought I’d call it Dog Dish Blues because that’s exactly what so many of my patients (and my own dogs) have had from eating the wrong food. Dog Dish Blues is the perfect name for this syndrome, if you will: dry, itchy skin; red, goopy ears; upset stomach; all manner of bowel disorders; and much, much more. Any one of these ailments is most definitely cause for the blues…both for dog and owner.
By my own count, at least six of the Veterinary Pet Insurance Top 10 ailments as listed have a nutritional common denominator and may be caused by diet. Furthermore, I can tell you that in our own practice at Gilroy Veterinary Hospital fully one third of visits involve a Top 10 condition that can become chronic (meaning that the same symptoms come back several times after treatment).
I didn’t end up calling the book Dog Dish Blues because I wanted to focus on the benefits of nutritional treatment instead. And so, the book I wrote is called Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. Our success treating 100s of dogs is most encouraging. Our countdown to publication continues. Bone Appetit.
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Cousin Strider's gone to pot! Yeah, what do you suppose he's eating these days?
One of my great concerns is that the foods we are feeding our dogs today are so far removed from the diet of both wolves and the early ancestors of our dogs. It’s not just the fact that animals in the wild survive on a natural diet of game, berries and whatever they can forage, it’s the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that’s way off. In Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health, I explain the difference between the typical commercial diet and the natural wolf diet…and what this should tell us about feeding our dogs. I use what I know as a vet (30 years in practice), a lifelong dog owner and as a student of wolves’ natural diet to suggest simple but important changes you can make in your own dog’s diet. I feel certain that NOT feeding our dogs’ inner wolf is the source of a lot of problems, ranging from dry, itchy skin and red, gooey ears to upset stomach and bowel disorders…and much more that I go into in the Dog Dish Diet. (By the way, these illustrations are by Caleb Laughlin and appear in the book.) Bone Appetit!
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