by Dr Greg on November 13, 2009
Greg cracks open the first box of Dog Dish Diet books.
Yes, I have books. Boxes and boxes of Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health in my “warehouse.” You’ll see why I put that in quotes when you look at the photos.
There’s nothing quite like holding your own book in your hands. And this one has been a long time coming…even elephant gestation has nothing on this process.
29 years as a veterinarian observing and treating a range of common ailments and chronic illnesses among [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on October 29, 2009
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…]
by Dr Greg on October 14, 2009
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…]
by Dr Greg on October 11, 2009
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…]
by Dr Greg on September 2, 2009
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…]
by Dr Greg on August 19, 2009
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…]
by Dr Greg on August 14, 2009
As Lonna and I wrap up a marvelous vacation in the Azores and enjoy the days
we’ve spent together with good friends, it’s time again to focus on the business of dogs and their diets.
Actually, the subject is never completely out of my mind. More than a week ago I went into a pet shop in Lisbon and saw that Royal Canin dry dog food was on display. One rabbit hunter here (that is the only thing to hunt) feeds his 13 dogs Purina dry dog food that he buys from the US military base here.
Here in Angra, a small town, on the island of Terceira there are French Briards, German Shepherds, Boxers and various crosses standing on every wall guarding their territory. They are the alarm [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on August 12, 2009
Hmmmm. Should I indulge myself in that triple-layer chocolate decadence torte (it looks so good) or should I be good and have chicken-broccoli-shitake mushroom stirfry with a side of brown rice. Yeah, I know it’s a tough decision. But at least we have a choice.
Our pets, however, don’t have nearly the freedom. Oh they can sit by the dinner table and seemingly watch an imaginary tennis match as their eyes track back and forth between our mouth and our plate. They can sit and stare at the cabinet where we keep the treats. And occasionally they get away from us and go outside and eat something incredibly disgusting. Still their options are limited. And at mealtime, we dole out the food. In short, our dogs are what we MAKE them eat.
And that’s why I wrote Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. My goal is to arm YOU–every pet owner in America (the world?)–with the simple steps to selecting and serving your dog with the most nutritious food possible. There [click to continue…]
by Dr Greg on August 11, 2009
In his book,”In Defense of Food,” Michael Pullan suggests that the “western diet” (high carb, high saturated fat, low omega fat, low antioxidants) caused many native populations to get ill once they adopted that way of eating.
Fast food and packaged food in place of native diets led to health problems in native Aborigines, Hawaiians, and Japanese popuations that changed their tried-and-true eating habits passed down from generation to generation over thousands of years.
Isn’t that similiar to the high-carb, low-fat, commercial, dog food ingredients that we have forced on a native canine population that had been eating a certain diet for thousands upon thousands of years. Now it seems that our dogs are suffering from more obesity, arthritis, immune diseases, and cancer just like other native populations of humans that changed their diet.
The great thing is, every diet can be changed easily and economically using by reading the label for ingredients, and adding healthy human food and oils.In Dog Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health I try to reverse the affects of the commercial diets on some individuals that cannot tolerate them. Bone Appetit!
by Dr Greg on August 9, 2009
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.
