The Liz Moody Podcast - The Ultimate Pet Health Guide: Vet Secrets, Longevity Tips, Stress-Relief & More With Dr. Gary Richter, DVM

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Holistic vet Dr. Gary Richter shares everything you need to know for supporting your pet’s wellbeing, including the top three things you should be prioritizing for their long-term health.  how to find the highest quality vet the common veterinary treatments & medicines you should AVOID and the ones you should be sure to ask for the top 3 things to do to make your pet live as long as possible the best possible diet you can feed your cats & dogs + how to save money on it the best supplements for pets  the breeds that are more prone to diseases and behavioral issues the surprising way your pet shows you if something is wrong with them and so much more! For more from Dr. Richter, find him at ultimatepetnutrition.com, follow him on social media at @petvetexpert, and grab his brand new books Longevity for Dogs and Longevity for Cats. You can use code HEALTHYPET40 for 40% off any of Dr. Richter’s Ultimate Pet Nutrition products!  To join the Healthier Together Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthiertogetherpodcast. Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Pre-order my new book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now!  This episode is sponsored by: RocketMoney: sign up for Rocket Money today by going to RocketMoney.com/lizmoody. LMNT: go to DrinkLMNT.com/Liz a to get a free LMNT sample pack with any order.  AG1: visit AG1.com/healthiertogether and get your FREE year supply of Vitamin D and 10 free travel packs today.  Cozy Earth: visit cozyearth.com and use code HEALTHIER35 for up to 35% sitewide.  Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthier Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a best-selling author and long-time journalist. This podcast is all about helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, whether we're learning how we can actually heal our anxiety, getting circadian rhythm tips for more energy throughout the day, or uncovering these secrets of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. And yes, those are all real episodes, so if any of those topics sound good to you, scroll on back in the archives. Today, I am so excited to welcome Dr. Gary Richter to the podcast.

Dr. Richter is a world-renowned veterinarian who serves as the medical director at holistic veterinary care practice in Oakland. He's also the international best-selling author of the Ultimate Pet Health Guide and founder of Ultimate Pet Nutrition. He's been the recipient of over 25 local and national awards, including Best Veterinarian, best veterinary hospital and best alternative medicine provider. and his newest books, longevity for dogs and longevity for cats just came out into the world this week. We talk a lot on the podcast about how to make ourselves or the other humans in our lives happier and healthier.

But what about our fur babies? I am so happy to finally have an episode fully dedicated to making our pets live as long as possible, be as happy and healthy as possible. And I've already implemented so many of Dr. Richter's tips into a complete overhaul for Bella because I need her to live forever. So consider this your ultimate guide to your pets living their healthiest, happiest, longest lives. We get into how to find the highest quality veterinarian, the common veterinary treatments and

medicines that you should avoid and the ones that you should be sure to ask for. The top three things to do to make your pet live as long as possible. The best possible diet that you can feed your cats and dogs and how to save money on it. The best supplements for pets. the breeds that are more prone to diseases and behavioral issues, the surprising way that your pet shows you if something is wrong with them, and so much more. We would love to hear your thoughts and your biggest takeaways as you're listening to the episodes. So definitely screenshot and tag Dr. Richter. He is at Pet Vet Expert and me. I am at Liz Moody on Instagram.

We also have an amazing giveaway to go along with this episode. This is a really, really good one. I know any pet owner is going to want to enter it. So make sure that you listen to the end for those details. Before we get into the episode, I want to give a quick reminder that my book is available for pre-order. I'm actually recording the audiobook for it this week as this episode comes out, and I have heard that it is a very intense process, so wish me luck with that. I am so proud of this book, though. It's called A Hundred Ways to Change Your Life, and in it you'll learn the three habits that all of the experts I've interviewed on this pod do daily, the secret trick that will make anyone fall in love with you, the easy dietary changes that they're

There's actually scientific consensus around and exactly how to eat if you want to heal your gut, if you want to live longer, if you want to have more energy and more. There's just so many things in 18 different subject areas that touch every single part of your life. Pre-ordering a copy of the book is so important for authors. It essentially tells the publishing house and bookstores how excited that they should be about a book and how much that they should do to promote it and put their weight behind it. So if you are ever planning on ordering it, I would love, love, love. go to 100 Ways to Change Your Life.com and do that today. I will also put a link in the show notes.

If my publisher let me, I would literally offer a money-back guarantee. I am that confident that you will love this book. Also, very fast, we are officially changing the name of the podcast to the Liz Moody podcast in a few short weeks. So when you see that come up in your feed, just know it is the exact same healthier together podcast that you love, just with a little refresh that allows us to even better cover the wide range of topics that we talk about here. It is a long time coming, and I am so excited for this new era, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Okay, here is Dr. Gary Richter. Dr. Richter, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so excited to get into pet care. I'm obsessed with my cat, so I'm very personally invested in this. Oh, that's wonderful. I'm happy to be here.

She has her own fan base, I feel like. When people meet me, they're always like, oh, how's Bella? doing is Bella okay? She's a little old lady though too. There's a cat meme online that's like here's the age of cats and from like zero to two it's like tiny baby and then two to 10 it's like baby baby or something and then now she's like an elderly baby because she's 14, which I really love. We do exist to serve, I think. Can you start us off by just telling us a little bit about what holistic or integrative pet care means? Integrative medicine and integrative pet care is really a function of taking the best of what conventional Western medicine has to offer and the best of what's out there from the standpoint of complementary alternative holistic care has to offer

and really just weaving all of that together so we can get the best results with minimal side effects and minimal problems that may occur with just doing one thing or the other. So it's really just about keeping an open mind and taking advantage of everything that's out there that can help our pets. I was surprised reading your books how many things in our pets health mimicked the things that I've heard about in terms of human health, but I never thought to apply to pet health, things like stem cells and your microbiome and all these different elements that I take for granted in the world of human health, but they directly apply to our pets' health as well. Oh, yeah, sure. So much of what happens in human medicine is applicable in veterinary medicine

and frankly, vice versa. The problem that most people run into is that the veterinary profession is just not trained in that way. So most people don't hear that kind of thing from their veterinarian because quite frankly, their veterinarian doesn't know. That was one of my questions. Do you have any advice for choosing a good vet? Are there questions that we can ask to our vet? I just feel like I go to different vets. It's like going to the dentist where every dentist you have is like, oh my gosh, every other dentist you've ever had is terrible and did terrible work. And I feel like the vet's the same thing. The first thing to consider when you're shopping for a vet, if you will, is you're looking for somebody who has a similar philosophy of health care as you do. And needless to say, all of us

have different opinions on that sort of front. So it's really just a function of finding somebody that speaks on the same level as you do. If you're looking for somebody that knows a lot about holistic or integrative care, then one of the best things that you can do other than sort of the standard internet Google search is there is actually an association, the American holistic veterinary medical association. And they have a website. It's a hvma.org. And you can go on that website and you can search for veterinarians based on where you live. So that's a good resource for people to start looking for somebody if they don't have any other idea where to go. outside of holistic or not holistic, are there better schools or special accreditation?

I just feel like when I start to search for a vet online, I have no idea what even makes somebody a good vet. To be honest with you, where somebody went to veterinary school, quite frankly, really does not matter. For the most part, most veterinarians get a very similar education, almost a matter where they went to school. Some of it really depends on kind of what sort of education that they've done after veterinary school, like I say in my case, acupuncture certification, herbal therapy, that sort of thing.

As a pet owner, if that's the kind of thing that resonates with you, then that's the kind of person that you're looking for. Maybe you're looking for somebody who is more, say, surgery focused or nutrition focused. It's just a function of what specifically you're looking for. And those are the kinds of questions that you need to ask. That makes sense. There's a common conception that vets can be maybe overly promiscuous with treatment recommendations because it is a for-profit business. And I hear people say all the time, like, I can't tell if my pet actually needs these teeth removed or this treatment or this special food or diet or if my vet is just trying to make extra money. Do you have any advice for being able to

tell that? I do. And forgive me because I'm going to get on a little bit of a soap. box here. So every veterinarian that I know and almost every veterinarian I have ever met practices medicine from the heart. Everybody wants to do the best possible job for their patients. There are many different ways to approach that. And unfortunately, because of the way the medical system is set up, and this is not a veterinary problem, it's a medical paradigm writ large problem, is that most of the mainstream education that veterinarians are getting come from places where the money comes from. So it comes from pharmaceuticals, it comes from the big pet food companies, what have you. So realize that when a veterinarian is recommending that you put your dog or your cat on some

prescription diet, it's not because they're trying to squeeze you for money. It's because they honestly believe that that is the best thing for your pet. 99.9% of the time, that is actually the case. Now, It may not resonate with you, and that may be a time for you to think about getting a second opinion. But I would really caution people against going down the road of my vet doesn't really care about my pet. They just want my money. Because that is almost certainly not the case. That's honestly really good to hear.

Are there any treatments that vets commonly recommend that you're not a fan of generally? It's not so much that I'm not a fan of them, but I do think that a lot of treatments in medicine are over-recommended. So I think most pets are over-vaccinated. I think most pets probably get more anesthetic dental cleaning procedures than maybe they sometimes need because there might be other ways to manage that sort of thing. I think antibiotics are over-prescribed. There's nothing wrong with antibiotics or dental procedures or vaccines, but using them when you don't really need to use them is potentially problematic from a long-term health care situation. For example, if we talk about dogs, dogs are generally vaccinated for distemperin parvo when they're puppies, and most veterinarians will vaccinate

dogs for distemperin parvo, depending on the veterinarian, either every year or every three years for the rest of their life. The reality is, an adult dog that was properly vaccinated as a puppy for distemper and parvo has an almost zero percent chance of ever getting those diseases because they already have immunity. So what we do in my office is we'll do a distemper parvo tighter. So we'll draw a little blood, check and make sure they have adequate antibody level, so that way we don't have to give them a vaccine that they don't need. From the perspective of you as a cat owner,

I would definitely recommend a certain amount of vaccinations for any kitten. But if the cat is going to be a strictly indoor cat, I would probably never vaccinate that cat again because their disease. exposure risk is effectively zero. Vaccines do a lot of good, but vaccines are also not completely benign substances, and you can do harm by giving them. So why give something that the patient doesn't actually need? My cat goes outside, but only supervised and like with me, we go out in the yard together because she loves it. And I always feel like I'm being a good cat mom, because it feels like it's good for her microbiome and her simulation and things like that. But is she being

exposed to stuff there? No. Generally speaking, the only way they're going to get exposed to stuff is by direct contact with another animal. Okay, that makes sense. What about flee and tick prevention? Do they need that every single month? That very much depends on where you live and what their lifestyle is. So for your kitty that maybe takes a quick sojourn out to the yard, maybe not. For dogs that are out at the dog park running around, again, it kind of depends on where you live. Here where I live in Oakland, in the Bay Area, you might be able to get away without giving flee prevention part of the year. If you live someplace where there's actually a proper winter, you might be able to get away without giving flea and tick or heartworm prevention for part of the year. If you live in Florida

and you don't have your dog on flea prevention or heartworm prevention, you're probably being negligent. It really just depends on lifestyle and geography. In your experience or in the research, Are there noted negative effects of too many vaccines, too much flea and tick medication, too many antibiotics, et cetera, or is your treatment path just like let's intervene as little as possible? It's a little bit of both. We know that there are potential side effects to vaccines. We know that some of the flea and tick medications can cause problems.

So there is some evidence to that effect, but it becomes very difficult to prove causality when a dog or a cat gets cancer or some autoimmune disease and say they've been on flea and tick medication for their entire life. You can't really directly connect those things. But for me, it's a bit of a common sense situation of don't put them on medication that they don't necessarily need. And generally speaking, you take a less as more approach when it comes to any medication. And again, I am in no way against putting animals on medication when they need it, just not putting them on it, just because it says so on the label that they're due. You mentioned the teeth cleaning. We just got Bella's teeth cleaned and they put her out and

they took out two teeth ultimately. How do we know when our pet's teeth really do need to be professionally cleaned? Honestly, that's the kind of thing you really have to rely on your veterinarian for, because that's not something that as a pet owner, you can probably really sort of make that assessment. And truthfully, I think the dental issue, a lot of that hinges on what sort of dental home care can you do. You think about it through the lens of like, if I went to the dentist today and got a full teeth cleaning and then I did not brush my teeth for an entire year until I went back to the dentist, it probably wouldn't be pretty. But that's what happens a lot with dogs and cats is nobody does anything at home. So then, yeah, of course a year.

year later, it's a mess again. So it becomes a function of appropriate preventative care. Okay, do we actually have to be brushing her teeth? We give her the greenies and the ones that are certified by the dental board or whatever, but she would not let me brush her teeth ever. Sure. I mean, any veterinary dentist will tell you that the gold standard is toothbrushing. That said, we also have to live in the real world when not every animal is going to be okay with it, especially if you don't get them started when they're really young, in which case, you do what you can. You do everything that is reasonably possible, and then you just sort of live in reality. But if you have a puppy or kitten, get them started early. Yeah, do brush 13. It's like

when my allergist said, you need to not sleep with your cat in your bed, don't let her in your room. And I was like, that's nice, but she would meow outside the door for 12 hours all night and I wouldn't get any sleep. Yeah, it's very easy for me to sit here and say, you should. should brush your cat's teeth every day. It's true. You should. But again, we're not living in a vacuum. There are other factors at play. Are you a fan of the dental treats, or do you think those are kind of bullshit marketing? It's definitely not bullshit marketing. I am a fan of more natural-based home care dental products because I do wonder, and again, you can't necessarily really prove causality here, but some of these products have a lot of chemicals in them when I try and keep that to a minimum of my

patients. So it depends on exactly what you're using and how frequently you're using them. But there are some all-natural products out there that can be really helpful. What are some of your favorites? There's products out there like seed dent. There's other seaweed and kelp-derived products that can be helpful. I have a product for dogs called Canine Fresh, which is an all-natural dental chew that works quite nicely. So there is stuff out there. You just really kind of have to look for it. Okay. Everybody wants their pet to live forever, myself very much included. And your books are a guide to help increase the lifespan, the longevity of our dogs and cats. So I'm curious to start,

what are some things that we might be doing carewise that are decreasing the lifespan of our pets, inadvertently, of course? From a longevity perspective, everybody likes to get excited about all the cutting its science. And that is super cool. And there is, are some really great stuff out there. But honestly, the single biggest things that you can do that are going to have the greatest impact are going to be diet, exercise, and lifestyle. It's no different than with us. You think about those three things as you're building the foundation. You can do all the fancy stem cell therapy and all kinds of other stuff out there. But if your dog or your cat is eating garbage food and they're not getting the right amount of exercise, what does it matter that you're

doing stem cell therapy. You have to start with that stuff. The great part about it is, is all that foundational stuff is really easy to do, and you don't need me as a veterinarian to help you do it. Can you give us some specific recommendations, maybe like three things specifically for dogs and three things specifically for cats that we can do to increase their lifespan? The single biggest thing that you can do, whether it's a dog or cat, is get your pet on a fresh whole food diet. When you're... look at kibble or canned food, there is no way to describe it as anything other than highly processed food. We all know from our own health that the less processed food we're eating, the more healthy we're likely to be.

For some reason, that doesn't seem to translate with people or quite frankly veterinarians, that this is a problem. But if you look at the science, it's pretty clear that there are chemical compounds that are created when these processed foods are made. that are really harmful to animals, and furthermore, there are nutrients that are lost in the processing. Again, that can cause problems. While certainly a dog or a cat's optimal nutritional profile is maybe a little bit different than ours as people, the reality that every animal on the planet evolved eating a fresh whole food diet is really sort of an inarguable fact. So that's how our bodies are designed to be healthy and to thrive. So getting your dog or your cat on fresh whole foods, whether or not it's something that you're buying, frozen cooked food, frozen raw food,

freeze-dried fresh food, or if you're so interested to do it, you can make food for them. The only caveat there is you just have to work off of a recipe so you know that your pet's getting a properly balanced meal. You can't just put meat and vegetables in a bowl and just call it good. So that is literally the lowest of low-hanging fruit from the perspective of what you can do. The next thing I would say that you can do is make sure that your pet gets plenty of exercise. There is no question in the science that animals and people who get an appropriate amount of exercise are healthier, have better mobility, have less disease onset, and generally live longer. So for dogs, that means getting them out and having them exercise.

For cats, it's a little bit trickier because I am a very big proponent of keeping cats indoors. statistically speaking, indoor cats live far, far longer than cats that go outside. I think your situation's a little different because it's just a supervised outing, so that's really not the same. It's like a cateo. Exactly. And those are great because that's a great way for cats to sort of get that outside fix without all the dangers that come with it.

Not to mention the fact that cats outside are an absolute ecological disaster from the standpoint of wildlife, from the standpoint of birds, and other little critters, it's just mayhem. You can't get around the fact that cats are predators, and you put them out there, and they're going to go hunt. It's what cats do. So, you know, finding ways to sort of engage and get your cat to exercise at home, it can be a little bit of a process.

It's absolutely something that can be done. It's something that I go into in a lot of detail in my book, longevity for cats, because it is a really, really important thing. And I guess the third thing that I would say, which, again, is an easy thing for people to do, or at least it should be, is sort of maintain a reasonably stress-free lifestyle for pets. And what I mean by that is we know that stress has negative impacts on health. And that's true for people and it's true for animals.

And it's not to say that everybody doesn't have a bad day from time to time. But if you have a dog and you have a dog with a really active personality, like you have a border collie or something, and you're keeping that dog in a small apartment and they're not getting out for enough exercise, they're going nuts. They're having a lot of anxiety. They're having a lot of stress. From the standpoint of cats, cats can get stressed out by weird stuff. They can get stressed out by noises outside. Sometimes if there's more than one cat in the household and the cats don't necessarily get along very well, there can be a lot of stress involved with that

and kind of hate to bring this up. But if people live in a high stress household, maybe two people in the house don't really get along and there's a lot of arguing. If you think that's not affecting your pets, you're kidding yourself. All of this stuff weighs on them just like it weighs on us. So again, diet, exercise, and lifestyle are the three easiest things anybody can do to help their pet to live longer, be happier and be healthier. And you don't need a veterinarian to do any of that stuff. I'm genuinely confused how master class gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes. I use it when I want to learn things directly, like the cooking class from Thomas Keller

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Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody, Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like, if it's off-gassing, you're breathing that in for basically a third of your life. And most conventional mattresses are loaded with synthetic foams, flame retardants, microplastics, and more. Plus, if it's not comfy, you're going to be tossing and turning. You're going to be really hot. And sleep is the foundation of health. It is so important. Because of all of this, if I were not going to invest in any other part of my house, no other things in my house, I would invest in my mattress. And in fact,

I have four years well before I had much money to spend on any of these things because it is such a big needle mover. The birch mattress is incredible. It is made with organic cotton, natural latex, and ethically sourced wool. So it has literally no off gassing. You can not smell anything right when you boxed it has no microplastics, no synthetic foams or flame retardants. And the wool makes it so breathable, which if you've listened to this podcast for more than five minutes, you know that I run very, very hot. Like I am a furnace. Zach has basically accepted that sleeping next to me is like sleeping next to like a little fire. And the birch mattress has been a game changer for that. It's made me sleep so much better. Like I can see my sleep score going up because I'm not hot all night long.

It's also hypoallergenic, which is really worth paying attention to if you find yourself waking up stuffy or congested. Dust mites in a conventional mattress can actually impact your breathing and your sleep quality without you even realizing it. And again, we need to be able to breathe to get good sleep and getting good sleep is the foundation of our health. And then comfort-wise, Zach sleeps on his back and then I sleep on my side and my stomach. So we have two completely different sleep styles and we both wake up feeling really good, no aches and pains. CNN actually named the Birch mattress, the best mattress for side sleepers, and Wired named it the best organic mattress period. So there you go. Birch has options for every kind of sleeper in your household.

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And you're going to get 20% off birchliving.com slash Liz Moody. Okay. I have questions. Let's work backwards. Let's start with the stress. Yeah. Let's say you have a roommate that has a cat your cat doesn't get along with and you can't make your roommate move out. say there's construction and the house next door, like there's things that are stressing your pet out, but you can't change those things, your lifestyle. Do you have recommendations then to mitigate the situation? It very much depends on the situation. So from the standpoint of like two cats in the house that maybe don't get along, sometimes what you wind up having to do is segregate them so that they're not sort of in the same place. Because usually in those situations, there's one

dominant cat that's probably either physically beating up the other one or sort of more psychologically just with the death stare, as cats will do, with one another. So sometimes you wind up separating them. Sometimes you can look at putting them on some sort of supplementation to help with a little bit of anxiety. Sometimes you can do some environmental enrichment that can give them other stuff to do, keep them entertained. If you have a dog and a cat in a house and the cat has issues with a dog, maybe you can give the cat some places where the dog can't get to. You can make environmental changes. As far as like construction outside, unfortunately, that's a rough thing to deal with. Perhaps in that case, you can sort of segregate the cat on the other side of the house, so maybe they don't have to hear it as

much. You've got to get creative with these things. And hopefully, construction is a short-term issue. And again, nobody's expecting anybody to live a 100% stress-free life. It's just not real. We've got to live in the real world. but there are things we can do to mitigate these potentially longer term problems. Are there any acute stress relievers that you like for animals? Like, are there supplements you really like? What are your thoughts on the Thundercat, Thunderdog, like vests for them, stuff like that? I don't know if I've ever seen a Thundershirt for a cat. They might make them.

Oh, they exist, yeah, for sure. And sometimes when Bella seems stressed, I'll hold her really tight and I'll be like, I'm thundercadding you. Very well. Well, yeah, I absolutely have seen Thunder Shirts work for dogs. There are certainly no shortage of supplements out there that can be helpful as well. The supplement du jour is CBD these days and that absolutely can work. I think the big thing to remember when it comes to stuff like that is once the animal is stressed out, all is kind of lost in that moment.

You're not going to be able to give them something and have them not be stressed out. Think about it through the lens of like a person who has like a panic attack. There's no way you're going to be able to give that person anything that's going to get them out of that panic attack other than time. Slapping someone and telling them to get a hold of themselves only works in old movies. It just does not work in the real world. So the trick is that you need to be able to get ahead of the stuff before they start getting spun up. So getting them on supplements, even potentially in extreme situations, getting them on medication. Again, I'm not against pharmaceuticals in the right setting, but realize that whether it's supplements or it's pharmaceuticals, you're never going to be able to just completely medicate away anxiety.

When people have stress and anxiety and get to the point where they need to go on medication, generally speaking, it's medication plus therapy. Well, therapy with dogs is training. Therapy with cats is really more sort of environmental enrichment and distraction. It has to come along with both. You can't just put them on meds or put them on supplements and walk away and think it's all going to be better. If a dog is having behavior issues, it's like go-to training. But if a cat's having behavior issues, it's like they need to be entertained more. Entertained or there needs to be adjustments in their lifestyle.

So the tricky bit is figuring out, okay, what is the thing that's stressing this cat out? And how can we adjust things in the house so it's less of a problem? Another thing I think a lot of people feel bad about is they have a pet and then they have a full-time job out of the house and they feel bad for leaving their pet all day, but they also want to get to have the pet and not have to give it back. So my sister puts on cat TV, like it's birds all day for the cat. Is that helpful or is there anything we can do if we're out of the home all day to make it more pleasant for our animals? It very much depends on the cat, whether or not that's a kind of thing that makes that cat happy. I have definitely seen dogs and cats literally, literally, watch television. Other ones just don't even recognize that it's a thing. I think it depends on the individual. And the issue with people who have long days at work, that is a real problem, particularly with dogs, because dogs need a lot of interaction. And depending on the general

demeanor of your dog, they may be going absolutely nuts if they're home for eight or ten hours alone. So sometimes the solution to that if you have a dog is get a dog walker, have somebody come in the middle of the day and take the dog out for a good long walk so they get some time outside and, you know, they get a change of scenery. With cats, it can be a little bit different. Some cats are fine at home. Sometimes it may be beneficial to have somebody come over in the middle of the day and just hang out with the cat. If they're the kind of kitty that sort of gets lonely, it's a tough situation. and it really is a function of figuring out what is right for the animal. And I understand, believe me, nobody understands more than I do, the sort of the joys of having a pet.

But quite frankly, not everybody's lifestyle is amenable to having a pet. Is there anything that we could be doing that might be stressing our pets out that we might not be aware of that you see in your practice? I think people often do things that stress their pets out and they don't really realize it at all. It can be loud noises, sometimes it can be various activities that happen in the house. One of the things that can really stress animals out that people don't realize is animals are very much creatures of habit and routine. They like things that happen consistently every day. They like meal time the same time, walk time the same time, play time the same time. So for people who live a really erratic lifestyle, that can actually really be a big source of

stress for animals because they never know who's coming and going or when or what's going to happen when. If you think about the kind of things that people tend to get stressed out about, while the subject matter of what you might be stressed out about changes, the through line almost always is it's some sort of uncertainty. It's, I don't know what's going to happen in some given situation. I don't know what somebody's going to say. I don't know what's going to happen here or there. That's the kind of thing that people get stressed out about. That's the kind of thing that animals get stressed out about. When they don't know what's going on and they don't know who's in charge and they don't

know what's happening, they get scared. That makes a ton of sense. Okay. And then the last stress question I want to ask you about and then we'll dive back into the food part. But in terms of stress. I know that travel stress is a big thing for animals. So when you're putting them in the car, when you're taking them on planes, things like that, is there anything we can do to make traveling a less stressful experience for our animals? Yeah, that can be a lot, particularly for a cat, because cats are like the ultimate OCD people. Like cats need to have everything in the same place all the time. The perfect sort of illustration of the difference between dogs and cats is you put a dog in a car and let them hang their head out the window and it's like the greatest thing

that ever happened to them. You do that with a cat, it's death. Like, a cat does not want to see the world go whizzing by at 50 miles an hour. If you move a chair in your living room, your cat's probably upset about it. So, yeah, I mean, that kind of change can really be tough on kitties, but the thing that you can do, number one, is just whenever possible, get them acclimated to that kind of stuff early. It's just like what people have kids. One of the best things that you can do with little kids is get them used to anything that's part of your normal lifestyle when they're really young. So that way it's just part of their life. Same thing with dogs and cats. If you travel a lot, then get them used to being in a carrier. Throw them in the car and just take a drive around the

neighborhood just so they're used to that experience and do it from time to time so it's no big deal for them because that's just the thing that happens in my life. There are certainly supplements one can use to kind of help calm them down. If you have to put a dog or a cat in a carrier like for air travel, what you can do is take a bath towel that you've used that day and put it in there so it has your scent on it. Things like that are really beneficial. And if it's real bad, then definitely talk to your veterinarian about possibly, you know, using some sort of medication, although to be clear, we're very, very reticent to put cats or dogs on any sort of pharmaceutical if they're going on an airplane because that's a real bad time to find out that they're going to have a bad reaction

to meds, but there are instances for car travel and whatnot, even just for nausea and motion sickness, which again can be a source of stress for them. If your dog or cat associates every time I get in the car, I feel sick and I puke, that's a source of stress. You know, if you can put them on something to help with nausea and motion sickness, then they're going to be a little bit less stressed out every time they have to go. Are you a fan of the pheromone plug-ins or sprays? You know what? I think they're great products. I find that. I find that. the efficacy is a little hit or miss. I think with some animals it works great. With some animals, it doesn't touch them. I've never seen it cause any harm. So I would say absolutely

use them. And if you're lucky enough to be one of those pet owners where it works well, that's great. Okay. Let's get into food. Food is such a tricky one because you make it sound really simple. You're like, give them real human-grade food. But I think that food can be really hard to find. It's not widely available at pet stores. It can be really, really expensive. So let's start with if somebody is committed to doing this human-grade food, are there brands that you like? Where are you buying them? Sure. I will respectfully disagree with two of three of your points. Okay. It's not hard to find, and most pet stores these days have some degree of fresh food. The fact that it's expensive is sort of that you can't argue with.

But most pet stores that you go to these days will have some sort of fresh food options, whether it's frozen raw, frozen cooked, freeze dried. There's all kinds of foods that you can purchase online now. So there's a lot of availability and a lot of options. The expense part is tricky. And it depends. So like, you know, for you, you have one cat. So maybe it's not such a big deal.

You know, if somebody has two 75 pound Labradors, that's going to get real spendy real fast. The options, when it comes to the expense issue, I would say realistically, there's two. The first one is, if it's something that you're willing and able to do, if you make food, it's going to be a lot cheaper than if you buy it. Because you're able to buy the ingredients in bulk, needless to say, like so many things in life, you're trading your time for your money. So it's going to take you a little more time to make the food, but it's definitely going to be a lot less on a per meal basis. So that's one way you can deal with it.

The other way that you can deal with it as a sort of roll back to what we were talking about with toothbrushing is you have to live in the real world. And if the reality is, if it's just not financially doable for somebody to feed their pet all fresh food, then you feed them some fresh food. The analogy I would give is I know that the best thing for me is to eat a completely fresh whole food diet. Just because everything I eat is not necessarily a fresh whole food diet, it doesn't mean that I should just give up completely and live at McDonald's. It's not a binary thing. Generally speaking, the more

fresh food and the less processed food, the better. So buy as much fresh food as you can. And then for whatever else you have to do, get the best quality food that you can reasonably and sustainably afford and do it that way. Again, we have to live in the real world. You do the best you can. Are there places online that you trust for recipes if you did want to make it yourself at home? There are a number of ways that that can be done. In my first book, The Ultimate Pet Health Guide, there's 25 recipes for dogs and 25 recipes for cats. So that's a great resource for people. You can get the book on Amazon and everything that you need is in there to make food for your dog or your cat. There's also a couple of other companies that make kind of like all in one.

supplements. Three that immediately come to mind, one of them is called BalanceIt.com. There's another company called Just Food for Dogs and a third one called The Farmer's Dog. And all three of those companies make supplement premixes. So you buy the premix and the company will give you a recipe to make. So you make the recipe, you add however many scoops of the premix they tell you to add, mix it together, and you have a balanced diet. The one caveat is you have to stick to the recipe that they gave you because the supplement is specifically designed for that one recipe. So you can't kind of go rogue and start putting whatever ingredients you want in because now you're not feeding a balanced diet anymore. But the nice thing about these supplements is it's a one and done supplement. So

you only have to buy the one supplement, added in and you're finished. So logistically, it makes it a little bit easier. And, you know, I think everybody likes easier. So again, you know, whatever you do for your pet has to be sustainable. If you're going to start something and then give it up in a month, then what's the point? So it has to be something that you can keep doing for the long term. So if that's what works for you, then do it that way. Are there brands that you really like for fresh whole food? There's a number of different options. So there are things that you would buy frozen, lightly cooked diets. So in In that sense, there's a company called Evermore that makes very good food. I just mentioned just food for dogs and the farmer's dog, also very good foods.

Then there are raw foods out there. The two brands that I commonly steer people towards would be either primal or Stella and Chewis. And then there are freeze-dried raw foods, which are super convenient, especially if you travel, because freeze-dried stuff doesn't need to be refrigerated or frozen, and it weighs nothing. So it's super easy to travel with. So both primal and Stella and Chewies make freeze-dried products. I also have a line of freeze-dried foods out there called Nutra Complete. So any of those are really good options.

And freeze-dried is just as good because that's the only option they have for cats at a lot of the pet food stores that I go to. I feel like they're good on dogs in their frozen refrigerator section, but cats get the short under the stick. You are correct because cats, for being honest, it's a smaller market. so there's not as much financial incentive for companies to do this stuff. Just Food for Dogs actually does make a cat food called Just Food for Cats. So it's a lightly cooked fresh food. But yeah, you're right. So both either frozen raw or freeze-dried raw are frequently what you're going to find for cats.

Okay. Amazing. And then in the hierarchy, if we're going down the list, is like if somebody's not going to do that, let's just say they're listening. They're like, that's cool. Love the information. I'm probably not going to spend the money or I'm going to mix it in, like you said. Is canned food better than dry food in the hierarchy?

Yeah. So I would say if we're going to talk about the hierarchy, fresh or like fresh frozen is going to be your best option. Then freeze dried. There's really very little daylight between the two. But if we're hierarching things, then there are actually some foods out there that are dehydrated rather than freeze dried. So it's still very good. then we're going to get into canned diets and kibble is really going to be the bottom of the barrel from the perspective of what is best health care wise.

That makes sense. And what if your animal is super picky? What if you're trying to give them this food and you're like, yo, this food is so good for you. It's going to make you live forever. And they're like, no, no, I love my kibble. It's designed to be Doritos for animals. So how do we get around that? That can be really tricky, especially for cats.

whatever they're acclimated to is going to be what they want. And getting a cat to sort of convert from being on kibble to being on a fresh food can be very difficult. And if I'm being honest, sometimes impossible. But the way that you do it is extremely slowly. So you start adding the tiniest amount of the food that you want to start with the food that they're currently eating and over a very, very slow process. And by slow process, I mean anywhere from a week to three or four weeks.

You gradually increase the amount of new food, gradually decrease the amount of old food. And sometimes if it's gradual enough, you can sort of get them acclimated over. Sometimes you also wind up with a situation where they'll eat some of it, but not all of it. And again, you just have to kind of live with whatever they're going to put up with. The other two things I could say about that is many, many years ago, I had sort of a neighborhood cat that kind of adopted me. And she was a dry food kibble kitty when we got her. And the best I was able to do with her is I was able to convert her over to freeze dried raw, but she preferred it dry. You're supposed to add water to it and rehydrate it. But I think she liked the crunchy part

about it being dry. So that was the agreement that she and I came to is that's what she was going to eat. You just kind of have to have that negotiation with your pet. But it is a really good sort of testimonial as to why the best thing that you can do is start them early. Because what you get them used to when they're young is going to be what they're going to just sort of think of as food as things move on. When they're not elderly babies yet. Exactly. Is there a hierarchy of treats? Generally speaking, when it comes to treats, I think the easiest way to look at treats is look for single ingredient treats. and by single ingredient, I mean either freeze-dried or dehydrated piece of meat. Quite frankly, it's all they really want anyway.

But like milk bones and all of that sort of stuff, it's complete crap. We're trying to stay away from highly processed foods. We're trying to stay away from high carbohydrate foods because your cat is an obligate carnivore and has no idea what to do with carbohydrates from a metabolic standpoint. And dogs, while not as carnivorous as a cat, certainly do not. not need the level of carbohydrates that they're generally getting. So freeze-dried or dehydrated meat is the easiest way to go and they're super happy about it. Are there supplements that you would recommend for most dog or cat owners? That's a tricky one. Some of it depends on what

they're eating. Some of it depends on how old they are and their general lifestyle. In general, the two supplements that you can almost never go wrong with are probiotics and fish oil. Gut health is critically important for everybody, and probiotics can be really helpful in that sense. And omega-3 fatty acids, particularly the EPA and DHA that are found in fish oil, krill oil, marine algae oil, are incredibly beneficial as anti-inflammatories. They support the immune system. They support gut health. And most animals are actually probably deficient in omega-fatty.

acids. So those are probably the two things that almost across the board any animal would benefit from. Outside of that, there are certainly kind of general purpose, health supporting supplements that can be very beneficial. I developed one for dogs and cats called Nutra Thrive, which they tend to do very, very well on. And there are other ones out there as well. But again, it really kind of depends on age, lifestyle, diet, particular medical issues, et cetera. Now that Bella is an elderly baby, should we be adding anything in specifically for her? It depends a little bit on what she's eating, but the answer to her question is probably yes. Certainly an omega fatty acid would not be a bad thing.

Sometimes getting these guys on a vitamin and mineral supplement can be beneficial as well. Turns out that a lot of dogs and cats are vitamin D deficient. Some of them are vitamin B deficient. And things like vitamin D in particular have an enormous impact on longevity for from the standpoint of they help prevent cancer, they maintain good muscle mass and bone density. There's all kinds of things these things can do. Something as sort of mundane as vitamin D. You don't really think about it as like some powerhouse supplement, but it's there for a reason. You know, our bodies really need it. And a lot of animals that I test are actually deficient in

vitamin D, regardless of the fact that some of them are actually eating really good diets. Can we ask our vet for that? Like I would ask my doctor to, test my blood for vitamin D. Can we ask our vet to test our animals' blood for vitamin D? The short answer to a question is yes. The long answer to the question is, depending on your vet, they might look at you like you're from Mars. The thing is, probably 98% of the lab work that's done in veterinary hospitals across the country are done by two specific laboratories. And if those laboratories don't offer a given test, a lot of veterinarians won't know where to get that kind of stuff wrong. So you sort of have to know what lab laboratories.

laboratories run what tests outside of those sort of two big players to sometimes get some of the stuff taken care of. Is there any way to tell what ailments or what risk factors our animal might have so that we can start to prevent them now? That's actually a really good question. Yes, there are a number of ways. One of the things that you can do is there's a number of companies out there that you can run genetic screenings on animals. So you can find out what diseases they might be genetically predisposed to. Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean that your dog or your cat is going to get that disease. It just means that they have the gene for it. But it gives you the opportunity to keep an eye out and maybe look a little bit deeper. So for example, if you have a cat that you find

out is genetically predisposed to heart disease, maybe that's something you want to keep a little bit more of an eye out for than you would in a cat that is not so predisposed. So that's a really good thing for people to do. The other thing that you can do is more routine blood screening. So again, standard blood panel, but also testing for things like omega fatty acids or vitamin deficiency or mineral deficiencies. So things that you can do where you can actually intervene early and hopefully prevent problems from happening in the future. Again, that comes back to this whole concept of proactive preventative health care. The number one rule of habits is to make the things that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder.

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they're licking them. So I'm protecting them too. Brand basics is now available at Target, target, target.com, Amazon and branchbasics.com. So it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15% off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branch basics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show. That is branch basics.com and use code Liz Moody. Could you share a few common conditions that you see with dogs and with cats, maybe some of the most common ones, and then what you would do in those scenarios that

might be different than a typical vet? One of the most common things that I see dogs for in my office would be either allergies or arthritis, joint related problems. For allergies, from a conventional Western medical perspective, a lot of times that's going to be a function of put the dog on a prescription diet, or it's going to be put them on pharmaceuticals to control the allergies. The way I would look at it is get them on a fresh whole food diet, maybe look at doing some food sensitivity testing to see if there's certain foods that might be causing inflammation. put them on herbs and supplements to help mitigate their allergies. So the goal, of course, is going to be to get the allergies resolved or at least controlled without having to resort to pharmaceuticals or highly processed prescription diets that may cause

problems down the road. Similarly, when we look at arthritis, standard veterinary medicine is put them on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, maybe put them on some pain meds and say, have a nice day. For us, while those things are certainly on the table, other things that I would look at would be putting them on the right herbs and supplements, maybe talking about their diet to decrease their overall level of inflammation, using a medication like Ataquan, which helps support their joints and their joint fluid without having the negative potential side effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. So there are other ways one can do these things. From a kitty perspective,

one of the things that we see a lot in cats is inflammatory bowel disease or IBD. We get a lot of those. Again, sometimes that's a diet question. When you have cats that are eating these highly processed foods, sometimes that's actually causing inflammation in their gut. Sometimes it's a function of looking at things like probiotics, omega fatty acids. Sometimes it's a question of looking at something that maybe is even a little bit more out of the box, like a fecal transplant or ozone therapy.

There are in many cases natural ways to mitigate and manage these chronics and very commonly encountered conditions. Now, to be clear, that's not to say that I don't sometimes use pharmaceuticals in these animals because sometimes it becomes necessary. It's just not generally the first thing I do. IBD, would that make your cat throw up a lot? IBD can manifest usually as either vomiting and or diarrhea. It kind of depends on a cat. I feel like Bella throws up a lot, but I also feel like a lot of cats throw up a lot, so I don't know how much is too much, you know? Yeah, occasional puking is kind of a thing that cats do, but if it's more than once in a while,

then that could be an indication that there's something going on. Now, whether that's a diet situation or IBD or some other medical condition, that's an open question. We think that she has something called bilious or something, where she throws up in the morning if she isn't fed early enough, like if her stomach's too empty. So we're trying to figure out how to mitigate that without waking up at 5 a.m. Yeah, bilious vomiting syndrome is absolutely a thing that dogs and cats will do. It's kind of a fancy way of saying they have heartburn. Generally speaking, the kind of generic first thing to try with that kind of stuff is feed them right before you go to bed.

So they're going to sleep with a full stomach. because usually what happens is when they're laying down for a really long time on an empty stomach and they wind up getting reflux. If they go to bed on a full stomach, sometimes that will help. Not always, but sometimes it will. Are there any other ways to keep your cat from waking you up at 5 a.m. for breakfast? That's just cats. You're lucky she's not running across your face at 3 a.m.

She's learned to cuddle with my husband because I get too annoyed if anything, disrupts my sleep. And so she's learned that she can cuddle with him all night and that'll be a more stable situation. Okay. I mean, realize that middle of the night and early morning is high time for cats. They'll sleep all day, but they're ready to go at 3 a.m. Yeah, it's a little bit frustrating. What about hair balls? Is that a bad thing or is that normal and expected? The occasional hairball on a cat is not necessarily an abnormal thing. If it's a regular thing with cats, that's not normal. Cats should be able to groom and kind of manage themselves without puking up hairballs all the time. Sometimes that's a diet situation. Sometimes it's a supplement thing. If it's a really long-haired cat, sometimes it's a

grooming thing that they need to be brushed more often just to get some of the loose hair out. There's definitely some options there to kind of manage those things. You mentioned grooming. Are there any other lifestyle things we should be doing for our animals that people don't think to do? We talked a bit about lifestyle. I do think it's important that we make sure that they're getting the kind of enrichment that they want and that they need. Dogs in particular tend to be very sociable animals. I mean, dogs are pack animals by nature. So most dogs will enjoy getting out and seeing other people, potentially meeting other dogs. That's the thing that a lot of dogs will like, clearly that's a little bit different with cats, but cats have a real tendency to kind of

put out this everything's fine vibe because that's just cats. But I think cats are probably a little bit more needy than we like to think that they are. Environmental enrichment, particularly for strictly indoor cats, is important. Engaging them in play on a regular schedule, on a daily schedule. Again, they're very much creatures of routine. So if like 5 p.m. is designated playtime, then that's a thing that they'll really enjoy and really just providing some sort of environmental enrichment. So like you can train your cat to kind of prowl around the house and look for treats that you've hidden. So while it is certainly better for cats to stay inside, it is also kind of then our responsibility to make sure that their environment is fun and interesting. And that means that we

have to do stuff to make it so. My dream for when we ever have our own house is to build one of those things where your cat can go up the entire wall and go around the perimeter on the ceiling. In terms of trying to get an animal who will have better or worse health in general, is our single breed animals more likely to encounter health issues? Is it better to get like a mixed mutt type situation? If you're talking in the aggregate, mixed breed animals tend to have less genetically predisposed diseases than purebred animals do. Again, that's a big picture statement. There are, without a doubt, mixed breed dogs out there with horrifying hip dysplasia and

congenital heart disease and all kinds of other stuff. And there are purebred animals that don't have any of those things. So there's always going to be sort of a balance. But yeah, I mean, if you're talking about big picture, there's a term in medicine called hybrid vigor. Basically, it means that the more mixed up your genetics are, the healthier you're likely to be because the lower the chance of somebody winding up with some sort of. sort of hereditary disease.

Are there any breeds that at this point you think are just not healthy breeds? Oh, you're going to get me in trouble now. Somebody's going to get angry with me. I think that there are definitely breeds that are more problematic than other breeds. So apologies to anybody out there who owns a French bulldog, we see a lot of problems with French bulldogs. It's the breathing thing, right? That's a tiny little piece of it.

It's actually a spine thing. It's a back problem. We do a lot of physical therapy in my office, and I can't tell you how many French bulldogs with blown discs and back surgery we treat. It is an absolute mess. They're very cute, but spine-wise, it's not a good scene. So that's a problem. Bernie's mountain dogs have very, very high incidences of cancer, which is really unfortunate because they're very sweet dogs. There are certain breeds of dogs that seem to be prone to certain problems.

I wouldn't say that there's a breed of dog from a medical perspective that I would tell somebody don't ever, ever get that dog. There might be some breeds of dogs that I would steer people away from a behavioral perspective. But medically speaking, I think it's really a function of if you're sort of bound and determined of I'm getting a French bulldog, then essentially you need to do your due diligence and make sure that you're getting that dog from a breeder that's breeding properly. Because a lot of what happens in French bull dogs, as you may be aware, are extremely trendy right now. And generally speaking, when that happens, you get a lot of people breeding animals that are doing it irresponsibly.

It always makes me laugh that, like, somebody will spend six months researching which kind of television to get. And then they'll buy a purebred dog off of Craigslist. It's amazing to me, because you're going to have that TV for maybe three years and get a new one. you're going to have that dog for 15 years and it's going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills because you got a dog from an irresponsible breeder. I would really encourage people to do their homework and make sure if you're going to get a purebred dog, do it right and get it from somebody who's responsibly breathing. Well, and it's good to even know the risks, I would think,

because let's say you have a Burmese mounted dog and you know it's more likely to have cancer or you know it's at a greater risk for cancer. You can take it to the vet and check it more often and hopefully prevent. some of that. Yeah, it's true. And you can do things like what we've been talking about is feed them an appropriate diet, put them on supplements that we know help prevent cancer. Do some stuff that hopefully will head it off, but you also have to go into that knowing that no matter what you do, that may be something that you're going to face down the road. From a behavioral perspective, which animals breed might be sure people away from. Okay. So some of these dogs people may or may not

be familiar with. And again, apologies to people who own these dogs, but Chows, Akita's, Rottweilers can be very problematic if not properly trained. Similarly, German shepherds can be very problematic if not properly trained. Dogs like a Belgian Malinua. Belgian Malinwas and Turvirens, when you see like police dogs and military dogs, that's usually what those dogs are. And they can be great dogs, but if they are not trained properly, they can be very dangerous. Were all of those ones you said at risk of being dangerous or were any of them just like at risk of being annoying? Oh, no.

Annoying is not a problem for me. Wants to eat you is a problem for me. All right. Well, I know some people are like, I just found out recently that huskies are really loud. And I think people sometimes are ill prepared or like my cat is half Siamese, we think. So she talks a lot. She talks a lot. She's very, very, very chatty.

and we diagnosed backwards. We think her dad was like a rough and tumble tabby, and her mom was like a Siamese. They found her in a dumpster, so we don't know. We have a very Aristocats narrative going on with her, but we think she's Siamese because of how she looks, and then also the fact that she is very, very, very chatty.

And her eyes do that thing. Whatever makes you happy. Could you leave listeners with just one homework assignment today, maybe one for cats, one for dogs, or if you think it's the same, but if they just want to have their pet live their healthiest, happiest life, what's one thing they could do right when they finish listening to the podcast today? Other than what we've talked about, particularly regarding diet, exercise, and lifestyle, I'll give you two things. One of them, if you haven't already done it, get pet insurance.

Because nothing is more tragic than when people have to make a life and death decision based on what it costs. The other thing is we talked a little bit about dogs and cats being creatures of habit and routine. So that is not only true from a behavioral standpoint. It's true from a health care standpoint. So dogs and cats tend to do the same thing every day. They eat at the same time. They sleep in the same place. They do the similar activities every day. So if your dog or your cat breaks their routine and there's no obvious explanation as to why, That's when you need to really start paying attention because there might be something physically wrong with them. Realize that not only are dogs and cats nonverbal, but the only time your pet will lie to you and their life is when they're sick. An animal in the wild that looks sick or injured is going to get eaten.

And as such, these guys are hardwired to make everything look okay even when it's not. So by the time they look sick, they've probably been sick for a while. And the way to recognize there's a problem before they're actually acting sick is you look for breaks in their routine. Maybe they're still eating, but maybe like your dog or your cat just isn't eating breakfast first thing in the morning and they're waiting an hour or two to eat. Maybe they're drinking more water than they used to. Maybe they're sleeping in weird places. Maybe your dog doesn't want to go on as long a walk as he used to. All of these things are subtle, but they can be indications of an underlying medical condition and you don't want to wait until they're obviously.

sick because by that time you're behind the eight ball. That makes me so sad to think about them, like, toughing it out with their little brave face because they don't want to let on that something is wrong with them. Yeah, it's the only time they'll lie. Oh, poor little babies. Okay, can you tell us a little bit about all of your books and your supplements and where to find you on the internet? The ultimate pet health guide has been out for a couple of years. You can buy it anywhere, it's on Amazon. There's two other books, longevity for dogs and longevity for cats, that is actually going to be released August 29th. There will be an audio version of the books, if that's your preference. From a supplement perspective, I have both a line of supplements and food

for both dogs and cats through Ultimate Pet Nutrition.com. So that's a great resource for properly formulated supplements and food. And if you're in the Bay Area and you want to come see me, my office is holistic veterinary care. We're in Oakland, holistic vetcare.com. Amazing. Bella's home-based vet is in the Bay Area, so we'll definitely bring her by to see you. Wonderful.

I look forward to it. Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Richter. I really appreciated this. You are so welcome. It's been a pleasure. We switched Bella to Stella and Chewies after recording this, and she actually loves it.

I thought she'd be annoying and picky, but she actually eats it better than her other food. And she throws up way less, and her coat has gotten so shiny, so thank you, Dr. Richter for the push and everything else that you shared in this conversation. We have an incredible giveaway to go along with this episode. Dr. Richter so generously offered to give away $300 of free product from his pet care company Ultimate Pet Nutrition. They have all kinds of vitamins, supplements, freeze-dried food, and treats like we talked about

during the interview. They have dental chews and more for both dogs and cats. Zach and I have actually been mixing the multivitamin powder into Bella's food, and I think that's definitely responsible for some of the positive changes that I have seen too. So you want to get your hands on this stuff. To enter, just comment on my most recent Instagram post at Liz Moody, something that you loved or learned from the episode. The post does not need to be about the episode. Just be sure to mention it so that I know that you're entering. Also, if you love this episode, be sure to send it to a fellow pet owner in your life. And if you got sent the episode by someone, welcome. Make sure that you're following the pod on whatever platform that you like to listen on

because we have some incredible episodes coming up, including one about how to make sure that household labor is fairly divided and one about making the most of your time on this planet, but on a very pragmatic level, not on like an esoteric one. So make sure that you're following so you do not miss out. Okay, I love you and I will see you next Wednesday on the next episode of The Healthier Together, the soon-to-be-liz Moody podcast. When you think about strength resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older. What do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out or good nutrition, and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that

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