My Dog Is Better Than Your Dog

Before that puppy ever comes home to you, before the first walk, the first vet visit, the first time they fall asleep in your lap, there are six to eight weeks happening behind the scenes that will shape their health, their temperament, and their resilience for the rest of their life.
Most pet parents have zero control over what happens during that window. And most never think to ask.
Heather Gibson is the founder of Big Hearted Breeders, a certified pet nutrition coach who has spent over 12 years raising dogs and cats with a holistic wellness first approach. Before she was a breeder, she was a foster parent for over a decade, caring for children with severe trauma. It was watching her foster children heal through their bond with animals that set her on this path.
We get into what early neurological stimulation actually is and why it matters, what health testing should happen before breeding ever begins, how to tell the difference between a breeder who truly cares and one who is running a business, and why the relationship between breeders and vets is so strained and what we can do about it.
KEY INSIGHTS:
✨ The first eight weeks of a puppy's life happen entirely without you. What a breeder does during that window shapes the immune system, nervous system, temperament, and resilience for life.
✨ Early neurological stimulation, developed by the military and sometimes called the Superdog program, is done from day six to day 17. Research shows it builds a more robust immune system and a nervous system better able to handle change.
✨ After those first two weeks, good breeders move into daily socialization, introducing new sounds, textures, smells, and obstacles so the puppy's brain builds the neural pathways that say new things are safe.
✨ Health testing on the parents is non-negotiable. Hips, elbows, patellas, heart, eyes, and a full genetic panel to screen for recessive genes that two healthy dogs can unknowingly both carry and pass on.
✨ Colostrum is a window that cannot be replicated. If a puppy misses those first hours of mother's milk, they start at an immune disadvantage that is very difficult to make up. Ask whether all puppies were latched and fed immediately after birth.
✨ Weaning straight from mother's milk to kibble is a harsh transition for a developing gut. Even partial introduction of fresh food during weaning sets up a stronger microbiome for life.
✨ Routine deworming with metronidazole every two weeks means some puppies have had three or four rounds of gut-clearing medication before they leave the breeder. Dr. Lily recommends testing before treating rather than automatic deworming protocols.
✨ Ask any breeder whether they offer lifetime support and whether they will take the dog back at any point if something happens to the family. That answer tells you who you are working with.
✨ A puppy at eight weeks can only be awake for about 30 minutes before needing a long rest. Overstimulation is one of the most common reasons new puppies seem out of control, and most families are never told this.
✨ The vet and breeder relationship does not have to be adversarial. They share the same goal. Building bridges between those two worlds is better for puppies and better for families.

Resources: Big Hearted Breeders: https://www.bigheartedbreeders.com
Instagram: @bigheartedbreeders
Facebook: @bigheartedbreeders
YouTube: @bigheartedbreeders
TikTok: @bigheartedbreeders
Pinterest: @bigheartedbreeders

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Dr. Lily Chen:
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LinkedIn: Lily Chen, DVM, CVA

Episode 100.
I almost cannot believe it. When this podcast started, I did not know if anyone would listen. I only knew there were options out there, real and powerful ones, that too many pet parents never get told about. So I made a place for those conversations.
Tonight was different. No guest, no script. Just a live recording with a room full of pet parents who have been on this journey with me, asking the real questions, sharing what they have lived through, and reminding me exactly why this exists.
We talked about fecal transplants for IBD and when to start tapering off antibiotics like tylosin. We talked about ozone therapy and what it actually does inside the gut. We talked about the Qest4 scan, stem cell therapy for heart disease, UVBI, reference ranges that shift over time, and why a dog's liver values being high for 15 years might just be that dog's normal.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, I said something I have been wanting to say for a long time. I am a little tired of the fighting between conventional and holistic. I do both. I sit squarely in the middle. And it was never for us doctors to decide. It is for the families to decide, and they cannot decide if they do not know the options exist.
Here is to the next hundred.

KEY INSIGHTS:
✨ Diarrhea and heart failure are not directly connected. Heart failure causes fluid in the lungs or belly, not the intestines. But pets in heart failure may be more prone to gut issues because the body is already working so hard.
✨ Seasonal flares and stress are real allergy triggers. A dog can have their food sensitivities fully managed and still flare because of pollen, environmental shifts, or the anxiety of their person being away.
✨ Quercetin with bromelain stabilizes mast cells, one of the biggest drivers of allergic reactions. It works best as longer term support rather than an in-the-moment rescue.
✨ Metronidazole has been overused for diarrhea for decades. Research shows it can damage the microbiome and sometimes it does not recover. Fecal transplant is often a better first reach.
✨ When a pet is on multiple gut medications simultaneously, FMT will be less effective but still worth doing. The goal is to build enough stability to slowly taper, starting with the antibiotic.
✨ Ozone before fecal transplant is not about killing bad bacteria. It breaks up biofilm so the new transplant material has a better chance to take hold.
✨ Reference ranges shift over time and are based on a sample population. Trends over time matter far more than any single value.
✨ When kidney values are elevated on bloodwork, 70 to 80 percent of kidney function may already be gone. Watching trends within normal range gives you time to intervene before that point.
✨ The Qest4 bioenergetic scan can test supplement compatibility, showing whether a product is addressing root cause, addressing symptoms, or is not a match for that pet.
✨ Stem cell therapy using amnion has produced dramatic results in heart valve disease, including reversal in some patients. It works best when introduced early in the disease process.
✨ A 20 minute sniff walk provides mental stimulation equivalent to roughly one hour of physical exercise. Letting the dog lead the sniff rather than pulling them along is one of the most effective enrichment tools available.
✨ The microbiome can be imbalanced from puppyhood, often traced back through generations. Testing early, before symptoms appear, gives the most time and the most options.

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Dr. Lily Chen:
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LinkedIn: Lily Chen, DVM, CVA & The Unicorn Vet

A study landed on my desk a few weeks ago and I have not been able to stop thinking about it.
If you have a puppy, a young dog, or you know someone who does, this minisode is for you. It is about parvovirus, one of the scariest and most deadly diseases in young dogs, and a new study showing exactly what can be added to the standard of care to give puppies a better shot at survival, and at a fraction of the cost.
The study, a double blinded, placebo controlled trial out of Ohio State University, looked at fecal microbiota transplant, also called microbiome restoration therapy, added on top of standard hospitalization for parvo. Not instead of it. The results are hard to ignore, and so is the part of the story about cost, because for many families, cost is the difference between treating their dog and losing them.
I am sharing this now, before you ever need it, in the hope that you never do. But if you do, I want you to already know this exists.

KEY INSIGHTS:
✨ Parvovirus destroys the gut lining and wipes out the beneficial bacteria living there. That terrain, not just the virus itself, is largely why puppies crash so fast.
✨ Fecal microbiota transplant, FMT, works by reintroducing healthy, screened donor microbiome material into the sick puppy's gut to rebuild that destroyed terrain, rather than only fighting the virus directly.
✨ In the study, the treatment group received one rectal FMT infusion at admission plus two weeks of oral capsules, in addition to full standard hospital care. The placebo group received saline enemas and blended kibble capsules, also alongside full standard care.
✨ Puppies who received the real FMT recovered faster, had shorter hospital stays, and needed fewer medications. Shorter ICU stays alone can mean thousands of dollars in savings for a family.
✨ There were zero adverse events from the FMT treatment, even in puppies who were among the most immunocompromised patients a veterinarian will ever see.
✨ More than a third of the placebo group had to be pulled from the study early on ethical grounds because those puppies were deteriorating too quickly. None of the puppies receiving the real FMT were pulled from the study.
✨ FMT did not act as an antiviral. It did not reduce viral shedding or change the immune response to the virus directly. What it did was support the body's own ability to heal by restoring the gut terrain.
✨ The commercially available FMT material and oral capsules used in the study cost at most a few hundred dollars, a fraction of the cost of extended hospitalization, and is something any veterinarian can access today.
✨ The biggest barrier to wider adoption is not the science or the difficulty of the procedure. It is hesitancy around something newer to conventional practice, even with solid published data now behind it.
✨ Asking your vet whether they offer fecal transplant or microbiome medicine is one of the most powerful things a pet parent can do to help bring this option into more clinics.
✨ Building a strong, diverse gut microbiome before disease happens is the next layer of this conversation. Prevention and proactive gut health remain the long term goal.

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Dr. Lily Chen:
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LinkedIn: Lily Chen, DVM, CVA

No Script. No Filter. Detox with Oprah's Vet, Dr. Barbara Royal.
This episode is different from anything we have done before. No interview, no host and guest dynamic. What you are about to hear is two integrative veterinarians sitting down together, rolling up their sleeves, and workshopping the single most overwhelming topic in pet health right now. Detox.
Dr. Barbara Royal has over 30 years of integrative veterinary experience, is the founder of The Royal Treatment Veterinary Center in Chicago, and treats planet Earth as her largest patient. She and Dr. Lily go organ by organ, liver, kidneys, gut, skin, lymphatics, lungs, and the nervous system, naming the specific herbs, supplements, and products they each reach for.
They get into the hard stuff too. What to do after vaccines, how to think about flea and tick preventives, why some detox protocols make pets worse before they get better, and why year round chemical use rarely makes sense outside high risk regions.
This conversation became the foundation for two detox guides for pet parents, linked in the show notes below.

KEY INSIGHTS:
✨ Detox starts before the supplement. Real food, filtered water, daily movement, and a lower toxin home matter more than any product added on top.
✨ The liver does roughly 80% of the body's toxin processing. Milk thistle, dandelion, and turmeric are foundational, and mushrooms support liver function too, despite the myth that mushrooms are hard on the liver.
✨ Kidneys actually need more high quality, digestible protein, not less. Good protein turns on dormant kidney tubules and helps filtration.
✨ Probiotics should be rotated, not used the same way every day. Alternating two multi-strain probiotics through the week builds more diversity than sticking with one.
✨ Fiber is not one size fits all. Pumpkin and sweet potato add sugar along with fiber. Rotating chia, psyllium, and flax works better than relying on the same fiber daily.
✨ Fecal microbiome transplant is one of the most transformative tools in both doctors' practices. Banking a pet's own stool before antibiotics allows that same healthy microbiome to be restored afterward.
✨ Over bathing strips the skin's natural oil and microbiome barrier, often making skin problems worse. Spot bathing the affected area is usually better than washing the entire body. ✨ Chickpeas carry some of the highest glyphosate residue of any conventionally farmed ingredient. Many pet treats use chickpeas as a base.
✨ There is no flea, tick, or heartworm preventive approved for human use because all have been deemed too toxic. When chemical prevention is genuinely needed, use it only during the active season for your region, not year round.
✨ Detox should never be aggressive in a sick or fragile patient. A worse reaction is a sign to slow down, not push through. Cancer patients can crash if detox is mobilized too quickly.
✨ A 3 minute daily massage routine, spinal circles, full body strokes, and limb strokes toward the heart, supports lymph movement and costs nothing.

RESOURCES:
Barbara Royal, DVM, CVA, CVNN, FACVBM
The Royal Treatment Veterinary Center: https://www.royaltreatmentveterinarycenter.com
College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies: https://www.civtedu.org
Animal Diet Formulator: https://www.animaldietformulator.com
Book: The Royal Treatment: A Natural Approach to Wildly Healthy Pets
Instagram: @royalvet

📥 Free Guide: The Royal Unicorn's Whole-Pet Detox Guide

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Who Is Really Behind the Pet Health Advice You Are Getting
Every piece of pet health advice reaching you through media, whether it is a food recommendation, a sponsored post, a TV segment, or a YouTube video, somebody paid for it to get to you. The question worth asking is whether it was paid for by someone who wants your pet to be healthy or someone who wants your money.
Lara Shannon is a certified dog behaviourist, pet food nutritionist, and host of Pooches at Play, now in its tenth season on Channel 10 in Australia. She also created Animal SOS Australia, documenting the mental health crisis inside the veterinary profession. Here is what stopped me. In Australia, Lara funds her own TV show and pays the network to air it. For ten years she has walked a line between keeping sponsors happy and keeping the message honest.
We talk about a kibble company that claimed on national TV their product fixes the gut microbiome, why Australia has zero pet food regulations, what Dr. Lily found when she tested kibble diets for toxins, the anxiety epidemic in pets on both sides of the Pacific, and a shelter crisis where 90% of animals are no longer being adopted.
This one is going to make you think differently about where your information is coming from.
KEY INSIGHTS:
✨ Every pet health recommendation you receive has a funding source behind it. That does not automatically make it wrong, but it is worth asking who paid for it and what outcome they want.
✨ Australia has zero pet food regulations. Companies are self-regulated and can make almost any health claim without evidence to back it up.
✨ A kibble brand ran a national TV ad claiming their product improves the gut microbiome while raw feeding companies had to fight through endless approvals to get basic claims through.
✨ Dr. Lily tested kibble-fed pets and found consistently high levels of glyphosate and mold toxins. A major pet food company responded that levels were within the acceptable range for people. Pets are not people.
✨ Adding fresh food to the bowl can change everything. Lara's friend had a fussy anxious dog with skin issues who never touched his kibble. One change and he inhaled it. Dr. Lily had the same experience with her own dog.
✨ Anxiety in pets is rising on both sides of the Pacific. Pets mirror our stress and nervous system. When we are rushing and anxious, our animals go up a level.
✨ Itchy skin and gut issues are connected to behavior. If a pet is uncomfortable, it shows up as anxiety and reactivity. Rule out the physical before addressing the behavioral.
✨ In Australia, 90% of shelter animals are currently not being adopted while surrenders keep rising due to cost of living. Shelters are over capacity.
✨ The veterinary profession has one of the highest rates of burnout and suicide of any profession. Lara advocates from outside the profession because sometimes that outside voice carries differently.

RESOURCES:
Lara Shannon: https://www.larashannon.com
Pooches at Play: https://www.poochesatplay.com
Instagram: @larashannon @poochesatplay
Linktree: @larashannon @poochesatplay
Books: Eat, Play, Love Your Dog and World of Dogs available in the US

FOLLOW:
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Dr. Lily Chen:
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LinkedIn: Lily Chen, DVM, CVA