PET | TAO Podcast

Episode 10: Here’s Why Seasonal Feeding Matters

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to PET | TAO.FM, the PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products podcast.
I’m your host, Dr. Marc Smith, 20-year practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
Seasonal feeding. What does that mean? I hear this all the time.
“Should I change my dog’s diet in the wintertime?” or “Dr. Smith, how should I feed my dog in the summer?”
Really, it doesn’t matter if it’s a dog, a cat, a horse, or a cow. It’s all the same.
See, in the summertime, or the hottest times of the year, animals don’t eat as well. They don’t move around as much, because it’s hot, and they raise their temperature.
In the wintertime, animals eat more, and they consume more calories, and they move around a little bit more, and they move around to maintain their internal heat.
The idea of seasonal feeding is really an idea that comes from the East, and kind of what it means is that you eat foods that have energetic properties that balance the animal during a specific time of the year.
Have you ever questioned or thought about why you eat chili in the winter, or more so, have you ever questioned or thought about why you eat watermelon in the summer?
I bet you haven’t, because for a long time, until I learned about Eastern food therapy, I didn’t ever consider it either. The reason why is because of the energetics of foods.
Watermelon has a cooling energetic, and therefore it’s ideal to eat in the hotter times of the year.
The spices in chili – lots of times, a habanero pepper – are warming, and therefore it’s best suited for the colder times of the year from an energetic standpoint.
As you can see, these Eastern people, they ate seasonally, and they thought that was best for them, but they also did it because that was their only choice.
Nature provided the right conditions and the right natural resources for foods to grow during various certain times of the year, and then these people would eat these foods.
That was called seasonal feeding.
We can do that same approach with some of the PET | TAO products, like the Chill Diet, like the Blaze Diet.
The Chill Diet, it’s for the dog during the summer.
The Blaze Diet is for the dog during the winter.
We can use some of those same principles in an easy, convenient way for you to feed your pet seasonally for the best health and for the best energetic balance that your pet can have.
If you liked what I had to talk about today, then give us a rating on iTunes, and if you want to learn more cool ways to take care of your pet, then go to our blog at www.pettao.com, and search for yourself, and you can find cool ways to empower yourself to be the best health advocate for your pet.
Until next time, so long.

Episode 9: Pets and Businesswoman with Rachel Baribeau

Dr. Marc Smith :Hello, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to episode nine. I’m your host Dr. Marc Smith, co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products and 20 year practicing veterinarian.
Boy, have I got a gift for you today. On the show today is a wonderful lady who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her name is Rachel Baribeau.
Rachel is a rock star in the world of women’s journalism.
Rachel can be found on the SiriusXM College Sports Nation show.
Rachel is a dedicated pet lover and a dedicated pet owner. I have done veterinary work for Rachel for, roughly, two years.
I wanted to interview her on our show today and to give you some other insights about pet ownership and for you to meet some of the pet owners that I am lucky enough to do work for.
Welcome, Rachel. Rachel, how are you doing?
Rachel Baribeau:I’m doing well.
Dr. Marc Smith :I am so glad to be and honored to be able to talk to you.
Rachel Baribeau:Oh, well I feel the same. You have taken care of my family members, my pets, my four-legged babies. I have had some challenging issues with my babies. Anybody who takes care of my babies and my family is like family to me.
Dr. Marc Smith :For our listeners out there, I’m going to give them a brief bio about you.
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah.
Dr. Marc Smith :Rachel is a sports journalist. She was born in Auburn, Alabama. She has some radio … Sports radio show on Sirius FM. She also does a radio show here in Nashville at Acme Feed and Supply, that I have been an interviewed guest on, and I want to appreciate and thank you for that Rachel. On your bio it says you are, what we call, an SEC-ologist. Can you tell our listeners what that means, please?
Rachel Baribeau:It just means that if there’s a conference that I know a lot about it’s the South Eastern Conference. I started my career covering the South Eastern Conference, then I moved on to the ACC in addition to that, and then I became a national sportscaster and now cover all conferences. It just means that I know a little bit about some things, but particularly about SEC football.
Dr. Marc Smith :Awesome, and I’m a huge fan of SEC football as well. I think you know that. Here’s something. I want to test your knowledge of SEC football, okay? If you can answer these two questions …
Rachel Baribeau:Oh geez. Okay.
Dr. Marc Smith :… you will endear me to you forever. Okay? The first question is can you tell me how many schools in the SEC …
Rachel Baribeau:Mississippi State is the Bulldogs.
Dr. Marc Smith :That’s two.Rachel Baribeau:That’s two. Then you’ve got Texas A&M Aggies. Oh, and Aggie’s a dog.
Dr. Marc Smith :Well, that’s a good one. I didn’t know that before I started doing this research. Their mascot is named Reveille, which is a collie.
Rachel Baribeau:It’s a Lassie dog.
Dr. Marc Smith :Collie, yes ma’am. You’re exactly right.
Rachel Baribeau:And the Tennessee Volunteers.
Dr. Marc Smith :The Tennessee Volunteers.
Rachel Baribeau:Smokey.
Dr. Marc Smith :Smokey, yes. Bluetick Coonhound.
Rachel Baribeau:Four, four dogs.
Dr. Marc Smith :Four dogs. I thought that was pretty fascinating when I was doing the research on you. I’m sure a lot of people wonder why I had you on here since you’re an SEC sportscaster, but you’re also an animal lover. I’ve been privileged enough to be your veterinarian for, I guess, two or three years now. I want to tell you how much I appreciate that and that means a lot to me. Anybody that uses me as their veterinarian, but I wanted to ask you some questions, over the next 10 minutes or so, to get your insider view about your pets and what they mean to you.
Rachel Baribeau:Yes.
Dr. Marc Smith :Just to discuss it for 10 or 15 minutes.
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah. I have a rescue Lab. His name is Decker. When I got him he was introduced to my older Lab I had at the time, her name was Della. I was told that he was great with other animals, and soon found out a couple of months later that he indeed was not great with other animals, for whatever reason, anxiety, stress, being special needs, which I firmly believe he is now, but he is a wonderful dog.
Let me tell you something. I am a proponent of adoption and am on the way, as an individual, to adopting a child or children. I really think, as a woman of faith, that Decker, who is now my best friend … I do believe that the trials and tribulations that I went through him and that you helped me with, and I know that we’ll talk about Dr. Smith, were for a purpose and that God was teaching me a lesson and that, hey, listen. A lot of people said it might be easy just to give up on this dog. It might be smarter just to get rid of him, but God was saying, you know what? If you can’t keep a rescue dog then how in the world are you going to do adoption.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right.
Rachel Baribeau:I’ve learned the most from this dog than I have in half my life. I’ve learned about love and acceptance and never giving up on a creature and the adoration and love that they have for you and just their complete love. To sum your question up, I think the one thing that we could teach people is that they’re not disposable. No matter what happens, they’re not disposable.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right. You say that with a lot of conviction and compassion. I can tell that in your voice. Decker … How old did you tell me he was again?
Rachel Baribeau:He’s somewhere between nine and 10 Dr. Smith.
Dr. Marc Smith :Okay, and he’s somewhere between nine and ten.
Rachel Baribeau:Not quite sure. They weren’t sure, but you’ve said that by looking at his teeth. That’s kind of the idea that we have on his age.
Dr. Marc Smith :He’s a chocolate Lab, just so everybody out there knows.
Rachel Baribeau:Yes, big chocolate Lab.
Dr. Marc Smith :How else would you describe him? I mean what’s his personality like and does he have any idiosyncrasies that irritate you or anything like that?
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah, so he’s a big lug. He’s a big, lovable lug. If you’ve ever seen the movie UP where the dog looks like he’s got … Doesn’t have the hair around his eyes, he almost looks like he’s the cartoon UP. He looks like he’s wearing glasses. That’s what my guy looks like. He’s, like I said, loving and loyal and goofy and a baby in a lot of ways even though he’s nine or 10 he reminds you of a puppy. Something along the way happened to him, Dr. Smith, and you and I have discussed this many times, but something happened to him. Either he was hit or he was beaten or he just developed some sort of anxiety, but he is the … He’s very skittish. When I had my older Lab, who just passed away at 17, he would be fine with her, but then about once every three months he would just lash out and attack her.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right.
Rachel Baribeau:As soon as he did it, what was crazy to me was as soon as he did it he would hide and hunker because he knew he had done wrong. It was almost as if a person has a seizure and they do something, and they, you know, they’re acting out of their mind and then they come back to themselves and then he was very ashamed of himself. That’s how I knew that he wasn’t a bad dog. He wasn’t an angry dog or malicious dog. He just had some issues. I just think he’s a little … Few slices short of a loaf.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right. That’s pretty common. We see a lot of dogs and I really can’t put my finger on it, but sometimes when they have a questionable history …
Rachel Baribeau:Yes.
Dr. Marc Smith :… they maybe do some things that we tend to think are out of character. Lots of times there’s some other event that happened, maybe years ago …
Rachel Baribeau:Yep.
Dr. Marc Smith :… that has made them react in certain situations to certain things.
Rachel Baribeau:Your point, if I can add this. You’re so right. I had a dog trainer before I met you say to me, “Rachel most times,” and you’ve said this to me Dr. Smith, “most times a dog will give you a clue that he’s about to be aggressive.” An eye, you know, cutting of the eyes, a growl, a something. You know the hair standing at the back of his neck. Then they said, the dog trainer said, “Decker doesn’t give any indication. He just snap.” He said, “I think that somewhere along in his history, when he growled or when he gave the signs, he was either hit or he was told that that was bad behavior.” So instead of giving a warning sign he just kind of pounced and he believes that that warning sign was, if you will, beaten out of him.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right, yeah. Unfortunately, that happens to a lot of pets and a lot of animals in general.
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah.
Dr. Marc Smith :Maybe we need to think about instead of abusing them or taking that physical aggressive way of handling them, maybe we should try to think, maybe, smarter than the dogs, right?
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah.
Dr. Marc Smith :Maybe that would be a good thing to do. We’re suppose to be smarter. I don’t know if we are, but we’re suppose to be.
Rachel Baribeau:You’re right about being … Maybe getting smarter, but man, do they have it figured out. You’re a vet. You see them all day every day, but animals got it figured out. They’ve got the perfect little soul.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right. Are you involved with any animal organizations?
Rachel Baribeau:I am not, but I give my money if being involved is giving money. I give my money to a rural animal shelter that needs it badly and I was taken … It’s Chilton County in Alabama. I used to live near there and I was taken with what the rescuer was doing and how badly they needed food and beds.
Dr. Marc Smith :Just basic stuff. Just basic stuff.
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah, basic. Again, they needed, badly.
Dr. Marc Smith :Yeah.
Rachel Baribeau:That’s where I give my money.
Dr. Marc Smith :Yeah, yeah. I’m sure they appreciate it. Now we’ll go on and talk a little bit about me. I’m not suppose to talk about myself on this show, but I guess I am. I don’t really know why but I am. How did you find out about me as a veterinarian?
Rachel Baribeau:I found out about you as a veterinarian because my mom, so she adores you through my reports of you, she was looking for a holistic vet. Because we do not believe, as a persons and as somebody who’s seeking treatment for my dogs, I do not take medication unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t take antibiotics unless it’s necessary. I’m homeopathic. I’m holistic. I do everything I can to lead a normal life because I think God created the human body and the animal body to heal itself. I wanted a vet that wasn’t going to laden down, weigh down, on my animals with a lot of medication.
We found you for my older dog, at the time, whom I think … If somebody takes another big point from this podcast it’s with your help we gave my older dog, who passed away this summer, we gave her two and a half years of extra life and she lived till she was 17 years old. She was a smaller chocolate Lab. Because of you and because of … You did adjustments on her, chiropractic adjustments, and you did … We did steroid shots towards the end. We had her … You had me change her food. All things that we did. We did different supplements for her and because of you just a month before she passed away she was climbing the stairs. A humongous set of stairs at 17. You gave me two good years with my baby and I’m so grateful for that.
Dr. Marc Smith :I appreciate that and I just tried to do the best I could. I think we accomplished that and she lived to be a ripe old age, pain-free, and I don’t think you can ask for a lot about that. I do want to echo what you said. I think sometimes as veterinarians, at least earlier in my career I used to try to step in too much and give stuff and give shots. Sometimes I think if we can sit back and respect the fact that these animals’ bodies are incredible and get out of the way, then sometimes they do better than with our interventions. That’s a neat point you brought up. I want to see if you remember this story, okay?
Rachel Baribeau:Yep.
Dr. Marc Smith :The first time you met me you came in there and you came into my clinic on Highway 100 and you were unsure and we met and I was like … I can’t remember if it was with Decker or Della or not, but I came in and I said, “Rachel.” I said, “If you want to know the best thing you can do to help your dog’s health right now, you need to do blank.” Can you tell me what it is?
Rachel Baribeau:Well it may have been to do with their food.
Dr. Marc Smith :Okay, now hold on. I want you to step back now.
Rachel Baribeau:Uh-huh.
Dr. Marc Smith :I want you to dig deep in that memory.
Rachel Baribeau:Uh-huh.
Dr. Marc Smith :I played a joke on you. A sweet, little, cute joke. I said, “Rachel if you want to do one thing to help your dog’s health right now, what would it be?”
Rachel Baribeau:Oh gosh.
Dr. Marc Smith :If you can’t remember just say it because I remember it and it’s one of my jokes I have up my sleeve. I do this to a lot of people.
Rachel Baribeau:You’re going to have to share the joke with me, but I tell you … I’ll tell you in a moment what else you told me to do and it’s something that I found to be incredible, but share the joke with me.
Dr. Marc Smith :Okay, here’s what. It had to do with a piece of apparel.
Rachel Baribeau:Uh-huh.
Dr. Marc Smith :On your dog.
Rachel Baribeau:Was it putting socks on my dog?
Dr. Marc Smith :No ma’am. It had to do with the collar. I’m giving you hints.
Rachel Baribeau:Oh! You wanted me to change their Auburn collars.
Dr. Marc Smith :That’s right. That’s right, I played a joke on you. That’s one of my jokes. I play that on a lot of people, okay? Just so you know. Anyway, I thought that was funny because I told you, I said, “Rachel, the first thing you need to do if you want to help your pet is get that collar off your dog.”
Rachel Baribeau:And the second thing you said, which I had no idea and we’ve talked about it on the Acme radio show, was about their food. We are feeding, by and large as a population, our dogs crap. We’re feeding them fillers.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right.
Rachel Baribeau:We’re feeding them grain. We’re feeding them just like … Just like the human body doesn’t need it, the dog’s body doesn’t need it. You had me starting to make my food for my dogs. I thought that was fantastic. I saw great results in that, but I’d never had a veterinarian, and I’d had one of my dogs for 15 years and the other for three. Never in my life before I came to you had I had a veterinarian address their food with me.
Dr. Marc Smith :Wow. Well, I try to do that each and every time because I think it’s so important.
Rachel Baribeau:Yeah.
Dr. Marc Smith :I don’t really try to … I don’t try to push people to use our food because I know our food is not for everybody or every pet, but I do try to put some effort and take some time to educate people so they know, you know? So they know what they can do to help their pet, especially in certain situations. You said earlier that you’re all into holistic health, but what do you think about some veterinarian that does that? I mean doesn’t that kind of make you chuckle? Or what do you think about it?
Rachel Baribeau:No. I think it’s phenomenal. You know why? Because before I came to you my older dog, at the time, was about 14-1/2, 15, and she had started to have a bout of incontinence where she was peeing on herself. I went to the vet that I was at in Atlanta and they gave her a medication called Prion, P-R-I-O-N, I believe.
Dr. Marc Smith :Proin. Proin. Proin.
Rachel Baribeau:Proin.
Dr. Marc Smith :Yes, Proin.
Rachel Baribeau:They gave it to her and they said six weeks later we need to do a liver panel on her. She was also starting to … Her legs were starting to splay out, where she couldn’t get up. They were going left and right. She was having a hard time getting up. I’m thinking this is the end. Well around the same time my chiropractor, my human chiropractor … I posted on it on Facebook, the wonders of Facebook, and he said, “Bring her to me. I work on animals too.” I said, “What?” He said, “Yes, I do.” I brought him to her and he adjusted her and he adjusted her every two weeks. You would not believe it. When I went back for that blood panel for the Prion, he said. Six week-
Dr. Marc Smith :Proin.
Rachel Baribeau:Proin.
Dr. Marc Smith :Proin.
Rachel Baribeau:Six weeks later I went back for that blood panel and they said, “Her liver values have dropped. All of her blood work looks better. What is going on?” I said, “Doctor. The only thing I can tell you that she’s gotten is chiropractically adjusted every two weeks since I’ve seen you.” He said, “Your liver values should have gone up. She should have reflected taking this medication.” He said, “Instead she looks healthier than before we ever put her on it.” I said, “That is the power of natural medicine.” So when I found you I knew it worked.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right. Well, it’s amazing because when I first came out of veterinary school, in 1998, we didn’t learn any of this stuff.
Rachel Baribeau:Right.
Dr. Marc Smith :People actually thought you were a cuckoo if you started talking about doing these things. Then my story, as I’ve gone on, it’s changed because I’ve become a whole lot better practitioner, a better diagnostician, and just a better veterinarian and a better, I guess, advice giver because I know all these different treatments and all these different modalities to try to get people from point A to point B. Alternative veterinary medicine has inspired me to open up my eyes to new and different ways.
Rachel, the last question, and then I’ll let you go. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you using me as your veterinarian. I mean that’s a big deal.
Rachel Baribeau:Yep. I tell everybody that I know about you. I’m one of those individuals that if you got me, I’m a lifer. I’m a loyal person. Whether it be a friend, and you’ve been a friend as well, or vet or anybody that’s in my life, in any capacity, I spread the word. I think word of mouth is a beautiful thing, especially with your animals. People want to … They’re your babies, for most people.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right, right.
Rachel Baribeau:I tell everybody I can about you.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right. Well, I appreciate that. It’s a big responsibility that I don’t take lightly in taking care of people’s animals the best I can. Here’s the one last question I want to ask you. If you had to give one piece of advice to a dog owner, who is maybe in distress, maybe over putting a dog to sleep or having to make a big decision regarding their pet … Is there any one thing that you think or one piece of advice that you would give them?
Rachel Baribeau:That’s a great question. I think it would be one piece of advice but a couple of pieces within that advice. First, what I’ve learned over the years is that animals pick up on your energy. If you’re stressed, if you’re sad, if you’re mad, if you’re anxious, they pick up on it. You know if I’m sad, they get it. They’re licking my tears, they’re pacing, they’re wanting to know what’s going on, they’re sitting close. As much as you can try to control your energy. If you’re going to cry your eyeballs out if it’s their end of their time or their being, then maybe do it in the car. They pick up on that.
The second is I would just say seek second opinions, like someone like yours. I would not … If it’s a big decision I wouldn’t go with the first opinion I got. I would seek other opinions. Third of all, I would say just keep the … Sometimes we want to do what’s best for us in our heart, but you got to put the animal first. What’s best for the animal? Is the animal going to be in pain? Is the animal going to suffer? Those types of things. Then if you can save them. If it’s something like an ACL tear or some surgery that they can have. If there’s any way to do it and your vet will work with you, I encourage you to do it.
Dr. Marc Smith :Right. Put the animal first. I like that, and I like a lot of things you say. Great job. Thank you for being on my show. Rachel, I almost feel like you’re a superstar and I’m this little fledgling.
Rachel Baribeau:Not true.
Dr. Marc Smith :You’ve been on big time TV and I’m this little guy sitting behind the mic in my living room. Anyway, thank you for everything. Rachel, I want to tell you how much I appreciate you being here. You speak with passion. You speak with conviction. You give people a different perspective on how they look at your pets and I really want to tell you how much I appreciate it again.
She can be found at SiriusXM College Sports Nation or she can be found on Twitter at @rachelbaribeau.
If you need to get in touch with her, you can contact her there.
Again, I’m Dr. Marc Smith. I’m your host. If you want to become empowered or you want to have a different perspective on taking care of your pet or feeding your pet for that matter, then please go to www.pettao.com and explore.
There you’ll find many cool things about pets and many ways that you can become empowered.
Until next week, so long.
 

Episode 8: Realities of Rabies Vaccines

Marc Smith:Imagine with me for a minute 25 million dogs and these dogs are responsible for transmitting rabies and the resultant deaths of over 20,000 human beings.
The place, India in 2015.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products Podcast.
I’m your host Dr. Marc Smith, 20 year practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
Rabies is a somewhat of a mundane topic. You see, in the United States, veterinarians vaccinate rabies and we’ve pretty much kept it under control, but this sure isn’t the case globally.
Some of these statistics are startling. They’re baffling to me.
In fact, I didn’t know many of these statistics, even though I’m on the frontline each and every day of preventing this disease in both your pets and in the human population.
You see in general practice we vaccinate dogs for rabies.
We either vaccinate them yearly, we vaccinate them every three years where local laws and local ordinances dictate we can, or if we’re lucky enough, we can pull titers on these pets that have had a previous vaccination for rabies to document and tell us whether or not they have protective immunity to the rabies virus.
A good thing about titers is that we don’t over-vaccinate your pets.
The bad thing about titers is that they cost you more money.
However, in the United States today we have been very successful at virtually eliminating the risk of rabies in your pets and ultimately a threat of rabies in you.
This isn’t the case around the globe. In fact, 160 people, yes 160, die each and every day across the globe from the rabies virus. Most of these cases are due from our best friends who bite unsuspecting victims. If you can do the math that is upwards of 60,000 people per year.
Quite baffling, at least to me.
Another startling statistic is the economic losses due to rabies virus.
In 2015 the economic losses were estimated to be around 8.6 billion dollars.
Generally these losses were due to premature death, spending on post-exposure vaccination, and lost income to victims of animal bites.
Most of the rabies transmission occurs in rural areas and countries that are poor or impoverished.
Countries such as India. Continents such as Africa and Asia.
The reason why this is is because these animals, these dogs and cats, are not vaccinated.
One reason they’re not vaccinated properly is because of the idea that the rabies vaccine itself has to be refrigerated.
You see in practice each and every day we pull our rabies virus vaccine out of a refrigerator.
The refrigerator typically runs about 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
The alarming thing about this is that research done by Washington State University published just last month says that we don’t really need to keep our vaccinations or rabies vaccinations at 35 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
In fact, their research concluded that rabies virus vaccines kept at 77 degrees Celsius, in fact, work for upwards of six months and vaccine kept in the 80’s will work for three months.
The important thing to know is that because of this research when teams of people go into these impoverished rural areas to vaccinate dogs and cats they don’t need to cool their rabies vaccine.
This allows us, and these researchers, and veterinarians, and public health officials the flexibility to vaccinate more pets without, necessarily, having the resources available to keep the vaccine cool like we once thought it had to be.
Therefore, we can prevent more of these startling statistics and more of these causalities from happening than what we ever thought we could.
Thank you for listening.
If you liked what I talked about today then give us a rating on iTunes.
If you want to enjoy more cutting edge knowledge and learn about more cool things related to your pets, then visit us at www.pettao.com.
So long and we will see you next time.
 

Episode 7: Questions Students Asks Veterinarians

Dr. Marc:Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the PET | TAO.FM podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Marc Smith, practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
I have a special gift for you today. In my practice, I get a lot of kids. They come and they want to watch what I do. They think I do something cool and special. I thought it would be neat to let one of my student interns, Gramm Pollack, Gramm, can you say hi to everybody?
Gramm:Hello, everyone.
Dr. Marc:Gramm Pollack, he’s a 10th grader in Nashville, Tennessee. He goes to Nashville Big Picture High School. His parents sent him over to my practice so that Gramm could observe me and what I do each and every day. I thought it would be neat to let Gramm interview me about my veterinary practice and about what I do each and every day. I want you to welcome Gramm Pollack.
Gramm:Hi, everyone. I only have a couple questions here for Dr. Smith. One of them being what was your original perseverance for becoming a veterinarian? Why did you want to become one?
Dr. Marc:Gramm, that’s a great question. For everyone out there, his question was why did I want to become a veterinarian. Really, it revolves around a couple of different things. Number 1, I wasn’t a very good student in high school. I liked other things like you probably do. I didn’t like academics. I liked sports. I liked Atari. Do you know what Atari is?
Gramm:Yes, I love Atari.
Dr. Marc:I liked girls. I liked doing things besides studying. When I got into college, I thought- my dad’s not going to take care of me forever. I’ve got to do something. I wanted to do something that was hard, that was difficult. It was challenging. Being a veterinarian is very challenging.
I also wanted to do something where I could be outside. I loved large animals at that time, horses, and hogs, and kitties, and dogs, and whatever. Those were really the driving forces behind why I decided to become a veterinarian. I wanted to do something that was difficult and hard. I wanted to have the opportunity to challenge my mind outside. I didn’t want to sit at a desk all day.
Gramm:Yeah. Along with you becoming a veterinarian and going through all the schoolwork to do that and starting your work on farm animals, what made you want to include holistic treatments into it?
Dr. Marc:That’s a great question. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my personality. People would come into my practice when I was just a conventional veterinarian. They’d say, “Hey, Dr. Smith, what about acupuncture?” or, “What about herbal medicine? or “What about this?”
Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t have any good answers for them. It didn’t matter whether I …. Everybody wants to think, “Do you believe in that kind of medicine? Does it help? Does it work?” It didn’t matter. I wanted to be able to give people good, credible answers to their questions. That was my goal.
My whole goal of practicing non-conventional veterinary medicine revolves around the fact that I wanted to be able to answer people’s questions. I wanted to mold my practice into giving people what they want. There’s a lot of people, they don’t want conventional medicine.
Doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, they don’t want it. I molded my practice philosophy into, “I’m going to give people what they want as opposed to necessarily giving them what I think is the best all the time.” I do do that. I have to pick and choose in what I do. I’m a big believer in giving people what they want and what they want out of the veterinarian.
Gramm:Along with that, since you’ve recently molded your service into that, would you say you’re still learning as all this is happening?
Dr. Marc:Gramm, I’m learning each and every day. One of the hard things I’m trying to learn is how to be a better communicator with people. It’s all about the interaction and the relationship you have with people and their pets. The better communicator I become, the better veterinarian I become.
Gramm:What are some of the most difficult parts of your job?
Dr. Marc:The most difficult parts of my job are communication, meeting people’s expectations, and dealing with the emotions that come with being a pet owner. That is difficult.
Lots of times, as a guy, we tend to …. Let’s face it. We may not be always emotionally in tune, or emotionally aware. When kitty cat is sick, mommy is emotionally aware. I have to really try to be in tune to that each and every day. That’s been a big-time challenge for me, something that I consistently and constantly work on each and every day.
Gramm:I’m excited to watch over you every day and help out with your daily tasks. Do you have any questions for me?
Dr. Marc:Gramm, I’ve got all kind of questions for you. Why did you come to my practice?
Gramm:I’m interested in a variety of things. Last year at my school …. I’m a sophomore now. Last year at my school, I interned with a Vanderbilt professor for astronomy and physics.
Although I enjoyed that while it lasted, I wanted to explore some of my other interests. I have a lot of those. Besides astronomy, there is a veteranarianism. There was a writing. I’m currently trying to write my own book. There’s also a little bit of journalism in there.
Really, at this point I’ve just wanted to explore veterinarianism because I’ve always had a thing for pets.
Dr. Marc:You like pets like everybody else.
Gramm:Pretty much.
Dr. Marc:That’s good. Everybody likes pets. What is a veterinary-ism?
Gramm:Veterinarianism just is the study of veterinary medicine and treatments of that manner. I probably just made up a word there, I’m sure.
Dr. Marc:You said you went and interned under a Vanderbilt professor. You know that I’m a UT fan.
Gramm:I don’t really watch sports in that manner of UT and Vanderbilt.
Dr. Marc:It doesn’t matter if it’s sports or not. It’s academics as well.
Gramm:I don’t have an opinion towards either.
Dr. Marc:What’s the main thing you’ve learned by being at my clinic? What have you learned?
Gramm:So far, I’ve just learned to be timely and make sure you know what you’re doing. That’s the main thing so far. I haven’t been there that long as of yet. I know I’ll learn more. Right now just be timely and focus.
Dr. Marc:Be on time, focus. What else?
Gramm:Try and be brave, be controlling with the animals. You may have to just control them in general. Hold them so they can get their shots and things like that.
Dr. Marc:If you’ve taken away one thing, it’s that all dogs bite. You’ve got to be careful.
Gramm:Yes, sir. That is one thing.
Dr. Marc:Good. I’m sure your mommy and daddy will be proud of you too.
Gramm:I hope so.
Dr. Marc:Let’s take another question from Graham about Dr. Smith, what Dr. Smith does each and every day.
Gramm:What is your history in the veterinarian field? What did you do first off? What led you to where you are now?
Dr. Marc:Great question, Gramm. When I was 15 years old, I started in veterinary medicine, riding with the vet, a horse vet. I learned all about …. I didn’t learn all about. I got a good bit of exposure to equine veterinary medicine.
I entered vet school when I was 24. It takes 4 years. I got out when I was 28. I started my own horse practice, working mostly around middle Tennessee, working on all breeds and all different types of horses.
After I’d been doing that for probably, roughly 8 years, I lost a little bit of interest in it. I didn’t like the inefficiency of it. You’ve got to drive a lot. I started to look into doing some different things.
I started doing some small animal. Gradually, I’ve gone from being a conventional veterinarian to being a …. People call me holistic. I don’t really call it that.
I tend to term it more as an integrative veterinarian, or a veterinarian that can treat your animals in a variety of different ways and has expert knowledge in most things that encompass the full realm of veterinary medicine.
Now I’m trying to really be cognizant, and aware of, and really make a focused effort to improve my communication skills, my awareness of people’s relationships with their pets, the human-animal bond and become an expert in communicating about those things.
Gramm:Over the years you’ve done this, what is 1 thing you can take away from it that you’ve just learned constantly throughout the entire process?
Dr. Marc:That’s a tough question. One thing I’ve learned is that meeting people’s expectations of taking care of their pet is difficult, but it’s achievable when you improve your communication skills, and listen to the client, and listen to their expectations, and always keep their pet at the forefront of everything I do.
Gramm:Getting on to more opinionated questions, do you have a favorite type of animal and every type of animal that you’ve worked with, farm animals, or just at home?
Dr. Marc:Actually, I don’t have a favorite type of animal. I like all animals.
Gramm:That’s good.
Dr. Marc:I think all animals deserve our respect, and admiration, and our care, whatever that may be. I don’t really have a favorite type of animal. I like all types of animals.
The best thing I like is the interaction with the client, or the customer and their pet and how that whole interaction works. It’s a challenge every day.
Gramm:Speaking of that again with challenges and all that, what is a crazy story you can tell us about your workplace over the years?
Dr. Marc:I’ve got tons of crazy stories. One thing that was crazy is 1 time a long time ago when I worked with 1 of my bosses, or mentors, I had an instance where a lady brought in her kitty cats, her little kittens in a basket. It was covered up.
She wanted my boss, my mentor to take a look at her kittens. She pulled back the cover that was covering the kittens and there were 6 little kitties there, little, little kitties.
Gramm:Like just born?
Dr. Marc:Not just born, but probably 3 weeks old. It wasn’t actually the kitties. It was pictures of the kitties. That’s 1 funny story. I’ve had tons of funny stories. That’s the one that sticks out in my mind.
Gramm:What is your favorite part of this job? Is it working with people? Is it working with pets? What’s your favorite part?
Dr. Marc:My favorite part is the fact that I have woken up less than a handful of times and not wanted to go to work. It’s not very often that I don’t go to work. Usually when I don’t go to work, it’s because I’ve had something bad happen where I’ve had an outcome that was not desirable and I didn’t want to deal with it.
That happens. I have to force myself to deal with it. My favorite part of my job is the fact that I love it and I look forward to doing it each and every day.
Gramm:I think I have one final question. Some others might pop up in my head as we keep going here. One more I have on my list and that is what are some skills you’ve learned over the years that you did not have when you were mentoring underneath that other veterinarian?
Dr. Marc:Skills, you talking about veterinary skills, or skills?
Gramm:Just general, veterinary, or just general skills, yeah.
Dr. Marc:Probably the biggest general skill that I’ve learned is I’ve become more attuned to people and what they want. I’ve become overall a whole lot better listener.
For instance, when somebody brings a pet in to me, I try to listen from all angles. What I mean by that is I try to hear what’s wrong with their pet and give what I think’s the best advice.
Then I listen to them and I try to weed out what their desires are, what they want out of our interaction. My ability to deliver that is a constant challenge. I think it helps me bond with people.
People don’t know I do a lot of different things. People frequently don’t know what’s the best for their pet at that particular time. My favorite thing is listening and being able to deliver.
Gramm:That’s all with the listed questions. I’ll keep thinking of some. Do you have any others for me?
Dr. Marc:Gramm yes, I do have 1 for you. Today Gramm was watching me do a surgery. He may not like me telling this, but Gramm became lightheaded. Gramm essentially fell out and hit the floor.
Gramm:I did not hit the floor.
Dr. Marc:You fell out. The unique thing about that and you don’t need to feel bad, because that happens frequently. Even seasoned people, when they see something that bothers them, they yawn a lot and they pass out. That’s exactly what Gramm did today. That happens, Gramm. Don’t feel bad about it.
Gramm:I don’t feel bad about it. I know I’ll be seeing other such surgeries and things. I know I’ll get used to it. I won’t do that, hopefully …
Dr. Marc:… any more. That’s good. One other thing I want to ask you, though, Gramm. When I was a kid, I used to read all these books. On one of my future episodes, I’m going to talk about how these books about animals impacted me.
Can you tell me any specific books you’ve read? I read Benji. I read Where the Red Fern Grows. I read Sounder. Where the Red Fern Grows is my all-time favorite book. I still read it.
Can you tell me any books that you read as a young kid that may have impacted you in veterinary medicine, or impacted you in making your decision to come shadow with me today?
Gramm:Yeah. One of the major books in that sense that made me at least think about animals and feel bad more than I usually did was Old Yeller.
Dr. Marc:Old Yeller, that’s a classic, yes.
Gramm:Just in general, that made me sad and think about it. Then also in elementary school, I always wanted to read a lot of non-fiction even though now it’s not my style. I read a lot of stuff about actually marine animals. That just made me think about animals in general over time.
Dr. Marc:Cool. That’s awesome. Gramm, I’m sure everybody’s enjoyed listening to you. I want to tell you how much I’ve appreciated you coming. I’ve enjoyed your visiting. I hope you’ve learned a lot. Thank you, everyone for tuning in to episode 7.
If you have anything that you want to learn about, please go to www.pettao.com. Check out our podcast. Also, check out our writing. Have you done that, Gramm?
Gramm:I’ve done a little bit of it.
Dr. Marc:You can go and learn all about veterinary medicine and animals, and herbal medicine, and all kind of cool stuff. If any of you listening out there would be nice enough to give us a rating on iTunes, on how you liked my interview with Graham, we would definitely appreciate it. Until next week, so long.
Gramm:Bye, everyone.

Episode 6: 5 Ways to Meet the Needs of Your Cat

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to PET | TAO.FM, I’m your host Dr. Marc Smith, practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
For the people out there who love kitty cats such as myself, and relish our feline friends, today we are going to talk about meeting your cat’s environmental needs.
Cats are unique, unbelievable animals, and one reason, and one thing that amazes me, is how cats don’t require a lot of physical care, yet they tend to stay pretty happy, and pretty healthy.
I think this is a huge misrepresentation, because I do think that cats require a lot of environmental care, and emotional care that sometimes we tend to dismiss.
I want you to think about it, somewhat in the context of the same emotional care that you may give your kids, your husband, your wife, or whoever it may be, but I want you to think about meeting your kitty cat’s environmental needs.
Many of you may be asking, “Why is it so important for me to meet my cat’s environmental needs? Heck! I have enough trouble meeting my own environmental needs.”
The main reason why is because behavior problems in cats are a leading cause of pet surrender and euthanasia.
These problems often occur because your kitty cat’s environmental needs are not being met.
There are five ways that you can meet the environmental needs of your cat, and have a happier, healthier cat, without the risk of unwanted behavioral problems and other things that plague many kitty cat owners.
The first way is to provide a safe place. Every cat needs a safe and secure place where it can retreat.
Many times, this place can be a simple as a cardboard box, or cat carrier, or a cat perch.
It doesn’t have to be real complicated, but it’s important for a cat to have a place where only the kitty cat can go, or the kitty cat can feel comfortable, secure, and protected.
The second way of meeting the environmental needs of your cat is by providing multiple and separated key environmental resources.
These resources would include the litter box.
In a house that has multiple cats, provide one litter box in different places throughout the house to meet the needs of each individual cat.
This advice also applies to water bowls, have multiple water bowls, and food bowls, and play areas.
When cats feel threatened or feel like they don’t have their own place, then often times, it causes stress, and that stress leads to disease.
The second way is to provide multiple and separated key environmental resources.
The third way to meet the environmental needs of your kitty cat is to provide opportunities for play and predatory behavior.
Cats like to chase things, and one way of encouraging this behavior is small little play toys around the house.
For the outside kitty cat, maybe they’ll chase a mouse.
Cats, unlike a dog from the standpoint of it, won’t chase cars, but they will chase other things, bugs, mice, birds.
Anything you can do to encourage the natural instinctual behavior of your cat, will help your kitty cat be happy and be healthy.
The fourth way of meeting thee environmental needs of your cat is by providing positive, consistent, and predictable human interaction.
Cats’ preferences vary, however most cats prefer a good grooming, a good petting, or just being talked to on a regular basis.
The last way to meet the environmental needs of your cat, is by providing an environment that respects the importance of the cat’s sense of smell.
Cats use their sense of smell to evaluate their surroundings. Many times, cats mark their scent by rubbing their face and body on furniture, on your hand, on your bed, and many other places around the house.
This helps cats feel safe and feel secure.
When introducing another kitty cat into the household, avoid cleaning the scent of these areas.
When pets, other pets, people, or environmental changes in the home occur, pay particular attention not to disrupt your normal cat’s environment. This can lead to severe, relentless, time-consuming, not to mention financially draining kitty cat behavioral problems.
Many of the problems that I see each and everyday in practice.
Thank you for listening today and joining me on the PET|TAO FM podcast.
By the way, if you have time it would be so nice to do so- will you please leave us your review on iTunes?
Until next time, take care of your kitty cat, and think about these five environmental needs that your kitty cat has, and practice them each and everyday.
We will see you back next week for episode 7, so long.

Episode 5: The Concept of Food Energetics

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the PET | TAO Podcast.
I’m your host, Dr. Marc Smith – 20 year practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET TAO Holistic Pet Products.
What we’re going to talk about today is this concept of – It’s somewhat of a confusing concept, and I want to kind of compare it to our Western view of food.
Then I want to explain food energetics and how food energetics can be beneficial to your pet.
In the West, the energy of food is denoted by the calorie.
The calorie is a measurement of the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius.
All of these measurements and tests are done before the food ingredient ever goes into the body.
The term Food Energetics is totally different.
The term Food Energetics is an Eastern concept.
It all deals with how the food is going to exert its effects on the body after consumption and not before.
In Eastern food therapy and food energetics, there are three types of energy.
One is warm, one is cooling and one is neutral. All natural occurring foods, meats, vegetables, grains, fish, they all have one of those associated energetics.
They’re either cooling, warming or neutral.
The interesting thing is how did these ancient Eastern cultures, ever come across this concept of food energetics?
What they did is they observed.
The observed how animals act.
They observed animals’ behavior.
How food grows.
What time of year food grows best.
How you feel after you consume certain foods.
I’m sure most of you can appreciate, there’s a different feeling with you consume lemon in your water and when you don’t.
There’s a certain feeling you get, when you eat a habanero pepper, that you may not get when you eat corn.
It’s because the energetics works differently on your body.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you have an older pet. He’s a ten year old lab.
You live in the south, where the heat can be relentless.
Your dog paces at night, your dog pants a lot.
Your dog has a dry, red tongue.
These are all signs of heat in your pet. Or in your dog.
With the underlying goal of being balanced, what do you think you’d feed your pet?
You’d feed your pet cooling foods.
Foods such as rabbit, fish, honey, turkey.
Food that help to energetically cool down the body.
This is a simple, straightforward way of understanding food energetics and how it contrasts with our Western view of food energy.
Let’s take another example.
Let’s say you have a dog that slobbers a lot.
A dog that has trouble getting around, or maybe a dog that walks slowly and gets better as he kind of moves around and kind of warms out of his lameness.
The energetic balance in your dog, or the energetic quality that your dog is exhibiting, is one of cool. He’s cold.
In order to re-balance your pet, you need to feed your dog warming foods.
Foods such as venison, corn, white rice.
Let’s even take it a step further.
Many of you get out of bed in the morning, and you’re hunched over in your back, and you go, “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
As you move around you get better.
The reason why is because your body’s warming up.
You yourself could benefit from foods that warm you up.
Foods like venison, white rice, corn, and maybe even a little beef kidney if you can stomach it.
As you can see there’s a vastly different view of the Western concept of energy, and the Eastern concept of Food Energetics.
If you want to learn more about food energetics and how food energetics can be beneficial to your pet, then download our free e-book at www.pettao.com and educate yourself on food energetics and how Eastern food therapy can benefit and help your pet.
I will see you again next week, and if you have any other things you want me to talk about, you’re welcome to send an email and if you like what we had to talk about today on our podcast, then give us a rating on iTunes.
In the meantime, have a good week.

Episode 4: Three Keys to Becoming A Better Holistic Pet Parent

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products Podcast.
I’m Dr. Marc Smith, your host, 20 year practicing veterinarian and also one of two co-creators of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
Welcome to Episode 4, and today what I’m going to talk to you about are three keys to becoming a better pet parent. It’s something we all need; it’s something I’m asked every day in practice.
“Dr. Smith, how can I become a better pet owner, a better pet parent for my life and also for my pet’s life?”
And so, I’m going to go over three key things that you can do each and every day to help you in that process.
The first thing is – you’ve got to provide structure. So, number one is structure.
Provide your pet with structure.
Everything does better, including your pet, especially a dog, with structure.
And when I talk about structure, what I’m talking about is feeding your pet at the same time every day, following the exact same system – whatever system you develop of feeding your dog, putting your dog to bed, walking your dog.
The expectations that your dog should have should be very structured.
And, a lot of people confuse this with training. Training is a little different than structure.
Training is typically a professional endeavor that of course you can learn as a homeowner or as a pet parent.
But the main thing is the structure – doing the same thing each and every day, time and time again, so that your pet feels secure and feels comfortable.
We see pets all the time that when the parents go out of town, the owners board their pet.
Well, that messes up the dog’s structure, and when you mess up the structure, you have problems. 
So, the number one key is to provide structure each and every day.
The number two key is to spend time with your animal.
I kind of like the quote by Jim Rome: “Time is our most valuable asset. Yet, we tend to waste it, kill it and spend it rather than invest it.”
You need to invest time in your pet to have a good pet and have a reciprocal relationship that is rewarding to both yourself and to your pet.
The way to do that is to spend time, whether it’s sitting on the couch petting your dog, or taking your dog to the park and throwing or playing fetch, or taking your dog on a nice walk.
Spend time with your pet.
That’s the number two key to becoming a better pet parent.
And the third key is a little bit out of the box.
But the third key is you got to be open-minded.
Cause what’s going to happen is, is you go on this journey of being a pet parent and developing this relationship with your dog.
And things are going to change.
Your situation is going to change.
The dog’s situation is going to change.
“What happens if my dog gets sick? How am I going to handle it?”
“What if my dog runs away? How am I going to handle it?”
“What happens if my dog unfortunately bites someone? How am I going to handle it?”
The key here is you have to be open-minded.
Open-minded to all the different things you might face as a pet owner.
It’s tough. It can be difficult.
And the funny thing I see in practice each and every day is people get a pet, and they have a lifelong relationship with this animal, and I hear it all the time:
“I’m not getting another one.”
“If something happens I’m not getting another one.”
And I think the reason people say that is because they become so attached to these pets knowing something may happen to them.
They’re fearful of the pain from that loss that they may endure, the pain from that failed or ending relationship that they may have to deal with.
This can be very troublesome, and it can be extremely difficult.
So during that process, you need to be open-minded, and being open-minded also means developing and learning your own philosophy – your own philosophy about how you take care of your pet, about how you build a relationship with your pet, and about how you view your pet in your world. 
So, to sum it up, the three keys to becoming a better pet parent are provide structure, are to spend time with your pet, and number three, be open minded about all the different possibilities that you may face as you travel on this journey and this relationship with your pet.
Thank you for listening, and if you liked what we talked about today then give us a rating on iTunes.
If you didn’t like what we talked about today then send us an e-mail and tell us how we can improve, or if you have any questions, or you have any topics that you want me to discuss in the future, then please email us.
If you want to help build your philosophy about how you want to take care of your pet in the future, then you can download our free e-book on Eastern Food Therapy at www.pettao.com.
Have a good day.

Episode 2: The Secret of the Head Pressing Goat

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the second edition of the PET | TAO podcast. I’m Dr. Marc Smith and I’m your host.
And I’ve got a great story for you today, and it centers around the fact that when I was a young kid, my dad, he would always make me eat everything on my plate.
So, when we sat down for dinner, he would say, “Marc, dig in son”, and I’d start eating.
Well like most little kids, I’d already had ten Oreos and probably a push-up and I wasn’t that hungry.
Well my dad used to make me, he’d say “Son, you eat three bites of each thing that I put on your plate.”
Now when that was fried chicken and mashed potatoes, I was okay.
But when it turned out to be Brussels sprouts, I didn’t like it too much.
But my dad was teaching me a lesson; he was teaching me that I have got to learn how to eat a lot of different variety of foods.
And looking back on that, I’m not sure if that was the best advice.
And so what I’m going to talk to you about today has to do with feeding your pets and feeding your pets less food.
About four months ago, I wrote an article on our blog and it’s titled “The Number One Secret to Keeping Your Pet Healthy.”
And basically, the number one secret of healthy pets is: you feed your pet – it doesn’t matter if it’s a dog, cat, horse, whatever – you feed them less food.
And I cited an article in there, a scientific article that studies the effects of calorie restriction on rats.
And it pretty much proved that rats that ate less calories over their lifetime live longer than other rats that consume more food.
And so in my practice today, I give that same advice, I tell people that, “you know what? When you’re in doubt and you don’t know how much to feed your pet, then feed them less.”
And so this gets back to the point of this whole podcast and the point is that I wanted to talk about an article that I read that just came out, well it came out probably six months ago in the Journal of Experimental Biology and it’s a pretty interesting article.
It’s a study done by Butler, Luts, Fokidis, and Stahlschmidt.
And basically the title of this study is “Eating Increases Oxidative Damage in a Reptile.”
And so, most of us know that eating contributes to health, right?
If we eat properly, then we live healthy and we use eating to give our bodies energy so that we can perform necessary functions and so that our body can preform necessary functions to keep us healthy.
But in this study, its actually pretty cool because the authors, they use the corn snake and for those of you who don’t know about the corn snake, corn snakes are a wild snake that inhabit primarily the Eastern coast in the Southeast.
They are a non-poisonous snake.
In fact, many people who have pet snakes have corn snakes.
And so in the pet world, the corn snake is a pretty good pet.
Now I don’t know a whole lot about snakes, but back to the study, in this study, these authors use corn snakes and what they did is they wanted to investigate the collateral damage done by or through digestion.
And they chose snakes because again, for most of you that don’t know, snakes, they don’t eat all the time everyday like we do.
Snakes are opportunistic feeders.
So when a little mouse creeps by, they pop out and eat it and have a meal.
If a mouse doesn’t walk by for two weeks, the snake doesn’t get a meal.
So they had to choose an animal that didn’t eat all the time like a dog or a cat or us, so that’s why they chose the snake.
But anyways, what they did is, they fed the snake a meal and they took a blood sample during the digestive process and they measured how many oxygen radicals were generated.
And what they found is during digestion, it was like 150% more oxygen radicals were generated than during other stressful events, compared to other animals.
And basically oxygen radicals, what they do is they go around and they cause damage to normal cells and they also cause damage to the DNA within the cells.
So what they found was, hey, when these animals, when these reptiles digest a diet, they emit all of these toxic byproducts that cause damage to otherwise normal and healthy tissue.
And they did a comparison and they drew blood also when digestion was not present and there was just a huge increase over when digestion was present.
And so, they presumed that eating causes oxidative damage in reptiles that we really never knew about.
And so, the question is, does this translate over into other animals?
And I would have to say absolutely yes.
And that’s my opinion and that’s based on my experience and a little bit of research. And so the take home message is: feed your pets less.
Now, in Chinese medicine, we have another saying, and that saying is the following: eat until you are ¾ full, and then stop.
It’s funny how a lot of these Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors were so smart.
It seems that they were a whole lot smarter than we are.
So, if you want to learn more about Eastern Food Therapy and how it can help your pet, or if you have more questions about oxidative damage in a reptile, or the number one secret to keeping your pet healthy, or any other thing that you would like to know about your pets, then go to www.pettao.com and download our free e-book on Eastern Food Therapy for Pets and check out our blog.

Episode 3: Is Holistic Pet Medicine Snake Oil

Hello, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products Podcast where we talk about everything from people to animals to pets and everything in between.
I’m your host, Dr. Marc Smith, 20-year practicing veterinarian, and one of the two creators of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
What I wanted to talk to you about today is the term “snake oil salesman.”
I’ve been reading the paper a lot, and we have all these political opinions and political rants and political ravings, and the term “snake oil salesman” keeps on popping up.
To me, the term snake oil salesman, it conveys a sense of distrust or people that lie to get what they want.
I thought about where did this term really originate and how did the term come to be so negative.
I did a little research and I thought I would discuss it with you because I think it’s pretty cool and I think it’s pretty interesting.
You see, it all goes back to the olden days.
That was a term my father used to use when I was a little kid, and he would say, “Son, back in the olden days, we did things this way.”
When I’m talking about the olden days in reference to this term, it’s the 1800s.
You see, in the 1800s with the construction of the transcontinental railroad, many Chinese workers were brought into this country.
These Chinese workers were underpaid.
They worked hard.
They worked long.
Along with them, they brought many remedies to treat their ailments from the strenuous labor required to actually construct the transcontinental railroad.
One of the remedies they bought was snake oil, and this oil came from the Chinese water snake, and it was rich in omega-3 fatty acids that helped to reduce inflammation.
These Chinese workers, at the end of a long day of hard work, they would vigorously rub this oil into their joints, into their muscles, and all over their body to help their muscles recover to relief the soreness and the pain from hours and hours and hours of hard labor.
These Chinese workers, they let their American counterparts, who were working on the railroad, use the oil as well.
The Americans, wow, they love this oil. They’d rub it all over them. They praised its miraculous effects, praised the way it remedied the soreness, and it helped them feel better after a long hard day at work.
How did a legitimate medicine become such a symbol of fraud and deceit?
You see, as the power of snake oil grew and as many people, American people, decided they wanted snake oil and they wanted to sell snake oil.
The only problem was that there were no Chinese water snakes available, so some of the Americans started to use rattlesnakes in place of the Chinese water snake.
One savvy entrepreneur by the name of Clark Stanley, he began to attend all these county fairs and advertised on the back of newspaper that he had the cure-all, snake oil.
The only problem was this snake oil was made from the rattlesnake.
He never told the people that, “Hey, it’s not the same snake oil that these Chinese immigrants brought into our country.
He went around and sold his snake oil as the same Chinese water snake oil.
Tale has it that Clark Stanley, otherwise known as The Rattlesnake King, would stand up in from of screaming crowds of people, pull a rattlesnake out of the bag, slit the snake open, and throw it into boiling water and skim off the fat that rose to the top, bottle it up and sell it to people suffering from any kind of ailments, such as stomachache, backache, headache, or really any kind of pain.
Mr. Stanley’s success didn’t last long.
In 1906 with the passing of the Food and Drug Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, legislatures sought to clamp down and stop the fraudulent sales of many home medicines and many patent remedies.
Federal investigators got some of Mr. Stanley’s snake oil and tested it in the lab, and what they found is that the snake oil didn’t truly contain snake oil.
It contained other substances, such as mineral oil, beef fat, red pepper, and turpentine.
You guessed it. Mr. Stanley was not selling real Chinese water snake oil nor was he selling rattlesnake oil, but he was selling something totally fake, and therefore, my friends, that is the history and origination of the term, snake oil salesman.
Ladies and gentleman, thank you for joining me today here on the PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products Podcast.
I hope each of you learned a lot and you found our podcast interesting.
If you liked what you heard, give us a rating in iTunes, and if you didn’t like what you heard, send us an email telling us why.
If you have any questions you’d like me to answer, I’d be happy to do so.
Submit your questions.
Until next time, which will be next week, I’ll see you, and have a great day.

Episode 1 Welcome to the PET TAO Holistic Pet Podcast!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first edition of the PET | TAO podcast. I’m Dr. Marc Smith, co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.
I’ve also practiced veterinary medicine for 20 years. I started in veterinary medicine when I was fifteen years old, so I’ve got a lot of experience.
And the PET | TAO.fm podcast, let me tell you what it’s going to do for you. It’s going to give you cutting-edge advice on the old and the new.
The old, like acupuncture, Eastern food therapy, chiropractic, Eastern herbal medicine.
And the new, on the latest and greatest technological advances that we have made over the past 20 years of veterinary medicine.
You see, when I came out and I first started in practice, I thought I knew it all. What I mean by that is, I thought I knew everything that I needed to know about veterinary medicine, to help me practice for the rest of my life.
But, shortly after being in practice for ten years, I learned, “you know what Marc, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot. I’ve got a lot to learn.”
So I went back to school to school to study and to learn Eastern medicine, chiropractic, and a variety of alternative techniques to incorporate those same techniques with the typical practice of Western veterinary medicine.
And because of that, and because of my passion to learn, I’ve been introduced to all different facets of veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, and the best way to teach you and tell you, through this podcast, how to take care of animals.
Now, what is this podcast going to teach you? A couple of things.
Number one: we’re going to teach you how to take care of pets. And we’re going to teach you how to take care of pets from all different angles.
As I mentioned before, I do a lot of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine in my practice.
It’s a wonderful tool, but you’ve got to know how to use it, and you’ve got to know how to use it according to what your client’s expectations are.
Second: we’re going to teach you how to apply a lot of these principles to your life, and how you can use herbal medicine and you can use a lot of the thoughts and the recommendations that I make on this podcast to apply to yourself, to make you happier, you healthier, make you feel better, and ultimately to make you live longer and be healthy.
And lastly: I’m going to tell you a lot about my experiences in veterinary medicine, different people I’ve met, different things I’ve done, different treatments I’ve tried, different failures, and different things that I’ve done to make a big impact on people’s lives.
I love being a veterinarian.
It’s my life’s calling. I do it every single day.
I try to impact people everyday; I try to impact their pets every single day.
I love it and I want to share it with people. And that is what my goal is with the PET | TAO podcast.
One thing you can do to start is download our free e-book on Eastern Food Therapy on www.pettao.com. Again, it’s www.pettao.com. And you can learn all about the cool world of Eastern Food Therapy.
It’s really fascinating to me how these ancient Eastern people applied these principles to foods, and how these foods would impact the body after they were eaten.
So grab the e-book and start learning about Eastern Food Therapy.
Meanwhile, thank you for listening to our first episode of the podcast.
We will do this weekly, we have a lot of cool stuff coming for you and you’ll learn a lot, you’ll enjoy it. And you’ll have a healthier self, and I can guarantee you a healthier pet.
Thank you again.