When a pet receives a cancer diagnosis, many caregivers immediately question their pet’s diet and wonder what they should change. In this episode, Dr. Gaylord helps bring clarity to a topic often filled with confusion, strong opinions, and misinformation.
Spoiler Alert! One of the most important takeaways of this episode is that there is no universal “cancer diet.” While popular trends often promote low-carb or ketogenic approaches, Dr. Gaylord explains how there is no solid evidence showing these diets improve outcomes in pets.
Instead, nutrition should be based on the individual pet, including any other medical conditions they may have.
Dr. Gaylord emphasizes that one of the most important factors in supporting pets with cancer is simply ensuring they continue to eat.
Maintaining calorie intake and choosing foods that are palatable and well-tolerated can have a significant impact on quality of life.
Tripawds Podcast Episode #138: Pet Cancer and Nutrition
Dr. Laura Gaylord, board-certified veterinary nutritionist, shares how to make informed feeding choices for pets diagnosed with cancer.
Overall, this episode encourages a balanced, thoughtful approach. We focus on what works best for each pet rather than chasing one-size-fits-all solutions.
What You Will Learn in This Tripawd Talk Episode
The discussion explores different feeding options, from kibble to fresh and homemade diets. While all can play a role, Dr. Gaylord generally recommends cooked diets over raw for cancer patients due to safety concerns.
There is no one-size-fits-all cancer diet, nutrition should be individualized.
Keeping pets eating and maintaining calories is a top priority.
Work with trusted professionals and evaluate products carefully.
Pet parents will also learn how to evaluate food brands and supplements by looking for transparency, qualified formulation experts, and quality standards such as the NASC seal.
Listen in the Buzzsprout player here, watch the YouTubevVideo below, and read the transcript below for all the details!
Subscribe to Tripawd Talk Radio in your podcast player app!
Tripawd Talk Radio Podcast #138 with Dr. Laura Gaylord
About Dr. Laura Gaylord
Dr. Laura Gaylord, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition), is a Board-Certified Veterinary Nutritionist and founder of Whole Pet Provisions. With over two decades of clinical experience, she specializes in personalized nutrition plans that support pets through disease, recovery, and lifelong wellness.
Resources
Tripawd Talk #137 Full Transcript
Pet Nutrition and Cancer – Cutting Through the Confusion with Veterinary Nutritionist Dr. Laura Gaylord
Tripawds co-founder Rene is joined by board-certified veterinary nutritionist Dr. Laura Gaylord, who’s here to help us get grounded in what actually matters when it comes to feeding your Tripawd, especially during a cancer journey.
Dr. Gaylord is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist with over 24 years of clinical experience, specializing in personalized nutrition plans based on each pet’s individual needs. She is a Founding Member and Creator of Whole Pet Provisions, helping people provide their four and three-legged family members with the best possible nutrition care.
Dr. Gaylord brings an independent, integrative approach to pet nutrition, and we’ll hear about where to start, how to avoid overwhelm, what really makes a “good” diet, AND how to think about supplements without going down that rabbit hole again. This is one of those conversations that will help you take a breath, simplify things, and feel more confident about what’s in your pet’s bowl.
Let’s get into it.
TRIPAWDS: Welcome! Thank you for doing this.
DR LAURA: Thank you. I appreciate the invitation to be here.
TRIPAWDS: It is a joy to have you here because nutrition is a huge topic in our community and getting good information is tough. It really is.
TRIPAWDS: There is so much of it out there to begin with. So, having an expert like you to guide us through the process of what do we feed our Tripawd is very valuable.
TRIPAWDS: So, thank you. I know your time is precious and we really appreciate this today.
DR LAURA: Wonderful. I am so happy to be here and I hope I can keep people’s feet on the ground maybe a little bit and help wade through all of that information.
DR LAURA: I always feel sorry for a lot of my clients when they come to me because they honestly are very confused about a lot of things they read out there.
TRIPAWDS: Oh yeah. I mean you read one thing and then the next day you read the opposite thing and who do you believe?
TRIPAWDS: So that is why we have you here today because you are a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and there are a lot of people out there who like to use the word nutritionist to describe what they do when it is not exactly accurate if they don’t have the credentials behind their name. So, tell me about why you decided to go from private practice to becoming a nutritionist.
From Veterinary Practice to Veterinary Nutrition
DR LAURA: Yeah, and you are so right about that. I think we’ve brought that up even multiple times within my nutrition profession about how the use of terms needs to be regulated a little bit better.
DR LAURA: I don’t know, there are efforts been made towards even putting a trademark on our credentials and you may see that registered trademark behind her name and that’s the reason why is because there is some controversy about it. But yes, I always wanted to be a veterinarian of course, but I’ve always loved nutrition both personally and professionally, in practice in the veterinary hospital.
DR LAURA: I am an avid cook. I love to cook my own food. I have a zillion cookbooks. That’s my illness.
DR LAURA: Even in the digital age, I have this huge library of cookbooks that go way back to like the 1980s. I was in practice for 14 years and I realized actually that my college had a nutrition service and that they had a program called alternative track and that we could go back to school basically without having to quit our jobs.
DR LAURA: And I learned about that after being in practice for a little while. My first love actually was internal medicine, but I didn’t want to go straight through school.
DR LAURA: I actually had a husband that he wanted to go to school and we had a deal like we were going to trade places and so after vet school, I went and got a job and worked and he went back to school. Then I realized that quitting my job and going full-time back to school just wasn’t for me.
DR LAURA: So, when I learned about the nutrition program, I was like, that is exactly what I want to do because nutrition actually is medicine first and then we relayer our nutrition angle after we understand the medicine about the patient. So, I loved that combination and so I enrolled back in my alma mater at North Carolina State University.
DR LAURA: It took me four and a half years to go through doing it on alternative track, one week a month on clinics and it was challenging because you have two lives kind of and each of them sort of take on a life of their own and of course I had two little kids during that time. So we were doing all of that.
DR LAURA: We were very busy. But it was totally worth it.
DR LAURA: And after finishing I transitioned into only doing nutrition and that’s just really grown. And I love it.
DR LAURA: I am thankful for the opportunity to focus on that now in veterinary medicine. And even with veterinarians, we do a lot of good work, I think, helping people find nutrition plans.
TRIPAWDS: I know you do a lot of good work because I’ve seen what you do. So you have a consulting service called Whole Pet Provisions.
TRIPAWDS: Tell me about that.
Whole Pet Provisions and Nutrition Consultations
DR LAURA: Yeah, so when I finished my residency, I did a couple of things for a little while. I actually worked with my mentor, Dr. Rebecca Remlard, who’s a world-renowned, highly respected nutritionist, and she loved doing homemade diets.
DR LAURA: She probably is the one that has done the most homemade diets on the planet. So, I was fortunate enough to have her as my mentor as well.
DR LAURA: And I worked with her first in her company called petdiets.com for a couple of years. But I always wanted to do my own thing.
DR LAURA: Like I told her from the beginning, I’m going to do my own thing one day. And I wanted to run it kind of like a hospital more like where we have patients, we do rechecks and nutrition wasn’t really at that point quite yet back then it was more like you could get a diet and nobody ever talked to you.
DR LAURA: This is the way we do it is more like truly telemedicine and really the timing with COVID happening changed everything for us as nutritionists. Before that we weren’t really allowed to do telemedicine and to do nutrition you really need more than just like your one hospital right you don’t have enough clients that are going to go that next level maybe that it justifies that being your only thing right so with telemedicine becoming possible with COVID now we could have a broader reach we could talk with patients kind of everywhere we still work as a consultant to the veterinarian that examines the pet that’s a requirement so we don’t talk directly to pet owners without establishing that relationship with their veterinarian first.
TRIPAWDS: Oh, I like that.
DR LAURA: And so with that, you know, that way we’re a consultant technically to the veterinarian, but they give us permission to talk to the client and that way we have all the records. We know everything that’s going on.
DR LAURA: And we all work together on that nutrition plan.
TRIPAWDS: That’s like having a whole nutrition team for your pet. I love that.
DR LAURA: Yeah. Absolutely.
DR LAURA: Yep. So that’s the majority of what we do.
DR LAURA: We do also work with some pet food companies and some pet supplement companies. So, I have some background in helping advising on pet supplements.
DR LAURA: So, I know all the ins and outs, the good, the bad, the ugly that goes on with that. But those things hopefully will continue to improve over time.
DR LAURA: And I think they have, there are efforts being made to make pet supplements safer. So that’s a good thing.
Supplement Quality and the NASC Seal
TRIPAWDS: Oh, yeah. There’s that NASC, what is that acronym?
DR LAURA: The National Animal Supplement Council.
TRIPAWDS: Yes.
DR LAURA: They’re really the only body of third-party verification that’s available for pet supplements. So, I definitely use that and recommend looking for supplements that have that NASC seal.
DR LAURA: And that doesn’t guarantee efficacy on products, but it does at least guarantee there’s some quality steps that are in place, adverse event reporting, and some subject to verification of ingredients of what’s there. But, you know, there are some companies that don’t do NASC that have been around for a long time that work with veterinarians and those are they’re still they’re making some good supplements too.
DR LAURA: So not everybody is completely on board with that. But if you’re not sure like if you see that seal I think that’s a good way to help yourself make sure you’re getting a supplement that at least has that.
TRIPAWDS: Oh we already got a great tip and we haven’t even gotten to the supplement section yet. We do want to talk about that if we have time later.
TRIPAWDS: We’ll get more into supplements hopefully. But just to clarify does Whole Pet Provisions see clients just in the US, Canada?
TRIPAWDS: I mean, how far is your reach?
DR LAURA: Majority are United States, but we do have clients in Canada and a couple, a handful from all over the world. I have some clients in Japan and South Africa.
DR LAURA: Yeah, Greece, I think. I’m just going from memory.
DR LAURA: And I think there it’s because there’s no limitations to us. We still work with the veterinarian that’s involved.
DR LAURA: The biggest limitation there is I don’t know what they can get yet like what their food might be different, their vitamin mineral supplements or things might be different. So, they’re fun and challenging and sometimes we have translators.
DR LAURA: So, that’s kind of interesting. But, yeah, we have a handful of those.
DR LAURA: Not too many though.
Starting Nutrition Conversations After a Cancer Diagnosis
TRIPAWDS: Oh, that’s really cool. I love that because our community is definitely global.
TRIPAWDS: So, you might be getting some more. We’ll see.
TRIPAWDS: But, you know, one of the big reasons I wanted to have you here today was because the majority of our members come to us because their dog or cat lost a leg to cancer and generally it’s a limb cancer like osteosarcoma sometimes hemangiosarcoma sometimes for other reasons cats often join us for injection site sarcomas. We all start this journey feeling like what did we do wrong what did we feed our pets that caused this cancer and I sometimes I know to a veterinarian that can sound completely irrelevant because you just can’t generalize like that.
TRIPAWDS: But how do we begin to help our pets feel good with what they’re eating when we start a journey like this? Like how do we make it so that we’re not throwing a thousand supplements at them and we’re not sure if it’s working.
TRIPAWDS: Maybe we’re kind of making them hate mealtime because all of a sudden we switched it up. So, I guess what I’m trying to ask is where is the best place to start?
TRIPAWDS: We have a cancer diagnosis. We feel like it was the food.
TRIPAWDS: Now, what?
Why the Whole Pet Matters
DR LAURA: Well, I mean, the first thing I would say is, there’s no blaming going on with this kind of thing. I mean, the bigger question of why do pets get cancer?
DR LAURA: Like, why do humans get cancer? You know, we have that conversation.
DR LAURA: It’s not just food. It’s not as simple as that.
DR LAURA: There are so many factors that play a role. Genetics, environment.
DR LAURA: Food’s part of the environment, but there’s all those other things in the environment. There are so many things we don’t understand about that.
DR LAURA: So, no blaming, don’t beat yourself up. I think we zoom in on food because we think we can control that.
TRIPAWDS: Yes.
DR LAURA: And so then we want to change that, right? And it’s never that simple.
DR LAURA: So I mean, first of all, I think when you have that diagnosis, you still have to look at the big picture like everything else about pets because a lot of them may have other things going on like they may have food sensitivities or they may have other diseases that are also present. So the cancer can’t control the total nutrition plan all the time.
DR LAURA: If that’s their only problem there may be things to talk about flexibility or things to try but honestly most of the time at least the ones I see and maybe I get the worst case scenarios, they often have more than one problem or more than one consideration and you still have to think about the whole animal, not just the cancer. So, that’s the first thing.
DR LAURA: So, diet needs to consider everything. And then more is not better.
DR LAURA: I think that’s a big mistake is that like you said, we start to throw the kitchen sink at the pet and try everything that we read about and that is almost guaranteed a recipe for disaster. Most of the time I will focus on nutrition first as nutrition is the foundation.
DR LAURA: That’s the biggest thing going in their body. So, we want to make sure we feel good about that first.
DR LAURA: But then we might choose some very thoughtful supplements and maybe even prioritize them and then we’re adding them one at a time to make sure that they tolerate them and that we don’t get in trouble with that. But nutrition definitely is the foundation.
DR LAURA: We want to have a diet that we feel good works for that pet and is achieving our goals.
Choosing Between Kibble, Fresh, Raw, and Homemade Diets
TRIPAWDS: Now, when we talk about nutrition in terms of your work, what are we looking at? When somebody comes to you do you consider all types of diets: kibble, raw, dehydrated, homemade?
TRIPAWDS: How do you help the client decide which path to take if they’re open to whatever?
DR LAURA: Yeah. Well, it’s a good question and I usually have a conversation with them about their feelings about that, because I think often people come sort of with strong feelings for one thing or another and that’s okay.
DR LAURA: I’m willing to work with people wherever they are in that spectrum with pros and cons, discussions about things. Some of that will depend on what they can afford for their pet and then sometimes it’s what the pet does best on.
DR LAURA: So, we don’t always know that a certain diet form is going to be the best one for that dog. We’ve got to work within what that dog is telling us.
DR LAURA: But, a lot of times there are options within each of those food forms. And so we can kind of look at all of the options and then look at cost and look at availability and practicality for that individual’s lifestyle.
DR LAURA: I do homemade diets, but not everybody’s got time to make a homemade diet. I tend to with my practice, I recommend cooked food.
DR LAURA: We don’t do raw diet formulations only because I do worry about pathogen risk that come from home-prepared diets. You have no safety measures necessarily in place.
DR LAURA: Now, I know people will fight me on that and some people are super passionate about raw feeding and that’s all fine, but I’m going to give you my opinion. And so those folks I will drive them towards maybe a commercial diet that’s raw because you’ve got high-pressure pasteurization at least that’s there and that’s at least one safeguard for you.
DR LAURA: So, and if you have a pet that’s had cancer, I consider that a systemic disease that could suppress their immune system. So, that’s another reason I don’t necessarily recommend raw diets and I think you get just as many wonderful features from a cooked fresh diet that you can from raw.
DR LAURA: That’s my personal opinion about that. But I do work with people all across the spectrum and a lot of times it’s just education about the pros and cons of different diets and we can talk honestly about that with people.
What We Know About Cancer Diets
TRIPAWDS: Yeah, I like that because each type of diet does have those pros and cons and on so many levels and I know I’ve tried numerous paths with my own dogs. What I really liked about getting a nutrition consult for our current dog, Nelly, was that I was given a couple of options.
TRIPAWDS: You know, I was asked what is she eating now? What do you hope to be able to feed her?
TRIPAWDS: And so, I have a nice menu of choices for her now. When we’re talking cancer, though, if somebody’s looking online, they find all of these claims, these cancer diets and things, that are supposed to help in a situation like that.
TRIPAWDS: How do we know what’s real and what’s not? Has there ever been a cancer diet that has been validated shown?
Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets
DR LAURA: No, the answer is no. I definitely know people find all kinds of theories and honestly strong opinions about cancer diets.
DR LAURA: Many of them sort of default to the low-carb or ketogenic type approaches. And there’s data on cell responses in the lab, like cancer cells feeding off the glucose or the sugar, in the lab.
DR LAURA: But it’s not that simple. I mean, even within a tumor, you’re going to have cells that change and have metabolic adaptation.
DR LAURA: So, they can change what substrate they’re going to use. And so, most of this is all theoretical.
DR LAURA: And then a lot of it has never been actually studied in dogs, so there’s a leap there. So, yeah, I don’t advocate hard for those diet forms.
DR LAURA: We did have one series of studies on lymphoma that was actually I believe a Hills sponsored research that was for their ND diet, which doesn’t exist anymore, but that was the diet that was high-fat, low-carb canned food. Many dogs got diarrhea on that diet.
DR LAURA: And that could be a reason we don’t have it anymore. But I think that that was kind of the exploration of that kind of approach and there’s a place for it but I think again going back to the way we build the diet is really based on that individual and so you consider the cancer but you got to look at the rest of the dog and those types of diets that are low-carb or ketogenic tend to be pretty high in fat and that can be a problem for a lot of dogs that can be something that they don’t do well on especially if they’re going through chemotherapy and other treatments that kind of mess with the GI, it’s tough to do that.
DR LAURA: And I think there’s no really solid evidence that those diets are going to get you what you’re looking for, longer survival, a cure, what have you.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. I can tell you that in our community, I have seen it go all sorts of ways when it comes to what people are feeding and the animal’s longevity.
TRIPAWDS: I mean, we have seen dogs on Costco kibble diets living way beyond what people thought they would make it to. And then genetics involved in that probably you know that’s what their environment maybe you know there’s like if I think about all the other factors like stress management and anxiety and just all of the things that play a role in our immune system and our general well-being.
TRIPAWDS: So I think those are all important in our dog’s health just like human health. So it’s just not as simple as if you got the right diet they’re going to be fine you know it’s not always that case but you know we will try different food forums for different pets, too.
TRIPAWDS: And so, and I’m not trying to vilify the low-carb approach because we definitely do that for some of our pets if we think we have room to try those things.
DR LAURA: But I think yeah, like you said, sometimes the food form dictates what the macronutrients might end up being. So, if it has to be a dry kibble because this is what the client wants, then we’ve got to work within what’s available, in that range as well.
Evaluating Pet Food and Nutrition Advice
TRIPAWDS: Yeah, I think for a lot of people that’s probably the easiest path to take at a time when life is just really chaotic and dealing with cancer on top of everything else in your life. I mean, sometimes just knowing that yes, this kibble is going to be okay.
TRIPAWDS: This kibble is going to work. It is not going to give you any guarantees, but you’re doing a good thing.
TRIPAWDS: And having a veterinary endorsement like that means a lot. I do know that vets get a lot of flak for carrying a certain brand of food in their practice.
TRIPAWDS: How do you know? I mean, if your vet tells you, well, okay, whether or not your animal has cancer and your vet suggests a certain type of diet and it happens to be the one in the lobby.
TRIPAWDS: I mean, how should you… are they just doing it to sell you a bag or?
DR LAURA: Yeah. You know, I honestly don’t believe that’s the case because there’s just not a lot of money to be made on the food, the margins on those diets is just not that great that it’s probably worth the pushback from clients with that exact question.
DR LAURA: So, and nowadays with chewy.com, a lot of times they’re not stocking those foods anymore.
TRIPAWDS: I do that.
DR LAURA: Yeah. And I think the truth is that because nutrition is sort of a shorter segment of our education, veterinarians tend to get comfortable with one particular product line.
DR LAURA: You can’t carry all of them because you don’t have space for all different companies’ food. So they tend to get comfortable with one and they learn the most about that and those companies actually do a really good job with education on their products so they understand how to use them and so they just are comfortable with that product line maybe more than others and they just don’t know about maybe other food forms out there or other brands or other things and it’s the fear of the unknown sometimes that drives decision-making.
DR LAURA: So it’s not really truly I believe my veterinarian colleagues are not trying to make money on pet food and I bet you if you polled them they would say I would rather not even have to talk about pet food maybe. There are definitely some veterinarians that do, but I do continuing education speaking and I do hear this from my colleagues sometimes, a nutrition discussion takes a whole entire hour and they don’t have the time to really do that in their busy practice that day.
DR LAURA: So, again, that’s why they tend to default with what they know, they’re comfortable with and they’re doing the best they can and they’re doing a good job with the products that they carry in their clinic. But as a pet owner, you do have a right to ask for options or alternatives.
DR LAURA: There’s nothing wrong with that. So, if you’re interested in some other food, then you should speak up and ask questions about that.
DR LAURA: I think that’s absolutely okay.
TRIPAWDS: I do too. I like that.
TRIPAWDS: And I do see though that there are a lot of people out there on the internet who are maybe not so well educated when it comes to pet nutrition. Like we talked about earlier, there are a lot of people like to call themselves nutritionists.
TRIPAWDS: What are some red flags to look for when you’re searching online and you see somebody trying to sell you a cancer diet or “my dog lived extra long because I fed them this”? How do we know what’s real and what’s not?
What Makes a Pet Food Company Trustworthy?
DR LAURA: I think your best safeguard is number one, understand who is the person that’s speaking to you and what exactly is their background and training. So what qualifies them to give you nutrition advice?
DR LAURA: Is it because they love their dog or is it because they’re a movie actor endorsing a pet food? But who is it actually that formulated the food?
DR LAURA: Is it them and what makes them qualified to formulate pet food or is it a lot of times they’re the face but there is a nutritionist in the background that is doing that work and so that’s fine. So just, you know, you got to ask, you got to do a little investigation work and then if you can’t figure that out and you ask questions and you don’t get good answers then that tells you all you need to know you probably should move along.
DR LAURA: I spend a lot of my time emailing companies asking questions like “who are you and what are your credentials and who formulates your food and can I have a total nutritional analysis?” And when I don’t get those answers, I just move along. They may not answer all of that.
DR LAURA: And if they can’t tell you, I don’t trust that. So that’s really the first step of trying to weed that out.
DR LAURA: And I think if they’re not a trained nutritionist, and this could be a board-certified veterinary nutritionist or it could be an animal PhD nutritionist because many pet food companies use them and they’re well qualified to formulate pet foods because there’s not that many of us. There’s more of them actually.
DR LAURA: And sometimes what’s really the top level is when they have both. When they have a board-certified nutritionist and an animal PhD, they’re more of a food scientist.
DR LAURA: So, they’re going to be better at making the food actually happen, not just the numbers on the paper, but making the food set up and perform well and all those things. So you really, it takes a team, a village, we like to say, when you make pet food.
DR LAURA: The best quality, you’re going to see a team of people on the formulation side.
TRIPAWDS: There’s a lot of thought that goes into this.
DR LAURA: Absolutely. 100%. Yep.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. I know that a lot of the big brands out there, they get bashed because while they’re turning out commercial kibble and canned and it’s all made in a factory and… but I actually toured the Mars plant once and I got to see behind the scenes and I saw the level of research that goes into their work and I can’t help but think that a lot of the smaller startup pet food companies out there that are on the shelves of my local pet food store don’t have those kinds of resources to know if what they’re creating is actually as good as what these larger companies can produce.
WSAVA Questions and Research Transparency
DR LAURA: Right. Yeah.
DR LAURA: There’s just so much that goes into pet food that people have no awareness of from raw ingredients to manufacturing to testing, not just for safety but also, you know, does it actually have what you are promising when it’s final product form and then shelf life and all of those things play a role. And there are some minimum standards for pet food in general.
DR LAURA: You know, we have our Association of American Feed Control Officials that set recommendations and there are rules about that but it is true I give a whole continuing education lecture actually on how to choose a pet food and it’s an hour long. So there’s so many layers to that to get into.
DR LAURA: But there are smaller companies, that being said, there are smaller companies that are doing a good job, too, that are really trying. But I think, what we tend to do is direct people to the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s questions on how to choose a pet food.
DR LAURA: There’s those are available online. We call them the WSAVA questions.
TRIPAWDS: WSAVA. I know about their pain management guidelines.
TRIPAWDS: I will definitely include a link to that.
DR LAURA: They have how to choose a pet food. And I’ll qualify that and say they’re not the end-all be-all either.
DR LAURA: Like there’s things that are not accounted for in those questions and they do tend to favor the largest companies with “do they do research on their pet food?” and “do they provide continuing education?”. Like some of those things smaller companies can afford to do and that doesn’t make them bad.
DR LAURA: But it gives you kind of a layering of how to look at different companies and the one thing that’s lacking on there is digestibility testing. That should be something I think most companies do that don’t always find having those with their results.
DR LAURA: But it’s a good place to start for sure. It’s a list of questions that can help people evaluate food.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah, that’s… I think if I had something like that.
TRIPAWDS: Is there an app for that that I can take to my pets?
DR LAURA: Well, that’s coming. I’ve actually had requests like, “can you help us make this app on helping people choose food?” And I see that coming, with the AI that there’s going to be… like the AI will probably take my job at some point.
TRIPAWDS: No, never, never, never, never.
DR LAURA: It will probably do that because it will be able to assimilate more information than I can ever do in a day, right? But the AI is only as good as the information it gets.
TRIPAWDS: Yes.
DR LAURA: And so that’s where another topic to talk about is transparency in pet food and having access to all those questions and answers. Like that’s not always the case.
DR LAURA: You can’t always find out everything you would like to know about a pet food. So, that might be a reason to see one of those red flags, too.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. Oh, for sure.
TRIPAWDS: For sure. That transparency.
TRIPAWDS: I mean, I see all these startup companies on the shelves. Every time I go in the pet store, there’s a whole new brand up there and I’m like, where did they come from?
TRIPAWDS: One of the brands I was really happy to see grow, and now actually was one of the recommendations from Colorado State when we had our consult, was Just Food for Dogs. Yeah, they started out as a small home-cooking kind of business out of Southern California and wow, boom, in like 10 years they’re and it’s good stuff and they’re very transparent.
Fresh Food Options and Cost
DR LAURA: I’m actually a big fan of fresh dog food, so homemade diets, I can do that, but I get it. Like it’s a job.
DR LAURA: People got to invest time in doing that. And the answer to that is then if you want that food form, fresh dog food is the fastest-growing segment of the pet food market right now.
DR LAURA: And so we have Just Food for Dogs, we have the Farmer’s Dog, we have Windwood Dog Food Company, there’s another one called Nine in Line and many of these have prescription veterinary diets now too.
TRIPAWDS: I saw that Windwood and Just Food for Dogs.
DR LAURA: So those become options, maybe even alternatives to our other diets we think of typically as prescription and dry kibble or canned food. And they all work with or employ veterinary nutritionists, board-certified nutritionists.
DR LAURA: So there’s no reason to fear these diets. Like they’re good quality and they’re a great option.
DR LAURA: So, yes, pet food is evolving. Hopefully, we feel like that’s evolving into options for people to have all kinds of choices.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. Yeah, that’s definitely one of the choices that we have.
TRIPAWDS: And I love giving that to Nelly. She doesn’t get it exclusively because she’s a 65-pound German Shepherd.
TRIPAWDS: So, she’d be eating a lot of those $10 packets. Actually, the 11.99.
DR LAURA: So, there lies the holdback, is that fresh food is more expensive because it’s more like canned food. If you were to price out what your dog would eat in canned food, it’s actually kind of similar to canned dog food.
DR LAURA: It seems like it’s a lot, but if you fed your dog all canned food, which we’ve had for years, right? It’s similar.
DR LAURA: And it has to do with just the volume and the shipping costs are higher because it takes up more space and the inputs are more expensive. It costs more to, you know, you can’t dry it out and put it in a bag and it stays there shelf stable.
DR LAURA: You have to keep it cold and you have to keep it frozen. All that costs money and there’s less preservatives and things and so yeah, there are reasons it costs more.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. I won’t tell you what our food bill turned into after our consult.
TRIPAWDS: You probably know this, but I sort of veered off topic when we were talking about cancer diets, but I just want to wrap that up and ask is: what is like the bare minimum that somebody can do with a dog or cat that will, just make maybe give them a little more energy, maybe just help the pet parent feel a little bit better about what they’re eating during a medical situation like that?
The Basics: Appetite, Calories, and Complete Nutrition
DR LAURA: Yeah. Well, I once had an oncologist tell me that the number one factor in survival is calorie intake.
DR LAURA: And I thought that was a fascinating statement because basically what that means is if they keep eating, they’re going to keep living. So that means you need a diet that the pet likes, is a priority.
DR LAURA: They’ve got to like their food and they’ve got to tolerate their food well. And any effort we can put towards keeping their appetite up is really important.
DR LAURA: So I’m willing to bend on what that food is to make sure it’s palatable and that it’s got good calorie density and it keeps them eating as long as I can. So, that could mean you have to change the food form if they’re not excited about their dry kibble.
DR LAURA: Maybe you do a combination and fresh diets actually can really help us with that. Their palatability sometimes gives them a boost.
DR LAURA: So that’s an option or a combination is an option. Sometimes canned food goes better too because you get the flavor and aroma of the canned food wetting the dry food.
DR LAURA: Food form palatability… Make sure your diet’s complete and balanced.
DR LAURA: So, if people go to home cooking, that’s fine if you have like a stomach upset and you need a bland diet for a few days, but if you decide to switch off to homemade food, like that’s working great. Now this tends to happen.
DR LAURA: They’re like, “I’m just going to stay with homemade food”.
TRIPAWDS: Get it balanced because you want to make sure it’s got everything in there. They’ve got to take care of their whole body and they need all the nutrients in that diet.
TRIPAWDS: So, you don’t want them to become deficient on anything and now their immune system doesn’t work as well. You know, they can’t fight their cancer as well.
TRIPAWDS: They can’t get through chemo and all that. So, complete and balanced is the next thing and making sure you’re getting enough calories in them at the same time.
TRIPAWDS: I would say that’s the bare minimum for sure. And then we can talk about tweaking diets and finding the best diet macronutrients and ingredients and all that, but that’s really done on an individual pet basis.
TRIPAWDS: Where is this magical complete and balanced recipe? Does it exist?
Balancing Homemade Diets
DR LAURA: Right. I mean and that’s because complete and balanced is defined really by the ingredients that are in the recipe, so it’s going to be different.
DR LAURA: So you can buy some homemade diet balancer supplements out there. There’s Balance IT products, Chef’s K9 Complete, Animait Enhance supplement, IVI Blend is another one.
DR LAURA: There’s not that many actually that are complete and balanced and also formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. And there are others that pop up from time to time that I see.
DR LAURA: And they’ll give generic dosing by body weight. But the best way is actually working with a veterinary nutritionist and getting your diet balanced.
DR LAURA: And BalanceIT.com actually has like where pet owners can go in and make their own recipes and they can drop in a balance supplement that’ll balance it. And actually, there’s another site called Mixit Pet that I’ll mention that does another supplement called Chef’s K9 Complete that I work with as well and it’s very basic.
DR LAURA: But you can put in ingredients and it’ll put in Chef’s K9 Complete and give you a complete and balanced recipe like that. But I find that people get confused and sort of terrified when they do it on their own and they really want their hand held a little bit to make sure that “oh, this is actually okay”.
DR LAURA: And I get it, and so that’s why we’re here is to help make sure that they’re comfortable and that it… you know, sometimes you can get some really wacko recipes like it looks balanced, but it’s really strange ingredients or it’s too many or what have you. Like, lack of experience in diet formulation kind of ends up like that.
TRIPAWDS: And it all circles back to the palatability of your pet’s diet and that’s why you exist, your service people, the very few veterinary nutritionists that are out there, that’s what you are here for.
DR LAURA: That’s right.
Why Individual Assessment Matters
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. I mean, I know that when we took Nelly in before we could even see one, we had to have a complete set of labs done just to make sure there wasn’t anything weird going on and to make sure that whatever they recommended was going to be right just for her.
DR LAURA: That’s right. We want to make sure we’re giving you good information and so we have to make sure we understand where that pet is on that day and sometimes we find things that we were not aware of that really can impact the diet and that’s what we’re trying to protect the pet owner from as well.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. You don’t get that kind of guidance from taking the DIY approach.
DR LAURA: No. And I tell people it’s like paying your taxes.
DR LAURA: It’s like if your taxes are simple, you could probably do them by yourself, but if your taxes are complicated, you might need an accountant. And we can’t teach you to be an accountant in like a conversation.
DR LAURA: So this is why we do what we do.
TRIPAWDS: I’m so glad you’re out there. Oh my gosh.
TRIPAWDS: Well, I promised our listeners that we would touch on supplements and this could be a whole entire other show, but I do want to wrap it up with that. You talked about the National Supplements Council and…
Supplements: What Pet Parents Should Know
DR LAURA: Yeah, NASC, National Animal Supplement Council. It’s right now the only third party out there that looks at animal supplements.
DR LAURA: We say that they are unregulated. Basically, they could be considered illegal drugs because they are put out there and they’re not supposed to actually make disease claims.
DR LAURA: So they’re to support wellness, not treat disease. And yet, when you look at marketing, it really looks like they’re walking that line.
DR LAURA: And so, you know, there’s movement actually just now with the National Animal Supplement Council is planning on working towards legislation to put some regulation on pet supplements. That process will probably take a while.
DR LAURA: But on the human side, we do have the DSHEA Act that defines supplements and there’s some regulation and it does not apply to animal supplements. So, we’re really in unregulated territory completely.
DR LAURA: So, it’s really important to have good supplements that have some kind of verification and that’s what NASC at least gives us that. I do think the best person to talk to is your vet.
DR LAURA: Like if you have a question on a supplement they need to be aware of what you’re doing, number one, but they’re your best resource that you can access that knows your dog and knows what you’re going through and can be the first line in assisting you.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. I mean, there’s so many ways you can go with supplements.
TRIPAWDS: Do I add a joint supplement? Do I add an immune supplement, a probiotic?
TRIPAWDS: I mean, I don’t even know where to begin other than looking for the green flag of the stamp for the supplements council. What are some red flags?
Supplement Red Flags and Label Transparency
DR LAURA: I think well when I look at them… so lack of that is one red flag. Lack of the NASC seal.
DR LAURA: If I look at a product and there’s just crazy cure-all claims for every disease on the planet… it’s a cure-all snake oil kind of thing. That’s a red flag for me.
DR LAURA: And actually, marketing like that turns me off because I know the rules and I know they’re breaking them. So, if they’re claiming to treat a disease, you know, that’s a problem.
DR LAURA: If they don’t list the content on the product label, like they don’t actually list out what are the actives, how many milligrams in a serving, like you want it broken down almost like a drug label. And then there’ll also be like inactives listed out.
DR LAURA: So, you want to turn around and actually know and understand what’s in there. Sometimes they will do what they call proprietary blends.
TRIPAWDS: I’ve seen that.
DR LAURA: And then that gets a little shady because you have no idea like what’s in there. Now, some of our better companies do their own proprietary blends, too.
DR LAURA: But they may share that information with us when we talk to them as nutritionists. They just prefer not to put it on the label.
DR LAURA: So, but I don’t generally like that when I see proprietary blends on products. And I think there I would use some of the same rules as I would for pet food.
DR LAURA: I would want to know who the company is. Who helped them… sometimes they use nutritionists to formulate supplements or at least a veterinarian that has training in supplements and so who are those people behind the company and what is their process and you can ask them these questions, you know, you can go to their website find out who they are and then some of our best supplement companies actually are drug companies.
DR LAURA: So one criteria I might use is if they make veterinary drugs and they’re also making supplements, then to me that means their quality standards for their drugs also apply to their supplements. So that’s a good thing to see.
TRIPAWDS: Oh, give me an example of what company.
DR LAURA: Virbac is a company that makes veterinary drugs. And then they also make several supplements.
DR LAURA: Movoflex… I can’t even think of them at the top of my head right now, but…
TRIPAWDS: But we all know Virbac. I mean, I’ve seen that everywhere.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. Oh, that’s good.
TRIPAWDS: I hadn’t even thought of that.
Company Quality and Research Evidence
DR LAURA: Dechra is another company that makes both drugs and supplements. So those are good ones, I think, to look at.
DR LAURA: And you may you will also see companies that invest in research and absolutely that’s a criteria you want to see. So lack of research is a red flag.
DR LAURA: Research is tricky because sometimes it’ll be listed and then if you go to it and actually read the study it may be on a mouse or a rat or another species. So it’s better obviously if it’s in the species that we intend to use the product.
DR LAURA: Or it’s maybe it’s an active and it’s not the actual supplement. So that may or may not be good.
DR LAURA: You’d rather have efficacy on that exact supplement in that form, in that combination that’s better than if it’s just one of their ingredients, separately. Like it gets muddy if it’s not identical to what you’re actually using.
TRIPAWDS: Oh, that’s so true. Because I’ve seen joint supplements that advertise and say curcumin, it’s been well studied, but…
DR LAURA: And they’ll list everyone else’s studies, but they’ve never actually done one on their product, in their combination of stuff and how they intend to use it in the dog.
TRIPAWDS: And is a study trustworthy if it’s been… well let me rephrase that. Is it more trustworthy if it’s been conducted at a certain type of institution like let’s say Cornell studied Ellevet’s cannabis supplements and…
DR LAURA: Generally I would say yes because who’s on the research panel, the people doing the research if they’re well-respected researchers they’re following research protocols if it’s published in a journal that’s well respected there are standards along the way that are going to apply into that paper getting published. So if it’s not done in the right way when it’s reviewed it’s going to be rejected.
DR LAURA: So that may be a good criteria to use is both who’s the researcher and this gets really hard for people that are out there like how are they going to… they’re not a full-time researcher, so they’re not necessarily going to be good at doing that. We also use what we call tiers of evidence, so is it a case-control, is it case study individual or the top of that is the meta-analysis like it’s a review of all the different studies that have been done over the last 20 years.
DR LAURA: That’s the strongest and then there’s different levels and individual case reports may be published as a little case report, but is that as compelling as a meta-analysis that looks at all the body of research over the last 20 years? So, we use that a lot to try to decide is this a good study or how impactful is it.
TRIPAWDS: Boy, we could get deep into the science of this. I would much rather just call you.
TRIPAWDS: Help me choose a supplement. This is so overwhelming.
TRIPAWDS: I cannot thank you enough for this conversation. We went way over my promised time of 30 minutes, but I couldn’t stop this.
TRIPAWDS: You offer such great information for pet parents. I’m so glad you’re out there.
TRIPAWDS: Thank you.
Getting Help and Working With Your Veterinary Team
DR LAURA: Good. I’m hopeful that is helpful for everybody.
DR LAURA: I know it’s hard when you get that diagnosis and I would just tell people take a deep breath and lean into your vet. They are your trusted resource and they can help you make decisions.
DR LAURA: And I think if they’re not comfortable with nutrition at that level that you want to be or supplements, seeing a veterinary nutritionist is a great idea, but also there are other veterinarians that, sometimes you may find they have a person in their clinic that’s integrative or holistic that’s really into that and they may be your resource that you could go to or even a referral to another practice in town or searching online. We have the holistic veterinary medical association that lists out where you can seek out integrative vets and integrative vets are definitely into that, looking at holistic care and incorporating supplements, but everybody’s got to be on the same team and communicate and make sure they know what’s going on.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah, you definitely have to stay in good communication with your vet team when you’re dealing with something like cancer and trying to find a really good diet for your pet. So…
DR LAURA: Absolutely.
TRIPAWDS: Yeah. Wow.
TRIPAWDS: Lots to think about, but you’ve really helped break it down. I’m going to include all of these links in the notes, and hopefully we can have you back again someday.
DR LAURA: I love it. It’s glad being here and happy to come back someday.
TRIPAWDS: Thank you so much.
Visit tripawds.com to learn more and find many other resources to help you help your dog or cat love life on three legs.