Here are some low-quality recordings of a couple lectures I gave this year at the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas ..read more

Back in 2011, I first wrote about the issue of concerning whether dogs with cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) ruptures did better with surgery or with non-surgical management. My conclusion at that time was: For most dogs under 15kg, conservative management (primarily restricted activity for 3-6 weeks, achieving and maintaining and appropriate body weight, and possibly physical therapy and pain medication) can achieve acceptable comfort and function. In larger dogs, significant arthritis is inevitable and dysfunction is extremely likely without surgical treatment.  In 2013, I write an upd ..read more

One of the goals of this blog has always been to warn pet owners about dangers to their animals: dangerously unreliable ideas and ways of thinking about science and medicine, dangerous therapies (or at least those not yet proven to be safe or effective), and dangerous individuals who promote both unscientific approaches and unproven or unsafe treatments. There is remarkably little effective regulation and oversight of pet healthcare products, apart from prescription medications. Unscrupulous sellers of snake oil, including vets, can often get away with egregiously illegal and dangerous claims ..read more

Back in January of 2023 I reviewed claims for a purported anti-aging supplement for dogs called Leap Years. My conclusion at the time was- Leap Years is similar to most veterinary supplements on the market: It is based on some plausible ideas with limited supporting evidence, and it is marketed with claims that go well beyond anything scientifically proven or reasonable.  In that review, I pointed out that one piece of evidence the manufacturer cited to support their claims was an unpublished clinical study conducted at the veterinary school at North Carolina State University ..read more

As I’ve mentioned previously, in the last four years I have continued my clinical practice while also working for Loyal, a biotechnology company pursuing FDA approval of drugs to extend health lifespan in dogs. There is little overlap between my SkeptVet activities and my work at Loyal, and of course my writing here doesn’t represent the official position of the company on anything. But I do like to share here some of the science and publications on aging that I work on at the company. Sadly, that tends to draw the attention of those irritated by my advocacy for science-based veterinary m ..read more

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) functions mostly as a lobby and PR organization for veterinarians. It is a membership organization and, as such, is beholden to whoever its members are, and the organization is very keen to avoid conflict within the profession or any suggestion of forcing vets to do anything in particular. The wild political drama surrounding a simple resolution in the AVMA House of Delegates to acknowledge the demonstrable uselessness of homeopathy demonstrates this quite starkly. The AVMA does make some attempts to promote standards “within the family,” gene ..read more

General practice veterinarians (GPs) are often faced with the question of which services they should provide themselves and which should be left to board-certified specialists. The growing availability of specialty care, the expectations of many pet owners for advanced care resembling that which they receive, the expanding availability of new and more technologically sophisticated interventions, and many other factors all add to the pressure to limit services in general practice and refer more patients to specialists.  On the other hand, many pet owners struggle to find and afford veteri ..read more

It’s been ten years since my first post on the use of cannabis in dogs and cats. For a while, I regularly covered new research studies, but the number of those has become great enough that keeping up with individual papers is not feasible. Fortunately, the principles of evidence-based have an answer- literature reviews! There are two main types of review articles of use to clinicians: narrative reviews and systematic reviews. Narrative reviews are far more common in veterinary medicine. These involve individuals or small groups reviewing the research on a given subject and writing a ..read more

No. Well, that could easily be the shortest SkeptVet blog post ever, but I guess I can’t really leave it there. For one thing, the answer should really be, “Almost certainly no,” since my level of confidence is high but not absolute. Secondly, it’s the wrong question to be asking, and not one in which I have any interest. The subject has come up because of some recent publicity around my work with Loyal, a biotechnology company working towards FDA approval for drugs to extend lifespan (the number of years lived) and, more importantly, healthspan (the time lived in good health) in dogs. We ..read more

I first began writing about potential medical uses for cannabis products in pets ten years ago. AT the time, there was weak evidence for a few uses in humans, and almost no research evidence in dogs or cats. Since then, I have covered the topic frequently, and new evidence has appeared regularly. This evidence has been mixed, with some studies suggesting benefits and others not. Generally, the safety data has suggested minimal risk, though a recent recommendation to lower the maximum daily dose of CBD in humans reflects the fact that there is much we still don’t know about ..read more