How old are your pets?

Perhaps you have come across this chart, either at your vet's office, in a publication, or online.

One of my goals with holistic medicine is to help our pets outlive our expectations. I assume that my clients, just like me, want their pets to live as long as possible. Throughout the years of practicing medicine, our expectations have gradually been diminished, so that we no longer know what is possible for our pets.

For example, when I was a kid, our neighbor's Standard Poodle Billy was 21 and went for a walk every day. Our cats lived to be 22 and 23. The party line of conventional veterinary medicine is something like: "Thanks to modeern medicine, our pets are living longer and healthier lives than ever before!" And yet, on the ground, this is not true.

At a conference last summer, a vet from California began her lecture by saying, "As you all know, we're dealing with animals that have a ten-year life span." And we know that giant breed dogs (Great Pyrenees, Bernese Mountain Dogs, mastiffs, St. Bernards) are seniors with three feet in the grave by the time they're six. Cats are senior citizens by seven or eight.

In my little home experiment with natural care and feeding, here's how it's going: Tonka, who is 13 now and a 97 lb Malamute mix, is now officially off the chart. He still goes for a walk every day and does a happy dance at feeding time, although the dance is more sedate than it used to be. Tootsie, who is 14 years and 22 lbs, can still jump up on the dining room table and gets into everything she possibly can. Yesterday she ran away, ate lots of compost, and swam in the swamp. Ariel, at 8 years and 17 lbs, is a child in comparison. I hope she never grows old. When the other two are gone, I'll adopt a big goofy black dog and another snarky little terrier, just to keep Ariel on her toes!

Danger, danger! What you don't know can kill you!

In the April 2012 issue of DVM Newsmagazine, there's an article titled "CDC cautions public about raw milk consumption." Raw milk is illegal in some states (Minnesota included) precisely for this reason - it could kill you!
Here is what the CDC's research showed: Over the 13 years from 1993 to 2006, there were 4,413 illnesses, 239 hospitalizations, and three deaths - Yes, people DIED from drinking raw milk! This means that raw milk is BAD! It could KILL YOU!
OK, let's do some math. 4,413 illnesses in 13 years, that's, umm, let me see, roughly 339 people per year made ill by consuming raw milk. 239 hospitalizations, that's, oh, my...18 people per year. And three deaths, hmm, wait a minute! That's three deaths in thirteen years!
Honestly, folks, don't we have more serious things to worry about?
Here's some information from the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999: Each year 107,000 people are hospitalized from side effects caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. You know, aspirin, tylenol, ibuprofen, etc. And each year there are 16,500 NSAID-related deaths among patients with arthritis. And that's just folks with arthritis, not the rest of us who might be taking these drugs for headaches, injuries, heart-attack prevention, etc.
Is the CDC telling us to avoid non-steroidal anti-inflammatories? Hell, no! There's money in them thar hills, I mean drugs!
But raw milk could kill you.
Beware.