Why Online Pet Advice Gets Messy

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the Animal Naturopathic Medicine Educator Podcast, specializing in canine, feline, and equine animal health from a biological perspective. Hello everyone, my name is Ashley and I will be your host for today's topic. That is actually a question that was sent in from a listener. And the question is how can pet owners sort the fact from the fiction on what is out there online and with all of this new AI generation and the summaries that are coming from this? I want to start this conversation with a statistic. So 60% of the world's population owns at least one pet. This is huge, right? Especially when you consider that the world's population sits at around 8.3 billion currently, and then 60% of that figure owns at least one pet. It's mind-boggling. But in relation to this, 75 of all people on Earth are on online and have access to the internet. And this is both a blessing and a curse. For pet owners, the internet provides vast amounts of information on many subjects. The information, however, is virtually unregulated and its quality ranges from excellent to pure quackery in some cases. So deciding which websites are trustworthy can be difficult. When it comes to what pet owners surf the web, like they search, most often it's actually in relation to pet nutrition, as this is the most popular topic, and the second most common is like in relation to pet training. There are literally thousands of websites promoting everything from homemade recipes to vegan diets, advertising for supplements and holistic foods, recommendations for diets that will allegedly prevent or cure certain symptoms, get rich quick pyramid selling schemes for our nutritional supplements and consultation services, operated by like so-called nutritionists, but many are not industry recognized or qualified or have professional indemnity and insurance. And uh like many commercial and homemade diets are promoted. Some which are like, yes, they're nutritionally balanced, where others will not be balanced or are just downright dangerous and should not be fed. So, all in all, many nutritional myths and just health myths in general are perpetuated, many half-truths are reinforced, and many incorrect facts are conveyed. And there is, of course, some excellent information, but there's just not nearly as much as there should be. So, as this question from the listener states, yes, like how do we sort the fact from the fiction and the hearsay? Like there's just so much of it out there

Check Credentials Before You Trust

SPEAKER_00 3:35

now. So, first of all, you should research the credentials of the site's author. Is it a pet owner company, an educational college, a veterinarian? Um, do they have a PhD in animal nutrition? Are they an industry qualified nutritionist or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist? So, like be careful when you have a person that is marketing him or her services and then they're claiming to be a pet nutritionist, but they have no industry accrediting associations or professional memberships that then recognize their qualification to practice as a professional and give pet health and nutrition advice. Any industry qualified pet nutritionist must have professional association membership and the appropriate professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Or if they are a veterinarian nutritionist, they will be a board-certified nutritionist and have then undergone postgraduate animal nutrition training. So this should be like your number one clue as to if this person's advice is even worth considering.

Demand Evidence Not Marketing Claims

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Second, check the source of the information on the website. So do the authors like simply state that the product prevents diabetes, for example, or is there a reference to a scientifically conducted research study? It is easy, though illegal, to make unproven claims for nutritional products, but it is much harder to back them up scientifically. If there is a reference, where is it from? Is it from the author's own article or promotional literature, or is it from a peer-reviewed veterinary journal, or is it from a biological science data research? Most products on the internet do not cite studies to back up their claims. Um those that do, they'll often be citing studies that are actually listing references in relation to humans or most often rats. Sometimes they may be including research conducted on like dogs, for example, but then they're trying to promote a feline product. So we have seen like several horse products that have been given to the college for review by students or just members of the public, like, you know, is this safe to feed to my horse? Uh, but a lot of the research claims in the actual literature of the product are in relation to rats, not horses. Like, yes, a rat cannot vomit just like a horse, but I'm pretty sure a rat is not a hind gut fermenting herbivore. So, like, we really cannot be taking the benefits from the good and the bad of this particular study on rats in relation to a horse. Like, yes, they are both mammals, but very different digestive tracts and the assimilation of requirements for nutrients. So, like, no.

Outdated Advice And Ranking Sites

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Uh thirdly, you should check the timeliness of the information or reference they have used. So, like, things change quickly in veterinary medicine and in the biological sciences in general, um, especially in the field of nutrition or like biohazard science. So, many websites and research references, they can just easily become out of date. Like what was recommended 10 years ago may not be accepted practice today. A good website will be updated frequently. Um, fourth, um, watch out for rating websites. This seems to be quite popular now, especially in this realm of social media and getting subscriptions and things paid for. Um, like, yeah, with influencers especially. So, like most websites that will rank pet foods uh do so either on opinion or on like a criteria that does not necessarily ensure a good quality like product. So, for example, it may be ranked on price or value for money, convenience, or be like focused on just the crude protein amounts, but then fail to list or even consider any other ingredients of nutritional levels, such as like the fats, your carbohydrate, or like sugar levels of the product. Um, like, and it's important to use more objective criteria, like nutritional science for that specific species and quality control of the product when judging a pet's food. As we all know that like even processing styles of food can change the chemistry of the food selected drastically, which can then heavily impact the nutritional value of the said food product.

Anecdotes Self Diagnosis And False Fixes

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Lastly, be wary of antidotal information. So this is when we see descriptions of one person's experience about the actual product. For example, you may see, oh, when my cat was diagnosed with kidney disease, I gave her get better nutritional supplement and now she's cured. Or you'll have someone that was saying, Oh, my dog, they used to be really stiff, but since they've been on get moving, he work, he walks downstairs, no problem. I apologize for my really bad acting. That's why I'm a scientist and not an actor. But I'm like, I'm giving these like reference claim examples as the types of um like a purely opinion-based references that can be quite misleading, especially when you're wanting to select a product. While it can be useful to hear about other people's experiences, their positive evaluations do not mean that the actual product or treatment is really beneficial or it works. There can be, well there could have been, like, other changes within the diet or within the environment at home or the training regime or the medicine, like the medication, for example, um, that was actually the reason for the change. Like there can be just so many other variables that could have helped in being able to bring that change about. So, like, was it actually that particular product? Like the animal does not speak human, like they can't speak to us. So it's not like we can hear it directly from the horse's mouth, you know what I mean? Also, like each pet is an individual, and the same product may not have the same effect because the root cause of the symptoms may have completely different origins, as in the problem was like unrelated to the cause. And like sometimes there are just too many variables at play to be like able to outrightly claim that the one product was the solution of the actual cause, especially if it is not properly even diagnosed by a vet or has the correlating blood work? Like when owners will say, Oh, I've put him onto a stomach ulcer supplement as a preventative, and he has like he has suspected ulcers. And you have to think to yourself, well, no, he either has stomach ulcers or he doesn't. Has he been scoped for ulcers to confirm the diagnosis? Otherwise, why do you have your pet on an ulcer supplement? And they go, Oh, well, it's just a present preventative. And it's like, which does not make logical sense because the owner does not know what is the actual cause of the stomach upset. Like, you cannot 100% claim that the ulcer supplement is the logical solution to the fix if there is no unfounded, like this is an unfounded conclusion. So if you're wanting to be giving something like that, there needs to be an actual reason for it. You otherwise you're just stabbing like aimlessly in the dark. It's like a human going on a pancreatic medication to prevent pancreatitis. Like you just would not do that, and it's because it makes no logical sense. You would not go to the doctor, get your blood work done and well, sorry, you would go to the doctor and get your blood work done and see that, you know, yes, what are the actual pancreas functionality levels? You wouldn't just self-diagnose. And so this is where when you have a lot of these products that are out there, they're not making logical sense. They're saying, oh yes, you can be preventing for a particular condition, but no, we really should be knowing what's actually going on first before we just aimlessly go onto these particular supplements. Um, because like if that logic actually worked, like us humans, we could go on to all illness medication and supplements in the world to prevent all types of conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer. But unfortunately, that's just not the case.

Band Aid Supplements And Big Promises

SPEAKER_00 12:49

That's not how it works. Another aspect to note is a lot of products that are available over the counter or available to purchase online may not actually contain the chemistry required to actually make a sustained change long term. Some products work as a band-aid effect. So, like, yes, they mask the symptoms, but don't actually fix the root cause. So there is an underlying dysfunction that is continuing to happen without the obvious symptoms being presented. And so this is where the owner may think that there has been an improvement, but there actually hasn't. So be skeptical of grand claims or easy answers to difficult problems. Remember the old saying: if it is sounding too good to be true, it probably is.

Safer Next Steps And Trusted Sources

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Always discuss what you've heard or read with your veterinarian or get a second opinion with a qualified animal naturopath as well. Both veterinary medicine and naturopathic medicine, they work harmoniously together because education is the best way to get information so you can make the right choices for the animals in your care. Also, there are some websites that can also help you to become more educated and make those well-informed decisions. So, the National Research Council, which sometimes you will see us refer to as the NRC, they have many downloadable booklets for different animals that can be used for pet owner knowledge and just knowing what the actual nutritional requirements are for certain animals in your care. When you're sussing out products, check the Food and Drug Administration or the Therapeutic Goods Administration. These two are regulatory bodies that assess safety issues of dietary supplements, medicine, therapeutic goods, and then the adverse advent reporting, such as product recalls. If a product is not registered, then ask yourself why. Should it be even considered as a choice to feed to your animals? Because when products are registered, it means that then we're able to audit and make sure that product recalls do happen. If the product is not registered, then who is auditing to make sure that these safety parameters are being met? Of course, we at the ANME are always happy to offer unbiased opinions and facts, because unless the knowledge is shared, then the wider community won't be educated. And animal biological education needs to become common knowledge for every animal owner to just help improve the lives of all animals so that this basic biological education that is specific to each species becomes common knowledge for all owners. So thank you for listening, everyone, and I hope that this information has been helpful and has helped you when you are browsing the web in search of answers for all types of pet related health concerns. Thank you.