Is Your Vet Keeping Your Pet Sick? The Truth About Toxins, Food & Fear
Episode 268
Dr. Nicole flies solo to unpack the overlooked root causes behind pet health issues, especially in dogs. She shares personal stories, challenges conventional veterinary practices, and empowers pet owners to seek deeper answers beyond quick fixes and invasive procedures. Nicole highlights how environmental toxins, outdated norms, and fear-driven decisions are at the core of chronic pet conditions, and she offers practical, holistic approaches for truly vibrant animal health. #HolisticPetCare #RootCauseHealing #IntegrativeHealth #PetWellness #VibrantPets #BeyondConventional #ToxinFreePets #EmpoweredPetOwners #FunctionalMedicine #HealthyDogs 3 Key Takeaways: Root Causes Over Band-Aids: Chronic pet issues like ear infections, eye irritation, and paw licking often stem from environmental toxins and not just bacteria or fungus—address the source, not just the symptoms. Question the Norms: Mainstream pet care advice (kibble, excessive meds, unnecessary surgeries) is often profit-driven and outdated. There’s a better way—trust your intuition and don’t be afraid to go against the grain. Holistic, Proactive Pet Care: What works for human health applies to pets—think clean food, filtered water, toxin binders, and alternative therapies like homeopathy and red light therapy. Build a support network of holistic vets and always get a second opinion before resorting to drastic treatments. Quotes: “Less is more, people. We’ve been fed so much bullshit about how to protect our dogs—it’s all driven by fear and really bad science.” “Don’t normalize things just because your environment tells you this is the norm—there are plenty of other parts of the world where it is completely not the norm. Find Integrative You Radio On: Website Youtube Apple Spotify 2 Doctors Committed to Innovating the Healthcare Experience. Integrative You Radio is hosted by husband-and-wife duo, Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers. With their voracious curiosity for Integrative Medicine, the Human Mind, Alig
Topics: health, integrative, toxins, root, unknown, holistic, medicine, food
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Integrative You Radio: Is Your Vet Keeping Your Pet Sick? The Truth About Toxins, Food & Fear
- Holistic & Proactive Pet Wellness:** Apply human health principles to pets by focusing on clean food, filtered water, toxin binders, and exploring therapies like homeopathy and red light therapy.
- Empower Your Pet's Health Journey:** Always seek second opinions before drastic treatments and build a support network of holistic veterinarians who align with your proactive approach to pet care.
- Environmental toxins in pet health
- Critique of conventional veterinary practices
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs, so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place. **Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs, so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place.
**Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. This is Integrative U Radio. What is up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio.
**Unknown:** You have Dr. Nicole here. I am flying solo today, um, because I wanted to give you just a short, sweet, and high-level conversation about some of the root causes associated with your pet's health issues. And the primary catalyst to talking about this is we work with a lot of families and, uh, naturally, we get into conversations not just about, uh, the children of the family, but also the pets of the family.
**Unknown:** And this usually stems from not getting answers inside of, you know, conventional veterinary, uh, veterinarian medicine. And there's been a lot of extremes lately. Uh, my parents actually are, are two people that came to me asking for help, uh, with their own dog, and then a multitude of our, uh, concierge medicine clients. And reason being is because it went from, "Hey, you know, there's this, this benign issue," uh, paw licking, chronic ear infections, irritation of, of the eye or eyes.
**Unknown:** And now, uh, it resulted in medication, it resulted in a stronger medication, and now it is resulting in the recommendation of extremely invasive and intense surgical procedures. Uh, example is my parents were recommended to remove the left eye of their dog. Uh, you know, the, the-- it was-- there's been quite a few of these situations where it's, you know, zero to a hundred of, "What we're doing isn't working. We don't really know what the root cause is, but we're running out of our options based off of our toolbox," AKA the conventional medical system, "and we've run out of our toolbox of medications, so now the only other option is going to be surgery," but to the extent of surgical removal of an organ.
**Unknown:** And so obviously, you know, this is not something that many pet owners want to embark on, uh, because it doesn't guarantee quality of life. It doesn't even re- guarantee that the entire problem will be resolved. How do we know it's not going to move to the next, to the other eye? And now we're gonna have a pet that has no eyes.
**Unknown:** So the, the main thing that I wanted to bring to people's attention is obviously the way our brains work and our experience that we've had in working with humans. We have two dogs. We have, uh, two Vizslas who, if you know anything about Vizslas, they're extremely high maintenance and they're very sensitive. So there's definitely been, uh, different health things that we've navigated with our dogs.
**Unknown:** But we have primarily been in charge of their care because what we do for humans applies one hundred percent to animals as well. There's, there's no reason why we wouldn't use the same diagnostic testing in order to figure out the root cause and then use the appropriate tools that can range from supplements or red light therapy to homeopathy to even infrared sauna. We, we've done the same types of therapies on our dogs when needed, and we do feel like it has been a huge catalyst to their great health. B- but also the fact that, you know, if you were to see our one dog who is now twelve years old, you know, most people mistaken him for a puppy.
**Unknown:** And it's not really just his looks, it's how, uh, energetic he is and how agile he is, his endurance. You know, he's running around, uh, on a trail or at the beach. He's running around the way puppies are. So, you know, it, it's not necessarily just about looking a certain way.
**Unknown:** It's also about the, the other aspects that make up goo- great health. So overall, that's kind of the, the background of, of our experience with dogs, was treating our own and then intermittently helping our clients with their dogs as well, especially when it was-- it got to a point that they went as far as they could in the conventional model. But there was something very, very interesting that I observed, which of course took me down my research rabbit hole many years ago. So we mopped the floors in our house, and our dog ran through, you know, and of course you're like, "Oh, come on." But in that moment, what I realized is that the paw prints that I saw on the floor were not, uh...
**Unknown:** It wasn't dirt, it wasn't mud, it wasn't that. It-- what I was seeing was the fact that where the paws hit the floor, it was completely dryAnd in that moment, I realized, wow, these, the paws of these dogs, cats, and other animals are extremely absorbent. So let's research this and learn more about it, and they are. So if you think about, you know, the, the terrain of what we're all living in, especially if we're living in the US or we're living in cities or we're living in highly concentrated areas, there is known toxicity to the ground, and part of the toxicity of the ground is due to the different chemicals that people are using on their properties for landscaping purposes, uh, fertilizing purposes.
**Unknown:** You know, when you think of people that live in close proximity to golf courses, that live close proximity to farms, that live close proximity to dry cleaners, that live close proximity to factories or nuclear power plants. You know, I've lived close to almost all of those things, with the exception of farms, living in New Jersey. And, you know, from living in North Jersey, you're going to be in close proximity to different power plants, to, um, different places where they have the tanks that house, uh, gasoline and petroleum. And then, you know, moving down to the Jersey Shore area, there were many, many golf courses that were, you know, spread throughout Monmouth County, Ocean County, and you, you get where I'm going with this.
**Unknown:** So the other aspect is you're like, "I don't live near any of those things." Fantastic. But you might be conscious enough to say, "I'm not going to put a bunch of pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers and chemicals on my lawn or in my backyard," but maybe your neighbor is. And when you get into the, uh, the compounds of these different, uh, insecticides, pesticides, especially things that are combating specific pests like bees or, um, rodents, some of them are powder form, and powder is going to spread through wind. We also see sprays.
**Unknown:** You know, there's a lot of sprays that are happening for mosquito protection. And listen, I lived in South Carolina, where it is extremely humid, and mosquitoes are brutal, so anyone and everyone is getting mosquito treatment for their properties. And even though that I, I didn't, that my property was still contaminated with the same chemicals. It was still in the air.
**Unknown:** It was in the ground. It was on the trees, et cetera. So the moral of the story is, is that you have these dogs. I'm, I'm speaking to dogs very specifically because obviously this has been our, the bulk of our experience.
**Unknown:** But in addition to that is cats, you're not always taking outside. You know, other, other pets, you're not always taking outside. Dogs are-- they usually travel with you. You take them outside.
**Unknown:** You go for walks, et cetera. So it's a little bit different of a dynamic. So you have these dogs that have, you know, very absorbent paws. Humans, dogs, our skin is extremely absorbent as well.
**Unknown:** And they're walking through the neighborhood, or you're taking them to, you know, specific parks or specific areas, and they are absorbing a huge load of these different chemicals that are in the environment. And then if it's going into the paws, they might start licking the paws. So that means those chemicals are going into the saliva. They're also going to get up-- it's gonna have an uptake into the blood vessels that are of the mouth and also into the glands.
**Unknown:** Then we also have them scratching their eyes and their ears. And so now we have the chemicals spreading into the eye. We have the chemicals spreading even into the ears, which is then going to create an abundance of microorganisms. 'Cause what a lot of people don't realize is that fungus, bacteria, these overgrowths are usually a protective mechanism in order to protect against toxins.
**Unknown:** So in the event, when I work with humans, and if you've listened to other podcasts, you know, when we see women who have chronic vaginal infections, if it's yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, most of the time those infections are actually correlated to the different toxins that are in the vaginal canal from the use of tampons, condoms, lubricants, pads, and that's the root of the issue. So this is one of the reasons why women end up working with us because they've done the antibiotics. They've done the Monistat. They've done the antifungal creams.
**Unknown:** They've done the nystatin. They've done all of it, and nothing is working. And so now it's a matter of taking a deeper dive and looking at what are the other options, what are the other possible root causes. And so the same principle applies to animals is that fungus has an opportunity to grow and spread in, uh, as a result of toxic load, but at the same time, there is a, actually a protective mechanism associated with it, so the fungus will serve its purpose.
**Unknown:** So this is one of the reasons why if you try to fight the fungus and use different drugs, creams, et cetera, it keeps coming back because your body actually needs it to protect itself against the toxin, which is more harmful.And so listen, I, we had-- our oldest dog had chronic ear infections, and part of the, the catalyst to those chronic ear infections was he was diagnosed with, quote-unquote, "parvo," even though par-parvo is a virus. This was a very, very, very long time ago, by the way. He was a puppy. We didn't know what we know now.
**Unknown:** He was diagnosed with parvo. Even though it was a virus, they still wanted to treat him with antibiotics and antifungals. You know, they said, "Oh, you know, he could die. You-- we want-- need to keep him hydrated." So he stayed overnight in an animal hospital.
**Unknown:** We went and picked him up the next day, and he had black tar, like ear mites in his ears, and it was just a chronic issue from there. And so, you know, were we living... We were living in a very specific area where it, the neighborhood was one hundred percent keeping up with the Joneses when it came to the lawn, your, your landscaping. There were-- We would joke, because if we ever tried to work from home, we really couldn't because there was constantly mowers and weed whackers going because there was always landscapers on the block.
**Unknown:** It was, it was almost like they just went from house to house, and then they would start over. And so there, there were tons and tons of chemical exposures in addition to the fact that there was a series of medications that altered the microbiome for our dog. And so at the time, you know, we weren't treating him for toxicity. We were treating him for, um, bacterial issues and fungal issues, and we weren't getting anywhere, and this went on for a very, very long time.
**Unknown:** So, you know, the thing is, is that we, we need to understand this connection so that we can be more empowered in the health of our families, in the health of our pets, because it's, it's the same. It-- we're not... The, the way-- The human makeup and what the human body needs and doesn't need is actually not much different from dogs, and I think it's actually comical. We were talking about this the other day because we were giving the dog something off of the table, you know, quote-unquote, "table food." And I was like, "You know, these dogs, our dogs have eaten so-solely people food, table food." Um, we have cooked for them since they were puppies, and part of it was that experience that we had with the parvo, and then that messed up his gut, messed up his ears, messed up his microbiome, and that was, that was our first dog.
**Unknown:** So then our second dog, we naturally just, we completely skipped dog food. We just went right to people food. And I was like, "Our dogs are in great shape." They don't have the typical ailments of a Vizsla, which are large growths, uh, fatty deposit growths, um, skin issues, uh, extreme graying at an early age, uh, arthritis. Uh, you know, a lot of Vizslas die pretty early and, you know, like I said, our dog is twelve, and he-- people consistently think that he is three to four years old.
**Unknown:** So, um, so the, there really isn't a huge difference. So, you know, the way that we're being told to treat our dogs is, you know, they should be eating this brown, dehydrated kibble that has no nutrients in it. This is the best thing for them. Not true.
**Unknown:** They, you know, they need tons and tons and tons of shots, which the, the fact that they even have shots for, for Lyme disease now makes no fucking sense. That's a whole different topic in itself. Um, but, you know, the... Put the, the heartworm lotion on their spine.
**Unknown:** Let it, you know, let those chemicals go directly into the spinal cord nervous system. Make them wear chemical-oriented collars in order to protect them from ticks. Like, less is more, people. Um, you know, I know that what I'm saying is extremely controversial, and everybody needs to make their own decisions and what they're comfortable with, but we have been fed so much bullshit as to, you know, all the ways that we need to protect our dogs, protect our families, which is actually all driven in fear, and it's all driven by really bad science that is really just resulting in for-profit companies to make more money, make more money through the, the different shots, the treatments, the medications, the, the tick collars, the, the this, the that.
**Unknown:** But i-if you want to zoom out and, you know, take away the emotions you might be feeling about what I'm saying, look at most dogs. They're not healthy. They are, you know, they're, they're, they're classified as, you know, extremely old and getting close to death by age ten nowadays. Dogs used to live until sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old.
**Unknown:** That's not a thing anymore. And there are so many dogs on Xanax. There are dogs on human prescriptions, lifestyle prescriptions. And so we really need to understand that whatever, you know, your thought process is, is that pets are not, they're not healthy.
**Unknown:** So what, you know, what is the thing that's in your control that you can possibly change at this point? Is it the food? Is it the fact that you give them tap water, and tap water in most, well, all over the US and most other parts of the world, is completely contaminated and toxic, and then we're wondering why they have all of these different issues? You know, we're, we have dogs getting, having cancer constantly and again, going through brutal treatments, chemotherapies and, and, you know, surgical removal of organs, limbs, et cetera.
**Unknown:** Um, you know, we have to think about, like, how did we get here?Why are our animals so sick? Um, interesting fact that is totally, like, foreign in the US, we live in Italy now, and we never fixed our dogs. They're boys. We never, um, had their balls removed.
**Unknown:** And people thought we were crazy. I remember, you know, we would-- we live- lived in South Carolina, where the dogs can run free in the mornings on the beach, and people, "Oh, my gosh," like, "your dog is not fixed. When are you fixing him?" I'm, I'm not. Like, I'm, I'm not, because, you know, one is i-it's not proven that this is beneficial for the dog, and two, in the experience that we had, knowing other Vizsla owners that did do it, it, one, create...
**Unknown:** the dog had cancer very close after, and then the other one, the dog became so aggressive that he actually couldn't take the dog out anymore. It was aggressive to dogs and humans. And I was like, "I'll take my chances of not having that experience." Come to Italy, they don't do that here. They're like, "Look at you." The idea of it, they're like, "W-why would you, why would you do that?" And so, you know, it, it's interesting because we, we think that we're, we're so, um, dictated by our environment, and so, you know, we do things even if we're like, "This doesn't make sense," or, "I don't necessarily wanna do it," but we're gonna do it because it's the norm of our environment.
**Unknown:** And I, just because of the knowledge that I had, I said no, and then had to always explain myself as to why. And then I come and I move to another place where if they were fixed, it would be a bizarre idea to this culture. And, and the idea of feeding your dogs kibble, you know, canned food or dry food, is also a foreign concept here. Like, people are like, "Why, why would you do that?" So, you know, don't normalize things just because your environment tells you that this is the norm, because there are plenty of other parts of the world where it is completely not the norm.
**Unknown:** All right. So I'm gonna give you a quick recap here. One, if your dog has reoccurring eye issues, ear issues, paw issues, there is a probability that there is a fungal issue, probably more than a bacterial issue, but it's not the root cause. The root cause is the toxins that are being absorbed by the paws, by the skin, and then spreading to the ears and eyes and mouth based off of scratching and cleaning, and this is more than likely resulting from environmental things that they're being exposed to.
**Unknown:** And a l- it could be your property, it could be the walk you take them on, and it could be, you know, the chemicals coming from your neighbor's property that are unfortunately contaminating yours. So, you know, this isn't to live in a bubble. This isn't to create a ton of stress. This is for you to be empowered.
**Unknown:** What can I do? You know, you could put little booties on your dog. You can do a little bentonite clay pa- bath, uh, w- for your dog's paws, and then you can also use different binders, you know, activated charcoal, bentonite clay. There's a lot of different options nowadays that you can put into your dog's food or water on a regular basis to bind the toxins that they're being exposed to.
**Unknown:** This is something I highly recommend for humans as well. And in addition to that is please, please, please, please get multiple opinions. Do not go to your conventionally trained vet who says, "The eye has to come out," you know, "The, the leg has to go," the, you know, "We gotta rip all your dog's teeth out because there's gum disea- " Like, these... One, things are never that black and white.
**Unknown:** Very rarely is it to that extreme th- of what's needed. And then also, there are a million other tools that are outside of the toolbox of the conventional veterinary system. There are herbs. There are homeo- homeopathics.
**Unknown:** I think homeopathy is one of the absolute best things for dogs. So working with a classical homeopath to help you. Um, we have had crazy shit happen with our dogs. We had to get the, um, a, an, an additional rabies shot in order for our dogs to come here to Italy, and literally our one dog ended up with rabies, and we used a series of homeopathy in order to neutralize the effect on the dog.
**Unknown:** And, you know, it, it was just, like, magical h- how quickly it worked. But, you know, these, uh, we're just very fortunate that we have these tools, and we also have these people in our direct network. So this, it will take a little bit of work for you to build this new network, but I know a lot of our listeners are in the New York, New Jersey area, and there are a lot of holistic vets. Um, I'll make sure that in our show notes we can give you some of those resources.
**Unknown:** But Colts Neck Veterinary Hospital, um, th- she is actually a vet that studied here in Italy, and she has homeopathy, and she has acupuncture and chiropractic and herbs and a variety of things in her practice. She is someone that, you know, if we're ever back in the States, we will use regularly for our dogs. So again, it's just a matter of looking and finding some other options and not rushing based off of fear into surgical procedures that are actually not gonna fix the problem altogether. All right, guys.
**Unknown:** I hope this was helpful, and we'll see you next time. We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio. We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments.
**Unknown:** Please visit us on social media as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis. We hope to see you there.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
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