Dr. Judy Jasek: Integrative Dog Medicine Providing Natural And Safe Vet Care

Dr. Judy Jasek (00:02):

… But as I got more into my career, I just began to feel like I'm a pawn of the pharmaceutical companies, like the whole system is set up such that the pharmaceutical rep or the food company rep comes in, tells you their latest product, their latest gimmick, and they sell you on two premises, on fear and on profit. If you don't do this to your patients, they're going to get sick, and they could die, and you could get sued. Oh, by the way, this is how much money you can make if you sell this particular drug. And I just started taking a step back and saying, that's not medicine, it's certainly not healing.

Voiceover (00:45):

Welcome to the Doggy Dan podcast show, helping you unleash the greatness within your dog.

Doggy Dan (00:58):

Hello, and welcome everybody to another Doggy Dan podcast. Today, I am, I always say this, but it's true, I'm super excited. I'm with Dr. Judy Jasek from Colorado. Judy, she received her formal education at Colorado State University in zoology in 1984. She had a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1988. Following graduation, she started her career as a rural mixed animal practice in Pocatello, Idaho. Then she relocated to Salt Lake City in Denver in 2001. She purchased the Belleview Animal Clinic in Englewood in 2003, and began her journey into a more integrative approach to practice. Before selling this clinic in 2015, she learned the power in supporting the natural healing ability of the body and began a new practice philosophy. Dr. Judy Jasek, great to have you on the podcast today.

Dr. Judy Jasek (02:02):

Oh, thanks, Dan. So happy to be here. Great to chat with you.

Doggy Dan (02:05):

Yeah. I feel like we've got a lot in common. You have two chihuahuas, I believe, if you've still got two chihuahuas.

Dr. Judy Jasek (02:12):

Yeah. Oh, well, it's actually one now. I guess we need to change that.

Doggy Dan (02:16):

Oh, I know.

Dr. Judy Jasek (02:17):

Had one pass away in July, so we'll have to-

Doggy Dan (02:19):

Oh, I know the feeling. I have 70 blogs out there saying I've got four dogs and I'm down to two.

Dr. Judy Jasek (02:27):

We’ll have to change that.

Doggy Dan (02:28):

So beautiful to have you on the podcast today, Judy. I'd like to hand over to you. I always like to hand straight over to you. Tell us a little bit about who you be, what you do, your passions. I know I'm going to really enjoy chatting with you today, because I know a lot of what... well, I think I know a lot of what you believe, but I'll leave it to you. Tell us what you do, what you feel, your mission.

Dr. Judy Jasek (02:49):

Yeah. I started out in medicine like all veterinarians do. We're all conventionally trained, we're all trained kind of the same way, which basically conventional medicine is about symptom control, where pet has a symptom, say we have a T-Scan or we have diarrhea or whatever shows up, and we give a drug to suppress the symptom. And that's really what conventional medicine is. But what happens when you do that if you're just focused on the symptoms and you're not looking at whole body health, more and more diseases are going to pop up on down the road because you're driving whatever is perpetuating that, whatever is going on with the body, if you're not addressing the underlying cause, it's going to show up again later on down the road as something more serious. One of the things I see a lot of is cancer patients, and the cancer rate has gone up exponentially in dogs.

Dr. Judy Jasek (03:46):

And so as I got into my career, I graduated in 1988, so I've been doing this several decades now. When people ask me for, well, do you have evidence? Do you have a research study? I say, "Well, I have 35 years experience. And that to me is more valuable in a lot of cases than the research studies anyway." But as I got it more into my career, I just began to feel like I'm a pawn of the pharmaceutical companies, like the whole system is set up such that the pharmaceutical rep or the food company rep comes in, tells you their latest product, their latest gimmick, and they sell you on two premises, on fear and on profit. If you don't do this to your patients, they're going to get sick and they could die, and you could get sued. Oh, by the way, this is how much money you can make if you sell this particular drug.

Dr. Judy Jasek (04:43):

I just started taking a step back and saying, well, that's not medicine, it's certainly not healing. Bottom line is our pets are just getting sicker. They're not getting better. All these advances in medicine that we're seeing, and some of the diagnostic advances are wonderful. When I started practicing before, we could do things like ultrasounds, echocardiograms, some of the surgical capabilities when that's warranted, absolutely fantastic. But bottom line, pets are getting sicker. They're not getting healthier. So what needs to change? I think because I was open to looking at alternatives, I think when you open your mind, the universe brings in information and the resources that you need or that you're looking for.

Dr. Judy Jasek (05:32):

I had people come into my life that were feeding raw food, feeding natural diets. I started learning about homeopathy and herbal medicine. It was a big learning curve because I don't just make my patients guinea pigs just to try stuff on them. I had to have enough of a background in these modalities before I was comfortable using them. But then ultimately, I started to see them turn around. Just giving better nutrition makes a huge difference, and stop poisoning the body with things like way too many vaccines. And I know that's something you want to get into here a little later. We can talk about protocols, but I think pets are way, way over vaccinated and over medicated. My basic philosophy has become that if...

Dr. Judy Jasek (06:26):

I heard on another podcast I was listening to that disease comes from two places, that it's either deficiency or an excess. And so if we have a deficient diet, we're not supporting the body nutritionally and giving the body the things that it needs to be healthy and to heal, or we're putting things in the body that are causing excessive inflammation and basically toxicity in the body, we're going to have disease. So by supporting the body with appropriate nutrients and giving the body the tools, and the body knows how to heal. Mother nature has it down. It's humans that screw stuff up really, because humans think they're way smarter than they are as general rule. They're like, oh, we can get in and we can fix this, and we just give this drug, or we just give this whatever. And it doesn't usually work so well, because you end up micro...

Dr. Judy Jasek (07:26):

Again, you're back to micromanaging symptoms, and that's what a lot of medicine is. It's not healthcare, it's disease management, that's what we see in human medicine too. Sadly, and I will just tell you, I think that the medical industry both in humans and pets is so profit driven. And there's more money in sickness than there is in health. There's not a lot of advantage to the corporations who running the show, so to speak now, in helping people and pets stay healthy. There's a lot more money in keeping them sick. I would love... One of my favorite things to do is to see a young puppy come in and I can get them off to this great start in life. I can get them on a good diet, and we talk about doing minimal vaccines, get them protected, but not overdoing it, and then send them out the door. And I hope they're healthy.

Dr. Judy Jasek (08:25):

I want people... I think one of my passions is getting people educated enough that they know how to keep their pets healthy, so they're not running into the vet all the time. That's my business model. I want to empower people to know how to do that. In my mind, it's pretty simple because of my experience, but I understand there's also a lot of really confusing information out there coming from other veterinarians and from the social media groups, and so I help people sort that out, and based on my experience, what I have seen work for pets, help them come up with plans to help keep their pets healthy. I look at the pet. I look at the quality of life. I think another big difference in the way I practice is we look at the pet, and it's a pet, it's a living, biological being. It's not a diagnosis.

Dr. Judy Jasek (09:25):

In conventional medicine, they put a name to something and then they have a treatment protocol for whatever that thing is that they just named, and they don't look at the pet. Well, so take chemotherapy, for example, pets could be getting very, very sick from chemo, but they're fighting the cancer, so they keep doing it, and they're not looking at, yeah, but it's killing the pet, literally, sometimes doing that. And so we have to look at the pet, and the pet's quality of life is what I think is the most important thing, and that's what I stay focused on.

Doggy Dan (10:02):

Wow. I agree with pretty much everything you've said. There are so many crossovers and similarities and things that I've seen as a behaviorist. Obviously I've experienced a lot of things with my dogs and sickness. They say follow the money. And when you follow the money, a lot of the time you go, wow. One thing that struck me was just how much money there is in dog food. Over here, people are paying $150 a bag, and they get a bag a month. Well, that's 150 times 12, we're talking almost $2,000. When the dog lives over 10 years, that's over $20,000 they're going to pay on the dog food. If it ain't the right dog food, and how many times have you heard, this is the only dog food you ever need to feed your dog, some dry kibble biscuit, and that's the only thing you ever feed your dog. A vet said to me, it's probably the worst thing you could ever do, feed them exact same dry biscuit their entire life.

Dr. Judy Jasek (11:06):

Yeah. Dogs are natural scavengers. They're really meant to get out and get variety and eat different proteins and different ingredients in their diet. I think that's what they really thrive on. I think for a dog eating a dry food diet, it'd be like you or I eating a breakfast cereal, the same breakfast cereal.

Doggy Dan (11:29):

Yeah. Every day, morning and night for our entire life.

Dr. Judy Jasek (11:33):

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Doggy Dan (11:36):

I mean, this is where I get a little bit suspicious, if I'm honest, because I go, it can't be that hard to do a test and say, well, is this dog better if it only eats one food its entire life really? Because then you've got another brand of dog food saying, well, this is the only food you ever need to feed your dog, and it's completely different. Then you have a third person saying this is the perfect food for your dog, and it's the only thing you ever need to... So they all make the same claim that it's the perfect food and the only food, and don't feed it anything else. It can't be that hard to go, well, let's put a dog on a mixed diet and see what happens.

Dr. Judy Jasek (12:11):

Right. Well, the other thing is every dog is different. There is no one size fits all anything. I mean, I can see 10 dogs. I see so much itchy skin. I mean, there's just so many dogs come in that have itchy-

Doggy Dan (12:25):

Let's talk about itchy skin. It's something that really... It doesn't sound like a big thing, but I've had dogs with itchy skin and it's horrible, because you look at this and you treat it with that, and you try this, and you try that. What's your experience with itchy skin? Where is that coming from?

Dr. Judy Jasek (12:40):

I think a lot of it starts in the gut. I mean, I think a lot of health starts in the intestines and having a healthy microbiome. You hear a lot of press out there these days about a healthy microbiome for people and pets. But I think it goes way beyond throwing a probiotic at them, which I think have really mixed efficacy. I think a lot of what goes on is dogs get a leaky gut, and this goes back to, I think, the diets. The kibble diets are about 50% processed carbohydrates, it's about 50% carbohydrate. They're so highly processed and processed at high temperatures that they're very inflammatory. So they actually damage the gut lining through that inflammation. They're also, and I don't know if it's the same down there in New Zealand, here in America, the crops are heavily sprayed with glyphosate, which is also known as roundup. It's used in the fields to kill weeds, but it's also used as a desiccant prior to harvest, which means they spray it on to help the crops dry faster so they can get them to market faster. So it's a direct exposure, and it's a known carcinogen. I think it's just so toxic, and it's also been shown to cause leaky gut. So what leaky gut is, is where the junctions in between the cells lining the intestines, those junctions are not tight. The cells spread apart, and so molecules of food, whatever the dog's eating get absorbed before they're completely broken down, and they're foreign to the immune system. I think that's a lot of what makes dogs itch. I start a lot with the gut, and that of course starts with nutrition, but other things, herbs to strengthen digestion. When I hear that a dog has kind of chronically loose stool, more loose stool than we would expect, not just occasional, but kind of pretty regular basis, or dogs that they vomit a lot in the morning, I hear that one a lot. They got this kind of oopiness. That tells me we need to work on strengthening the digestion, and I start there. And then we kind of can work from there using herbs and other things to help support the skin.

Dr. Judy Jasek (15:06):

I think a lot of itchy skin is also the body trying to detoxify. I see young dogs. Just before I got in this call, saw a 10-month-old dog, and this is really typical. Came from a rescue. It's been itching. [inaudible 00:15:22] this gentleman has had the dog since the dog was I think 10 or 11-weeks-old. It's now 10- months-old, and has been itching the whole time. Well, when dogs come out of the rescue organizations, they have so many vaccines. I mean, I think this is a vaccine injury, because they're just vaccinated. I know the rescues are very well-intentioned, but they give a ton of vaccines to dogs. And I think-

Doggy Dan (15:48):

How many vaccines are you talking about?

Dr. Judy Jasek (15:50):

Well, typically, here, they will start a lot of times early, that's one of the things I think is a big mistake, they'll start vaccinating very early, like five or six weeks, a lot of times while the dogs are still nursing. And so you have those maternal antibodies, which are the antibodies from the mother dog, if they're still nursing, that kind of disrupt the normal response to the vaccine. They don't tend to respond really well to the vaccines to begin with. And then when you vaccinate that early, you have this young developing immune system, and I mean, it's just the immune system's just starting to recognize its external world, and it has to learn what's friend or foe. What do I react to, what do I not react to? What's healthy, what's not healthy.

Dr. Judy Jasek (16:40):

These vaccines, I think a big part of the thing with vaccines, it's such an unnatural route of exposure. For a dog to get pretty much any disease that we vaccinate against, it would be exposed to the nose or the mouth, some mucus membrane, the immune system recognizes it there and then starts to build its response. When we inject those antigens right into the body, the immune system, it really doesn't have a mechanism for processing those antigens. And you're injecting preservatives, antibiotics.

Doggy Dan (17:15):

This is basically because the puppy is too young. It hasn't developed its own immune system almost.

Dr. Judy Jasek (17:21):

It's too young. Yeah. In the case of a rescue organization where they might not have these maternal antibodies on board, they might be orphaned, but they still have these really immature immune systems.

Doggy Dan (17:34):

I'm just thinking, I'm pitching the size of these five-week-old pups. I hope they get a tiny amount compared to the standard-sized dogs. Or are they all one?

Dr. Judy Jasek (17:44):

No. Yeah. I think they usually don't, unfortunately.

Doggy Dan (17:47):

One size fits all with a vaccine. I mean, that's where you give a 50-pound dog a vaccine, but if you're dealing with a five-week-old, teeny, little pup weighing in at what, five pounds?

Dr. Judy Jasek (18:03):

Yeah. Five or-

Doggy Dan (18:05):

That's a big hit.

Dr. Judy Jasek (18:07):

It's a big hit. They're not just getting one antigen. A lot of these vaccines have parvo distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza. Yes. There's a doggy coronavirus. So they're getting all these things. Leptospirosis, one of the highest reaction rates that I see. I haven't given a lepto a vaccine in years and I don't ever recommend it. I think the adverse effects are so much worse than any risk of disease. The other thing that gets completely overlooked is that dogs, they have an immune system. I'm a firm believer if we support that immune system and keep the body healthy, they're going to be able to handle these disease exposures.

Doggy Dan (18:59):

You only have to look at what dogs are eating off the ground sometimes-

Dr. Judy Jasek (19:03):

Oh my gosh.

Doggy Dan (19:03):

... then you realize their bodies are solid. Like my dogs are, I mean, I hate to say it, but sometimes they eat dead... one was trying to eat a dead rabbit the other day, just looking at me kind of chewing through some guts with maggots and... but he's fine. Nothing wrong. He just looks at me and smiles.

Dr. Judy Jasek (19:22):

Yeah. Right. That's what dogs are meant to eat, but don't feed like, oh, raw food because they might get salmonella or some horrible bacterial infection. But yeah, they can go eat roadkill and they're perfectly fine, but you're worried about-

Doggy Dan (19:34):

This thing was moving. This rabbit was moving, not because it was alive, but because it was full of maggots. Sorry to-

Dr. Judy Jasek (19:41):

Oh, so disgusting.

Doggy Dan (19:42):

... be descriptive, but we're talking the most rotten rancid meat, and he's looking and licking his lips going, look what I just found. Luckily, I've got a good drop it command and leave it.

Dr. Judy Jasek (19:54):

Your dogs hopefully are well trained being that you're a dog trainer.

Doggy Dan (19:56):

They're well trained, especially when it comes to that stuff. I think they wondered whether I was going to take it back to the house and cook it up for dinner kind of. I was like, no, it's going in the bin. Sorry guys, but this is not... Yeah.

Dr. Judy Jasek (20:08):

Yeah. That's crazy.

Doggy Dan (20:09):

Well, that's fascinating. So itchy skin, so even with itchy skin, a lot of it can come back to food and what you're putting into your dogs.

Dr. Judy Jasek (20:20):

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there can be some true allergies. I actually think true food allergies are quite rare. I think it's more of this leaky gut thing, because I see so many people that come in, they've done the allergy testing and turns out their dog's allergic to everything they're eating. So they're searching for what's the one protein I haven't fed yet. So they're looking for squid or alligator or kangaroo or something. I think we're missing the point.

Doggy Dan (20:51):

I see. It doesn't matter what protein they're putting in because of the leaky gut. It's all causing problems. Yeah.

Dr. Judy Jasek (20:58):

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. We have to start with healing the gut. Obviously if a dog reacts to particular protein, you see a direct cause and effect, then yeah, don't feed them that protein until we get the digestion stronger. But it's not really that the dog's allergic. Once we get the digestion stronger, most of the time the dogs can start to eat some of these other proteins. It's really more about gut health, because it's the same organ. I mean, if you think about it, the skin on the outside of the body kind of goes into the mouth, down the digestive tract, down into the mouth, down the esophagus. It's the same organ. It's exposed to the external environment. So if we have inflamed skin, my point of view, we're also going to have an inflamed gut, and yeah, that's definitely where I would start.

Doggy Dan (21:54):

Fascinating. For people who are listening to this and are interested in the vaccine side of things, I don't want to go into it now, but where can people go to on your website, or can they call you? In terms of what you would recommend, how can they find out what sort of maybe some suggestions on what are the right vaccines, or just read up more about it? Is there something on your website?

Dr. Judy Jasek (22:15):

We do. On our website, which is ahavet.com, we have a multimedia page and there are blog articles there. We're getting to vaccines, also vaccine alternatives, like tighter testing. So we actually measure antibody levels to see if pets even need boosters. I also use homeopathic nosodes, which is more of an energetic way of protecting. I mean, homeopathy is kind of a whole big topic in and of itself, but these do have proven efficacy. I know practitioners that have used nosodes in lieu of traditional vaccines, and they've been really, really, really effective. So there's information there. And then, yeah, I mean I do phone and Zoom appointments, so I'm happy to work with anybody. Every case is a little different because they have different histories coming to me.

Dr. Judy Jasek (23:13):

I love to get dogs in that if people are getting dogs from a breeder and they can ask the breeder to do no vaccines and I get them without any vaccines on board, and then we can just do a real minimal protocol, those dogs just do fantastic, because we just really get them off to a good, healthy start without all of this early inflammation. Another thing I want to just throw out there along the lines of early, young pet health and itchy skin and inflammation is don't spay or neuter early. Give them to at least a year. It's just super important. Let that endocrine system develop normally. Let their skeletal system develop normally. Let them get along to where the growth plates are closing, because when you pull out those hormones too early, it completely disrupts normal development. And I think that's another cause for some of these things we see including chronic itchy skin, because you're disrupting the whole endocrine system.

Dr. Judy Jasek (24:24):

All the hormones in the body have interrelated systems of operating. And so the reproductive hormones are linked to the thyroid and the adrenals and normal development. They've actually proven that growth plates in the legs stay open longer when they are spayed and neutered young. Here, some of the rescues, they are spaying them and neutering at 8 and 10 weeks, and pumping them full of vaccines. And I'm like, oh my gosh, these poor dogs just don't even have a chance for a good healthy life. I just wanted to throw that out there because I think that's a really, really important thing for pet health. Do not spay and neuter too early.

Doggy Dan (25:05):

Leave it as long as you can. I mean, as you can see, I struggle with this topic.

Dr. Judy Jasek (25:15):

Yeah. Left you speechless, didn't it?

Doggy Dan (25:15):

Left me speechless. It doesn't happen very often. I often say to people do it earlier or at least do it before eight months, because from a behavioral point of view, I see what happens with a lot of the male dogs around eight months, they get so testy and kind of chest up, and you put them in a doggy daycare and all hell breaks loose quite often. So there's often that balance. I'm not saying you're wrong at any stretch of the imagination. I totally hear you. Sometimes it's a bit of a balance.

Dr. Judy Jasek (25:44):

Well, it's always a case by case basis, because I will tell people that too, if you have behavioral issues or you need to put them in a daycare, and a lot of facilities won't take intact dogs. Everybody has their own individual circumstances, but bottom line is kind of put it off as long as you can manage to do that.

Doggy Dan (26:06):

From a medical point of view, it's best to leave it. Yeah. Makes total sense. Just you touched on before about if people are wanting to read or find out more about the vaccines and stuff, they could go to aha.vet.com. Under multi multimedia, if you go there guys, it's a beautiful website. I just wanted to say that, Judy, I love your website.

Dr. Judy Jasek (26:27):

Oh thank you.

Doggy Dan (26:29):

Under podcast, there's nearly 100 podcasts and interviews and stuff, and it's everything from the safest and best pain medications to pets elevated liver enzymes, to itchy ears. How to prevent hip dysplasia, lymphoma in the raw diet. Why acid blockers block gut health, so much stuff. It's just fantastic. So do go there, ahavet.com, and we'll have links all over this podcast when it comes out as well. So fascinating stuff. Now, some of the other stuff you do is a little bit more alternative, or some people may not know about it. But would you touch on... I mean, there's so much stuff I'd love to chat to you about, whether it's Chinese herbal medicines and how they work. I'm fascinated with some of your cancer treatments, like mistletoe and Bach Flower Rescue Remedy. I've used rescue remedy many years ago when I had a bit of a fear. I had a fear of speaking in public, and I used Bach Flower Rescue Remedy, and it was just like magic, a couple of drops-

Dr. Judy Jasek (27:37):

Oh, interesting.

Doggy Dan (27:39):

Yep. So I swear by that. Interestingly enough, I used to go around doing dog consults, and I'd often say to people, "If you're a bit stressed, then Bach Flower Rescue Remedy, I swear it works." And they'd actually pull some out of their bag and go, "I've actually got some." I know that stuff works. Well, I believe in it anyway, but the mistletoe and the ozone treatments, I'm interested in that, maybe the CBD oil, any of that stuff that you'd be happy to share with us, mistletoe. Maybe any stories around that stuff that you've used some of that stuff for dogs, Chinese herbal medicines, mistletoe, would you share with us something around that, what it does?

Dr. Judy Jasek (28:16):

Sure. You bet. So Chinese herbal medicine is a real strong foundation for my practice, because these blends help correct imbalances in the bodies. Chinese medicine looks at patterns, hot versus cold, excess, deficiency, dry versus damp, and we're correcting imbalances. What I love about Chinese medicine is by correcting these imbalances, we can get a lasting resolution to the problems. It's not symptomatic. It's, okay, what's going on with this pet, and how can we help correct these imbalances? So even if I'm looking at an over vaccinated puppy or a dog that's been on poor nutrition or over medicated for multiple, multiple rounds of antibiotics for one reason or another, the herbs can still help correct these imbalances, and it's fascinating to me. This is stuff that's been around for thousands of years.

Dr. Judy Jasek (29:17):

What kills me about medicine is this stuff is considered a kind of woo woo, like, well, that's not standard of care. Standard of care is using the pharmaceutical that just got approved three months ago and was tested on a handful of dogs. That's supposed to be the standard of care, and it just provides symptomatic relief until they pull it off the market because it's killing pets, because that's what happens a lot. So I love herbal medicine. I'm always, always learning about it. I use it with lots of different cases, whether it's skin or cancer, all those different things. Specifically to cancer, mistletoe is one of the newer things I've added into my practice.

Dr. Judy Jasek (30:05):

I learn a lot from my clients. I think because I'm open-minded, I get the people in that teach me things. And I'll have clients come in and ask me about certain modalities. Do you do this? Would you be willing to learn about it? Because I really want to do this on my pet. And so a lot of times, that's how I get into learning new things. I'm like, "Sure, I'll look into it. That sounds really cool." I don't do everything that people ask me about, but I started researching mistletoe when a client asked me about it. On the human side, it's used extensively in other parts of the world, in Europe, I know in Italy and some of the other countries over there for cancer patients. It's almost like a routine standard for cancer patients. It helps people with or without conventional treatments, so even people that are getting chemotherapy, they tend to suffer less side effects and do better and have better success with the treatments in doing mistletoe.

Dr. Judy Jasek (31:09):

And then I always like to find a veterinarian that's using these treatments in real life. I found a veterinarian here in the States in Florida that's using mistletoe in his practice. I chatted with him to find out what his protocols were and his successes, and I find it to be really effective, especially in slowing the growth of really aggressive tumors. I mean, there's no guarantee that we're going to have success with a cancer case, but I will say I have seen some cases, especially aggressive regrowth.

Dr. Judy Jasek (31:46):

One of the most challenging things that we run into in treating cancer is tumors get removed, which I don't advocate for nearly as much as I used to because what I find is most of the time, especially if it's a very aggressive cancer, you take it off and it just grows right back. When it grows back, it grows back with a vengeance. I do see pets that have had multiple surgeries, and every time the tumor is removed, it grows back more and more aggressively, and is harder and harder and harder to treat. I think part of that is in an effort to get good margins, the surgeon disrupts the circulation and it'll affect lymphatic flow in the area, and the body's immune system can't get in there to help fight the tumor.

Dr. Judy Jasek (32:36):

Once it's removed, well, it's one scenario where I have seen mistletoe really, really help. You asked about stories. I have one little case that I've been working with. Actually, I don't see him very much anymore. He kind of stabilized and then he doesn't come in too often anymore, but this dog had a real aggressive tumor removed from his hind leg and came in and was just limping. I mean, it started to regrow and he was really painful, just super, super painful. So he started doing ozone and introduced the mistletoe, and that tumor not only did it shrink, but his pain went away. I mean, the dog just started walking almost normally, barely limp and just doing really great, tons of energy. I think he's little terrier. I think a little Jack Russell terrier.

Dr. Judy Jasek (33:31):

She's like, "Could you give this dog... She actually said, "Could you give this dog a little less energy for a while, because he's driving me crazy," because the dog was feeling so good. But it's amazing, and I think it's a real interesting parallel that mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant. It grows in the trees. We see it Christmas time and all that. I think it's interesting that this parasitic plant is such a powerful cancer treatment.

Doggy Dan (34:03):

Yeah. It always blows me away with what actually works. I was chatting to my wife about this. We've got a lovely horse and he's... She went to see him the other day, and I said, "How is he?" She goes, "Oh, it's that time of year where he is eating too much of the green, green, lush, sugary grass, and now he's got sick." I said, "Why is he always so sick from eating all this grass? Why is that? How does that normally happen in the wild?" Because my mind goes, well, they don't get like this in the wild. They know how to deal with it. And she says, "In the wild, they're not forced to be stuck in a paddock where there's only one type of grass. They know how to move around and roam and forage for different things." And they know how to, like you said, balance it out like Chinese medicine, balance it out, hot and cold. And she says, "They know what to eat to kind of..." Instinctively, the animals know how to balance it out and heal themselves. I sometimes think we doubt their intelligence, but they're super smart.

Dr. Judy Jasek (35:06):

Yeah. But they've actually, in grazing animals, they've actually studied them and found out that if they're allowed to roam a pasture with a variety of grasses and what we would consider weeds, but sometimes those plants are medicinal. That's what they need. And they will sometimes eat certain plants to purge parasites. Their body knows, and they don't get sick. I mean, a horse or a cow can be in a field with even plants that are potentially toxic. They don't eat those toxic plants in large enough amounts for them to hurt them, unless that's all that there is to eat. But if they have that variety, a little bit of that can be really beneficial. And they're meant to be out there wandering around. They're not meant to be in closed and small spaces.

Doggy Dan (35:77):

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Would you touch on ozone treatments for the people who are not sure? You mentioned ozone treatments, so that's in cancer treatment. What is ozone? How does that work?

Dr. Judy Jasek (36:07):

Oh, I love to talk about ozone, because it's been a standby in my practice for a long time. It's another interesting story about how I got into this. This was another client came in, her dog had just had a malignant tumor removed from its leg. She didn't want to do chemotherapy or radiation. She said, "I want to do ozone. Would you do ozone?" I was like, at that point, I'd kind of heard about it. Didn't really know anything about it. She said, "I'll buy the equipment. If you do the treatments, I'll buy the equipment." I'm like, "Okay. Clearly I'm meant to go this." And she said, "Not only that, I see a human doctor." She herself saw a human doctor that uses ozone on people. "And I've already asked her if you could come up and shadow and see how they do ozone treatments. And then if you could learn enough that way, then maybe we could do some treatments on my dog." I'm like-

Doggy Dan (37:00):

Oh, isn't that amazing?

Dr. Judy Jasek (37:01):

... "Okay." Guess the universe is throwing this in my lap and saying, you need to learn to do ozone. I did just that and learned enough from this human practice. I went up there and shadowed their ozone tech and started doing it. And then I went on to get more training and buy my own equipment, and I use it just all the time. But what ozone is basically, so ozone is O3. The oxygen in the air that we breathe is O2. Ozone has this extra oxygen atom, which makes it very, very reactive, and that makes it more effective at oxygenating the tissues. And really what the ozone does when it gets in the body, that O3 is very unstable molecule, wants to react with something, because this extra oxygen atom, that extra oxygen atom combines with other substances in the body, like amino acids, lipids, things like that, and forms, we call them ozonides. These are the substances that actually get in the cells. Essentially, what ozone does once it gets in the cells of the body is it ramps up the energy production.

Doggy Dan (38:09):

Gotcha.

Dr. Judy Jasek (38:10):

Anybody that has ever learned biology has probably heard about the Krebs cycle, which is how cells in the body produce energy. And there's a lot... This has been well worked out. I mean, I've been to whole weekend seminars on the physiology of how ozone works in the body. So it's not some woo woo science. It's very well worked out how the ozone gets into the cells, ramps up the energy production, so the healthy cells get healthier. Also by oxygenating the body, most disease processes, whether it's bacterial, viral, fungal, even cancer tend to thrive in low oxygen environments. And I think part of that is because the other cells are not as healthy. But when we oxygenate the body, it makes it an unfriendly environment for micro organisms or cancer cells to grow.

Dr. Judy Jasek (39:08):

There's a lot of theories out there about where cancer exactly comes from, but one is that it's parasitic or viral. There's a micro-organism involved in the development of cancer is one of the theories. And so the ozone helps actually eliminate that. It actually has direct anti-cancer properties. I will actually inject the ozone gas underneath a tumor. The ozone is made... I have a little generator. So I use medical grade oxygen, so regular O2, goes into this generator, and there's an electrical spark that splits that O2 into the single Os. And then that recombines and we end up with O3. It happens in the atmosphere during thunderstorms.

Doggy Dan (40:00):

I was going to say, I've got pictures of Tesla working away with "zzzzz zzzzzz".

Dr. Judy Jasek (40:03):

Yeah. Right. Right. Exactly.

Doggy Dan (40:07):

Incredible.

Dr. Judy Jasek (40:07):

Exactly. There you go. So the systemic treatment that we do is I will put a little IV catheter in, draw blood, fix the blood with the ozone, and reinject it into the body. That's how we get the ozone into the body is through the blood. And then that ozone can go all over the body, and it seems to go where the body most needs it. Just see so many benefits as far as increased energy, older pets, it's just great for older pets, just helps with aches and pains and all sorts of different things as far and as long, as well as directly being a cancer treatment. So we do the blood treatment. We can inject it directly underneath tumors. If you have open wound, you can do a bagging procedure where you actually put like say you've got a wound on a leg that's not healing, we actually have limb bags that we can put like a plastic bag up over the limb, put the ozone in the bag and just let that ozone saturate right into that wound, and it will kill bacteria and support healing.

Dr. Judy Jasek (41:22):

It was used extensively in people prior to the takeover of big pharma. World War I, they would use in soldiers to treat gangrene before they had antibiotics. Very effective. There's a lot of papers from the early 1900s that came out and all the things they were using to treat people with ozone, I mean, tuberculosis and diabetes and all sorts of things, any kind of bacterial infections. I don't think there was a ton of cancer back then, but all of those diseases, and it just got squashed, because there's a lot of money selling drugs. So we can't have anything-

Doggy Dan (42:12):

There ain't much money in mistletoe.

Dr. Judy Jasek (42:15):

Cheap and effective treatments, you can't... The thing about ozone is it has to be generated on site, so it can't be patented or anything.

Doggy Dan (42:25):

No. Well, this is the thing, anything which seems to be able to be cheap or free or is natural and you can't patent it, it seems to be kind of boohooed and moved away. And yet, I've tested a number of things myself as a dog trainer and I know it works. One of the things I'd like to just ask your opinion on is for those people who have never experienced a flea infestation in their house, it's pretty horrendous. We had four dogs at the time and we were buying these packs of pour on flea treatments. We'd go through one and fleas would be there, and we'd clean the house out. We'd go through another one and spend whatever, $130 on four little tubes and put it on the dogs, and a week later, we still had it. We went through probably $1,000 of treatments with... We tried tags around the dog's neck, sound things, vibration things, all these expensive, but mainly pour on treatments.

Doggy Dan (43:21):

I actually chatted with somebody who worked in the industry, and he kind of said, well, we know the fleas have become resistant and we need to make the product more toxic. His actual words were, we need to increase the toxicity. I just thought, oh my good. It was the way he said it, like, oh, that's just the term we use, that's just how we talk about it, increasing the toxicity of the product that you're going to pour onto the back of your dog's neck so that it can soak into your dog's blood. I thought, there's something not right here. And then I realized of course that the fleas which jump around your dog's body, the only reason they die is because they bite your dog and the blood of your dog has got this product in it, and it's so toxic the fleas die.

Doggy Dan (44:09):

But then I realized the reason I never broke the cycle was because most of the fleas were not on the dog. Only 10% were on the dog, and 90% were around the house in the beds. It doesn't matter how well you clean, it can be very hard to get every single egg, because they lay... So then I went down another track and I bought a flea bomb, which was using natural pyrethrum. I believe pyrethrum is just a flower or something. It's a fairly natural thing, pyrethrum. You know pyrethrum?

Dr. Judy Jasek (44:40):

Yeah.

Doggy Dan (44:41):

This bomb was only 25 bucks. I sprayed at once and that was the end of it.

Dr. Judy Jasek (44:45):

Oh, no kidding.

Doggy Dan (44:47):

I used a flea bomb for 25 bucks, a bag of diatomaceous earth, which is ground up. It was like talcum powder. It comes from ground up tiny shells, very, very small crustacean shells. It's the finest powder. The vet guy who made the treatment, the flea treatments, he actually said, oh, it's a mechanical kill. That's clever. And what it is is, as he says, it's a mechanical kill. This dry powder gets into the arms and legs of the flies and actually dries them out and kills them that way. So a $25 flea bomb, a bit of this diatomaceous earth powder rubbed into my dog, and within a few days, that was the end of it, gone. And I thought, wow, now I know the secret. If you want to get rid of fleas properly, you don't have to pour all this-

Dr. Judy Jasek (45:38):

That's really interesting, because-

Doggy Dan (45:40):

It was phenomenal.

Dr. Judy Jasek (45:41):

... like I was telling you before we started the show, we don't have a lot of fleas here in Colorado, so I don't end up getting really well versed in... especially treating the premises, I mean, I don't recommend these toxic preventatives, because they're neurotoxins. I mean, they kill the insects by poisoning their nervous system. And so what is that doing to... It's doing the same thing to the dog. And so I-

Doggy Dan (46:08):

Is it the kidneys that have to then clean the blood?

Dr. Judy Jasek (46:11):

Kidneys and liver are the main detoxifying organs. So yeah, those are the ones-

Doggy Dan (46:17):

What detoxifies the liver and the kidneys? Or do they just have to deal with it.

Dr. Judy Jasek (46:20):

Well, there are some great herbal support, dandelion. Actually, the dandelion plant is one of the best detox agents. The leaves tend to be a really great kidney detox, and the root tends to be a great liver detox. So just giving some dandelion tincture, dandelion tea. I harvest my own, because they grow in my garden and I don't put any chemicals on mine, and I harvest my dandelions and dry them and put them in smoothies or put a little in my dog's food here and there. And so it's a great... that's probably one of the best and cheapest detoxifying agents if you can get them. Milk thistle is really great for the liver. That's another really great one, but those are just some really simple available things. I think doing something like that, I think a little detox maybe a week out of every month is a good thing to do. I don't think we need to detox continuously. I don't think it's actually good to detox continuously.

Doggy Dan (47:22):

No, no.

Dr. Judy Jasek (47:23):

But to do it periodically like that, add a little bit in, especially in the springtime, you guys are getting into springtime, it's a natural... dogs go out and eat grass. Plants start to grow and dogs go out there and eat them. It's a natural reflex for them to go out and eat these fresh, new spring greens because it helps them detoxify.

Doggy Dan (47:45):

Yeah. The dogs know when they're eating the grass, they know what they're doing. So yeah, we've got our two... We're heading into spring here, so we've got two flea bombs, and I literally just let them off as a deterrent in spring and we are guaranteed almost... Every time I've let off the flea bombs in spring, we never have a single flea case. It's just incredible.

Dr. Judy Jasek (48:06):

No. That's great to know. I've heard about the diatomaceous earth. They haven't had too many people try it.

Doggy Dan (48:13):

Yep. I can guarantee that works, literally. You literally get handfuls of the stuff and it's so cheap. You get a big kilogram or two kilogram bag, and you can stick your hands in and rub it under your dog's neck and under their armpits and around the back end and on the back of their neck, and you rub it in and they give it a big shake and there's a big puff of white smoke kind of thing, but it's just powder and it just falls off. By the end of the day, you can't even see it. We've also used it down with our chickens. Our chickens sometimes get those little bugs in them, and there's tiny mites. Anyone who's got chickens, it's the same thing. You sprinkle this powder around, and next thing you know, there's no mites anymore. They've all just disappeared and gone. And there's no side effects. It's beautiful stuff.

Dr. Judy Jasek (48:58):

Oh yeah. It's perfect, especially if you get food grade, there are different grades of it.

Doggy Dan (49:02):

Yep. Yep. Yep. This is food grade.

Dr. Judy Jasek (49:05):

But you want to get the food grade so that if your pet does ingest it, then it... I've used it for ants. We get ants here in the spring a lot, and I could see ants in my kitchen by the garbage can, and I would just put it... It doesn't look the neatest, but I didn't care. For few weeks, I will just pack it along the edges, the baseboard all along my kitchen, and then a few weeks and no more ants.

Doggy Dan (49:29):

Yep. This is food grade. A lot of it is food grade, but the stuff I get isn't. I sprinkled it on my cereal, and I won't be doing it again. It basically tasted like flour. I thought I can do without that ruining my cereal in the morning. I enjoy my usually without flour on the top.

Dr. Judy Jasek (49:47):

That's funny.

Doggy Dan (49:48):

Yeah. Hey, it has been so fun chatting to you. Is there anything else as we come to a close that you would love to share with people either about your website or where they can find out more about you, or a story or anything else you'd love to share?

Dr. Judy Jasek (50:02):

Probably the most important thing that I like to tell people, I mean, you have my website, you can find out more information about me there, but be an advocate for your pets. I think people fall into just blindly following the recommendations that they hear. And I so many times hear people say, God, I just knew I shouldn't have done. I just knew I shouldn't have given that shot. I knew that drug wasn't the right thing for my dog, but the vet said I should, so I did it anyway. And then we have consequences. Be an advocate for your pet. You know your pet better than anybody, because you're with them day in and day out. And when you feel like something isn't right for your pet, then don't do it. Get another opinion, push back. Ask your veterinarian, why are we doing this?

Doggy Dan (50:46):

Yeah.

Dr. Judy Jasek (50:47):

Ask them if they know the side effects of whatever they're proposing to give your pet. Be your pet's advocate. I think that's the most important thing, and speak up. Veterinarians are not gods. People are afraid to question the vet. Ask questions. Ask why are they prescribing this medication? Why is this vaccine necessary? What is my pet's actual risk of getting these diseases that you're recommending I vaccinate against? You don't have to be mean about it, but just ask some questions, and be your pet's advocate, and trust your gut when it comes to your pets, because you're going to be right most of the time.

Doggy Dan (51:24):

Trust your gut. Let's leave it with that. I love it. Trust your gut. Dr. Judy Jasek, thank you for your time. It has been inspirational. Wonderful listening to you. If you want to find out more, it's ahavet.com, ahavet.com. So many beautiful podcasts and blog posts and videos all go to my website, theonlinedogtrainer.com/ahavet. And there you'll find all the links and the transcriptions and everything you need there as well, and all the links back to Dr. Judy's website. Judy, thank you for being on the Doggy Dan podcast show today.

Dr. Judy Jasek (52:08):

No. My pleasure. My pleasure, Dan. Great chatting with you.

Doggy Dan (52:11):

Okay. So you've been listening to another edition of the Doggy Dan podcast show. Whereas I say within every dog is a good dog and within every good dog is a great dog. Have a great day, and thanks for tuning in. Bye-bye.

Voiceover (52:25):

You've been listening to another episode of the Doggy Dan podcast show, bringing you one step closer to creating harmony with your dog.