117. AI Pet Recovery, Cancer Prevention & The Science of Longevity

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pets ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal Bond with Kristen Levine and me. Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv. Hello and welcome to another episode of Pets Ad Life. I'm one of your hosts, Chris Bonti, and joining me is the woman with the answer to the three body problem. It's Kristen Levine.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
What's the three body problem?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
It is an astrophysical problem, a mechanics puzzle that seeks to predict how three, likewise celestial bodies would rotate around each other because I'd mentioned duh while we were chatting, being from an earth with two sons and not knowing what season it was. So alas, here we are at another astrology joke, astronomy joke. I'm not really sure which is which. So I usually just same both.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
You don't know the difference between astrology and astronomy. Okay, well, they do sound a lot alike. I know that

Speaker 1 (01:04):
There is a difference, and I know I could tell you what they are. I can't tell you which is which.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, fortunately, a thing or two about pets, and that's all that matters here. That's

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Much. This is not a Celestial Body podcast though at times. It could be when the guests are handsome. So we are going to, we're going to keep it light. We're going to keep it loose with two amazing guests, two awesome products, two stories from the deepest crevices of our hearts, and we're going to wrap it up by answering two of your questions in this undisclosed temporal anomaly of pet's a life. If you're listening to this episode, you've entered the Twilight Zone.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah. What Chris is talking about is we don't know when this show is actually going to air. Ron just won't tell us. He won't tell us. Just said, just do the show. So we don't know if you're hearing this in the summer, the fall, the winter. We don't

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Know. It's like a message in the bottle episode. We guess. We're taking this episode, we're putting it in the bottle, we're casting it out to sea. So if you're listening to this, help Kristen and Chris present story time.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Alright, I'll go first. This week I have a Let's hear it. Story from Popular Science. This was actually the February issue, so whenever you're hearing this, this was from there. So, okay. This is the story about how AI is helping reunite lost pets with their pet parents, which is fantastic. Losing a pet is probably one of the most distressing, emotionally distressing things that can happen to you. I've lost a pet before and found them, and I've also lost a pet that I never was able to recover, which was just absolutely heartbreaking and it's just indescribable with a feeling. So a lot of times people are certainly, you would have a microchip or an ID tag, which is really the ideal form of ID because it's quick to get your pet back home. But AI is in the picture now. And with Petco, Petco Love Lost, which is a non-profit arm of Petco, they built this massive database of pet photos that's powered by AI image recognition.

(03:24):
They have over 300,000 pets already on the database. So if your pet is to go missing, you upload their photo and it cross-references against thousands of shelter and neighborhood images. It analyzes 512 data points, including your animal's eye color, their fur, the distance between their ears, and things that humans would never even pick up on. They're partnering with shelters with the Next Door app, the Ring Doorbell app, and they've reunited over a hundred thousand pets. So pretty cool way to use ai. A pro tip here for you folks is don't wait until your pet's missing. Go ahead and register your pet ahead of time before they go missing. And there's a couple of other ways AI is being used for pets is in Korea. There's a startup that is now using nose print recognition to identify missing dogs. And in Tanzania, researchers have built an app using dog facial recognition to track rabies vaccination. So lots of cool ways to apply ai. So far it looks like it's being used for good, but yeah, it's a great way to keep your pet safe. So check out Pet Colo.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
That sounds good. I think we're only about 10 years away from robot dogs

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Now, who would want a robot dog?

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Listen, as a nineties kid, the for real friends,

Speaker 2 (04:55):
They

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Were these hyper-realistic puppy toys.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah,

Speaker 1 (05:01):
I want a robot dog.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I know nothing about that. Okay,

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, if you look back on it and you see one and you're like, okay, it's a little uncanny valley, that thing looks messed up. It looks like a messed up Chuck e. Cheese animatronic. But at the time, and with the wonders of childhood and imagination, it felt very,

Speaker 2 (05:18):
And with your imagination, I'm sure, yeah, that would be

Speaker 1 (05:22):
A good thing. Yeah. And speaking of imagination, I've got this article here from New York Times that I found very interesting where they talked to 50 incredibly wealthy dog owners and talked about their lifestyle and I guess thought some of these numbers would be fun. So the first person they spoke with, let's see if they, it's Sam Chio, and I hope I'm pronouncing his last name right, spends nearly, I'm going to list some numbers here you're going to think is outrageous. He's got four Norwich Terriers beautiful dogs. There's pictures in the article, beautiful dogs, $11,000 a year each to groom them.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
His dogs require a grooming technique called hand stripping, and there aren't many groomers in the city who can do it. I have no idea if that sounds painful. Require is the right word. Yeah, I have no idea. Okay. They have a picture of the lunch for these dogs.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Boy. Includes premium dry food, soft boiled eggs, broccoli, florets, salmon row, and manuka honey.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
No way.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I would eat it Lunch as is with the dog food in. Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

(06:36):
That is awesome. Keep the dog gibble in it, and I'd still eat that. He also has given them anti-aging peptide therapy medications, so there's definitely, yeah, these dogs are adorable. The pictures are great. Then they talk about Jane Lauder, who's the heiress to the Estee Lauder companies whose grooming visits for their poodle. Jasper. Also a beautiful poodle. Geez, 500 to $700 every month to keep the poodle groomed. I mean, this thing is like trimmed holy cow. Like a prize hedge at a mansion, but still wild. Let's see if there's any other fun ones in here. Oh, this one is actually kind of fun. Paul Longville uses a vacuum powered grooming device daily to deal with the hair on his 4-year-old cocker spanel. And I've actually featured this product on the show before. Really? Yeah, it's the good old fashioned,

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Which

Speaker 1 (07:42):
We talked about very early on when we were recommending products and the episodes were still in the single digits. So I just thought this was a really fun read on how the other half lives. And I think if we had it like that, if I had Estee Lauder money, I think I would also be spending it on my pets like that as well. Absolutely. But I think what was really endearing about the article, you could really tell how much these people care about their pets and how much they consider them family. Some of these people did not go on to have children, so this is their substitute. And despite there being many differences in the number of zeros in our net worth, we are all similar when it comes to pets.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's so true. Love that story.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism, it's my honor and privilege to welcome Rodney Habib to the show today. A number one New York Times bestselling author, pet health educator, and the creator of Planet Paw, the world's largest pet health community. He's the co-author with Dr. Karen Shaw, Becker of the Forever Dog and the Forever Dog Life. These are New York time bestselling books, widely known for translating complex science around pet nutrition, longevity, cancer prevention, and environmental health into practical advice for pet parents. Ronnie's also delivered two TED Talks, two on canine health, and apparently one of them is the biggest TED talk that's ever happened in the canine health space. This guy's an absolute rockstar and has built a global following through his research driven advocacy for helping dogs live longer, healthier lives. I cannot think of a more noble cause. Rodney, thank you so much for hopping on our podcast today.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Thank you folks for having me. Welcome. I'm so excited to talk about all the cool stuff in the dog space today.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, absolutely. And we were chatting a little bit in the pre-show about the breadth of your experience, but I kind of want to start with a little bit more of a focused approach because you have so much experience, we have limited time, but you've spent a lot of years studying why so many dogs are getting sick younger than they should for our pet parents out there. Can you just go over some of the highlights of that study? What are some mistakes that we're making in product selection or we're making at home or we're making at a regulatory level?

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, this is such a broad question. I suppose the inspiration from all of it was the Morris Foundation with the Golden Retriever project at that time, the $25 million project, probably one of the most powerful statements ever, which came from Dr. Michael Lapin. Part of the Morris Foundation was the fact that the typical golden retriever back in the seventies used to live to be around 16 or 17. However, today we're lucky if your golden retriever makes it to around eight years old. And I had a golden retriever and that's a pretty alarming statistics when we look at globally around the world, how stats look, the UK just published their 2022 study on the average lifespan of a Frenchie. Take a guess what it is. Chris, what would you say the average lifespan of today's frenchie is?

Speaker 1 (10:55):
I would say 10 years.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
4.5. What?

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh my gosh,

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Isn't that absolutely unbelievable? It is a jaw dropping, jaw dropping peer reviewed study that came out in 2022. I mean, that's absolutely not fair. So this kind of turned it on this global mission as to, alright, we can get spaceships to go further. We can build tiny little devices, cell phones to be smaller. We have all of this technology. Why on earth is lifespan going backwards according to some experts, and why aren't our dogs living as long as they did in the seventies? Obviously this would be the same human issue that we have today because we know that in human science, in people under 50, cancer is up nearly 80% in three decades. So it's very multifaceted as you alluded to earlier. What are some of these key points that we know? Well, according to longevity researchers, the 10,000 foot overview would basically be diet. We know diet and nutrition plays a pretty big role. Exercise, optimal movement, moving around genetics, really important. But then so is stress and environment and these are things where I think in the pet space, all of us love to talk about pet food. Anybody you probably brought onto this podcast, all they want to talk about is pet food. But holy moly, man, stress and environment I feel like is very, very underlooked.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Oh, I'm glad that you said that because I was going to ask you more about food, but let's just talk about stress and environment for a minute because it does not get the attention that it deserves. So what is your research found?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, a real big one really that started for us was when we flew to Italy, those scientists came out. A study that literally broke the internet was that dogs not only can smell the chemo signals that are released from our sweat glands, those signals being responsible for the stress that you'd endured in the day. So not only can your dog smell your stress or your fear that you had at some point in those 24 hours of the day, but then they become those emotions and then that broke the internet within three seconds. Your dog can become fearful if they smell fear on your body and our emotions are hugely, hugely impactful to our pets. We don't really think you can have a blow up fight with your boss in the morning and say to yourself, I'm over it. I'm going home now. I'm going to see my dog second, you get home, your dog smells you up and down analyzing those chemo signals throughout the day, and you can actually affect them from something that you did in the morning.

(13:24):
So that's really big. In terms of environment, we know today, according to scientists, they're testing our pets, not people but our pets to see how toxic our homes are because obviously our dogs and cats spend more time at home than we do. You go to maybe yoga, you do Pilates, you go to coffee, the movies, whatever people are doing today, nobody spends more time at home than the dogs and cats and they are accumulating so much indoor air, particulate matter things that can be so damaging. Things that we wouldn't consider like scented candles and fabric softeners. How about frying with Teflon, releasing aquiline into the air, accumulating into the body, things that most people are not aware of. This is where we try to highlight it, these small little tidbits because look, everybody says, look, my grandfather would say to me, oh gosh, we're all going to die of cancer.

(14:12):
Everything in the world's falling apart, so on and so forth. It's not so much that it's that cumulative effect. If I had a glass of water under a sink that was just dripping every single day, at some point that glass is going to overflow. And it's the same thing with your pet's body, with the daily bombardment of indoor outdoor environmental pollutions that could be affecting them that pet parents aren't aware about. But maybe if we can teach it and highlight those things, those drops become less and less and we never have to see that cup overflow.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, I think you bring up a lot of great points about some of these causes and things we just don't consider in our day-to-day life. And I think a lot of people, they go to the internet and they look for answers, and there's a lot of bad information out there. So I want to turn some of this background knowledge into some actionable advice because frankly, not coming home stressed is not an option for most people. So

Speaker 4 (15:06):
What

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Are some things pet parents can do to be more mindful, some actions they could take in their home coming from an expert that they can trust. What are some things they could do to sort of hedge against some of these environmental issues?

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Look, so stress can be broken down in multiple factors. Let's just put emotional stress to the side for the second. We could talk about chemical stress. So as an example, we know that indoor cleaning systems, indoor cleaners, I should say, is a big problem after 2020. Everybody wanted a sanitized home, but the more you sanitize, the more that you're actually going to affect your microbiome and your pet's microbiome. Just as a simple example, when in 2021 study came out on children, parents that were using toilet bowl cleaners just to clean their toilet bowl, the cheaper things that you can buy usually at your local economy stores and dollar stores and so on and so forth, they were damaging the microbiome of young children actually slowing down learning for those kids. It's those children struggle in school if you reverse the role. Everybody knows very well about the environmental working group that did this study on dogs in 2008, finding over 40 different types of home cleaners, the chemicals involved in those home cleaners in the urine of pets.

(16:21):
So that's a real big one. We don't take into consideration all the things that we're using to clean, but how about the things that we use to groom ourselves? So the dog aging project very famously did a peer reviewed study last year, 120 hours. They put a silicone tag on a dog and just got 'em to roam throughout the house. The amount of cosmetics that the dog was picking up from makeup in the morning, aerosolized products, how many people like dry shampoo or deodorant, anything has the risk of shooting volatile organic compounds into the air. If you recall, not too long ago, there was a giant benzene recall in your country in the US pertaining to these aerosolized products. Benzene in a new study that came out last year shows that it is a geno toin for pets. So it actually can increase the cancer rate in pets. So just by reducing things that can become aerosolized within the air or products that we put under the ground that we think dry off, but really leave a film, a cleaners that your pet walks through this can do magic in terms of reducing the chemical load and the DNA damage that can be done to pets today.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
And along those lines, Rodney, for somebody who already has a dog like me who's six years old, midlife not almost bordering on senior years, is it too late to make meaningful changes in our environment with nutrition to have a real impact on their longevity?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
What an awesome question. And it's never too late according to researchers, right? So it's so multifactorial, right? We could literally have six podcasts, six, five hour podcasts pertaining to sort of all of those environmental burdens, right? It's never too late to start. A really good example is, look, we're now approaching the spring and everybody wants a beautiful lawn. I created this meme online that I know has gone viral all over the place referencing this study that was done in the vet college pertaining to outdoor spraying, trying to destroy your weeds that people really absolutely hate in their lawns. And the uptick, the 70% uptick in the development of lymphoma for dogs, right? So imagine whether your dog is 1-year-old, 8-year-old, or 14-year-old, just reducing lawn chemicals this year that everybody, because everyone wants that beautiful green lawn, you can reduce the possibility or the incidence of the development of cancer lymphoma by 70% just by switching to something a little bit more natural. Those weeds, man, those are a delicacy in many countries. Dandelions are actually a superfood. If you look at the nutritional benefits, they can take out broccoli and spinach in terms of vitamins and minerals, spending billions of dollars to remove them and increasing the likelihood of disease in your pet, your children, and yourself. It's just not worth it,

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Man, I feel like I could talk to you all day. We only have a few minutes, but I feel like we need to do six hours hour. I think we need a series. We're going to do a series, Rodney. There you go. But I wanted to ask, I always talk, it's very ironic that as a podcaster, I warn people against listening to podcasters for information, but for you as an expert and telling these pet parents, where would you send them? If people have more questions, what resources are out there to get some good information? Where can folks find your books and stuff like that so that they can get some of this knowledge in them?

Speaker 3 (19:48):
So I'm blessed to my partner in crime, Dr. Karen Becker, the most followed veterinarian in the world, her page, we're always posting every single day daily science facts that literally come out on the hour. So we're blessed to be able to work with these scientists from around the world. This is what we call citizen science, right? The scientists contacting you and saying, Hey, I have a study. I think it could impact your pet at home and your listeners, your readers, and so on and so forth. We will literally within that hour, take that study, publish it on either Dr. Karen Becker's page. I have a pet health page called Planet Pause. I would tell you by the hour, if you love science and we try to make it layman and digestible, you'll constantly see us posting at those places where we could try to make people's life a little easier. Did

Speaker 1 (20:31):
You say lame and indigestible? Is that what you said?

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Layman and digestible. But did I say digestible? I

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Thought you said layman is my ible. I thought you said lame and indigestible. I was. You're not selling this sati.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
That's my Canadian accent. God, love you.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
There we go.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Maybe that's just how we say it in Canada. Yeah, it is. For certainly not lame and in digestible. And I may have said it. We got to go back and play this.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
We'll replay the tape, we'll slow it down on the actual podcast. But Rodney, thank you so much for taking the time today. This is an amazing interview. You're

Speaker 2 (21:05):
So great. It's honored to have you on the show.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
We'll have to have you back. We'll have to do something cool, and maybe we'll see you around the internet one of these days.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Sounds good. Thanks so much for having me, folks.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Wow. He was amazing. And did he say when we were doing the prep for the show, he said they had a billion views?

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, a billion

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Views. Wow.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
So listen here, folks, we don't have a billion views.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Not yet.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
And whose fault is that? Let's see. Well, I don't think that person's name is Kristen. I don't think their name is Kristen. So that leaves producer Ron and whoever the heck you are listening to this. So get us up to a billion views. Otherwise we'll have to have Rodney back, and I think everybody wants that. So yeah, I'm going to say top two guest of all time, and he is not number two. So I mean, just really good. And he knows a lot. I mean, I'm going to be checking out his channels for sure. Absolutely. In the book, the Forever Gone, wherever we are in the show, we've done over a hundred of these. I'm running out of story ideas and

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Product things. Hey, you know what though? Hey, this is what we need to be proud of. He as big as he is, he took the time to be on this show.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, yeah. And

Speaker 2 (22:24):
He called me handsome knows he knows a winner when he sees it.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
And he called me handsome. Did he? Is that my main secret? Let's go back to the show.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Okay. I am delighted to introduce Dr. Kevin. He's a veterinarian with nearly four decades of clinical experience focused on functional medicine and longevity science for companion animals. He works with pet families across the US and the United Kingdom, even Canada, through a concierge veterinary practice that emphasizes personalized evidence-based care. Dr. Kevin specializes in helping pets with complex and chronic conditions, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats cancer and chronic pain in dogs. He uses an integrative approach that combines conventional veterinary medicine, emerging longevity therapies, targeted supplements and lifestyle strategies designed to improve both lifespan and quality of life. I made it through the intro. Well, girl, you did great. Great. How'd I do with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? Did I get that one? All right. Nailed

Speaker 4 (23:33):
It.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I would've struggled so

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Hard stammer over that myself. But that is in fact, that disease affects one out of six cats nationwide, and it's a fatal and progressive disease. So the reality is it is very important to the kitty owners out there.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let me kick it off with this question for you, Dr. Kevin. You've been at this for nearly four decades, so you obviously started when you were about five. The biggest, what are the biggest changes that you've seen in how we understand aging in our pets?

Speaker 4 (24:08):
I think there have been a number of changes both in veterinary medicine and outside veterinary medicine realistically, and thank you for your assumption that I started when I was five, but when I graduated from veterinary school back in 1986, the unfortunate truth is we just simply didn't have the tools at our disposal to fully understand how pets age. And so a lot of what we have learned over the years has trickled down from human longevity science, where we know that in general there's a gradual decline in health. But there are tools, there are ways that you and I can intervene ranging from very simple things at home to more complex lifestyle strategies to maintain a pet's plateau of life for almost indefinitely compared to the original trend. And then when we do start to see a fade, it becomes a quick one and it just leads to a longer and happier life for our pets.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, I think a lot of pet parents today, obviously we want our pets to live forever. That's never going to be the case, but I think there's a lot of attention towards their pets leading better lives, especially in the later years. So what are some important things owners can do from a maintenance and at-home perspective to improve that, the later stages of a pet's quality of life?

Speaker 4 (25:38):
I'm going to start with one that will rattle your pet parents right off the bat. A

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Hot take.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Yeah. The hot take is that in every species, whether it be you, me, or our pets, the single biggest determinant of longevity is obesity. And so whatever you and I can do to reduce what they call the body condition score of our pets will add years to their life. And the Dog Aging project has just come out with a study that showed, in fact, pets fed one time a day are much healthier than pets fed more frequently during the day. And so unfortunately for our pets, I have a young golden retriever puppy, and this is just simple blasphemy to her. But the reality is feed them less and feed them less frequently is probably the single best way to prolong their health.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Why is that, doc? Because I always, I used used to feed my dogs once a day, and then about 15, 20 years ago, we started feeding them twice a day thinking that was better.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Well, and to be clear, I feed Annabel twice daily. But the reality is that what we have learned now about fatty fat is that it's not just simply padding, but it is actually an inflammatory organ. And if you and I agree that inflammation is one of the single biggest causes of aging, every little ounce of extra fat hastens that aging, and then there are mechanistic there mechanisms behind the fact that our bodies are designed to go through periods of feasting and then famine, feasting, and then famine. That's the way our bodies, that's the way our dogs and our cast bodies were designed and keeping ourselves, keeping our pets continually full short circuits that and does in fact short circuit some of their lifespan as well.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, it's like intermittent fasting for your pets.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
Atta boy. Atta boy.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
That's how I maintain my girlish figure, and I see what Kristen is.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Well, man, clearly it's fork.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Look

Speaker 4 (27:50):
At

Speaker 1 (27:50):
The success though. I see what Kristen's done here. She's baited me into the next question, which goes back to what we talked during the intro about that condition, hypertrophic cardio myopathy. Oh man. See, I told you I would struggle, but it says here, it's also known as HCM, so I'm going to stick with that. And for listeners or hosts who may not be familiar with it, what exactly is HCM? And I was a cat dad myself. My cat recently passed at 23, so I know all about longevity, but

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Absolutely. And congratulations. So it sounds, first off, yes

Speaker 1 (28:31):
It does.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Your cat was the luckiest cat in the world

Speaker 1 (28:35):
For we'll be down the road here welcoming a new cat into our home sooner than later. So this is something that I'm going to want to look out for too. So what exactly is the disease and what are some warning signs that cat owners should be watching for?

Speaker 4 (28:50):
Well, let's us boys stick with the abbreviation. HCM, please. HCM is a progressive and fatal disease that affects one out of six cats worldwide. And so it's very, very common, and it's most common in certain breeds of cats, the ragdolls of the world, the main coons of the world, some of the British short hair breeds. And so in those breeds, we can actually test for that disease to learn whether your cat carries those genes. But the reality is, most frequently it's, it's a coincidental finding. You and I take a kitty into a veterinary office and they say, oh, by the way, your cat has a heart murmur. And so you progress through the diagnostics to learn that your cat's heart walls have thickened to the point where instead of being able to expand and contract like a normal heart does, they hardly have any motion to them at all.

(29:53):
And this prevents normal blood flow, of course, from occurring and results not only in heart problems, but also kidney failure and to a lesser extent, sometimes some dementia issues. It also creates a predisposition for blood clots or kidneys getting strokes. And so this is a really huge problem. And for the 38 out of the 40 years that I've been in veterinary practice, it was a death sentence for it. Every time I told somebody their kitty at HCM, it was really time to start digging a hole. And now studies have shown that there's one particular drug which we used on a daily basis called rapamycin, or the trade name for it is Fein. And it can actually slow or sometimes even stop completely the progression of HCM.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, I think that's some really great advice. We've heard a lot about some of those outdoor environmental influences, and I'm lucky that I live in a condo. I don't have a yard, so I don't have to worry about it. But for our pet parents, and we're coming up on time, so this is going to be my last question, but for pet parents who have an elderly pet that may be slowing down, what are some things they should be aware of in terms of the care for that pet to make sure that both the pet is comfortable in their old age and lives as long as they want to?

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Well, I'm going to make a quick play for veterinarian medicine, and that is that every older pet, every pet older than about eight should be seen by a veterinarian on an annual basis, not only for the examination, but likely for some blood and urine tests as well. Secondly, the most common source of inflammation and pain for older pets, especially those under 25 pounds, and this applies both to dogs and cats, is their dental health. And I can't count the number of older pets that have loose teeth or infected teeth, and they hurt on a daily basis. Studies in veterinary medicine have shown that if your pet has particularly bad periodontal disease, you are shortening their lifespan by up to 15%. And for larger pets, really, because it's all about orthopedics. And so whatever you and I can do to reduce the wear and tear of our large dog's, joints will add to their lives. And so specifically, I'm sorry, I'm stuttering around here this morning, but things that I'd point out are stairs. The more frequently your pet does the stairs, the shorter their lifespan will be hardwood floors tile. Every time your pet slips and falls as they come running around a corner to greet you after a long day at work, they're shortening their lives. And so the moral to the story would be dentals for small dogs and cats and carpet and one level homes for larger dogs.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
I got to move. I got to the house. There

Speaker 4 (32:54):
You go. Got to the house, you got to sell the

Speaker 2 (32:56):
House.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
And if you have hardwood floors, some yoke mat or some little rubber back rug area rugs from Walmart, we'll do a great job for you.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, that's great advice. Well, Dr. Kevin, this has been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much for joining the Pets Ad Live podcast today. Where can we follow you? Can we learn more about your work?

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Absolutely. I would love to help as many of your pet parents as possible because we're all in this together. And so I run a website called www helping pets live longer.com. And for your pet parents, I will offer them a free longevity consult with me. And to do that, all you have to do is go to www free vet call.com and it'll have a calendar set up for a 10 minute consultation with your pet parents to help develop the longevity strategy that will work best for them.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I love it. That's fantastic. That's

Speaker 1 (33:57):
A very generous offer, so take them up on that.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
This is important, and I'm not sure I've done a great job articulating things this morning, but I would tell you that I am passionate about dog longevity and cat longevity, and we are in fact all this together. So I'll help your pet parents however I can.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Well, Dr. Kevin, I think you did an excellent job, enunciating your points. Thank you so much for taking some time today out of your busy schedule to join us. If you are listening to this interview, head on over to those websites as the good doctor just explained for your free consultation, and you'll be hearing from Dr. Kevin soon.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Now, one question I forgot to ask him is what does it mean to be a concierge vet? Fancy? It was in the intro. It does sounds fancy, sounds very, sounds very fancy.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
He doesn't strike me as a fancy guy. He

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Is very down,

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Very down to earth. Dr. Kevin, no last name. I mean, incredible stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
He's awesome and

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Some really, really great advice. I mean, we all love our chunky little chunkers, but we're only doing them a disservice by keeping them overfed. So I would

Speaker 4 (35:03):
Talk

Speaker 1 (35:04):
A lot about it on the show, but I think it was really interesting to draw the lines between cancer, which is a very difficult to solve problem and the obesity issue. So we thank Dr. Kevin for all of that information and I think he should be more kind to himself because I think he was a great guest. He

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Was awesome. You could tell he loves what he does.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yes, it's time for our product of the week time Anomaly edition. And Kristen, I'm going to kick us off because you were just talking about Petco Love Loss and back at Global Pet Expo, I saw a startup company for, and I'm going to close my window here so I could see the whole website for a really awesome health and GPS tracker for adventurous pets. And this may be think of cats mostly

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Because

Speaker 1 (36:01):
There's a lot of dog tracking products and a lot of cat tracking products. But this is really one of the things I really like is establishing a safe zone. So if you have a cat who ventures outside, which I know we've talked about a lot,

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Which

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Has its pros and its cons, but if you do and you want to be alerted, if they go kind of too far, this is a great product for that. You could set up sort of not like an electric fence, but like a geofence where if they go outside, you're going to get alerted. We're talking about escape alerts, we're talking about LTE and wifi coverage. So if you lose wifi, this kind of stuff doesn't go out, and the app will actually help keep track of their health. So if you are doing dog walks, let's say you have this on your dog just in case they get out and it's not a dog who goes outside on their own and you want to keep track of calorie in calorie out the same way your Fitbit does, you could do that with your dog. This is great. If you're trying to get your dog to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, you could get a lot of the same metrics we use for human health and retention through this product and get all the benefits of GPS tracking. So I just think it's a really simple twist on something that already exists. I think it's a clever product. I got to see it in action At Global Pet Expo, you could also track sleep and rest analysis, behavioral trends, and there's even a social feed to connect you with fellow pet parents.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's like a Fitbit and Aura ring in one for your pet.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
It is exactly. Connect it right to the collar. I believe that the way it works is I believe the device itself is $130 and then you pay a subscription fee that I think is 10 bucks, something like that. But it's very similar to what Fitbit does. So 130 bucks for the device plus a subscription to keep it up and running, which just sort of seems to be the way things are. Go ahead and add another lengthy subscription to your wallet. But I think if you're somebody with an outdoor pet or somebody who wants to take a more active role in the health of their pet, I think this is a great find.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, I agree. What was it called again? Tell me the name.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Loop paw.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Loop Paw, okay. Loop. Loop.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Like

Speaker 2 (38:20):
LOOT. Give me

Speaker 1 (38:22):
The loop. Give me the loop.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
I see. And you said it's good for cat, it'll fit a cat too.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yeah, it'll fit a cat. The actual device is not large itself and they show some pictures of the kitty cats with it. It might not fit a kitten, but your kittens shouldn't be going outside.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
No, they shouldn't. They shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
They really, really shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
I love that. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind and all that data that helps you keep your pet healthy. Yeah, I

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Think it's very fairly priced for what you're getting.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Agreed, agreed. So my product of the week is actually a service, and I mentioned it at the top of the show in my story, and I don't know, I'm just kind of on this. Let's protect pets from getting lost kick. Okay. So in addition to your loot paw and your identification tag and your pets microchip, I'm going to encourage you to go ahead and register your pet today at Pet Co Love Lost. I did this yesterday. It was really easy to do. Took me less than five minutes. I put the link to the website in the show notes. So you just go there, you put in your email, your phone number so they can text you if your pet is found or if a lost pet is in your area. And then you upload pictures of your pet's, face their body, you describe any characteristics, and then you will be in the database.

(39:41):
As I said earlier, don't wait till your pet goes missing. Hopefully your pet will not go missing. But I think it's so important to just use as many tools as available to you to prevent your pet from ever becoming lost. But truly, the old school identification tag hanging on the collar or kind of studded to the collar is probably the quickest way to get your pet home. Because if a neighbor finds them, they can call you right away. Whereas with some of these other technologies and services, it might take a few different steps to get your pet home. But hey, have as many redundancies as possible to protect your pet.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
I think that's great stuff. Keep those pets safe people. That's

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Especially with 4th of July, right around the corner maybe. I know. I dunno when this episode's ending. Ron's probably shaking his head back there. QA. Alright folks, it is time for our favorite part of the show. That's right. We are going to answer two questions from our incredibly handsome audience. And I know what you're thinking. Handsome, young listener. How do I have my question answered by Chris and Kristen? Well, couldn't be easier. Head on over to pets Add life.org/podcast. Scroll on down to the bottom of that page. You'll see a form to submit your question, or if you're feeling as brave as a lost puppy trying to find its way home, you can have your voice recorded and your question may be played live on the air. So without further ado, Kristen, I have a question from Melissa in Portland, Oregon. Thank you for your question, Melissa. She asks, I recently adopted a young cat who's very shy around people and tends to hide when visitors come over. What are some safe and gentle ways to help a cat become more comfortable socializing without causing them stress?

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Okay, well, congratulations on your newly adopted cat. This is not uncommon for a cat to be a little shy. You said, Melissa, that you recently adopted a young cat so recently, I don't know if that was last week or last month, but I think you can expect any newly adopted pet to be a little bit shy and hesitant. Maybe not so much a dog, but definitely a cat to be a little shy in those first several weeks, possibly even months. And I would say just give your cat the space. Give her maybe an area of the home where she can be alone and comfortable, has her bed, and just give her a chance to acclimate to your home and to the people in your home. Now, I don't know if you have other pets, you didn't mention that, so I'm going to assume we're not talking about other pets. But then after say a few weeks time or a month, you can start to coax her out. When people come over, maybe give her treats, associate visitors with other positive things that happen. Maybe make sure that you have a tower or one of those climbing, either a way for her to climb up to a higher level, like a shelf or one of those climbing trees that has a bed on top because sometimes they feel safer up high above where she can watch what's going on below.

(43:09):
What am I missing, Chris? What else would help a shy kitty warm up to people?

Speaker 1 (43:16):
I would just say routine. Try and normalize your life as much as possible. Try to, if you're going to be leaving for work, try to leave around the same time every day. If you're coming back from work, try to come back around the same time. Give the cat a sense of control and predictability. And I really strongly agree with what you said about verticality and personal space. You want the cat to have a space that feels like theirs and only theirs. And sometimes the only way to do that is to build up because they see the ground as dangerous. If they were out in nature, they'd be looking to the treetops and things like that to keep themselves safe and keep an eye on things. So that would be my 2 cents. Melissa, best of luck with the young cat, the shy young cat. Don't worry, you're not the only person in the world with a shy young cat. You're going to be fine.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
And Melissa, she may just be a shy cat period. So after you've worked on it for a while, if she doesn't come around, she's just a shy cat. And that's okay. All right, for our second question today, which comes from Daniel in Tampa, we actually asked Dr. Kevin to come back and answer it for us. So thank you Dr. Kevin. We appreciate you giving us a couple extra minutes of your time. And I'll go ahead and read the question from Daniel. He says, we lost our last dog to cancer and it was heartbreaking. We just adopted a new puppy and we want to do everything we can to keep her healthy. Are there things we can do early in life to reduce the risk of cancer? I know we just talked about that a lot in your interview, but what can you say to Daniel there?

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Well, Daniel, the first thing I would tell you, maybe water under the bridge. And that is certain breeds very definitely have a higher risk of cancer than do others. And I love golden retrievers. But the reality is that my little puppy, Annabelle is one of those breeds. Bernie's mountain dogs are another. Some of the other retriever breeds are at very high risk for cancer. But in direct answer to your question, Daniel, first off, congratulations on your new friend. And our goal would be to keep your dog as thin as possible through the balance of his or her life. What I would also suggest is that by midlife or so, you consider the use of prescription longevity drugs like rapamycin, anti carbo, which have been proven to extend lifespan in every mammal species study today by up to 14%. And how do they do that? They do that by reducing cancer risk and by reducing inflammation.

(45:49):
The final point I would make is this, there's a direct line between that inflammation that I just spoke about and cancer. So every time your dog itches, every time your dog develops a limp, every time your dog has dental disease, you are shortening their life and increasing their cancer risk. Please, whatever you do, reduce inflammation the old fashioned way. Keep your dog thin when they start to limp, take 'em to the vet. If they have a itch, let's solve it right off the bat. And especially if you have a smaller dog, let's keep their mouth as clean as possible though, that will get you 90% of the way to helping your pet live as long and healthy a life as possible.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Excellent. Thank you so much, Dr. Kevin. I was taking notes during our entire interview and that last part there, that's great advice for everybody. It's pets too. So there you go. Daniel, thank you for your question and thanks Dr. Kevin.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Alright, you guys, thank you.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
And that's a wrap on this week's time displaced episode of Pets Add Life. We hope wherever or whenever you are, you are having a great day.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Agreed, agreed. And here's my tail end tidbit for today. Good news, there's actually a blood test called New Q that can screen your dog for early cancer signals. And as of early 2026, which we are in, we don't know what month, but we're in 2026, it's available through your veterinarian across all 50 states. So be sure to ask about it. As your dog gets older, it is a test for older dogs, or if you have a high risk breed

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Now that is a glass half full tail and tidbit, which is a mouthful to say. We'll be back next week. As always, see us on YouTube, dog tv, all the other social medias. And until then, take care. Take care of yourself, take care of your animals, and we'll see you on Tuesday. Woof Pets. Add Life Your Guide to the latest in Pet Trends products, and the joy of the Human Bond with Kristen Levine and me Bon Powered by the American Pet Products Association.