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Justin Colby
what is up the entrepreneur DNA if you are a pet owner, you will not want to miss this episode. Now, as high level entrepreneurs, most of us have pets for a lot of different reasons. So again, if you are a pet owner, you want to be listening to Dr. Randy Aronson is in the house. What is up buddy?
Dr. Randy Aronson
Hey, how you doing? But Justin, how it's going?
Justin Colby
It's going great. I'm, I'm excited about this. I am a pet owner myself, kind of adopted. When I was dating my wife and we were dating, she had a like a nine month old pit bull, not Pitbull but Frenchie. And so to this day he is like almost nine. And so when you and I were talking off camera and we were kind of talking about this episode, I'm like, oh, oh, it's on. Because I just know too many people, whatever amount of pets and listen, they are unique. And so Dr. Randy is his name. Dr. Randypetvet.com I believe is the website correct? Randy?
Dr. Randy Aronson
Yeah, that's correct.
Justin Colby
And so I want you guys all to go and follow him and find him because this is going to be a great episode. We're going to talk about what makes him different than just veterinarians across the United States and how we can tactically practically implement some of these learnings into our pets and so again, for all my entrepreneurs, this is going to be a little bit less business oriented, a lot more life oriented about what we want to be doing with these pets, because these pets make us happy. So again, Dr. Randy, before we go, where, where, where do we want to push them in terms of just the website? Do they want to find you on Instagram or LinkedIn or tick tock? Like, where should we have them go find you?
Dr. Randy Aronson
I'm on Instagram and Facebook Dr. Randy Petfet. Also YouTube. I have a ton of podcasts on there myself out of your broadcast. Love you to subscribe and follow. But, you know, one of the things I wanted to allude to, Justin, which is really important because you hit it on the entrepreneur DNA, is I go into big businesses and speak to their wellness groups. Why is that? Because as you just alluded to, if you're going to be a top level entrepreneur and have that DNA in there, if your pets aren't well, you're not doing well. And that's exactly what I end up finding. I go to these groups, you know, talk to the Raytheon people, talk to whoever, and I'd love to get invited to do more. But as I do that, I explain these are options that you and I are going to talk about, that we can get your pet's wellness, but also health span, not just lifespan. I'm not here just to make them live forever. I'm here to make them live the best life they can have.
Justin Colby
Yeah. So let's talk about this because I think it's really unique. This is why I liked you as a human and what you do so much. I mean, you literally are being flown out to speak to organizations, flown out to speak on stages. I mean, you are not just your normal veterinarian that's going to go in because your dog has a cold. Right. Like, you are sought after. People know you. People want to get to know you because of the power of what you can do for their pets. I mean, we all have them, right? And they're, they're like our little children with fur. Right. For the most part. And so does talk to us a little bit about, like, what is the actual separating factor out of the gate? I want everyone to Understand, why is Dr. Randy different separating from what you would normally see in your traditional veterinarian world?
Dr. Randy Aronson
Well, first of all, I want to tell you that I still weekly see new patients and new clients. I do mostly second and third opinion cases because I take an hour with my clients and these are really complicated things. That people have tried and tried and really are at a point where, oh, I don't know what else I can do. But I also do see the usual everyday patient too. So. But here's the deal. When I was after I graduated from the east coast, I did an internship, which is kind of unheard of. I spent a year at the Animal Medical center in New York City, largest animal hospital in the world. I came to Tucson, started practicing and I found Justin, that very quickly in that time I was putting out fires. I was the best at putting out fires. Okay, I had top level training but. But what I wasn't seeing was wellness. I wasn't getting these animals to feel their best, to do their best, both the cat and dog patients. So I was having some problems. I was a long distance bike rider, I'm a mountain bicyclist. Having a lot of inflammation in my body. Started learning that inflammation was the key to solving problems for humans and just the same as pets. I met a man named Dr. Andrew Weil who's here in Tucson. He Eight national selling best New York Times best selling books. An integrative MD who started putting herbs and supplements and diet into his routine for his human patients and getting amazing results. And I had to do the same thing.
Justin Colby
Yeah. And so you talk about inflammation, which is so funny because again, I'm only going to take the perspective of me and being a Frenchie pet parent, if you will. Yes. You know, Lord's eyes are like, I have an eight year old going on nine and he is done jumping on beds. He is done doing these things that he used to use to have so much youthfulness for. And I think what I would, I would ask you on behalf of all the listeners out there, all the people on YouTube and Pod and Apple, like, how do we take, how do we create more longevity in our very fun, energetic dogs throughout the years? And then they start to get to this point, what I'm seeing in mine, at least eight years old, he has energy, but not the same. Like he doesn't have the bounce, he doesn't have the desire to go jump up. And so how do we create this longevity in our animals?
Dr. Randy Aronson
Well, that's the perfect question, Justin, because I have to tell you that Frenchies are considered the veterinarian's best friend because they're so fraught with issues. But your dog is not unusual. What happens is early on, on these changes, I feel that we as veterinarians aren't addressing that problem. And the problem is that they're starting to get Signs of inflammation in their body that's going to start wreak havoc with their joints, with their muscles and the number one situation. So I use a mnemonic in my world called Cats C, A, T, S, C is complete nutrition and microbiome. And I'll explain the second part of that later. A is for activity, T is for teeth, and S is for stress reduction. That means getting all the things out of your Frenchie's body that could be causing him issues, whether it's environmental, whether it's carpeting with formaldehyde. But the biggest issue is the nutrition. 90% of veterinary clients want the veterinarian to talk about food. And 5% of the time that happens. And when it happens, Justin, it's usually a recommendation for a very inflammatory prescription type diet. Corn, soy, wheat, rice, white potato. All killers in you and I, all killers in our pets. And so if we don't start addressing that early, your dog is going to start showing the science that your Frenchie is showing. But here's the ticket, it's not too late. Those things can be turned around even in the 8 year old dog, even in the 12 year old dog. As long as we start ascribing to some of the things that you and I are going to talk about.
Justin Colby
Yeah, well, let's just jump in. I think most people are sitting here like, hey, I also have an 8, 9, 10 year adult. Like my dog isn't as playful. My dog doesn't want to jump on the bed. I, I have friends that literally have those dog steps that go to the bed. Now to some extent I can respect, like the older they're getting, just like humans. Right. Like climbing stairs isn't more fun at 44 than it was at 14. Right. Like, so I can understand some of this. But, but let's lean into this, let's go right after, like what could really help a lot of the listeners right now understand what they can be doing.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Yeah. So perfect question. So in that C for cats, C is complete nutrition. And what happens is we've relied on pelleted or kibbled dog food for our pet's nutrition. And it's abominable. It's super processed, you know, it's super heated, it's super extruded. You know, we eat about 59% processed food. Our pets eat about 85% processed food. And that's because these kibbles are double processed. So the first thing is whole fresh food. Now I don't expect everybody to be cooking for their pets. I can't do It and even after 43 years, I probably couldn't balance a diet properly with calcium and D3 levels. But we can add some fresh whole food to our pets. We can do fresh freeze dried, raw feeding, which is basically very, it's very similar to raw food. But actually we take the problem with bacteria contamination and storage and all that out of it by freeze dry. We can add hot water. There are now air dried foods that are not super processed that are really wonderful. So all of these things can be great help. I allude to a book by a friend of mine called the Forever Dog by Dr. Karen Becker. It's all about getting this, the science about getting the inflammation out of our pet's body. But this is a great first start, Justin, once we start doing that, and I also look at supplements, every dog should be on an omega 3 fatty acid. They need that anti inflammatory effect. They need that moistening. That's not regular fish oil. Fish oil is 3, 6 and 9. Omegas and nines are inflammatory. But omega 3, 6 are very helpful for your dog. Every dog should be on a little bit of a probiotic of some sort. And so I allude to using goat kefir or even some dogs and cats will eat sauerkraut, believe it or not, or kimchi. So these are things that we could start to get into our pet's body. And then there are really specific things that I can do for the problem dog, for the, the inflammatory dog that I'm going to be putting into my rehabilitation center or for the cancer dog, for the allergy dog, for the GI dog. And we can talk about that also.
Justin Colby
Yeah, so I have a buddy who has, man, what are they called? The, you know, the, the pit bulls that have like extremely large heads.
Dr. Z
Right.
Dr. Randy Aronson
They're like savagery Poulter or Bullmaster for.
Justin Colby
No, no, they're pit bulls. So I think they're, they're like made in a, in a lab, right? Like they're.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Yeah, yeah.
Justin Colby
But one of the things that they do for those dogs is they buy them real raw meat and they feed them real raw. Like is that a good thing? Like how far should we take it? Because I know that there's companies out there and I can't think of their name, you probably know them, that they package more raw human foods. And maybe it's not raw, but they do it more in the. Exactly what you're saying. In alignment with their saying, they create dog food that is more human based food than it is, you know, the, the, you know, dry kibble that we all feed our dogs and that's a
Dr. Randy Aronson
move in the right direction. So there's what we call lightly cooked foods like Ollie, like farmer's dog. And these are better than the kibbles for sure. The problem is some of those foods also incorporate some of the inflammatory products, the rice, the soy, corn, wheat and white potato. You have to watch that. Okay. When you talk about raw food, the problem is I live in Tucson, Arizona where it gets to be 110 in the summer. And so raw food often doesn't get handled properly. And that's where we get into problems with things like salmonella and stuff like that. So I do like adding fresh, whole food to my diet. I'm just careful with my raw here. We use a lot of freeze dried, as I mentioned, because we can add super amounts of water. So now our cats and dogs are getting all of this hydration with protein and veggies. And the carbs that are in there are coming from the veggies. They're not added carbs that they don't need, which would create more inflammation, if that makes sense.
Justin Colby
Yeah, it does. Now would you suggest, I mean, like you said, it's a great start. Let's, let's go fast forward. Right. A lot of entrepreneur do rather well financially. Right. And some don't. Right. And it's always a fight as an entrepreneur. You and I both know that, Randy. But let's say someone's really to pour, pour the money into keeping their dog healthy in the same way they should for their own person. Right? Like the funny thing about our discussion is there's so many people that will go to the nines. I mean, literally anything and everything for their pet. Like, I don't care how much it costs. But then you look at that same person and they're massively overweight. And I go, I don't understand. Like, how could we be so far off where you will do anything for this, this animal, but you treat yourself like a criminal.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Everything that I do in our dogs and cats is the same thing that I do for me. And I'm 72 years old. I'm still riding 100 mile bike races, I'm still on my mountain bike. I'm still able to take care of my young kids that are at my house. And the reason why I allude to this stuff in our pets is it's so doable. And you're right. The hardest conversation that I have, Justin, is I'm sitting at a desk Talking to a 250 pound person who should be 185 pounds and talking about their overweight dog or cat. You know, we know that, you know, 60% of our dogs and cats are obese or overweight. And yet when you ask clients or pet parents, guess how many, what percentage says yes, 5% of owners? Well, almost.05%. It's a little bit better, thank God. But, you know, so that's the problem. I have to overcome that, but I can overcome it with them. And then, you know what? This is what happens, Justin. Your dog or cat starts getting better, and all of a sudden they start looking at themselves saying, geez, I should really be doing this for me.
Justin Colby
You know, the human psychologist through the animal themselves. Right. And I can appreciate it because, you know, it's funny, I just had another guest on about a totally separate subject which had to do with core values. And one of the things he was telling me, and I think this may lean into this conversation, which was, what is that visceral feeling when whatever this thing is, right? And to me, a lot of times is people's own disrespect for health. Like, it drives me nuts to see someone who's overweight. And because all these. Most of the time, there are certain health conditions, I can respect that, and I apologize if that's you. But for the most part, most people choose to be unhealthy for the most part. And. And then you lean into not just the human, but then their animals become the same reflection of themselves. And so, you know, I circle back to just say, like, the more do you. Do you ever just kind of go right at the home, the. The. The dog or pet owner, and say, listen, your dog is a reflection of how you live. Like, do you ever. Because I want you to. Because I want you to be like, listen, you obviously are not in shape. You obviously don't care, but your dog or cat or horse or whatever is a direct reflection of you.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Yeah, I don't often go that route
Justin Colby
specifically because you want them as a client. I got you.
Dr. Randy Aronson
I got them. Yeah. And I want them to do the right thing, and I don't want to embarrass them into not seeing me or using my expertise to. To helping their dog or cat. So. But, you know, I think it becomes very apparent, and this whole thing, it's happening right now in health, one health, meaning all of us are in this one health bubble. And this is where I'm telling you that talking to entrepreneurs about their pets and making their pets well are going to make them well, you know, so you Know, and the other thing that's really interesting is there's some newer concepts that are coming up so that c. What I said complete nutrition. I said a microbiome. This microbiome is going to be the biggest catch word in human medicine. You're going to see this, Justin. Everybody's going to be looking at it. I even saw a commercial on the TV the other night on a national television station advertising vitamins that were good for the microbiome. And people don't understand what that is. But that's all the good and bad bacteria in your bowel that affects everything in your body. Everything. And it's not only GI disease, it's not only skin like, but it's also gut health relationship, gut brain relationship, where people are now finding that the better we make your bacteria in your bowel, your microbiome, the better your brain health. Schizophrenia and epilepsy are getting. Actually, a lot of it's getting alleviated through treating the bowel, if you can believe that.
Justin Colby
You know, so I live in Miami. Sure. It is a very big thing here. So we have a company called Biohack, shout out to Dr. D. They're huge on this, right. They do lot of the internal work. And it's because of this I, you know, whether even the, the brain fog, right? Like a lot of entrepreneurs complain brain fog. And like, by 3 o', clock, I need all this coffee. It's not the caffeine, it's. It's your microbiomes, your gut health, what your body is doing. And so expand on this. So I think people, not just people themselves should be doing this, by the way, which is not your, not who you're talking to. You're talking about the animals. But expand a little bit on this because you are exactly right. I mean, it is a big thing in my space. I'm very, I'm at. I'm 44 years old. I've taken my health very, very seriously because, sure, I want to live a long time for my kids. I want to enjoy this life. And so I've done CAT scans and, and MRIs and. Because I want to know what's in my body at the same time, I want to see what's on the external. Like you could see this. I call him Bert. This guy's been here for like two weeks. But, you know, muscles and all that. The, the looks of it's great. But just because I might be fit doesn't mean my inside is right. So talk sprock them out, the animals too. Because sometimes I'm guessing by the way, you might have a cat, a dog or whatever pet you might have. Like you might externally say, oh my, they're not fat. Yeah. But what's going on inside of the dog or cat or who.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Right. So let me tell you that every animal that I do, my, my second third opinion consults or even primary consults to get them. Well, to start with, I do two things. I do a food and environmental allergy testing through a company called bdi, which is a blood test. Most veterinarians do not do that. I do a microbiome test through animal biome. And the reason I do those two things is between the food knowing what your pet may be sensitive to or having problems environmentally. And we find things like mold on that test where people go back to their house and they go, oh my God, they found mold in my house. I can't believe it. You know, but we also know what foods to avoid and we also with the biome, which gives us a 10 page DNA report on everything that's in that dog or cat's butt, you know, gut, basically I can correct them with just supplements. We do something here called fmt, Fecal Microbiome transfer. It's done in people all the time for things like C Diff or C. Perf, sometimes for Candida. But basically it's giving good poop to that person or animal to correct what's abnormal in there. And once you get that balanced, you wouldn't believe Justin how things get better. You just wouldn't believe it. It's amazing to see the dog that's come in three, six months ago that is bright red, has sores all over its body, that's limping and hardly can get up all of a sudden. The skin is amazing. There's no sores anymore. There's no stink, there's no odor. There's no malesthesia or staph that we find because we corrected the microbiome. We also took those allergic things out of the dog's body. It also gives us a vitamin D3 level, which often they don't check in pets and often it's abnormal and it's a simple supplement just to restore that. So these things are what we do.
Justin Colby
Well, so where, so right now people are like, well, how do I find it? Like, so let's do that now and keep going. But I know right now people like, where are you? How can I get to you? Let me send you my dog.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Like, where can they find sopetfet.com My, my hospital website is pause. Paws, Tucson Paws, tucson.com. there's a lot of information people could find me there. I do telemedicine consults for people all over the world. My preference, obviously, is seeing the pet. So you got to come to Tucson. It's a great getaway. You can bring your dog or cat with you, and I'll be more than happy to see you and we'll make time. But that's the way I can get to most of my people. And for the people that I can't do that with, doing things like this with you, Justin, are the ticket. I can get this information out. At least people can start looking.
Justin Colby
Yeah, and that's the key, is, you know, I just have one Frenchie, but, like, there's a myriad of stuff that I would want to understand. Right. Because they are. They are interesting even to the. To their. Their butt odor. Right. Which is.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Right.
Justin Colby
If anyone has a Frenchie, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, you're like, well, Justin, so let's go. Let's keep going with your acronym. I mean, this has already been an episode that I think everyone's going to want to share. Like, right now, if you're listening to, like, share this with all your friends, you are going to want this to be in front of everyone that you know of and get a hold of Dr. Randy. But let's keep going with your acronym.
Dr. Randy Aronson
So a is activity, and here's where it's a double feedback for our pet owners or guardians and our pets, our dogs need a lot of exercise and sunshine. Our cats actually need the same. So I try to get my pet owners, my dog owners, to get out and walk with their pets, you know, even if it's that overweight person we talked about. Go a block or two. Just start short, you know, and build it up. A lot of times the pets are going to lead our. Our owners, you know, use a really good harness, avoid the collars or choke chains and stuff like that because they can cause problems. But use a really good harness on your dog. And we teach cats how to walk on harnesses to get outside, because in a lot of environments like Tucson, cat goes outside. Here, either a coyote, an owl, a hawk, or something's going to get it, you know, and I don't know about Miami, but, you know, it's not that conducive for them to be outside. So activity is really cool. I think cat owners, I teach them, do laser pointers, do. There's a lot of stimulating games now with treats for dogs and cats that you can do, there's so many ways to get that activity level up. And anything you can do to get those blood and lymphatics moving, gonna help your pet no matter what it's doing.
Justin Colby
There's no doubt. I, you know, this goes back to the reflection of the human, right. If the human sits around all day and is. And by the way, maybe it's not bad, maybe they're not just watching TV all day, but they're in the office and they're sitting around or they're at work and then they come home and they want to relax. And you know, no judgment on the pet owner, but like if, if you're not actually doing anything, your pet's likely not going to be doing anything. Let me ask you about the harness. So my dog, being a Frenchie, they have those big broad chests. So we have that chest harness that goes around their chest, straps around their belly. Right. Do is that good? Bad? You suggest something different?
Dr. Randy Aronson
No. I work a lot with a company called wonderwalker which makes custom made harnesses up in Seattle. And I like them because they don't have a lot. I'm really worried about restriction of the shoulder. And a lot of our pets, some of these harnesses go across and really restrict the shoulder joint so they can't move out properly and that's a problem. But a harness of any kind is so much better than a collar, like I said, because it takes the pressure off the trachea. The vagus nerve is right here. That controls your GI tract, a lot of things, your diaphragm. So we don't want to hurt those things. So I do like the harnesses. I think that's great.
Justin Colby
What? You know, funny enough, pets don't have the same. This is more out of curiosity. Pets don't have the same like nervous system. And what I mean by that is like my dog, my dog ate a mango seed, right. And I couldn't pass, right. So we had to go and get him surgery. But this guy didn't complain, he didn't whine, he didn't whimper. He was in obvious pain. Yeah, just kind of, just was a lot more quiet. Like how do we know our animals are hurt? Like it just doesn't seem like he has the same nervous system that we have, right. Like I eat something that hurts my belly, I complain to my wife like a, like a four year old, right? Like you're going to hear it.
Dr. Randy Aronson
That's amazing. That's a great question. Because I do this in my seminars. And my talks and you know, cats, for example, are the best impersonator impersonators of it all. They, if they show pain in the wild, they get eaten. No, dogs have some of that residual. Also, they do have the same nervous system. They just don't emotionally show it like we do. You know, I have people coming in and their dog is holding up its back leg because it just tore excruciate ligament in its back knee. And yet they're going, well, I don't think he's in pain. He's not crying, he's not whimpering. They don't, you know, when they get to that point, it's really bad. You know, if they're already whimpering and crying, it's a bad thing. But, you know, this also alludes to the teeth situation, you know, because what happens is a lot of dogs or cats don't get into the veterinarian regularly. And they may have what's called a resorptive lesion, which is this little red spot on their tooth. Justin, All I have to do is take a Q tip and touch that and you can see the cat or dog open its mouth or, you know, look shocked because that's a direct nerve connection that's been exposed. And they deal with that every day. Clients don't, patients, you know, clients don't know that. They don't know that that's happening. So that's, that third letter is T for teeth. Because they really should have a dental exam at least once a year. Because remember, what do you think your mouth would look like if you didn't brush your floss for five years? You know, it's not going to be nice, it's not going to be pretty.
Justin Colby
So we have C a T, right? And that's for. That's teeth.
Dr. Randy Aronson
That's correct. And then so I teach my clients early on with their cats and dogs. Take a piece of white gauze, wet it, do a little baking soda or even one of the flavored pastes and just rub the gum tooth line. Start slowly. If you haven't done this, give them a high reward tree, but get them used to you doing that with your finger. Just on the outside, upper and lower, just gum tooth line. You wouldn't believe how many problems that can solve. You know, we teach our dogs a lot of times to eat something hard like a fought out marrow bone or deer antler or a Nyla bone. And the reason is because that hard will take away a lot of that concrete like calculus that's on their teeth. And you know, People say, well, my dog's gonna break a tooth on that. The number of broken teeth that I see versus the number of dentistries it saves is like minuscule. Just so you know.
Justin Colby
Yeah. So we have C A T. What. How do we finish out the. The acronym?
Dr. Randy Aronson
So the acronym S stands for stress. So stress reduction is not. He lives in your house and your wife and you are fighting and he gets all that stress. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is all of the chemicals that could be in their bowls. Like, you know, plastic has so many BPAs and BSAs and we worry about PFAs, you know, the stuff that they spray furniture with for fire retardant. I mentioned before, rugs have formaldehyde in them. And then people are loving to use these home descenting things, you know, And I won't mention brands, but stuff you plug into the wall and make the house smell good. Well, you know what? That's toxic for us and for them, you know. And so what happens is when they get that kind of stress, the adrenal gland in their body has to continue to release cortisol because it's called kind of like a fight and flight response for them. And so when your body's constantly being bathed by that cortisol, guess what happens? You start eating more, you start drinking more, you start panting. Maybe not you, but your pet. Maybe you stop having to go to the bathroom more often. But it also takes its toll on muscles and tendons and joints, and that's where we really get into problems. So getting that stress out of the body. And the last thing is clean, fresh, filtered water. Okay. I don't know about Miami, but I do know in Tucson our water is really hard, really full of calcium, and they chlorinated to beat the band. You know, you got to use an RO system, a borough system or one of these things to filter the water for your pets. Make sure it's always out there. Make sure you replace it every day, but make sure it's clean and fresh. That's very important.
Justin Colby
Yeah, so run through that again because I think this one, you know, the. The C was the.
Dr. Randy Aronson
The gut, complete nutrition and microbiome.
Justin Colby
And then the A is said to be activity.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Activity.
Justin Colby
The teeth is, you know, obviously rubbing some of the stuff and starting this one, I think has some nuance that I want to lean into a little bit. Right. Because a lot of things within this S. Right. Which is stressed again, relist some of these things. I think people are not even aware of, like, the reality of what within their house, what within the lifestyle is causing this within the dog. So if you could relist that again, that'd be great.
Dr. Randy Aronson
So one of the things I mentioned was plastic bowls. All plastic bowls, most of the time will have, even if they're clear, will have some type of dye in them. And also, I believe it's bpa. I can't remember some of the other things that are in there, but they leach out of the bowl into your pets. So we actually have seen dogs and cats that have had ocular discharge or disease or things around their face, and we change their plastic bowl to stainless steel or ceramic and it's gone. Okay, so we do know that that affects them. Also, I worry about things that are treated in the house, like, you know, you get a new sofa, and they'll say, well, we're going to put Scotchgard and fiber retardant on that. Don't let them do that. Okay? I mean, there may be enough stuff in that sofa anyway, but let's not add to it. Okay? New carpeting. Try to find carpeting that's not formaldehyde based. You know, they use formaldehyde in a lot of carpeting material and it leeches out and we get exposed to it. All of us, not just, you know, our pets, it's us. But guess what? They're right down on it all the time. You know, and some of those environmental tests I told you about on the allergy, they come back allergic to wool, and here they are laying on a wool blanket or their kennel has a wool blanket in it, or, you know, so, you know, these are kind of simple fixes. And then I talked about things like we use in the house, cleaning products, spray to make the house smell good, plugins. All of those are toxic, Justin. All of those can create stress. So. And then I did mention water. The other thing that I didn't mention but you know, can also be something thought about, is light. You know, sometimes people have like, abnormal lights on, you know, all day or all night. And that throws our animals, you know, circadian rhythm up, you know, their diurnal cycle. So you've got to be careful. You have to look at all of these things. Okay? Incredible. Now, there's one new one that I'd like to mention that we have a minute, and that is it's becoming more and more apparent to veterinarians that hormonal changes are a huge problem in our pets. This is something you're going to hear more and more about. Dr. Karen Becker. Dr. Tobias are now doing five part series on hormonal stress. You know, by taking the ovaries away, by taking the testicles away, guess what we do to our animals? We eliminate all of the testosterone, all of the estrogen that they need. And we're now knowing that this can lead to the ligament tears we talked about, to the skin problems we talked about, to the muscle loss that we talked about. It's called sarcopenia. And we're now looking at hormone replacement in these pets to help them just like in humans. You know, there was such a big myth about HRT in women and all these women suffered with menopause and they didn't need to because the research that was done that said there was more breast cancer or whatever was wrong. It was not correct. They redacted all of that. That's good word. Because everybody's using that these days.
Dr. Z
Yeah.
Dr. Randy Aronson
But you know, we're looking at trying to convince the vet schools to teach hormone sparing surgeries where you can do a vasectomy so you can leave the testicles, you can do a hysterectomy and leave the ovary so you can take the uterus so the animals won't get pregnant. And the biggest thing is going to be going to have to work on shelters with this. So, yeah, these are all things, these are all things that we, that we can talk about.
Justin Colby
Let's keep going with the acronym.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Sure.
Justin Colby
So what?
Dr. Z
Sure.
Justin Colby
What's.
Dr. Randy Aronson
So that was, that was, that was the S. So that was the S that we talked about. So yeah, that, that was kind of the last thing. Yeah.
Justin Colby
Okay, so what I want to know just in, in a general sense is how can we. Well, first I have a pure curiosity. How many pets do you have?
Dr. Randy Aronson
I have three dogs, two cats, and
Justin Colby
we have a horse. Are you agnostic to pets like you? Just like whatever the family wants and we'll get it.
Dr. Randy Aronson
You know, I kind of leave it up to my, my kids. You know, I've got an 18 year old and a 14 year old and we've been really big on adopting older dogs that had been broken down because of our rehab ability. You know, we have underwater treadmill and laser.
Justin Colby
So Dr. Randy, let's. I think everyone's going to want this list of the cats. What it means some benefits that they could start to do again. Let's, let's echo. Where can everyone find you? Where can they get a hold of you? What's your Instagram, what's your website? I know they're going to want that and then that'll be in the show notes.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Sure. It's all rndypetfet.com whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and my YouTube channel is @drrandypetfet.com it's broadcast. All my podcasts are across all the streaming services services. So pretty easy to check those things out. My website has a page you can ask questions. It also has a page that if you are an entrepreneur and you have a company and want to bring me in to talk to your people, get a hold of me. I'd love to do that. I've been doing that a lot and enjoying the heck out of it.
Justin Colby
I love that. Well, Dr. Randy, I greatly appreciate you as a pet owner myself, I know there's hundreds of thousands of people that are going to hear and see this that are going to be like, hey, I think we need to change some things. So this is Dr. Randy DrRoyPetVet.com and Dr. Randy, pet vet all over the the interweb, the social medias. I am Justin Colby. This has been entrepreneur DNA. And if this has helped you or you think someone needs to hear from Dr. Randy, share this with at least two of your friends. I'd appreciate it. See you on the next episode.
Dr. Randy Aronson
Thanks, Justin. I really appreciate you doing this, buddy.
Justin Colby
Thanks, doctor.
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Dr. Randy Aronson
the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.
Episode: CATS Framework: The Proven System to Keep Your Dog Healthy for Life
Host: Justin Colby (Bleav)
Guest: Dr. Randy Aronson ("Dr. Randy Pet Vet")
Date: February 25, 2026
This life-oriented episode of The Entrepreneur DNA shifts focus from business tactics to personal enrichment—specifically, the vital role pets play in entrepreneurs’ lives. Host Justin Colby welcomes veterinary innovator Dr. Randy Aronson to discuss his holistic "CATS" framework, which aims not only to increase pets’ lifespan but, crucially, their healthspan and quality of life. Together, they dissect practical ways to enhance pet wellness, tackle common owner mistakes, and highlight how a healthier pet means a healthier entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur-Pet Wellness Link: Dr. Randy opens by explaining that ailing pets create emotional and practical stress for entrepreneurs, impacting productivity and well-being.
Unique Approach: Dr. Randy specializes in complex, second or third opinion veterinary cases. His process is rooted in holistic wellness, moving beyond "putting out fires" to proactive care.
CATS stands for: Complete Nutrition & Microbiome, Activity, Teeth, Stress Reduction.
Holistic Influence: Inspired by Dr. Andrew Weil’s integrative approach in human medicine, Dr. Randy began incorporating diet, supplements, and wellness into pet care.
Incorporate fresh/freeze-dried/raw components or air-dried foods.
Prefer lightly cooked brands but beware of foods containing corn, wheat, soy, white potato, and rice—key “killers” for pets.
Supplement with omega-3s (preferably fish oil with the right balance), probiotics (like goat kefir, sauerkraut, or kimchi).
Notable Quote: “All killers in you and I, all killers in our pets. Prescription diets... usually a recommendation for a very inflammatory... type diet.” (Dr. Aronson, 07:23)
Reference: Recommends “The Forever Dog” by Dr. Karen Becker for science on minimizing pet inflammation.
Pets, like people, require regular exercise and outdoor light.
Activity bonds owners with pets, improving health for both.
For cats: leash walks, laser pointers, “enrichment” games with treats.
Notable Quote: “Anything you can do to get those blood and lymphatics moving, gonna help your pet no matter what it’s doing.” (Dr. Aronson, 23:35)
Equipment Advice: Avoid collars/choke chains—prefer well-designed harnesses (e.g., Wonder Walker) that don’t restrict shoulders.
Poor dental care leads to chronic health issues and unrecognized pain.
Annual dental exams for pets are a must.
Brush with wet gauze and pet-safe toothpaste, focusing on gum-tooth line.
Notable Quote: “What do you think your mouth would look like if you didn’t brush or floss for five years?” (Dr. Aronson, 27:08)
Chewing hard items like marrow bones or Nyla bones prevents calculus—much safer and more beneficial overall than risk of rare fractured teeth.
Stress isn’t just emotional but chemical/environmental.
Avoid: plastic bowls (switch to stainless or ceramic), flame-retardant furniture treatments, formaldehyde-laden carpets, synthetic fragrances/plug-ins.
Ensure filtered, fresh water.
Notable Quote: “They get all that stress... the adrenal gland in their body has to continue to release cortisol because it’s... like a fight and flight response for them.” (Dr. Aronson, 29:05)
Discusses the emerging importance of proper lighting and hormone-sparing surgical options (like vasectomy/hysterectomy instead of full spay/neuter).
Dr. Randy orders food/environmental sensitivity testing and microbiome DNA reports (via Animal Biome) for every case.
Microbiome corrections via probiotics and even “FMT” (Fecal Microbiome Transplant), just as in human medicine.
Strong gut health (microbiome) has major links to immunity, skin health, allergies, and even behavior.
Notable Quote: “Once you get [the microbiome] balanced, you wouldn’t believe Justin how things get better... The skin is amazing. There’s no sores anymore. There’s no stink, no malesthesia or staph.” (Dr. Aronson, 19:09)
Dr. Randy notes that many owners will do “anything and everything” for their pet’s wellness, even if their own self-care suffers.
The dog’s health is often a mirror of the owner’s lifestyle and choices.
| Letter | Stands For | Key Advice | |--------|------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | C | Complete nutrition/microbiome| Ditch kibble. Add fresh/freeze-dried/air-dried foods. Use omega-3s and probiotics. | | A | Activity | Daily walks; use harness; enrichment for indoor pets; exercise boosts both owner and pet. | | T | Teeth | Annual dental checks; home brushing with gauze; provide safe chewing options. | | S | Stress Reduction | Remove plastic bowls, chemical cleaners, plug-in scents; use filtered water and watch lighting.|
“Share this with all your friends... everyone is going to want this!” (Justin Colby, 22:14)
For more on Dr. Randy’s methods and to arrange a personal pet consult, visit his official site or follow him on social media.