The Science
Here’s what I know. Pet parents are smarter than the system gives them credit for. You notice the patterns. You see the changes in your dog or cat before any test does. When you start asking real questions about food, about vaccines, about why your animal isn’t thriving the way you know they could be, you deserve real answers. Grounded in actual research. Translated into language that respects your intelligence. What you observe in your pet every day is clinical data. The conventional system isn’t always built to receive it. This library is.
Our pets are getting sick younger. Cancer in puppies. Chronic disease in dogs barely out of adolescence. Cats with conditions that used to belong to old age. This isn’t bad luck. It isn’t inevitable. The families I coach are the ones who refuse to accept that it is.
The Science is built for the pet parent in the middle. The one who values modern veterinary medicine when it’s needed, and who also wants better food, fewer unnecessary interventions, and a real understanding of what’s happening inside their animal the rest of the time. Every topic below comes from a question a pet parent has actually asked, answered with peer-reviewed research, the work of leading integrative veterinarians, and years of clinical pattern recognition. Start where your animal is. Bring informed questions to your vet. Trust what you’re seeing. And if you want help applying any of it, that’s what coaching is for.
Want a second opinion on your dog or cat’s current protocol? Bring your bloodwork, your questions, and the patterns you’re seeing. We’ll work through it together.
Vaccines & Immunity
The conversation about vaccines isn’t whether to vaccinate. It’s about dose, timing, and confirmed immunity. Here’s what the research actually shows about protecting your animal without overburdening the immune system you’re trying to support.
Why your dog’s weight matters in vaccine dosing (Coming soon)
Titer testing: what it is and how to ask your vet about it (Coming soon)
The difference between vaccinated and immunized (Coming soon)
Rabies, the law, and your real options (Coming soon)
Vaccine considerations for the immune-compromised dog (Coming soon)
Nutrition & Diet
Dogs and cats evolved to eat real food. The pet food industry evolved to sell shelf-stable convenience. The space between those two facts is where most chronic pet disease lives, and where the most powerful interventions begin.
Why your dog and cat were built to eat differently than the bag suggests (Coming soon)
Kibble, raw, gently cooked: making sense of the options (Coming soon)
Reading a pet food label without getting fooled (Coming soon)
The DogRisk findings: what Helsinki taught us about ultra-processed diets (Coming soon)
Gut Health & The Microbiome
Roughly 70% of the immune system lives in the gut. When the gut is inflamed, dysregulated, or stripped by repeated antibiotics, every other system pays the price. Most chronic conditions trace back here.
Why 70% of your dog’s immune system lives in their gut (Coming soon)
Probiotics, prebiotics, fermented foods: what actually helps (Coming soon)
Antibiotics and the microbiome: what to do during and after (Coming soon)
Allergies & Skin
Itchy ears, hot spots, recurring infections, paw licking that never stops. These aren’t separate conditions to suppress. They’re signals, and they almost always start at the gut and the diet.
Food allergies vs. environmental allergies: how to tell the difference (Coming soon)
Why chronic ear infections are a gut problem (Coming soon)
Apoquel, Cytopoint, and the conversation worth having with your vet (Coming soon)
Parasite Prevention
Fleas, ticks, and heartworm are real concerns. So are the long-term effects of giving your dog a neurotoxin every month for ten years. There are better questions to ask, and better options than most pet parents are told about.
Isoxazoline-class flea/tick preventives: what the research shows (Coming soon)
Natural alternatives that actually work (Coming soon)
Heartworm: real risk vs. real prevention options (Coming soon)
Bloodwork & Diagnostics
Bloodwork tells a story most pet parents are never taught to read. The pattern across multiple panels matters more than any single number. Within-normal results can hide real problems, and the tests your vet didn’t run are often the ones that matter most.
Reading bloodwork like a pattern, not a snapshot (Coming soon)
The three tests your vet may not have run (Coming soon)
What “within normal range” really means, and why it isn’t always good news (Coming soon)
Spay, Neuter & Hormones
Hormones aren’t just about reproduction. They regulate immune function, joint development, cognition, and lifespan. The decision of whether and when to alter your animal deserves more than a six-month default protocol.
The Hart lab research: why timing matters (Coming soon)
Hormone-sparing alternatives (Coming soon)
What the long-term studies show (Coming soon)
Stress & The Nervous System
Chronic stress is an immune issue. The dog who lives in a constant low-grade fight-or-flight state isn’t just anxious. Their body is paying a measurable physiological price. Calm is a clinical intervention.
The gut-brain axis in dogs and cats (Coming soon)
Enrichment, decompression, and the under-stimulated pet (Coming soon)
Calming protocols that actually work (Coming soon)
Detoxification & Environmental Burden
Lawn chemicals, household cleaners, residue from monthly preventives, water quality, air quality. Your pet’s body processes all of it, and the cumulative load matters. Reducing exposure is one of the most underrated longevity interventions there is.
The household toxins quietly affecting your pet (Coming soon)
Supporting your dog’s body after vaccination or pharmaceutical use (Coming soon)
Lawn chemicals and your dog: what the research shows (Coming soon)
Cancer & Longevity
Cancer is now the leading cause of death in dogs over two years old. That sentence should stop us in our tracks. The good news: nutrition, environment, and metabolic health are powerful levers, and the science supporting them is stronger than most pet parents have been told.
Why pets are getting cancer younger (Coming soon)
The metabolic theory of cancer: what it means for your dog (Coming soon)
Mushrooms, omegas, and the supplements with real cancer evidence (Coming soon)
End-of-Life & Quality of Life
Coming in 2026. A thoughtful exploration of hospice, quality of life, and the decisions that ask the most of us as pet parents. This is sacred ground, and it deserves its own careful treatment.
Have a question that isn’t here yet?
Send it to me. The Science grows from what pet parents actually ask, and your question may become the next article. And if you’re working through a specific situation with your own animal, that’s what coaching is for. Book a session and we’ll think through it together.
— Jenn | Integrative Pet Parent