Swelling can look simple, but it is often the start of a much bigger story. Host Leslie discusses what inflammation really means in an animal’s body, using clear signs you can spot at home: redness from increased blood flow, heat from chemical activity, swelling from fluid leakage, and pain from pressure on nerves. From the first “something isn’t right” moment, we keep circling back to the question that changes everything: what tissue is injured, and what is the body trying to protect?

Leslie also 'zooms' out into the possible causes behind inflammation in dogs and horses, including overuse, muscle fatigue, overstretch and strain, ligament and tendon involvement, and the possibility of early arthritis after long-term dysfunction. What does “chronic inflammation” really mean and why is a veterinary diagnosis, plus imaging like x-rays or ultrasound, can make rehab safer and more realistic. Pain management matters, but so does understanding how long healing can take and what outcomes are actually achievable.

If this helped you think differently about injury recovery, please subscribe, and share it with a friend. What signs of inflammation are you noticing in your dog or horse right now?

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Carrots get judged on one thing: sugar. But when you zoom out to equine digestion and equine nutrition, a raw carrot looks far less like a “naughty treat” and far more like a practical, whole-food add-on that your horse is built to handle. Host Leslie talks honestly about why the old warning that carrots are too high in sugar keeps coming back, and why that claim often ignores what matters most for horse gut health: fibre structure, microbial balance, and steady energy.

Leslie breaks down what makes the humble carrot useful, starting with beta-carotene and how the horse’s body converts it into active vitamin A. Then we tackle the “carrots and sugar” question head-on: carrots are relatively low glycaemic when fed raw, with sugars released slowly through chewing, and beta-carotene may support insulin sensitivity when the overall diet is cleaned up.

If you have ever wondered whether you should swap processed horse treats for something simpler, this is your nudge to think of the horse like a herbivore again. Subscribe, share the episode with a horse friend, and then tell us: are carrots a staple in your treat bucket?

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Cribbing, windsucking, wood chewing, bedding eating, these are not just “bad habits”. We’re looking at abnormal oral behaviours in horses as welfare signals, and asking the harder question: what is the horse trying to solve when we remove grazing, fibre, and normal social living?

Host Leslie talks through modern research showing how diet changes can shift behaviour for better equine welfare. When horses move from low fibre, high concentrate feeding towards high forage, higher fibre roughage, more grazing time, and smaller concentrate meals, the frequency of oral stereotypies can drop dramatically, with some studies reporting reductions of around 70%. We also unpack the biology behind it, including cortisol (stress), ghrelin (hunger), and leptin (satiety), and why a forage-first approach can support calmer behaviour alongside better digestive health.

Leslie gets practical about equine management: environmental enrichment, free-choice hay, prolonged turnout, herd-style social contact, and why prevention from weaning onwards beats trying to “stop” a behaviour once it’s entrenched.

If you care about equine welfare, equine nutrition, and evidence-led horse care, hit subscribe, share this with a fellow horse owner.

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Your dog might be “keeping up” on a walk while their body is quietly paying the price. Host Leslie takes a hard look at what happens when small dogs are asked to move at a human pace, racking up far more steps per kilometre and risking muscle fatigue that can snowball into long-term joint wear and tear. If you have ever wondered why your dog slows down, overheats, or looks stiff after what seemed like a normal stroll, this conversation is designed to change how you perceive and plan dog exercise.

We finish with practical, realistic tips you can use immediately: check stride demands on small dogs, build in rests, consider carrying for part of the route, watch for overheating, and think about water stops. If you care about canine joint health, injury prevention, and keeping your dog moving comfortably into old age, you’ll get clear takeaways here. 

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One glance down can change the whole walk: is your small dog strolling, or sprinting to survive your pace? 

We dig into why a human “quick walk” can push a little dog into an extended trot, how fatigue shows up as they start drifting behind you, and what chronic effort can do to soft tissue over time. 
Then we slow things down and defend the sniff fest. Sniffing is enrichment, but it’s also how dogs build memory, map their world, and read the scent trails left by others. Add in hydration and thermoregulation, and you get a clearer picture of why that panting “smile” isn’t always happiness, especially when a dog can’t stop, toilet, rest, or drink.

If you want better small dog exercise without overdoing it, press play, then share this with a fellow dog walker. What’s one change you could make on your next walk to let your dog set the pace?

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“What is herbal medicine?” sounds like an easy question until you realise how slippery the word “herb” is. Hosts Leslie and Ashlie, start this discussion by pulling the definition apart, right through to the way people label the same plant as “food” one day, and “medicine” the next. That small shift in context changes how we think about purpose, safety, and what we expect a plant to do in the body.

From there, we step back into the long history of herbal medicine, where trial and error built real-world know-how, but mythology and sympathetic magic also filled in the gaps before modern science existed. We talk about why herbal medicine is sometimes dismissed as superstition, and why the real issue is often poor discrimination between good evidence and old quackery.

Then we bring it into modern animal herbal medicine: pharmaceutical drugs still rely heavily on plant compounds, but herbalism is often about the whole plant, not just isolated active constituents.  

We also get blunt about diet: herbs can support chronic and acute issues, but they cannot undo the damage of a highly processed, biologically inappropriate diet that drives gut dysfunction and inflammation.

If you care about safe, species-specific herbal therapy for pets and animals, hit play, subscribe, and share this with someone who needs the reminder that “natural” still requires knowledge. 

Please make sure you talk to a fully qualified animal herbalist in animal herbal medicine, and specifically the species that's in question.

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Your animal’s health often turns on the basics we overlook: how well they sleep, how they move, and what they eat. We start with the three pillars of animal health and make them practical for real homes and real routines. Sleep is more than “they nap a lot” it is comfort, safety, warmth, and pain-free rest across a full 24-hour cycle. If a pet is burning energy to keep warm, feeling unsafe, or coping with arthritis, their sleep quality drops and so does their ability to recover and thrive.

From there we look at exercise in a grounded way: the type of activity, the time spent, and whether it actually fits the animal’s species and size. Cats may need climbing and play for enrichment, while dogs and horses need movement that supports joints, strength, and behaviour. We also challenge the human side of the equation: does your lifestyle allow enough time for enriching movement?

Nutrition then becomes the deeper framework, moving beyond trends into evidence-based animal nutrition and whole foods. We explain foundational, preventative, and clinical nutrition, then introduce the four pillars of biological nutrition. This last pillar matters because responsible, sustainable pet food choices can support biodiversity and reduce carbon impact while still meeting species-appropriate needs. Subscribe for more, share this with a fellow animal lover, and leave a review with the one question you want us to tackle next.

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We take a brisk trip through the history and meaning of naturopathy, from its word roots to the people who helped shape modern practice. We also explain why animal naturopathy demands strict species-specific thinking and a focus on causes over symptoms.
• The origins and meaning of the term naturopathy.
• Key milestones from Hippocrates to eighteenth and nineteenth century natural healing systems of Naturaopthy coined by John Scheel and Benedict Lust.
• Why animal naturopathy is not the same as human naturopathy.

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Welcome to the Animal Naturopathic Medicine Educatum Podcast  - specialising in Canine, Feline and Equine animal health from a biological perspective.

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