In this week’s episode, I sit down with the incredible Dr. Nell for a deeply human, heart-opening conversation that every pet parent and veterinarian needs to hear. We explore a topic that often gets overlooked—the emotional well-being of vets. Dr. Nell shares the mission behind the CALM Movement (Conscious Animal Lovers Movement) and how healing isn’t just about the medicine we use but also the energy, intention, and presence we bring into the room. We talk about burnout, the often unsustainable pace of conventional practice, and what begins to shift when vets slow down and offer each patient a little more of their time. This episode can help you and your vet navigate the challenges that come with helping a pet heal and find a way forward together as a team.

KEY INSIGHTS:

✨ How healing really is a shared journey between pet, pet parent, and their vet and how the energy each person brings matters.

✨ How our emotional state, stress, and even unspoken tension between the team can directly impact our pet’s ability to heal.

✨ How CALM (Conscious Animal Lovers Movement) was founded by Dr. Allen Schoen to raise awareness about how energy, presence, and frequency influence healing outcomes.

✨ How choosing a different model and slowing down veterinary appointments allows for deeper care, stronger relationships, and better results.

✨ How time stress is one of the biggest contributors to burnout for vets and also the reason so many pet parents leave the vet without their questions getting answered. 

✨ How easy little practices like taking three deep breaths or stepping outside for one minute can shift your nervous system from fight-or-flight into calm presence.

✨ How when pet parents share what matters most to them (like sleep, comfort, quality of life), it helps vets tailor care more effectively.

✨ How slow, present, preventative care is often more effective (and more financially sustainable) than rushing to fit more patients into the day.

✨ And Dr. Lily and Dr. Nell share their top tips for navigating uncomfortable conversations and moments where you and your vet don’t see eye to eye.

RESOURCES:The Vetiverse is Dr. Nell’s online training platform for vets

https://www.thevetiverse.com/en/latest/author/nell-ostermeier/

FOLLOW:

Integrative Pet Wellness Center: https://integrativepet.com/

Dr. Nell Ostermeier: @people.and.pet

Dr. Nell Ostermeier : https://www.peopleandpet.com/

Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram: @the.unicorn.vet

Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips 

Dr. Marlene Siegel, legendary integrative vet, is on the podcast this week! She shares the story that changed her life forever: a terrifying accident where her daughter’s life was saved by their beloved showhorse. When that same horse was later deemed untreatable by every equine vet, Marlene refused to accept it. That moment ignited a fire in her, a soul-deep commitment to find real solutions for any problem an animal had. That mission has led her to become a true pioneer in integrative veterinary medicine, bringing cutting-edge healing tools from the human world to devoted pet parents like you. In this episode, Marlene and I dive into so many exciting new modalities and explore why today’s pet parents must be fiercely proactive. Because, let’s be real, the modern world isn’t built for health. But there are still ways you can help your pet truly thrive.

KEY INSIGHTS:

This week, I'm joined once again by the brilliant Dr. Katie Kangas—veterinarian, educator, and true oral health guru. With decades of experience working alongside board-certified veterinary dentists, she brings such a deep well of insight. In this episode, we're diving into what every pet parent needs to know about preventing tooth pain, gum disease, and yes—even early death–from untreated dental issues. Dr. Katie breaks down why anesthesia-free cleanings aren't very effective, how your small dog is at greater risk than your big dog, and how to understand the difference between general practice and specialty dentistry. And here's the best part: she shares powerful (and easy!) daily hacks you can start using right now to protect your pet's dental health. This episode could literally save your dog's life. Let's get into it 🦷

KEY INSIGHTS:

• How dental disease in dogs is a hidden source of chronic inflammation linked to heart disease, kidney disease, arthritis, and even a shortened lifespan. 

• How pets can’t truly be in whole-body wellness while living with poor oral health—and why it’s a foundational part of your dog’s long-term health plan.

• How gingivitis is the first warning sign—if your pet’s gums bleed or look red, it’s important to catch it early and help them heal.

• How brushing your pet’s teeth is the gold standard, but even just gently rubbing the gums daily with coconut oil or natural dental products can make a real difference.

• How important it is to look inside your pet’s mouth regularly—so you can spot early signs of inflammation, dental pain, broken teeth, infections, or a mass starting to grow. 

• How the supplement TEEF helps rebalance your pet’s oral microbiome by feeding the good bacteria and reducing the bad—improving breath and reducing harmful plaque.

• How kibble does not clean teeth—and can actually increase your pet’s risk of dental disease.

• How to choose safe dog chews that help support dental health without risking fractured teeth—and which popular chews to avoid.

• How broken teeth in dogs are a serious medical issue that can cause pain, infection, and systemic inflammation—and need immediate attention from your vet.

• How integrative whole-body care at home can still make a powerful impact—especially when anesthesia isn’t an option due to heart conditions, kidney disease, or budget constraints.

• And Dr. Katie tells us about her own natural dental product for dogs. 

  
  

  RESOURCES:

  🦷 Dr. Katie’s Brand 👉 Share Your Bowl 

  🦷 Boost your pets oral microbiome with this supplement 👉 TEEF

  
  

  FOLLOW:

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center: ⁠https://integrativepet.com/⁠

  Dr. Katie Kangas: ⁠@drkatiekangas⁠

  Dr. Katie Kangas: ⁠https://intvetcare.com/#top⁠

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: ⁠@integrativepet⁠

  Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram: ⁠@dr.lilychen⁠ and ⁠@the.unicorn.vet⁠

  ⁠Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips ⁠

In this episode, I sit down with the incredible Dr. Katie Kangas, a trailblazing integrative veterinarian, to dive into how telemedicine is transforming pet care. With virtual consults, pet parents anywhere—yes, anywhere!—can now access expert holistic guidance, even if there isn’t a holistic vet nearby. Dr. Katie and I have both seen amazing results with our virtual pet patients, even though we’ve never met them in person. From resolving chronic illnesses to helping pet parents navigate the maze of conflicting opinions from different specialists, these virtual consults are truly life-changing. If you’ve ever been told, there are no more options for your pet, or if you don’t have access to an integrative or holistic vet in your area, or if you’ve felt overwhelmed trying to make sense of your pet’s care plan and all the different opinions you’re getting—this episode is for you.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• How if a pet parent can’t find an integrative vet or a holistic vet nearby, they can now access expert holistic guidance from anywhere in the world.

• How a proactive, customized roadmap (the kind your telemedicine vet can help you create) helps keep pets thriving long-term.

• How when you have multiple specialists involved (primary vet, internist, oncologist, etc.), it’s essential to have one vet reviewing everything and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.

• How unlike rushed in-clinic visits, telemedicine allows for a focused, in-depth conversation where the vet is fully present and is able to answer all your questions. 

• How contrary to what many pet parents are told, IBD (irritable bowel disease) is NOT always lifelong or untreatable. Many pets can fully heal with the right diet and holistic support.

• Why telemedicine can sometimes be even MORE effective than in-person care.

• The IBD case Dr. Katie helped turn around with just telephone consults (not even Zoom). 

• And we explore how miracles happen all the time and how pets labeled as “hopeless” or “incurable” often make astonishing recoveries when given the right support.

  
  

  RESOURCES:

  🐾 Book A Telehealth Session With Dr. Katie Kangas

  🐾 Book A Telehealth Session With Dr. Lily Chen 

  
  

  FOLLOW:
  

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center: https://integrativepet.com/

  Dr. Katie Kangas: @drkatiekangas

  Dr. Katie Kangas: https://intvetcare.com/#top

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

  Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram: @dr.lilychen and @the.unicorn.vet

  
  Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips
  

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Odette to get into some big questions. Why are pets getting sicker? How do environmental toxins and generational health play a role? And most importantly, what can we do to reverse these trends? We look at how our pets are like the canary in the coal mine, warning us that our modern, toxin-filled world isn't just affecting them—it's affecting us too. We also dive deep into Dr. Odette's 7 Pillars of Health—nutrition, gut health, detoxification, nervous system health, hormonal balance, fitness and exercise, and mental and emotional well-being and break it all down into simple, actionable steps. You'll walk away feeling informed, empowered, and ready to make changes that truly support your pet's health. Because healing is possible, and it starts with the simple lifestyle choices we make every day.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• How our pets are getting sick at a younger age, and how environmental toxins are impacting generations of pets. 

• How our pets are helping us realize how our modern lifestyle with WI-FI, EMFs, too little exercise, too much processed food, and an overload of pesticides and toxic chemicals is impacting not only our pets' health but our own.  

• How choosing organic regenerative, locally grown food makes a big difference.  

• How Odette’s 7 Pillars of Pet Health—nutrition, gut health, detoxification, nervous system health, hormonal balance, fitness, and emotional well-being—help pets heal by correcting foundational imbalances. 

• How hormonal health is absolutely critical to your pet's overall health, and how you especially need to pay attention to this if your pet has been spayed or neutered. 

• How getting outside and daily exercise is essential for our pets, and how going on long walks benefits their health as much as it benefits ours. 

• How our animals point out our blind spots and invite us to make the changes we need to. 

• How our stress levels impact our pets (and their microbiomes).

• How modern toxins—WiFi, EMFs, pesticides, glyphosate, and heavy metals—affect pet health. 

  
  

  And Odette also shares more about her Pet Health Accelerator Program and making integrative pet health care accessible. 
  

  FOLLOW:

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center: ⁠https://integrativepet.com/⁠

  Dr. Odette Suter: ⁠@odettesuterdvm⁠

  Dr. Odette Suter: ⁠https://odettesuterdvm.com/⁠

  Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @⁠integrativepet⁠

  
  

  Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram:

  ⁠@dr.lilychen⁠ + ⁠theunicorn.vet⁠

  ⁠Sign up⁠ to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips

What if the key to your pet's health wasn't found in bottles or pills but in the trillions of tiny organisms living inside them? In this fascinating episode, I sit down with Dr. Odette Suter, also known as Dr. Poop Lady, to explore the mysteries of the microbiome living inside our pets (and ourselves!) We explore just how powerful fecal transplants can be for helping pets heal, how a fecal transplant can sometimes temporarily change a human or pet's personality, and what a super donor is. If your pet is struggling with chronic health issues that just aren't getting better, or you want to help your pet live longer, this episode is a must-listen. 

KEY INSIGHTS:

• How Dr. Odette got the nickname "Dr. Poop Lady" 

• How the microbes in our own bodies help us survive, like little elves working 24 / 7 to keep us functioning. 

• How fecal transplants can support pets with anxiety.

• How you can use fecal transplants to set a pet up for a longer, healthier life. 

• Why there are no good or bad microbiomes–and how it's really a product of the environment we set up. 

• How you can use ozone therapy to make fecal transplants more effective. 

• How fecal transplants can even help a pet transition from processed food to fresh food diet when they weren't tolerating the switch before.

• How the gut has to be really healthy to promote those feel-good hormones and a stable mood.

• How our stress levels impact our pets (and their microbiomes).

• How our modern lifestyles (wifi, cell phone towers, pesticides, and heavy metals) are impacting our pets.

• And why we're seeing pets getting sicker and struggling more with emotional challenges and how we can support them. 

RESOURCES:

🐾 Dr. Odette Suter’s Book: 

What Your Vet Never Told You: Secrets to Supporting Peak Health For Your Animal 

🐾 Dr. Odette’s course for pet parents: 

Pet Health Accelerator Program

FOLLOW:

Integrative Pet Wellness Center: https://integrativepet.com/

Dr. Odette Suter: @odettesuterdvm

Dr. Odette Suter: https://odettesuterdvm.com/

Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram:

@dr.lilychen + theunicorn.vet

Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips

I'm Dr. Lily Chen, an integrative veterinarian with 14 years of experience solving tough pet health cases. In this episode, I'll share what integrative veterinary medicine looks like and what options exist for your pet. You'll also hear remarkable healing stories from my own pet patients–Bailey, Leia, and Jinju–to show you what's possible for your pet. I've seen firsthand how true healing happens when we give pets exactly what their bodies need and help restore their foundational health. And if you're feeling skeptical, I completely understand…I used to be a skeptic, too. But when conventional methods weren't enough to save my pet patients, I knew I had to explore other ways to help them and the results? Nothing short of magical. And I'll also get into how you can use these integrative modalities to not only heal your pet, but actually help prevent them from getting ill in the first place. 

KEY INSIGHTS:

• The pet who made me question everything conventional medicine had taught me. 

• How when we give the body what it needs, the body is often able to heal itself. 

• The miraculous results I got using acupuncture–and what other leading edge modalities exist. 

• How preventative integrative medicine can help prevent your pet from getting sick. 

• How we can avoid side effects and help pets heal at the root cause instead of just managing symptoms. 

• How holistic medicine usually has minimal side effects and downside. You might be investing in time and money, but you also might, more often than not, heal your pet.

• How these holistic modalities are actually science-based. 

• How integrative medicine doesn’t reject conventional medicine. Instead, it builds on that really strong foundation. 

• And how it can be a lot more work to heal your pet in this way, but the results are totally worth it! 

RESOURCES:

💜🐶🐱👇

Our Services

And you can book an in person or virtual telehealth session with Dr. Lily here 💜🐶🐱👇

New Patient Application

FOLLOW:

Integrative Pet Wellness Center: https://integrativepet.com/

Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

the.unicorn.vet + dr.lilychen

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In this episode, I sit down with Susan Thixton, the powerhouse behind The Truth About Pet Food, to pull back the curtain on what’s really in your pet’s food—brace yourself, it might shock you. Susan opens up about her deeply personal journey into pet food advocacy after losing her beloved dog to cancer, heartbreakingly linked to toxic preservatives in commercial pet food. For nearly two decades, she’s been on a mission to empower pet parents with knowledge about food sourcing, labeling, and transparency. We dive into the critical differences between human-grade and feed-grade pet foods (trust me, you’ll want to know this), the hidden dangers lurking behind those confusing labels, and why human food can actually be the best thing for your pet. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “Am I really feeding my pet the best food?” then this episode is an absolute must-listen.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• Susan’s heartbreaking story of losing her dog to bone cancer caused by a chemical preservative still used in pet food today.

• The difference between human grade and feed grade pet food—and why it matters a lot.

• How the term pet grade is often used to disguise feed grade ingredients and why you want to avoid any pet food that is “feed grade”.

• The importance of diversifying your pet’s diet for better gut health and how mixing up their food also helps prevent them getting “stuck” on only wanting to eat one thing.  

• How meal ingredients like chicken meal often come from rendered animal parts unfit for human consumption.

• The hidden dangers of flavoring on pet food labels—and how companies refuse to disclose what’s in it.

• How marketing campaigns convinced pet parents that table scraps are harmful—when fresh food is actually the best choice.

• And how Susan’s list makes it easy to choose high-quality pet food. 

  
  

  RESOURCES:

  Susan Thixton spends months thoroughly researching pet food brands. The List is her carefully curated selection of the highest quality pet foods for cats and dogs in 2025.

  
  

  https://www.truthaboutpetfoodstore.com/the-2025-list/

  
  

  Share it with a friend too if you want to support her research 💜🐶🐱

  
  

  The Truth About Pet Food: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/

  
  FOLLOW:

  
  Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

  Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram: @dr.lilychen and @the.unicorn.vet

  Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips

This is the inspiring story of how one girl's deep love for her dog and her determination to help her heal sparked a movement to empower pet parents everywhere. Laura has brought together an incredible board of experts, including Dr. Rob Silver, Dr. Kendra Pope, Dr. Katie Woodley, Dr. Meghan Barrett, Dr. Trina Hazzah, and Dr. Laurie Coger and myself. Enter Doggy Dish, a game-changing, vet-approved resource hub for dog nutrition and fresh food feeding. It’s here to help you cut through the noise of conflicting advice while making home-cooked, nutritionally complete meals simple and affordable. If you’ve been wanting to home cook but feel too busy or worry about the cost, this episode is for you.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• How Laura's dog Luna's personal gut health challenges led her to start cooking her meals at home. 

• How you can create complete and balanced home-cooked meals for your pet without having to dig through the research yourself. 

• How, as a pet parent, you can show your vet that you are ticking all the boxes nutritionally to get them on board with your home cooking plan. 

• How to get started with home cooking your dog's meals. 

• How to be intentional with your toppers to really meet your pet's unique nutritional needs (this is perfect for if you’re still feeding kibble). 

• How highly nutritious fresh foods and pet superfoods can be even better than supplements. 

• How feeding home-cooked food doesn't have to break the bank, and how building relationships with local purveyors is key. 

  
  

• And the types of tests Dr. Lily runs on all of her patients as a basic wellness check.

FOLLOW:

The Doggy Dish:thedoggydish.com

Laura from The Doggy Dish on Instagram: @thedoggydish

Integrative Pet Wellness Center: https://integrativepet.com/

Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram:@integrativepet

Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram:@dr.lilychen

@the.unicorn.vet

Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips 🐶

In this episode, I sit down with Rita Hogan, an incredible canine herbalist, author, and educator, to dive into the fascinating world of herbal medicine for pets. We explore her decades of experience working with herbs, her journey to becoming a canine herbalist, and the deep wisdom she’s gained from indigenous healing practices, plant energetics, and holistic pet care. This episode is packed with powerful insights on how pet parents and vets alike can bring herbal medicine into their pet care routines in a thoughtful, practical way. We also dig into the emotional and energetic connection between pets and their people—how our stress directly impacts them and how we can support both ourselves and our pets through intentional healing. If you’ve ever wondered how to support your dog with herbs at home, this episode is a must-listen.

KEY INSIGHTS:

RESOURCES:

You can now pre-order Rita Hogan’s latest book The Herbal Dog https://www.canineherbalist.com/the-herbal-dog-book

And you can join the book launch at Integrative Pet Wellness Center (limited spots available)

Click here to secure your spot

FOLLOW:

Rita Hogan: https://www.canineherbalist.com/

Rita Hogan on Instagram: @canineherbalist

Integrative Pet Wellness Center on Instagram: @integrativepet

Dr. Lily Chen on Instagram: @dr.lilychen

Sign up to our newsletter to get more pet health care tips