When we graduate as vets, like all medical professionals, we have to take the Hippocratic Oath. It starts with “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone…..”To become a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), every vet and vet nurse has to make a similar declaration, the second half of which says – “ABOVE ALL, my constant endeavour will be to ensure the health and welfare of animals committed to my care.” Profound and true and what we strive to all stand for, for ALL animals.

With this in mind, I feel so compelled to write this post to just reassure all pet owners who I have helped and continue to help on their plant-based journey with their pets, that they are doing everything right.

The meat based pet market is growing very concerned about the future of their products. Feeling the threat, one meat-based company recently posted a comment that owners who feed their dogs vegetarian food are likely to receive a £20000 fine in the UK (untrue as we have contacted the Blue Cross who are unaware of such fines!).

This article went viral and luckily I do not see it as a negative at all as the word is out now that dogs can be fed a vegan/vegetarian diet and the discussion has started.

We have the wonderful Prof Andrew Knight backing up the science, outspoken and passionate vet Guy Sandelowsky who has developed the Omni brand this year, and BVA President Justine Shotton explaining that it can be done, but must be correctly balanced to meet all of a dog’s nutritional needs.

This is what I am so passionate about

Everything that I have learnt and pass on to you the dog owner, is based on finding the perfect plant-based diet for our own family dog who like hundreds of pet owners that I have helped, absolutely loves his food and is thriving. I can honestly say that turning both myself at the age of 54 (!) and our little dog fully vegan was the best decision I ever made.

My vegan pharmacist son inspired me. I always admired him and never dreamt that I could do it myself (let alone for our incredibly loved family dog), but after doing so many nutrition courses run by the inspiring Dr Marge Chandler in the UK (one course I even did twice), I then moved on to Germany to learn from the top vet nutritionists there as plant-based feeding of dogs has been high on their agenda for many more years than in the UK.

I only aim to teach you what is right for your dog’s health – ensuring that nothing is lacking and that your dog would come to no harm on a 100% plant-based diet. I truly believe that feeding your dog plant-based is the most mindful way to feed your pet where they can share in wholesome goodness with you and you are able to prepare their food from scratch with as many organic and homegrown ingredients as you can choose, or choose one of the many new balanced and wholesome diets on the market.