As a vegan vet, this post has given me the most satisfaction to write of all the posts out there about your dogs and their success stories! (I commend all of you for reading to the end of this long but important post!)
Cheryl chose plant-based dog food not for ethical or environmental reasons, but because the foods have proved to be the solution to all 3 of her dogs' chronic health issues as shown below (please also see right at the bottom of this post why I am SO concerned as a vet that the entire industry has been devastated by corporatisation that seems to have profits at the core of its aims rather than the health of our animals!) -
Cheryl is Mum to Sydney, an Australian Silky Terrier.
She first made contact with me with this very desperate message -
"I have a dog Sydney with confirmed IBD by the specialist at dick whites. I can't seem to find a food that suits him. The specialist there put him on purina HA which worked for a while but even that he is having problems with now.
I have tried twice recently to move him onto different foods (happy dog kangaroo and arden grange gastrointestinal) and both times resulted in diarrhoea after 4 days. He is on a cocktail of meds and is getting more and more sick.
His initial main symptom was bad reflux/nausea but now we also have problems with stomach pain and diarrhoea on and off. I am desperate to help him.
He also has delayed gastric emptying so needs low fibre wet food as well. Is it possible your food may help? He is such a sweet little boy and he suffers from anxiety issues and it breaks my heart to see him so poorly.
I have spent over £13,000 on vet fees and tests this year alone and we have tried countless medications. I'm desperate to find the solution " - Cheryl
I reassured her that our foods would definitely be a solution as all of them are free of the main allergens that cause inflammation in dogs with sensitivities to animal proteins, grains and soya.
She was sent a sample box of our top foods for Sydney to try and a few days after it arrived, she decided to move all 3 of her little dogs onto our grain and soya-free foods and supplements.
These are her words and see the link to the Google review that she left -
"I don't often bother to write reviews but I feel compelled to write this one.
I have 3 dogs, each with their own health problems and recently discovered the just be kind website
Sydney - he has IBD and up until recently I had tried so many different foods, all of which were giving him diarrhea including the hydrolysed food the specialist put him on.
He has been on give a dog a bean for 3 1/2 weeks (I transitioned him over several weeks) and his poo is perfect.
He does still have some stomach pain but nothing like what he used to have. He still gulps a lot but I am hopeful that over time that will stop.
He was getting frequent nausea episodes where he would lick the floor for hours and needed strong human anti nausea meds prescribed by the specialist, he has not had one of those episodes since October and has been able to stop the anti nausea meds
Coco - she has leishmania, gallbladder sludge and kidney disease as well as arthritis and a grade 4 heart murmur. She was getting to the point where despite being on a cocktail of meds was being sick and having diarrhea frequently and I was considering having her PTS.
I decided I had nothing to loose so put her on give a dog a bean and green crunch. I have to say, while I will never make a new dog out of her as she is old, she has a zest for life again and is so excited when it's meal times.
She rarely gets soft poop or vomiting now
Walter - he has pancreatitis and allergies. He had been on Apoquel for months and it had stopped working. Not only that but it was making him nauseous.
I stopped the medication as it was making him sick but the itching continued. I am currently half way through transitioning him to green crunch and he absolutely loves it.
I'm hoping once he has been on it a while that his allergy symptoms will disappear.
All 3 dogs love the marshmallow treats and jerkys and they get so excited for meal times"
READ MORE AMAZING SUCCESS STORIES HERE
Why is corporatisation of veterinary practices affecting the health of our animals?
Cheryl mentions in her email and and quoting from above -
"I have a dog Sydney with confirmed IBD by the specialist at dick whites. I can't seem to find a food that suits him. The specialist there put him on purina HA which worked for a while but even that he is having problems with now.
I have spent over £13,000 on vet fees and tests this year alone and we have tried countless medications. I'm desperate to find the solution " - Cheryl
Dick Whites referrals is a specialist centre also mentioned in this remarkable success story about Harvey the Beagle as written with such honesty by Andrew in Bedfordshire - My Best Friend Harvey has Passed.
Andrew also mentions Dick White Referrals in his story when he says -
"Thank you for your help with Harvey over the years and considering there was a point around 8 years ago where his allergies were so extreme that he was seen by a vet at Dick White Referrals in Newmarket with me thinking this is it his time is up, but the result was a vet who disregarded the past treatments and instructions given to us and simply said.....no more baths unless he stinks.........and among some other changes he said his diet is now to be Solo Vegetal Dry dog food and bring him back in 2 months.
Well what a transformation.........coat regrowth.........a glossy cost.......no smell and a happy dog, we later added Vegetal Wet dog food to his diet and he loved it.
This food gave him his extra 8 comfortable years with us and for that we are eternally gratefull." - Andrew Bedfordshire
Why is Solo Vegetal not being stocked in Dick White Referrals? It is a veterinary dermatology novel protein diet that is marketed to vets by the suppliers Nextmune, and is incredibly effective for dogs like Harvey as they can be maintained on this food for life?!
We see from the astounding results of the very forward-thinking vet from the Specialist practice then who recommended Solo Vegetal for Harvey back in 2018 when it had just started being imported into the UK by veterinary dermatology company Nextmune; that it gave him an extra comfortable and happy EIGHT years with his family?!
So sadly this is the reason that Dick Whites do not stock Solo Vegetal - The corporatisation of veterinary practices!
In 2020, Dick White Specialist Referrals was bought out by corporate group Linnaeus. The Linnaeus group was then bought out by the corporate giant Mars Petcare who now own almost every specialist practice in the UK (!) (as well as owning Royal Canin, Sheba, Whiskas and even Dreamies cheese-filled treats for cats!!)
When Cheryl took Sydney to Dick White Referrals in 2025 to see the Specialist there, all he was given (to quote her words again), "I have a dog Sydney with confirmed IBD by the specialist at dick whites. I can't seem to find a food that suits him. The specialist there put him on purina HA which worked for a while but even that he is having problems with now. I have spent over £13,000 on vet fees and tests this year alone and we have tried countless medications. I'm desperate to find the solution " - Cheryl
Surely a Specialist Veterinary Practice should stock and sell the most effective diets for dogs with intolerances to the main allergens that dogs get as shown by the graph below from a Nextmune webinar:
Knowing the main allergens in dogs and cats are animal proteins and soya (yes even in cats, the main allergen is fish), surely the choice of a complete and pure novel protein diet such as soya-free non-GMO Solo Vegetal that Dick White's Referral Specialist used to recommend would be a more suitable alternative to Purina HA which contains hydrolysed soya, pure refined sugar and fish oil?
We do appreciate that every vet is given a choice with whatever diet they want to recommend, and we appreciate too that there is not enough education about complete plant-based diets for our pets (although Dr Arielle is doing her very best to remedy this by educating as many vets as she can), but when their salary as a vet depends on them making enough money to line the pockets of a corporate to increase their share value, they will make decisions based on what the corporate recommends (as these vets have mortgages to pay and children to raise and 80% of veterinary practices are now corporatised!)
We cannot blame individual vets who are trying their hardest to earn a living, but we absolutely can find fault with corporatisation as being at the heart of choosing profit ABOVE the health of our dogs and cats - that is the aim of ALL corporates and especially those veterinary practices bought out and bought out again, each time for more and more money and that money has to come from YOU as individuals paying the vet bills!!
There is far more profit to be made from the hydrolysed animal protein veterinary diets such as Purina HA (with soya, fish oil and pure refined sugar), Royal Canin Anallergenic (they use hydrolysed chicken feathers as a protein source!), or hydrolysed chicken livers in Hills Z/D, than from using pure plant-based ingredients as we have in Solo Vegetal or Give A Dog A Bean with highly sustainable and nutritious, but pricier Faba Bean Protein.
Thank goodness that Cheryl was open-minded enough to consider plant-based for her Sydney, Coco and Walter, and thank goodness a vet was able to give Harvey the Beagle 8 more years of a happy life, as Solo Vegetal, Green Crunch, Give A Dog A Bean, MicroBell are absolutely viable solutions to providing a kinder quality of life AND a huge saving on vet bills!
"There's no such thing as business ethics, there's just ethics. And ethics makes no concessions for the real or imagined necessities of making a profit" - Michael Josephson
“What you choose to feed your dog everyday is the single most important thing you can do to enhance their health, spread social justice and animal welfare, repair the environment, and reverse climate change.” – Dr Arielle Griffiths
- Dr Arielle Vegan Vet
