The Doctor and The Dog Man Video Podcast Episodes

welcome

The BBC produced an article in association with the RSPCA about the licencing of dog rescue centres due to the concerns over health and welfare of the animals. It also focused on the zoonotic disease Brucella Canis which causes Brucellosis in humans. This report and both the BBC and the RSPCA came under scrutiny and criticism across social media. Any subject to do with dogs be that the type of lead you use through to a disease that can jump from a dog to a human are always very hotly debated topics that has people polarised on both sides. In this episode we discuss some of the perspectives people have around this subject and try to understand why a disease that can cause pregnant women to miscarry or sterility in men, is being downplayed by some people. Since we recorded this episode new rules have come into effect about importing dogs from Romania, they must be tested for Brucella Canis. Government figures show that of all the cases that have been detected in to UK around 50% are linked to dogs coming from Romania. With over half a million reported cases a year of Brucellosis the World Health Organisation who put out this figure see it as a serious human health issue. The UK government, it has been suggested by some on social media, is blowing it all out of proportion in the UK and acting in a "hysterical" manner about this. Deeper reading into this subject and talking with a number of vets we know, it seems that the UK authorities are extremely concerned about the Brucella Canis situation growing in the the same way as the Brucella Melitensis and specifically Brucella Abortus began, with isolated import-linked outbreaks, poor surveillance, “low risk to the general public” and within 10–15 years, uncontrolled animal spread produced endemic cycles that took extensive measures including mass culling over many many years and hundreds of millions of pounds to eliminate. DEFRA and APHA, they’re not being “hysterical” they’re trying to avoid replaying that history. People point out that the HAIRS risk estimate is often quoted and while it is technically correct for the data it used it’s sociologically outdated and gaps in the data due to limited real world observations and reporting inadvertently sanitises the risk picture. At the moment it’s rare, but the cost of a single infection could be a human miscarriage or the permanent closure of a rescue kennel. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c... https://www.bsavalibrary.com/content/...

In this episode we chat about the huge (no pun intended) number of dogs that are overweight, why this is and what owners are needing to do in order to address this problem, that can cause big (pun intended) health issues. We discuss the mad use of weight loss drugs for dogs. We also talk about the problem of fireworks that some owners struggle with as that time of the year approaches. The Doctor looks into the science of what works to help dogs and what is not effective. We discuss how to set yourself and your dog up for success at what can be a stressful time of the year. Articles relating to the fat dogs conversation https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://link.springer.com/article/10.... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk... https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk... https://www.mdpi.com/2813-9372/2/2/22 Articles relating to the fireworks conversation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/23/...

In this discussion we talk about The Doctors first couple of weeks after taking her new puppy, Marlow, home and The Dog Man explains about a difficult conversation with the owners of an "aggressive" dog. This leads onto a discussion about the "condition" of Cocker Rage and how it may not be as we think at the outset. Some of the research looks a little one sided and a test carried out on Cocker Spaniel pups leaves The Dog Man perplexed...

In the Last Part of the First Episode of The Doctor and The Dog Man we carry on our discussion and get into the topics of how the world of dogs appears to be very tribal, with people set against other people, often disagreeing in the strongest terms, because they believe in something different. Leads / collars, type of food or are purebreeds better than crossbreeds, the list goes on and it is truely BONKERS....... List Of Scientific Papers referred to in episode 1 The Canine Genetics Centre (University of Cambridge) -  https://www.canine-genetics.org.uk/re... Priester 1976 -https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... Brown 2017 -  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29073... Abouzied 2025 -  https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/15/4/602 https://www.instituteofcaninebiology.... https://www.instituteofcaninebiology....

The second part of this episode of The Doctor and The Dog Man looks at the science and the reality of Intervertebral disc disease in Cocker Spaniels. A recent case that happened to Stacey Solomon and her dog Teddy has over recent times thrown a lot of attention onto the condition. We explore and discuss is this a big a problem as we are led to believe for the breed??

The First Episode of The Doctor And The Dog Man...Part 1. Where we bring the reality and the science together to better understand dogs. In this first part of the first episode we explore the challenges of living with a dog with serious health issues.