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Placebos for Pets?: The Truth About Alternative Medicine in Animals. Paperback – June 29, 2022
| Brennen McKenzie (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Whether online or in the local pet store, there are a bewildering variety of pet healthcare products and services to choose from. Diets and supplements, ancient herbs and folk remedies, and even high-tech treatments like hyperbaric oxygen tanks and laser therapy. Everything promises to give your pet better health and a longer life, and isn’t that what every pet owner wants?
But how do you know if all of these products do what they claim? Are they safe? If they really are miraculous cures, why are so many offered only on the Internet or by a few veterinarians specializing in “alternative medicine?”
Brennen McKenzie, a vet with twenty years of experience and the former president of the Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine Association, helps pet owners and veterinary professionals understand the claims and the evidence, allowing them to make better choices for their companions and patients.
- Print length490 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 29, 2022
- Dimensions5.83 x 1.23 x 8.27 inches
- ISBN-101912701367
- ISBN-13978-1912701360
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Harriet Hall, MD
Science-based Medicine Blog
"This is a great book for all pet owners, pet professionals, and others interested in animals who need help sifting through all the information on alternative veterinary medicine...His writing style is clear and down to earth, and he explains some very difficult concepts with grace... Reading this was a landmark life experience. Not only did I learn about a lot of specific alternative veterinary practices...I certainly added a few critical thinking tools to my toolbox!"
Eileen Anderson
Author, Remember Me?: Loving and Caring for a Dog with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction
"I love the book. I think there should be a copy of this in every vet clinic. I get about every book in veterinary medicine that comes out. This one is really great. This is just an excellent resource. I think you make persuasive arguments. I really enjoyed it and I do really recommend it."Dr. Andy Roark, Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast
"The book is a delight; it is everything one would expect from one as knowledgeable on the subject as the author.
The text has a readable, common-sense style; it is enlivened throughout by anecdotes from the frontline of general veterinary practice and a number of black and white illustrations and is comprehensively referenced.
Placebos for Pets is highly recommended to anyone interested not just in a critical assessment of the use of CAM in animals but also in its general underpinnings and some of the mistaken rationalisations employed to justify its use--mistaking placebo effects for genuine improvements and apparent effectiveness in animals being proof of effectiveness, but principally just how easy it is to fool ourselves into thinking something has worked when in reality it hasn't."
Niall Taylor
Author, No Way to Treat a Friend
Product details
- Publisher : Ockham Publishing (June 29, 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 490 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1912701367
- ISBN-13 : 978-1912701360
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.83 x 1.23 x 8.27 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,298 in Veterinary Medicine (Books)
- #7,978 in Fauna
- #8,262 in Biology of Animals
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Dr. McKenzie has been in small animal general practice for eighteen years, but he has always pursued a wide range of interests, both within and outside of veterinary medicine. After completing a bachelor’s degree with majors in English Literature and Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he followed his youthful dream of becoming a primatologist. He completed a Master’s Degree in Animal Behavior and worked for several years in environmental enrichment and primate behavior.
Eventually, Dr. McKenzie’s interest in animals shifted to healthcare, and he attended the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to working in private practice as a small animal vet, he has served as President of the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Association, taught veterinary students as a clinical instructor for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences, and taught scientific writing to biology majors at San Jose State University.
Dr. McKenzie has shared his expertise in evidence-based medicine with his colleagues through lectures at veterinary conferences and a monthly column in Veterinary Practice News magazine. He has also reached out to pet owners through the SkeptVet Blog and contributions to the Science-Based Medicine Blog.
While working as a clinician, teaching, and writing, Dr. McKenzie has continued to pursue post-graduate training, and he completed his MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2015.
In his sparse free time, Dr. McKenzie enjoys playing his mandolin and guitar, travelling with his family, and sitting on the couch with his dogs watching the hummingbirds and woodpeckers outside his living room window.
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A few years ago I was very disturbed by some horror stories I heard from the raw feeding cult - I mean, er, community - which lead me to believe that I might be slowly killing my dog by feeding her kibble and that flea and tick repellents were highly toxic and would practically kill my dog outright if I gave them to her. I felt like a horrible dog owner for not having the time and money to make raw food for her and I delayed giving her flea and tick repellents for far longer than I should have, only giving in when I couldn't stand watching her constant scratching and chewing herself anymore. I've always thought I was a reasonable person, but as a bit of a "helicopter mom" dog owner and someone who is always concerned about taking the best possible care of my dog, the fear mongering really got to me. I wish I had this book then. Fortunately, the Skeptvet and the Science Dog blogs were voices of reason for me and helped me see through all the nonsense.
This book will help you learn the difference between actual science based information and opinions and anecdotes, and think critically about where you get your information. Highly recommend!
Beyond simply dismissing alternative medicine for animals, Dr. McKenzie provides a wealth of details and references in each chapter. From homeopathy to cold lasers to dietary supplements, his approach of "What is It?", "Does It Work?" and "Is It Safe?" provides the reader with an easy to understand methodology of assessing the wide range of alternative veterinary medicine practices.
As someone who spends a great deal of time helping to educate and develop veterinary staff, this book will be an invaluable resource in helping me teach our teams about scientific method and sound reasoning.







