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Placebos for Pets?: The Truth About Alternative Medicine in Animals.
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.
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.
490 pages, Paperback
Published June 29, 2022
14 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Brennen McKenzie
3 books11 followersDr. McKenzie 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 the dream of becoming a primatologist. He obtained a Master’s in Physiology and Animal Behavior and worked for several years in environmental and behavioral enrichment for captive primates.
Switching gears, Dr. McKenzie then attended the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and began working as a small animal general practice veterinarian. In the course of working to improve his knowledge and better educate his clients, he discovered evidence-based veterinary medicine, and he has served as President of the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Association. This has led to numerous opportunities for speaking to veterinarians and the general public about evidence-based veterinary medicine. Dr. McKenzie has also reached out to the public through his blog, the SkeptVet Blog, and his contributions to the Science-Based Medicine Blog and media interviews on veterinary medical topics.
While working as a practitioner, speaking, and writing, Dr. McKenzie has continued to pursue post-graduate training and completed his MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2015. He also teaches veterinary students in his practice and undergraduate biology majors, and he writes a monthly column on evidence-based medicine for Veterinary Practice News magazine.
In his sparse free time, Dr. McKenzie enjoys reading, hiking, 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.
Switching gears, Dr. McKenzie then attended the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and began working as a small animal general practice veterinarian. In the course of working to improve his knowledge and better educate his clients, he discovered evidence-based veterinary medicine, and he has served as President of the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Association. This has led to numerous opportunities for speaking to veterinarians and the general public about evidence-based veterinary medicine. Dr. McKenzie has also reached out to the public through his blog, the SkeptVet Blog, and his contributions to the Science-Based Medicine Blog and media interviews on veterinary medical topics.
While working as a practitioner, speaking, and writing, Dr. McKenzie has continued to pursue post-graduate training and completed his MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2015. He also teaches veterinary students in his practice and undergraduate biology majors, and he writes a monthly column on evidence-based medicine for Veterinary Practice News magazine.
In his sparse free time, Dr. McKenzie enjoys reading, hiking, 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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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 21, 2021
As a veterinarian I always appreciate books I can recommend to my clients to help them get good information about issues they're concerned about. I appreciated the information in Dr. McKenzie's book and definitely think it would be worth recommending.
I think this book is also helpful for a veterinary audience. What information that is shared about complimentary and alternative medicine in veterinary school is primarily about those areas in which there is some scientific or medical support for treatments. This left me in my first practice relatively unprepared to navigate a relationship with a colleague who preferred a holistic approach when I didn't understand some of these fundamentally different approaches.
That being said, I would have loved to see a little more description of the levels of evidence based medicine within the text (for a lay audience) and then discussion about how complimentary and alternative medicine treatments compare to commonly recommended veterinary medical treatments in that regard (esp those typically considered "western" or "conventional"). Unfortunately due to a lack of research in veterinary medicine, sometimes even what is often practiced by conventional veterinarians doesn't meet some of the standards set out by Dr. McKenzies (for instance we have relatively widespread extra-label use of medications in animals, especially in cats, and may not have studies that are great at highlighting potential breed differences.) I think this could have helped put some of the CAM treatments described in context and help pet owners understand important concepts like extra-label prescribing, as well as potentially motivate more research and evidence based veterinary medicine.
I think this book is also helpful for a veterinary audience. What information that is shared about complimentary and alternative medicine in veterinary school is primarily about those areas in which there is some scientific or medical support for treatments. This left me in my first practice relatively unprepared to navigate a relationship with a colleague who preferred a holistic approach when I didn't understand some of these fundamentally different approaches.
That being said, I would have loved to see a little more description of the levels of evidence based medicine within the text (for a lay audience) and then discussion about how complimentary and alternative medicine treatments compare to commonly recommended veterinary medical treatments in that regard (esp those typically considered "western" or "conventional"). Unfortunately due to a lack of research in veterinary medicine, sometimes even what is often practiced by conventional veterinarians doesn't meet some of the standards set out by Dr. McKenzies (for instance we have relatively widespread extra-label use of medications in animals, especially in cats, and may not have studies that are great at highlighting potential breed differences.) I think this could have helped put some of the CAM treatments described in context and help pet owners understand important concepts like extra-label prescribing, as well as potentially motivate more research and evidence based veterinary medicine.
November 22, 2019
I have been reading the Skeptvet (Brennan McKenzie) for years. This book is a must have for pet owners.
December 21, 2019
Misrepresents natural remedies and alternative treatments of all kinds and makes their followers look like nutjobs. Anti-natural types will eat it up.
November 18, 2021
Where do I start? So much in this book is blatantly just a hatred for what he calls "alternative medicine" and in one place "dangerous herbal" medicine. His ignorance of thousands of years of proven remedies is not excusable. His ignorance of thousands of papers that prove remedies he claims do not work is not excusable.
Much of what he says flys in the face of personal experience I have had working with animals using natural remedies. Once or twice you can call it an anecdote but after hundreds or thousands of the same result it becomes verifiable.
It doesn't bother me that Brennan believes so strongly in drugs and modern medicine, it bothers me that is hatred for natural remedies has blinded his ability to see his blatant disregard for facts and science both.
I cannot recommend this to anyone who wants a balanced view or facts about natural remedies. He is clueless and did a subpar job of researching what he deems "alternative medicine".
Much of what he says flys in the face of personal experience I have had working with animals using natural remedies. Once or twice you can call it an anecdote but after hundreds or thousands of the same result it becomes verifiable.
It doesn't bother me that Brennan believes so strongly in drugs and modern medicine, it bothers me that is hatred for natural remedies has blinded his ability to see his blatant disregard for facts and science both.
I cannot recommend this to anyone who wants a balanced view or facts about natural remedies. He is clueless and did a subpar job of researching what he deems "alternative medicine".
February 14, 2023
Loved it! As a veterinarian who hasn’t taken much interest in alternative/complementary medicine, this was an interesting introduction into everything that's being offered to pet parents out there. Dr. McKenzie’s style is humorous yet informative and I really liked the structure if three questions he posed about each treatment modality. A recommended read for pet owners and veterinary professionals alike!
December 21, 2019
Fantastic. Reviewed it on my blog at
https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/1...
https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/1...
April 2, 2023
I highly recommend this book for people who want to cut through all the hype and marketing to understand alternative medical treatments for animals, or for people who want to understand a little more about the scientific process and how that can be applied to veterinary medicine.
I would also like to say: Other reviewers on this page make points that were all addressed by McKenzie in the book, but which they have conveniently ignored. For those perusing the reviews of this book, McKenzie is actually certified in acupuncture and performs acupuncture on patients. This is something you would not have guessed by reading reviews that try to flatten everything into a very simplistic black-and-white/good-vs-evil dichotomy which is not representative of the book, the author, or the real world as a whole.
There are in fact medical professionals who learn and practice CAM, and then want to hold CAM practices to the same level of scrutiny as we hold conventionally accepted practices (such as drugs). When they do that, they often become disillusioned because the existence of studies that come to positive conclusions is not the problem (in fact, it is very easy to get a methodologically unsound study published that comes to whatever conclusion that you want)--the problem is the quality of those studies, and if they are of the same caliber that we expect for things like approved drugs. And unfortunately, when they suggest to their CAM colleagues that they hold themselves to the same standard as conventional medicine and expect the same level of rigor to improve outcomes for their patients, the typical response they get is exactly as knee-jerk outraged as some of the reviews here. Most CAM practitioners and proponents are simply not interested in holding themselves to that higher standard--as evidenced by a reviewer arguing that their anecdotes should not be treated as anecdotes by the scientific community, but as "verifiable" evidence. Fanatic CAM proponents also just want to be able to point to studies with positive conclusions (likely knowing that most people are not going to read them, or not going to have the background knowledge to understand what they're reading if they do), but don't particularly care about the methodology even though poor enough methodology can make a positive conclusion precisely worthless as evidence. They don't want real rigorous science--they want a fig leaf to hide behind, a veneer of legitimacy instead of the real thing because the real thing is hard and they're emotionally unwilling to move on if they do not get results which confirm their beliefs. This makes some sense when you consider so many people devote so much time, money, and energy to these practices and products which (unlike conventional medicine) often require absolute certitude as part of their appeal and marketing strategy. Some people have their whole reputations staked on these practices and products doing what they claim all of the time. Conventional medical practitioners are not bound by that (although many patients may expect it).
As for multiple anecdotes no longer being anecdotes (which is absurd and ignores all the problems with anecdotes--the problems with one anecdote are not erased with more than one anecdote, but multiplied because your bias has probably increased with each successive anecdote and you are more likely to see what confirms your prior beliefs)... I also have multiple anecdotes of people whose pets had illnesses that were caught early and treatable with conventional medicine who forewent that treatment in favor of alternative medical practices that did nothing until the illness became so advanced that it was no longer easily treatable (or treatable at all), and the pet often had to be euthanized. Whose anecdotes win?
That is a trick question. Warring over anecdotes is not science. Anecdotes are the starting point of science--where scientists get the idea of what to test--not the end point. If you do not understand the difference between a collection of anecdotes and the full, rigorous scientific process... then you do not understand science on its most fundamental level. And that isn't something to get offended about, but something to alert you to an area you need to learn more about, and then (crucially) do the work of learning. That's what I've been doing for years. I prefer it to believing whatever makes me feel good, latching on to anything which confirms those preexisting feel-good beliefs, and reflexively attacking anything that doesn't without really engaging.
I would also like to say: Other reviewers on this page make points that were all addressed by McKenzie in the book, but which they have conveniently ignored. For those perusing the reviews of this book, McKenzie is actually certified in acupuncture and performs acupuncture on patients. This is something you would not have guessed by reading reviews that try to flatten everything into a very simplistic black-and-white/good-vs-evil dichotomy which is not representative of the book, the author, or the real world as a whole.
There are in fact medical professionals who learn and practice CAM, and then want to hold CAM practices to the same level of scrutiny as we hold conventionally accepted practices (such as drugs). When they do that, they often become disillusioned because the existence of studies that come to positive conclusions is not the problem (in fact, it is very easy to get a methodologically unsound study published that comes to whatever conclusion that you want)--the problem is the quality of those studies, and if they are of the same caliber that we expect for things like approved drugs. And unfortunately, when they suggest to their CAM colleagues that they hold themselves to the same standard as conventional medicine and expect the same level of rigor to improve outcomes for their patients, the typical response they get is exactly as knee-jerk outraged as some of the reviews here. Most CAM practitioners and proponents are simply not interested in holding themselves to that higher standard--as evidenced by a reviewer arguing that their anecdotes should not be treated as anecdotes by the scientific community, but as "verifiable" evidence. Fanatic CAM proponents also just want to be able to point to studies with positive conclusions (likely knowing that most people are not going to read them, or not going to have the background knowledge to understand what they're reading if they do), but don't particularly care about the methodology even though poor enough methodology can make a positive conclusion precisely worthless as evidence. They don't want real rigorous science--they want a fig leaf to hide behind, a veneer of legitimacy instead of the real thing because the real thing is hard and they're emotionally unwilling to move on if they do not get results which confirm their beliefs. This makes some sense when you consider so many people devote so much time, money, and energy to these practices and products which (unlike conventional medicine) often require absolute certitude as part of their appeal and marketing strategy. Some people have their whole reputations staked on these practices and products doing what they claim all of the time. Conventional medical practitioners are not bound by that (although many patients may expect it).
As for multiple anecdotes no longer being anecdotes (which is absurd and ignores all the problems with anecdotes--the problems with one anecdote are not erased with more than one anecdote, but multiplied because your bias has probably increased with each successive anecdote and you are more likely to see what confirms your prior beliefs)... I also have multiple anecdotes of people whose pets had illnesses that were caught early and treatable with conventional medicine who forewent that treatment in favor of alternative medical practices that did nothing until the illness became so advanced that it was no longer easily treatable (or treatable at all), and the pet often had to be euthanized. Whose anecdotes win?
That is a trick question. Warring over anecdotes is not science. Anecdotes are the starting point of science--where scientists get the idea of what to test--not the end point. If you do not understand the difference between a collection of anecdotes and the full, rigorous scientific process... then you do not understand science on its most fundamental level. And that isn't something to get offended about, but something to alert you to an area you need to learn more about, and then (crucially) do the work of learning. That's what I've been doing for years. I prefer it to believing whatever makes me feel good, latching on to anything which confirms those preexisting feel-good beliefs, and reflexively attacking anything that doesn't without really engaging.
May 10, 2025
As a (soon to be 🙏) veterinarian with a passion for the mechanisms behind beliefs, I loved reading this book.
Everything in it is detailed, backed up with numerous sources, which is more than appreciable! And in addition, it's very accessible, even to a totally neophyte audience, and I think that's where its greatest strength lies.
It's a must-have for anyone with even the slightest interest in animals.
Everything in it is detailed, backed up with numerous sources, which is more than appreciable! And in addition, it's very accessible, even to a totally neophyte audience, and I think that's where its greatest strength lies.
It's a must-have for anyone with even the slightest interest in animals.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews