Intro 0:00
Welcome to the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. I'm your host, Dr Judy Morgan. Today we want to have a discussion about the pet health crisis that no one talks about. So stay tuned, because you are going to want to know what that crisis is, how you can prevent it, and what you can do about it.
Dr. Judy Morgan 0:22
So my guest today is Olivier Morin, and he's the co founder of 1 TDC Works So Well, a veterinary recommended supplement trusted by top dental specialists, agility athletes and everyday pet parents. His mission is to raise awareness about gum health, an often overlooked but critical aspect of a pet's overall wellness. With over a decade of experience in the pet health industry, Olivier is passionate about helping dogs and cats live longer, more comfortable lives through innovative science backed solutions. Olivier, thank you for joining me today.
Olivier Morin
Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.
Dr. Judy Morgan
So I just discovered like two minutes ago that he's actually trilingual, which I got one. So if he starts babbling in a different language, maybe some of you will understand him. I will be blank faced. So that's really cool. Though, I wish I could speak something else.
Olivier Morin 1:20
I had to. You have no choice so,
Dr. Judy Morgan
but it's very cool. It's a, it's a nice little thing to have in your hip pocket. So you know, that way, if you're in a room with a bunch of people and you don't want them know what you're talking about, you just switch over. It's awesome.
Olivier Morin 1:35
That's, that's what we do.
Dr. Judy Morgan
It's very cool. So have you always been in the pet health world?
Olivier Morin
Actually, I was not. I had another career before that, which was not in the health industry. That was in a telecom industry which was not as nearly as interesting and as passionate as the pet industry.
Dr. Judy Morgan
You know, it's funny. I just had a guest recently. Same thing. He was in television and filming and doing camera work and and switched completely over to pet health. So what made you change?
Olivier Morin
Well, I in the, you know, in the telecom industry, I was actually taking care of seniors, if you remember the Jitterbug film, I was part of that team. So I love the passion of having a mission, but my true love truly is animals. So having always grown up with animals, I knew that there was something else that I wanted to do. So we discovered, you know, some of the technology that we're working with today, which actually we started with seniors and people in general, but then one day, we realized, what about the pets? So that's where the transition happened. How can we use this technology and help what my passion was, which I love dogs. I wanted to, you know, have that transition come over. And we did, and it's been a long journey, a passionate journey, and we're still very passionate today about it.
Dr. Judy Morgan
So the technology we're going to talk about today that we're using for our pets has was this used in people first? Oh, that's interesting.
Olivier Morin
That's, that's how it started. Actually, is pain management on the human side.
Dr. Judy Morgam
And is it the same product it is for people?
Olivier Morin
The molecule is the same. So there's a pain cream which is extremely effective, very absorbent, so it's published in medical journals. And as well, you have the supplement part of it, which is for the whole body. So that's that was initially we did that for seniors and for athletes. But then we're like, Okay, this can't we have some research that was done actually with animals. So why would I go out on the animal side? Yeah, so we that's what we did with transition. So it started on the human side, and then we transition over to help the animal.
Dr. Judy Morgan
That is very cool. Why oral health?
Olivier Morin
Good question. So here's what happened when we went from the animal, from the humans to the animals. What we realized is we had this phenomenal orthopedic product. So we came to the veterinary conferences, many that you and I have been together, and we realized we have this phenomenal orthopedic product, and we come into the scene and start seeing what's out there. And it's not like there was a lack of resources when it came to orthopedic but what we realized is we knew that our product was also extremely effective for periodontal, for gum health. And then we looked at, well, what's the competition? What's out there right now for gum health? Now we saw a lot of product for oral health which always targeted tartar and plaque. Tartar and plaque dirty teeth is not an issue. It causes a problem. But that in itself is not the problem. The real painful part for the animals is the periodontal, the gum health, and we knew our product was extremely effective for transmit transmucal capability going right through the gums and really helping with that. So we start going to veterinary dental forum, and we realized that we had the only product on the market that was able to help this biggest problem that they had, which is gum disease. So we're that that's been the journey. So the AHA came about once we realized.
Olivier Morin 5:00
that there was nothing effective, scientifically proven, to help the animals with something that they were silently in pain with, and that's gum disease.
Dr. Judy Morgan
And you know, I saw it so much in practice, and I see it on social media now people are so afraid of an anesthetic procedure for dental cleaning. And the non anesthetic dental cleanings have become all the rage. And I mean, I know so many veterinarians who were even doing the non anesthetic dental cleanings, and I am so against them, because it's a cosmetic procedure. You don't 75% of periodontal disease is below the gum line. And without those radiographs, you have no idea. And once we got dental radiography in our clinic, the number of teeth that we saw that had a root that had dissolved, because a lot of teeth had two or three roots, and so we were seeing roots that were gone. We were seeing fractures below the gum line that is so painful, and yet, animals are so resilient. I mean, all these cats with resorptive lesions, they're so resilient. They're still eating their food. And yet, when you have them sedated and you even touch that area with a Q tip, they start chattering, and you can tell it's just you're hitting those nerve endings. It is so painful for anyone who's ever needed a root canal and you've had that pain associated with a tooth. Let me tell you, there are so many animals walking around with that going on in their mouth, and everybody's like, wow, they're still eating. Must be fine, still chewing his antlers, and let's just get rid of the antlers right now. Oh my gosh. So many dachshunds would just gnaw those antlers. And literally, their teeth would be almost completely gone. All their molars, they would make huge holes in their teeth. And I'm like, didn't nobody looks in there,
Olivier Morin
and I love what you say, because that is the biggest problem. They're still eating. So they have an infection in the mouth, it's painful, and they're still eating. Well, yeah, they're surviving, but then major, major discomfort, so, and it's so true what you say about the non anesthetic, because a lot of people end up doing that, and they say the teeth look great again, the focus of the teeth. Now you should have clean teeth. Don't get me wrong, right? But that's not clean teeth. Doesn't make the pain go away. That's in the gums, right? And this is what you know pet owners. Some do know about it, but many people are not, and it's not against them. It's the that's why a podcast like this is important. It's the education. Don't just look at the teeth. What are the gums look like? What is that stinky infection smell that you're smelling that's not normal. That means it's painful.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, I had, you know, speaking of still eating when they're painful, one of my older cats had a squamous cell carcinoma underneath his tongue, and he was still eating, acting fine, looked great, but he was drooling all the time. Yes, and so finally I opened his mouth and said, Why are you drooling? Do we have a bad tooth? We have something painful. And when I looked, he had this horrible cancer under his tongue. He was still eating. You know, it's like, well, I'm gonna survive. I'm I'm gonna eat and, you know, but he was drooled all over the place, and that went on for a while.
Dr Judy Morgan 8:21
So, you know, a lot of times we don't realize how bad things are. And again, this is why it's so critical when you take your pets in for their annual or semiannual exam. And frankly, if they're going in for an ear infection, have the whole animal looked at nose to tail. Don't just look at the ear and be done. Your veterinarian should be doing a complete exam every time they go in, and that should include a really good oral exam, looking in the mouth, looking at the teeth, because
Dr. Judy Morgan 8:49
and we'll talk about home care. But even with home care, a lot of times you're getting the ones that you can see up front, you don't get to those molars way in the back, and those are some of the most common teeth to go first because it's hard to get back in there. Our animals don't always let us and so, you know, there's a lot going on in there, and it should be looked at all the time. And it's really hard for a pet owner to get that mouth open and get all the way back in there. It's very hard for a pet owner to get under the tongue and see what it looks like inside. I can't tell you. There's one family I had. They had a bunch of dachshunds, and they all came in for their annual dental. They were just very good. These dogs, on the outside, their teeth looked beautiful
Dr. Judy Morgan 9:35
under their tongue on the inside, tarter city inflammation looked terrible, but you couldn't see it from the outside. So a lot of times there's stuff going on in there that we just have, yeah, so, and that's why the non anesthetic dental cleanings are really a problem. In my mind,
Olivier Morin
it's cosmetic. It's basically all it is
Dr. Judy Morgan
absolutely cosmetic. So, and you know, when you do that and you find painful areas in the gums
Dr. Judy Morgan 10:00
And you Find painful or loose teeth, gonna end up back there getting the anesthetic procedure anyway.
Olivier Morin
That's exactly right. And a lot more pain for your pet, yeah. And just like us, like if we have a new form of pain in the mouth, we can't ignore it. We want to do we may not like going to the dentist, right, but we still know that it has to be done. And a new form of gingivitis is a lot of discomfort. Oh, yeah, take that to the next level with an infection, or where that root is infected and it's even more painful, yeah, and so many cats and dogs are suffering from that today. silently.
Dr. Judy Morgan
So periodontal disease, like you said, is not a dirty teeth problem, it's a gum inflammation problem.
Dr. Judy Morgan 10:46
So how does that inflammation? I mean, everybody you know, okay, look, he's got inflamed gums. They're bright red. They've got red lines around the teeth. Sometimes they've got some nasty discharge coming out around the tooth, but it doesn't localize to right there. So what kind of studies do we have showing how else this affects the body?
Olivier Morin
Well, like you said, that infection, those bacterias, they don't just stay there,
Olivier Morin 11:12
you know, through the bloodstream, even just swallowing, it's gonna go travel throughout the whole body. Now many of us, and you and I were talking about this. Many of us know that there's correlations with other organs in the body, but it's a lot more than people realize. so we know about and, you know, I know you were just reading some research about this. We know about the heart being an issue. And I think what's interesting is the education that I've received over the years. You know, I you know, Dr Anthony. You've had him on your podcast before, our chief medical officer, 35 years of experience as a dentist, will tell you it doesn't cause the disease, but if you have a weakness in the body, liver, kidney, heart, joints, it will further irritate it, because you have more of those bacterias that are going to be traveling, and it creates a greater problem that's already there. It may not cause it directly, but indirectly, it's going to make it worse. So getting that, and we know this, a healthy mouth is the gateway to a healthy body. So whatever you can do to have that healthier mouth, you should be proactively doing this, improving preventing all of that cascade of bacterias to get further in the bloodstream and further irritating the heart, liver, kidney and joints, as we talking about.
Dr. Judy Morgan
So interestingly, my nine year old Toy spaniel had, you know, after I had everybody go in for a dental, basically. And so she was the third one of the group to go in. And so I checked out her teeth ahead of time, and I said, Oh man, her upper left premolar not looking so good, like one one root. There was a lot of tartar, there was a lot of inflammation in that one area. And I was like, ah, that might be a problem. I scheduled for dental. Well, about a month before she was supposed to go in for her dental, she started with this clear to white nasal discharge that halfway through eating, and she eats soft food, but halfway through eating, she would do a snorkey. She's brachycephalic, so she would do the brachycephalic Snork, right? And then she would run away from her food like this. This was a big problem for her. And then she would go out in the yard, run around, and she would let out a couple of big sneezes, and this clear to pale white discharge would come out, blow out her nose, and then she'd go back and finish her food. And I was like, Well, this is interesting. So I took her in and had lab work done, had her examined. Lab work was perfectly normal, and the young veterinarian says, well, we should put her on antibiotics, I said, for what? She said, Well, just in case it's an infection. And I'm like, just in case doesn't warrant antibiotics, right? Like, I need a good reason. So she went in for her so this continued. She went in for her dental, and they did have to extract that tooth that had a bad root. No shock there, and the snorking completely stopped. Now they wanted to send her home with antibiotics after the dental because there was a bad root. There's actually new studies in the literature talking about
Dr. Judy Morgan 14:16
how we should not be using antibiotics with these dentals. And so what they did is they took a large cohort of dogs and they did blood cultures previous to their dental and these were dogs with bad mouths previous to their dental. Culture was negative. Then they did a culture about a half hour in, you know, after they had removed some teeth and gotten all the Tartar off and working on all that stuff, you know, so you're loosening up a lot of bacteria. And so they found there was a lot of blood or bacteria in the bloodstream during the dental procedure. And then they did, I think, I think it was blood work one hour and two hours post zero bacteria, zero septicemia.
Dr. Judy Morgan 15:00
So they said, well, the body clears it. Why are we overusing all these antibiotics? So of course, I get my dog back, and I'm like, Yeah, keep the antibiotics. So they just assumed I had antibiotics at home. And I'm like, yeah, just, yeah, you just keep them.
Dr. Judy Morgan 15:15
And the same with, you know, they wanted to send me home with all kinds of NSAIDs. I'm like, I got it. You know, we're fine. And she, she cleared up beautifully, and the snorking went away. so, you know, but, but that's just a good example of how that tooth was affecting other areas and causing all these problems with her. And so I don't know when she was she would always do this snorking thing. So I don't know if it was painful when she bit down on that tooth and that caused her to Snork, but it just was an interesting progression, and that is a dog who has mitral valve disease, because she's a spaniel,
Dr. Judy Morgan 15:55
and so having a bad tooth and already having bad heart valves, this is Not a good combination.
Olivier Morin
It's not a I mean, yes, every that breed needs the proper prevention. To your point, I think the other thing too, that's interesting, what you're saying is it's very easy to throw antibiotics NSAIDs afterwards, but the reality, I think, also to help the veterinarians, and this is also part of our mission and passion, like at the dental forum, is to teach the veterinarians What do you do before you do your procedure? And in our case, that's what we help them with. We want to have healthier tissues, less bleeding. You're going to do, like when you have those extractions, you're going to be doing piriol flaps, you're going to be doing suturing. So if you can have a healthier tissue, less bleeding, it's easier for you as a practitioner. But also, guess what? The patient will feel better before going in, because when you do your procedure, it's pretty traumatic in the mouth. Yeah. So if we can have create an environment it's healthier before you do your procedure. That's also part of our passion with Dr Anthony as a veterinary dentist, we have to teach the veterinarians as well and do it right before, not just all the antibiotics after,
Dr. Judy Morgan
the more inflammation. What are signs of inflammation? Bleeding, redness, swelling, pain. If we can decrease all of that before we even go into the procedure, it's got to be easier coming out the other side.
Olivier Morin
And the other value too is if it's easier for them, it also means that the patient doesn't have to be under anesthesia as long Yeah, that's also a huge value for the patient.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, my mother's 16 year old standard schnauzer. Her gums overgrew. Her teeth was a chronic inflammatory process. Never figured it out, yeah? And so she suddenly started bleeding. She developed these just bleeding pockets from these teeth that were buried under the gums. And we took her to a dental specialist, and it bled so much. He could only do one quadrant of the mouth. She needed four blood transfusions. Oh, wow, during the procedure, that's a lot of bleeding there. So there is a lot of blood supply in the mouth. So we want to, you know, that was a very extreme case that required the dental specialist, anesthetist and cardiologist, a lot of people involved with that
Dr. Judy Morgan 18:11
but, yeah, it's, it's kind of a huge deal. And I think, you know, I'm not trying to scare people off from their dental I'm trying to scare you into getting the right kind of dental but also having your pet prepared ahead of time to make it easier on everyone involved. We're going to take a break to hear from our sponsors. When we come back, we're going to talk about signs of gum disease, how early it occurs in our pets, and some of the things that we can do for prevention at home. Stay tuned.
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Dr. Judy Morgan
welcome back. You're listening to the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. My guest today, Olivier Morin, is one of the founders of 1 TDC Works So Well, which is a dental product that helps decrease pain and inflammation in the mouth. It also has some other little side effect, properties that are amazing. We can talk about those. But before we went to break I mentioned that my mother's 16 year old dog had to go to a dental specialist, so I was at work one night when my husband called and my parents lived with us, and he said, I don't know what's wrong with your mother's dog, but the dog is like, shooting blood all over the kitchen from her mouth. And so I said, All right, run her over to the clinic. And so he ran her over, and I isolated where the blood was coming from. But like I said, her gums were grown over her teeth, so I'm like, All right, there's got to be a bad tooth under here. I can't even find this tooth like, you know, and of course, it's, I'm ready to close at seven o'clock at night. I'm like, Oh, this is a nightmare. But we managed to get it stopped. And then, because this was such an issue, we had to find a dental specialist. Luckily, we have an amazing dental specialty center in Southeast Pennsylvania. I was living in Jersey at the time,
Dr. Judy Morgan 21:22
and so we scheduled the dog to go in, but like I said, it required multiple blood transfusions. We had the dog was ancient, so we had an anesthesiologist on board. We had a dental specialist. That's all he does. And they in their practice, the maximum number of animals, because they were specialty cases, was three in a day. Usually he only did two in a day. Yeah, and my mom's dog pretty much took all day.
Dr. Judy Morgan 21:45
And so they also had a cardiologist on hand by as well as an anesthesiologist and the dentist, so And of course, that's very expensive when you're getting into that level, but there are questions that people should ask and information that they should have. So again, social media, people will say, Oh my gosh, I got an estimate for a dental for my dog, and it was $1,200 what do you pay?
Dr. Judy Morgan 22:16
Now, Where my practice was? I had two practices in New Jersey, and they were both in low income towns, silly me
Dr. Judy Morgan 22:24
but my second clinic that I opened was only was less than a mile away from the clinic that had been there for many years, and that was a very poor quality clinic, and so his dentals with anesthesia, the whole nine yards Were $99 now this is only going back a few years. Meanwhile, our dentals at the time were $500 and people were like, Why should I spend $500 in your clinic? He's only charging $99
Dr. Judy Morgan 22:55
and I'm like, well, bring me his estimate. Let me see what's on it. I'm gonna go through my estimate and I'll show you what's on it. Let's compare the two. So what sorts of things should people be looking for?
Olivier Morin
that's, that's, that's a very hot discussion, and we're going to say this with all the respect for the veterinarians. But I think as a pet owner, you have to be educated around that subject. So one of the first things I think that you have to be empowered and have the courage to ask is, number one, when you go to your veterinarian, ask them, do they have a dental X ray machine? Now you're gonna say, Well, why is that important? Well, think of yourself if you're going to the dentist for the first time and you haven't been there in a while, what's the first thing they're going to do dental X rays? Why? Because you want to see what's in the mouth, not just what you see with your eyes, but underneath the gums, where the bones are now, keeping in mind, like a dog, their roots are 2/3 is what you don't see. So you want to see what's going on. You want to see if there's any infection. So number one, you have to ask, Do you have a dental X ray machine? Number two, you also want to make sure when they are under anesthesia. When we are under anesthesia, guess what? You have an anesthesiologist present? Why? Because the person doing the procedure, if they also have to take care of making sure of the anesthesia, that's way too much responsibility for one person. Does it have to be a veterinary specialist in anesthetology, no, but at least have a technician or someone that is monitoring the heart monitoring that machine. So that's number two,
Dr. Judy Morgan
yeah. And I would say ask what kind of monitoring is done pulse ox. We want to know their oxygen level. We want to know if it's dropping. We want to know their respiratory rate. We want to have them hooked up to an EKG so we can see, are they having abnormal heartbeats? Are they? Do they have a slow heart rate, a high heart rate? What is going on there? We want to be monitoring their body temperature, because when they're under anesthesia, their body temperature drops. We don't want them getting too cold. We also don't want them on a heating pad that overheats them and burns them. So there's so many things, and you know, the Monitoring equipment is so good these days, one machine will monitor all those different things, right? But we also need a person monitoring the machine. So there's a lot of stuff, and I, you know, even though I've got an EKG that I can look at, I want somebody listening to their heart. I want somebody listening to their lungs. I want somebody monitoring the gum color, which obviously the person doing the the dental can see, oh God, the gums are turning a little blue. There is not looking so good, but, you know, so we need that. So, yes, we want a dedicated person who is monitoring that anesthetic, and we want to know that that person has some training. Are they a graduate technician? Are they a licensed technician? One practice near us? I had a friend who was in college to be a
Dr. Judy Morgan 25:44
elementary school teacher, and she had horses, and I would go do chiropractic on her horses. And she said, Oh, I just I got an extra job to help pay for school. I'm a receptionist at this local vet clinic. And I said, Oh, that's cool, because, you know, she knew a lot about animals. She'd been there for two weeks, and they said, we'd like you to take over the head technician job. She said, head technician of what? I have no idea what goes on back there, and I'm the head technician. I have zero training. How could I be that head technician? And so this is like if you were to say to them, Well, who is doing the dental and who is monitoring the anesthesia? Yeah, that chick that was on the reception desk for two weeks is now doing all that. Like, that's not the answer you want.
Olivier Morin
It might be all well intentioned by that person, but you can't but, I mean, you need the education. So definitely the anesthetology machine, who's monitoring, yeah. And like you said, a qualified person the last part, which is really in the same vein of that, Dr Judy, it's also, what about the veterinarian doing the procedure he or she? What kind of continued education do they have in dentistry? The reality is, most vet schools do not cover the subject very well at all.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Oh, well, I'm a dinosaur. I went to school a very long time ago, but I literally came out of school with so I think I had helped with a couple of dentals. I mean, I had no clue,
Dr. Judy Morgan 27:14
and I wasn't I didn't really enjoy dentistry. I didn't enjoy extracting multi root teeth.
Dr. Judy Morgan 27:22
I was very lucky in practice. My head technician is only five years younger than me, and she came to me very early on, and so we practiced together for almost 30 years. She had the biggest passion for dentistry. So I'm like, you are going to every dental course you are, you know. So I sent her because she was passionate about it. She absolutely loved it. And so, you know, we if there was a complicated extraction, it was both of us there together. If it was, you know, popping out a loose incisors, like, go for it, you know. But she was so passionate about it, and her training was such high level. So maybe it's the veterinarian doing it, and maybe it's not, but if it's the technician who's doing it, what is their training? And so this was a technician with a four year degree and extensive training. so you know, you might have the veterinarian answer, well, my technician does the dental cleaning and a lot of the dental work under my supervision. Then ask, what that technician's education is, you know, what? What have they taken in addition? So for us, every conference that had a dental track is like, Cindy, you're in
Olivier Morin
and that's the way to do it. So going back to what you were saying earlier, if you have all of those proper things in place, it will cost. It's an investment. And if you do it right, and if you have the right maintenance afterwards, you don't have to do that necessarily every year either. So there's, you know, you have to see with your veterinarian specifically, what's the need for your pet. But I would say, if you're going to do it, do it right.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, absolutely. And so doing it right includes pre anesthetic blood work. So my youngest Forest was he has hydrocephalus. His joints don't work in the right direction. He's got a lot of problems. So from a Chinese medicine standpoint, people have heard me talk about Forrest Gump a lot. He was the runt of the litter. He was, you know, like, three ounces when he was born, his little itty bitty thing next to his 10 ounce siblings.
Dr. Judy Morgan 29:30
And so he's what we call, in Chinese medicine, A Jing deficiency. Well, Jing is responsible for teeth, bones and the nervous system. So his brain has water on the brain. He probably has syringomyelia, because he's a Cavalier his joints bend the wrong way, and he has horrible, horrible teeth, and he because of his hydrocephalus and the pain in his head, he won't chew anything hard. So he had his first anesthetic dental cleaning at one year of age, because he just.
Dr. Judy Morgan 30:00
Makes tartar. He just very, very poor mouth health. So he goes in every single year for a dental. So he's already had three, his one year old, two year old, three year old, and I have complete lab work done on him every time. And people say, Why would you have lab work done on a one year old dog? I can't tell you how many one year old dogs we would do pre anesthetic lab work, whether it was for, you know, spay, neuter, dental, whatever, and it's like, oh my gosh, he's in kidney failure. Didn't know that that young, no symptoms, yeah. Well, if they're born with kidney dysplasia, yeah, if they're born with a liver shunt, you do lab work, and you're like, Oh my God, his liver enzymes are off the wall, and a lot of these don't show any symptoms. You don't know it. So I don't care what age the dog is or cat, you do pre anesthetic lab work, and you want to have that within a few weeks of the dental, because if you do lab work now, and you're not having the dental for six months, you're going to do it again. So every one of my animals gets that lab work. Actually, I'm a huge fan of get the lab work done once or twice a year, no matter what. But if they're going in for an anesthetic procedure, absolutely, because anesthesia has to be filtered through the kidneys and liver. And so if we look at it, we go, Oh, his kidneys are a little iffy, but his liver is doing great. You can tailor the anesthesia, right? We're going to use something that's gonna go through the liver. So that's really important. And if you have an animal who's got a few years on them, I would strongly recommend chest X rays. Well, we wanna look at the heart, and it's kind of amazing how many animals have something going on in their chest. Cancers. Again, no symptoms. So in our family, our 17 year old cocker spaniel started acting a little wonky, a little bit of a cough. And I'm like, go do a chest X ray. She had lung cancer. I mean, it was everywhere. 17 still running around, eating, acting normal. If I hadn't done those chest X rays, I never would have known. And I started my 21 year old cat started with a cough chest X rays for you too, filled with lung cancer. And other than a little cough, eating, acting normal. So a lot of times we don't know what is going on in there. And certainly, if you have one of these spaniel breeds, one of these small poodles, anything that is prone to mitral valve disease. I mean, Great Danes, all the big dogs who are prone to dilated cardiomyopathy, it'd be nice to know that before you put them under anesthesia.
Olivier Morin
100% agree. And I think your vet should make that option and kind of almost kind of demand it, yeah, for their own safety of doing a procedure if they don't lose an animal, yeah? So it's the right thing to do.
Dr. Judy Morgam
Yeah, now with that said, kitty cats, they're the outlier because they're not small dogs. So cats can have significant heart disease with no murmur and no changes on radiographs, so and no changes on lab work. And so I would say that the few animals that we lost under anesthesia in my 36 years of practice were generally middle aged cats with absolutely no symptoms. But they actually and I lost one of my cats to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He was seven years old. He came walking up from the downstairs, died halfway up the steps, just fell over hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. No symptoms, no murmur, nothing on X ray. So kitty cats are the outlier, and the only way that you would know if your cat had a problem would be to do an echocardiogram. So that's going to add $600 to $700
Dr. Judy Morgan 33:35
is a lot more than just doing an x ray. If I had a cat that I was nervous about, especially if I had a rag doll or a Maine Coon, some of these cats that are prone to heart disease, I'd go for an echo and just skip the X rays. I think, if I was concerned, because you're not going to see it on X rays, but an echo is going to give you the true answer there.
Olivier Morin
That's right. And those main Coons, to your point, also prone to gum disease as well. Is that correlation? Again?
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, correlation. So anyway, very, very important that, you know, you look at your particular animal and you go, Ah, he's, he's two years old, you know. Okay, you still got to do the lab work. You don't get a choice. Sorry, that's just the way it is. And then you want to ask all those questions about who's doing what during the procedure,
Dr. Judy Morgan 34:22
and make sure that when you drop your animal off, they have your phone number a way to get a hold of you. And make sure that you have your phone on you and it's turned on and the ringer is on. You don't want to miss that phone call when they're calling you and saying, Oh my gosh. You know, we found 10 really rotten roots in here. All these teeth are going to have to come out. You want to know that you want to be available if they need to call you with any questions. So I got the text message when my little Forrest Gump was in. Hey, Dr Judy, I see that Forrest Gump is due for his Rabies vaccine. We're gonna go ahead and give that to him while he's here for his Dental today. And I'm like, Heck, no, you will not be doing that. We don't do vaccines while they're under anesthesia, and I don't do them anyway, but,
Dr. Judy Morgan 35:12
you know, but you want to be available. And thankfully, they were smart enough to let me know before they went ahead and did something so and that's what you want to tell them. And frankly, when I go in and I'm signing my permission form to have the procedure done, I write all kinds of things on there, like, do not give antibiotics. Do not treat with any flea and tick medication. If you find a flea, call me. Do not do any extractions without contacting me. I am so adamant about you know, you don't get to do anything unless I'm made aware. You're the best advocate for your pet, and nobody else is going to be as passionate about what happens to them. Don't be afraid. If there's something on that form that you're filling out that you don't like, cross it out and initial it, and then when you hand it to whoever's doing the admission, you say, note that I crossed this out because our form in our clinic used to say, if we find fleas on your animal, they'll be treated because we don't want our clinic full of fleas. Now, we had different options available. Yeah, we can just spray them with an essential oil spray. Great, right? We can, we can give them drugs. Most people didn't want drugs in my practice, great, but you need to read that thing. Read every word. I had somebody who was very upset. She thought she had a malpractice case because she dropped her animal off and she said, I just it was a dog with kidney disease. she said, I just want you to give subq fluids to the dog. I don't want anything else done. I just want you to give sub q fluids to the dog at the end of the day the dog had had anesthesia,
Dr. Judy Morgan 37:01
imaging, liver biopsies, like all these things were done, and she was livid. She's like, I didn't authorize any of that. Well, the very first thing in her records was the admission form that she had signed. And in there it said, we have the right to do any diagnostics, treatments and whatever procedures while the animal's here.
Olivier Morin
I mean, that's, I think what you're saying,
Dr. Judy Morgam
I'm like, you signed off on that.
Olivier Morin
It's such a good point. There's nothing routine when it's your pet. No, read it. Be educated and don't be shy, be respectful, yes, but speak up for your pet. Yes, yeah. I think that's a good point.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Okay, so brushing is a gold standard. Yes, we know that.
Dr. Judy Morgan 37:44
Who does it? Very small percentage. I have four dogs and nine cats. If you think I'm brushing everybody's teeth, it's not happening.
Dr. Judy Morgan 37:53
So there's so many things. Yes, we should be brushing that would be great.
Dr. Judy Morgan 37:59
There are feed throughs now, a lot of them have seaweed products in them that help keep the tartar and plaque from building up. And we do know that tartar and plaque are irritating. They cause some of that periodontal disease, separation of the gum away from the tooth. It's just leading it's causing inflammation in the mouth, and then the bacteria jump in there and it just kind of goes downhill. So there are so many things that you can do. I mean, we have a dental spray, we have a dental drop, a million things you can do, but just keeping the Tartar off is not the whole story, So we need to take a break about when we come back, we're going to talk about why it's so important to keep that inflammation down, and how you can do it. So stay tuned.
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Dr. Judy Morgan
Welcome back. You're listening to the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast, and Olivier and I have been talking about dental care, why it's so important, and a lot of the problems associated with dental care, it's not easy. A lot of animals don't want you in their mouth. Aren't going to allow you in their mouth, and if you didn't start very.
Dr. Judy Morgan 40:00
Early in their life with getting in their mouth, It can be very tricky, and for a lot of us who are in rescue, like me, yeah, they didn't get the training, and their mouth is painful, and yeah, good luck getting in there. So so we talked about having that, that proper anesthetic cleaning with X rays by a professional. But they go through all of that, and if they went in with a lot of inflammation in the mouth and a lot of pain in the mouth, now we've got the pain of post extraction, the pain of having I mean, my gums are sore after I go get a dental cleaning, that's right, and I'm not having 10 extractions, and I didn't have really disgusting loose teeth when I went in there, and my gums are still inflamed and it's still tender for a day or so, and you're like, Ah, so you have a solution for that?
Olivier Morin
Yes, we sure do. It's called 1 TDC. It's very effective.
Dr. Judy Morgan
What does TDC stand for?
Olivier Morin
So it stands for one tetradecanal complex. It's a fancy name, molecular structure, like one TDC. It's good, yeah. So we just would just go with that. And basically it only was a veterinary product at first. We want to have something that would sound a little bit more medical terms for them, but truth be told,
Olivier Morin 41:15
it's for everyone, and we want to make sure it's accessible to every pet owners, but to your point, when you are going under anesthesia, you have that trauma going in the mouth. And the difference with most of us is, when we do a dental clean, we're not full of gingivitis, but a lot of those animals are, yeah, so imagine all of this probing and going underneath, how painful that is when they wake up. So 1 TDC is kind of think of it's the fire extinguisher in the mouth. It's probably the easiest way to say it. It's great. Take all of that discomfort out. You're putting the fire out as best as you can. And here's here's kind of the sad truth about this, even if you're doing a proper dental cleaning, as we've described,
Olivier Morin 41:55
the whole cycle of the biofilm formation and the Tartar and the anaerobic bacteria is being trapped. That happens within minutes. So you have a fire in the mouth, you've cleaned out pearly white teeth, and that whole cycle is starting all over again while still having discomfort in the mouth. So we come to the rescue with a fire extinguisher, with 1 TDC, and I'm happy to cover how it works,
Dr. Judy Morgam
absolutely. I, you know, I think it's, it's great for us to say it works. Great. Everybody should use this, but, you know, it'd be a lot better if we knew how it worked, why we're doing it,
Olivier Morin
absolutely. So let's talk about what the product is. So 1 TDC first is a natural product. It's made in the USA. It's derived from beef tallow.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Beef tallow is like, I'm seeing that everywhere, everything now, like facial moisturizers, oh my gosh, and it's a natural product.
Olivier Morin
So the thing to distinguish, because my wife is a nutritionist, and she cooks with beef tallow, it is not the same beef tallow that you're cooking with, just to be very specific. So 1 TDC, that natural beef tallow, sourced from the USA, has very unique properties. It's not an essential oil. We also have to distinguish what it's not. So essential oils have great benefits. But 1TDC is different. It's more of an esterified seed related fatty acid. Okay, so what the well,
Dr. Judy Morgan
we know that fatty acids can be very, very healing, that's right. So and very anti inflammatory, that's right. So just the fact that it's a fatty acid tells us that, right there, it's a good start. Yeah, it's a good start.
Olivier Morin
So let's identify why this is so different. It's really taking fatty acids to the next level. Why the properties 1 TDC, first of all, is extremely absorbent. So if you take a fish oil, for example, and you put in the mouth, it's good thing, but is it going to go transmit mucosely through the gums? It does not. 1 TDC does. 1 TDC goes all through the membranes of the gums and goes very deep into the tissues. So the absorption is already one of the very unique aspect of 1 TDC. second part, talking about the immune system earlier, whenever you have an inflammation, guess what's going on the body naturally will send the white blood cells the T helper cells, specifically. Now 1 TDC is it's like the ambulance of the white blood cells are going to the side, and 1 TDC gets into the ambulance to the site itself. So it's it's attracted to the white blood cells, which is wonderful, because you don't need a lot of the product as a result of that, because it travels specifically where it needs to and stabilizes next the inflamed cells. So when you have 1 TDC in the mouth, and they love it because of the beef tallow source. They think it's a treat, so it's very palatable. It goes right through the gums. It stabilizes the inflamed cells, which soothes. It's the fire extinguisher that's happening. It helps the pet, and then it travels through the rest of the body, giving wonderful additional benefits. So what happens to the pet is that painful?
Olivier Morin 45:00
Mouth, and we talked about this, it's it's so prevalent, and that's my passion. If I can help one more pet owner understand that that mouth that appears to be doing well is not it's painful. We want one more person that's going to help their pets. The painful part with the 1 TDC will decrease very significantly, and you want to continue it. Because why that cycle of periodontal discomfort will continue, sadly, for the rest of the life of your pet? Kind of no matter what you do, you can feed, right? You can do all those things. You even have pets that you can brush, which not many of us do, and you still have that discomfort?
Dr. Judy Morgan
Well, sure. I mean, statistically, over 80% of pets age three and older, have periodontal disease. That's right. I mean, it starts very young,
Olivier Morin
and that's probably an underestimated number. that this is an old study. I was talking to one of the veterinary dentists, Dr Spicanick, and we were talking about that, and he say, I have a new study coming out. Okay, he couldn't tell me the details, obviously, because it's not published yet. But he said, This is underestimated. So when we think it's an epidemic in the mouth painful, it's probably even bigger than we realize. And I think one of the things that's important when you're using 1 TDC, one of the things that you will see sometimes is the behavior of the pet changes. Why? Because they have less discomfort. Just like if you do a proper dental cleaning, it's like I have a new dog or new cat. Why? Because the pain has decreased.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, I mean, so many animals that would come in with just these sewer mouths, and we do the extractions and clean up the mouth, and it's literally like turning the clock back five years. It you know, they're running around there. We used to do a lot of work for monkey's house, senior dog hospice and sanctuary. And so all of those dogs were are pulled from high kill shelters, and they all have a terminal diagnosis. So they're in kidney failure, liver failure, they have cancer, they have heart disease. Most of them have 10 different things going on, and they all come with sewer mouths. And as soon as she gets them stabilized, as far as whatever other diseases you know they're get their heart under control, their liver, their kidneys, everything else under control as much as possible, then we would always go in and do a dental. Didn't matter how old they were, didn't matter what their comorbidities were. Our goal was to get their mouth comfortable and literally, we get rid of that pain and inflammation in the mouth, and the rest of the body suddenly starts taking care of a lot of those other problems.
Olivier Morin
And I think for your audiences as well, if we can have them being passionate about the mouth of their pets and to really be the investigator and finding out is there pain in there that my pet is not telling me, then we're moving ahead and really helping those pets lives, quality of life, long term, and also probably add a few years to their life. So there's, there's a we have a tool for that, and it's really simple. It's not rocket science. I think we can have the audience download. I think they'll put a link down the road on that. We call it the Dental Report Card, right? And very, very simply put, kind of think blood, no blood. So if you take a gauze, we have a whole sheet, and we have a copy here. But very simply put, the dental report card, the science behind it is not rocket science. It's very simple. You take a gas for the animals that you can and you're going to rub it on the gums. You go across 180 if you have blood, most likely you have an infection, and very likely it's painful, yeah. So if your vet doesn't do that, you should ask why? Ask them to do it. And frankly, do it even before you go to the vet. If you have that bad breath, we know it's not normal, but that bad breath also means that there probably is major discomfort. Yeah, always, maybe not, but be the investigator. Yeah, grab that gauze, go across the gums and see that white gauze. If it turns red, if it does, that's not to be under left alone. It has to be addressed.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Yeah, one of the things that I did in my clinic when I was trying to convince an owner, no, these teeth are painful. We need to do something. I would just take a cotton tipped applicator and just press it against the base of the tooth that I was trying to show them where the problem was, and I could go all the way around the mouth And, you know, you touch it, and the animals like, you know, the teeth are chattering, and it's like, Ooh, you know. And then you touch another one, and they do the same thing. And I'm like,
Dr. Judy Morgan 49:26
this is a problem. Your animal is in pain. Maybe they're not telling you, but they're in pain. So we're gonna run out of time again. So one of the things that you mentioned very early on, when this was being used for people, was that it was used for orthopedic issues. So we've been talking all this time about the mouth and how important it is to get that inflammation and discomfort out of the mouth. But how does this correlate with orthopedic issues?
Olivier Morin 50:00
That's good question. Well. The commonality between the two. When you have a painful mouth, that 1 TDC is taking care of.
Olivier Morin 50:06
The rest of the product, it may go trans mucosal, but most of it is going to be absorbed through the GI. You don't need a lot of it to be therapeutic in the mouth, which is the best part, but as it travels through the rest of the body, guess what? Anything that has the need for healthy inflammatory responses. That's what 1 TDC is going to do. So it's going to go in the muscles, the tendons, the joints, and, of course, the ligaments. So it's very interesting, because we work with a lot of the Canine Sports community, dog agility, if you ever watch like Westminster once a year, most of the dogs on those podiums are already using 1 TDC. Now, the Shelties and the papillons definitely for the mouth, but all of them benefit from orthopedic benefits, faster recovery. Why? Well, because we have lactic acid. Guess what happens with 1 TDC? You help decrease some of that. So if you're looking for something that's simple, that's tasty, that's cost effective, you're doing the mouth and you're doing all of the orthopedic benefit as well. So you'll see us at Canine Sports events, and people are just raving how effective the product is, especially the Shelties for orthopedic and the mouth as well. So you have a you really have a dual action, very effective, promoting very healthy inflammatory responses.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Now I think I I talked to you a while ago, and we were talking about not only applying it in the mouth, but let's say we have a, you know, a sore joint. Yes, that it could actually be applied topically in that area.
Olivier Morin
That's very unique about 1 TDC. So if you're doing photomodulation, for example, if you're doing laser therapy, well, what do you do? You're increasing the blood flow, and you're also attracting the white blood cells at the site, right? Well, guess what? What did we say about 1 TDC? It's attracted to the white blood cells and it's transmucosal. Well, guess what? It's also transdermal, so you Part the hair, or if it's already shaved, and you apply, like you just mentioned 1 TDC on the site. Now you're getting a lot of the 1 TDC where it's most needed. So you can work from the inside out or from the outside in. So a lot of the orthopedic experts, rehab experts, will use it that way. So you put it on, you wait 10 minutes, it's all absorbed, and you wipe it off. It's very effective,
Dr. Judy Morgan
very cool. Darn one of my cats broke his femur
Dr. Judy Morgan 52:29
tibia when he was only nine months old. I probably should have put 1 TDC poor guy,
Olivier Morin
it speeds up the recovery. Yeah, the beauty also, and the audience will love this, especially for your cat owners, the beauty of the transdermal aspect of it is sometimes, I don't care what you try to do near the mouth, it's not gonna happen. And they need it, especially cats with stomatitis or cups, severe cases of really, really painful mouths. Well, you can actually apply it on the Pena of the ear, oh, inside the ear, which is easy to get to and you do it from both sides. You take a soft gel display between both both ears, you let it sit for 10 minutes, and you do wipe it off. You don't want any debris to collect where the the 1 TDC has been. So you wipe it off. So then it goes trans dermal, transmucosal, and then you're getting the secondary systemic benefit. So this, this is something that the veterinarians love, because they know, a lot of times with the stomatitis cases with the really, really bad mouths, they can't get near the mouth. So, yeah, it's a way to do it and the patient is comfortable.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Geez. I wish I had this for all those cats that you know, everybody wants to just do full mouth extractions on those cats with a severe autoimmune stomatitis, and we avoided it in almost every case, I didn't have this product. I wish I did, but we did it with cold laser. Yes, acupuncture herbs,
Dr. Judy Morgan 53:49
but it's, it's a lot. I mean, you've got to have one a cat that's cooperative. The great thing about photobiomodulation is, you know, with the laser, you don't have to touch that painful area. You basically just have to hold the mouth open and shine the laser in there. So we had a lot of cats who would allow us to do it, and it was very effective. I wish I had had this at the time to help those poor cats. And, you know, so easy for the owner to do here, put it in his ear exactly. You don't have to touch his painful mouth
Olivier Morin
in those cases. Also, Dr Anthony, our chief medical officer, is a dentist, he will go very aggressive on the 1 TDC before he does any extractions.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Sure, absolutely. I mean, why wouldn't? Why wouldn't you do everything you could before you extract, before you do full mouth extraction?
Olivier Morin
is it going to solve the problem? No, but can it help? Yes. In some cases, he actually didn't do extractions. If he doesn't have to, he won't.
Dr. Judy Morgan 54:41
Yeah, I mean I'm the type that I'm like, let me find 27 different things to try before I yank every tooth out of that poor cat's head,
Dr. Judy Morgan 54:50
you know, and a lot of them, even though you take the teeth out, like, we don't know all the causes behind it, but even though you take the teeth out, they still, I mean, some of these cats had just horrible ulceration all the way down their Throat. Of course, they don't want to eat. Then it gets secondary infections. Ugly, Ugly.
Olivier Morin
It is ugly, and it's so much pain for them,
Dr. Judy Morgan 55:12
yeah, very, very, very, very, so compliance with this is going to be a lot higher, asking people to and especially since we can, I mean, even the dogs, it could go inside the ear flap,
Olivier Morin
if you have to. I mean, dogs love their 1 TDC. So those what we recommend for those obviously, 1 TDC is not going to replace the need for a proper dental cleaning. There's a place for that too. But after your dental, please, actually, before you do the dental, use 1 TDC, and after continue using it for recovery. But the beauty of the product is, because of its source, most animals, dogs think it's a treat, so they look forward to it. And we always recommend, when you start Don't, don't go in the mouth and do not rub it, because if they have gingivitis, and you rub it with your finger, it's painful. You squeeze it on the upper gums. You know, there's tons of videos that we can show that, but most of them look forward to it because it's like a treat cat. You don't have to do that, cats you like then lick it off. You can put it on top of food. If you have to. It's perfectly fine. Some people like to put on the lips. There's always a way to do it. If you have a willing pet owner, cats, you have just to adapt to, what if it's going to work with them?
Dr. Judy Morgan
Well, you know, that's where that's where the inside of the ear can work. There you go. Really, really, really, well, yes, so we can check our pet's gums for gingivitis and inflammation. Very simply, little gauze, even a Q tip, if that's all you've got blood, no blood. Just rub over there.
Dr. Judy Morgan 56:38
You know, does the mouth smell bad? Does the mouth look bad? Is your animal holding their head sideways? Is tooth fall or, you know, drool coming out, or food falling out of their mouth? Are they chewing funny? But they may show you no symptoms at all, and that's why it's so critical that you have that professional exam. And then I would recommend doing something for gum health. This is a great, easy solution for gum health. This is not a tartar and plaque product. It's not something that the is going to break that down, but it's going to decrease the inflammation associated with that. And hopefully, if you're doing some home care feeding a species appropriate diet. You're not going to have as much dental issue, but you may have somebody like my little Forrest Gump, who, no matter what you You still got some issues there. So for those of you who want more information, 1 TDC is on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, we'll we'll do links to all of those. The website is workssowell.com.
Dr. Judy Morgan 57:48
And Olivier has a special code that we will also put in the show notes where you can get a discount if you want to try the product. I have a lot of friends who use this product. I've used this product, and we appreciate all the work that you've done and the education that you're putting out there for pet owners, because that is really critical.
Olivier Morin
That's our passion. And thank you for taking the time to talk about this important subject too. Thank you.
OUTRO 58:20
Outro
Thanks for listening to another great Naturally Healthy Pets episode. Be sure to check out the show notes for some helpful links. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. We value your feedback and we'd love to hear from you on how we're doing. Visit DrJudyMorgan.com for healthy product recommendations, comprehensive courses, upcoming events and other fantastic resources. Until next time, keep giving your pet the vibrant life they deserve.
DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Dr. Judy and her guests express their own views, experience and conclusions. Dr. Judy Morgan's Naturally Healthy Pets neither endorses or opposes any particular view discussed here.
