When the Immune System Turns Rogue: What Pet Parents Must Know

Dealing with a diagnosis of autoimmune disease in dogs and cats can be frightening for any pet parent or pet owner. In this video, Dr. Randy Aronson, The Pet Vet, and veterinary student Olivia Sacci tackle the topic of autoimmune diseases and reveal a powerful integrative approach. Learn why Dr. Randy focuses on tackling the root cause and how this strategy offers a path to healing that can significantly reduce the need for traditional immunosuppressant drugs.

Dr. Randy explains that autoimmune conditions, such as pemphigus and lupus, are complex inflammatory diseases where the body attacks its own tissues. His holistic treatment strategy moves beyond conventional medicine by first addressing the gut microbiome. By using advanced fecal DNA testing and blood allergy testing to identify and eliminate inflammatory triggers, the goal is to correct dysbiosis and bring the body’s inflammation under control. Discover how this focus on foundational health—including diet correction, supplements, and even treatments like Fecal Microbiome Transfer (FMT)—empowers you to improve your pet's long-term wellness, longevity, and health.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker (00:08):
Hi, Dr.
Randy here with my co-hostOlivia Sacci from the University
of Arizona Veterinary School.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's nice to be here, everyone.

Speaker (00:15):
And we're going to answer a question from Carla in
Costa Rica about autoimmunedisease.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, so our question today is
skin diseases?

Speaker (00:24):
That is a great question, Carla.
Thanks, Olivia.
So autoimmune skin disease is asituation where the body is
attacking itself.
It's an inflammatory disease.
And I often get at it through alittle different ways than some
other veterinarians, but let'stalk about these diseases.
When the body is attackingitself, it can produce crust,

(00:45):
scale, sores, ulceration.
It's really nasty.
Thank God they're somewhatrare, but we do see them.
And there are a bunch ofdifferent autoimmune diseases
that we talk about.
One being Pemphagus foliaceous,another being Pemphagus
erythematosis, there isdiscoilupus erythematosis.
There's also systemic lupus.

(01:10):
But um I don't want you toworry about those names.
They're not important.
That's for us to disease.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, that's my midterm this week.
You don't need to know that.

Speaker (01:16):
Okay, that's right.
But these are really nastydiseases, and and they're they
are solvable, they are curable.
Let's talk a little bit abouthow we diagnose them.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah.
And it's not just autoimmuneskin diseases, right?
You can have other autoimmunediseases as well.

Speaker (01:31):
Correct, correct.
For example, in that systemiclupus, uh, autoimmune disease
could attack many, many organs.
We see lupus of the kidney, wecan see lupus of the uh lung,
uh, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
So how do you go about treating those kinds of
diseases when you encounterthem?

Speaker (01:48):
That's a great question.
Um, so normally what I do is Iwant to make sure I have a solid
diagnosis.
Some of them need to have askin biopsy or blood testing to
figure that out.
But once we've got that, thetreatment for me is to attack
the inflammation.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yes.

Speaker (02:03):
So the first thing I work on is actually the biome,
microbiome, uh called dysbiosis.
A lot of times the microbiome,which is all of our good and bad
bacteria, are out of whack.
And this creates a tremendousamount of inflammation in the
bowel, releasing what we callcytokines and some of these
inflammatory mediators.
And this is where this getsstarted.

(02:24):
So a lot of people will look atjust putting these animals on
medication.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
On immunosuppressants, but then
that can open them up to othersorts of infections and
everything.
Correct.
So that's why I wanted to knowyour kind of holistic
integrative medicine approach,which is interesting that you're
going to the microbiomedirectly.

Speaker (02:39):
Yeah.
So I um sometimes I have to usethe medications to quell the
disease somewhat while we'redoing this.
But what we do is we get afecal test for the microbiome.
It's a DNA test of what all thegood and bad bacteria are in
there.
And we also often will do anallergy test, a blood allergy
test, to find out what their dogor cat is potentially allergic

(03:03):
to in the environment and alsoin their diet, and eliminate
those.
With those two pieces, we canstart getting this animal back
on board and eliminating theinflammation.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
And so, how does eliminating the inflammation
help with the autoimmune diseaseitself?

Speaker (03:18):
That's a great question.
So once we once we have theinflammation reduced or really
under control, then a lot oftimes the necess the necessity,
excuse me, I could say thatword, the necessity for drugs is
not that important.
And we can actually correct thediet, use potential supplements
for the microbiome change orsomething called FMT, fecal

(03:42):
microbiome transfer, and reallymake this animal well.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh, that's that's amazing.
I love learning about thealternative therapies that you
offer or that you know about,because that's not typically
something in veterinary schoolthat we do have a lot of
conversation about.
It's about the very traditionalmethods of treating animals,
which would be thoseimmunosuppressants.
Um it's good to know.

Speaker (04:03):
Yeah.
So we want to, you know, wewant to get this word out there.
So uh this is really importantto make sure that people
understand they have options.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Exactly.
So thank you guys so much forjoining us, learning a little
bit more about your pets.
Um, you can find both of us onsocial media.
Uh for Dr.
Randy, he's on both YouTube andInstagram at Dr.
Randy Petvit.
For myself, I'm on Instagram atDr.
Sochi.
That's spelled D-R for Dr.
S-A-C-C-I for Sochi.
It's one of those kind of crazyItalian names.

(04:31):
Oh, I love it.
Um, and make sure to subscribe,follow so you can kind of see
the information we're coming outwith.
Thank you guys so much.

Speaker (04:36):
And tell your friends and who are pet guardians and
pet parents about thisinformation because the more we
can get this word out, thebetter off our pets' wellness,
longevity, and health will be.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Exactly.
Thank you, Dr.
Randy.