Every Dog's Eyes Tell a Story ... & it's not what you think

Well hello! This is Krista with Episode #181 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Have you checked out all of the amazing trusted brands that I highly recommend? Well, these are products that I've researched, that I've tried, and I know like and trust. These products will help your dog to thrive. So just go to WagOutLoud.com And check out the trusted brands section. And I've negotiated discounts for most of the products, so why not see what can make a difference in your dog's life? And don't forget to also check out the resources page as well, because it's filled with some very important information for both you and your dog.

Well, our new puppy Dutton is starting to lose his puppy teeth. Did you know that a puppy is born without teeth, but will have their 28 baby teeth in place by the time they are about six weeks old? And a puppy starts teething at 12 to 16 weeks of age. And normally by six months of age, all permanent teeth have erupted and all the baby teeth have fallen out. Bye bye sharp baby teeth!

Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode.

You will never "look" at your dog the same after hearing from Board Certified Animal Naturopath, Poppy Phillips, on Animal Iridology.  The eyes are not only windows to the soul, iridology, the study of the iris, offers insight to your pets' wellness. Learning about the basics of iridology can empower dog guardians to know if your canine companions are needing some extra care in certain areas of their bodies, stress levels, help assess if your dog's current nutritional protocol is working effectively, and help track diagnosed diseases. 

Hello, hello dog lovers! We have a another fascinating episode of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast in store for you. And with me today is Poppy Phillips and she is going to cover a topic totally new to me. It's every dog's eyes tell a story and it's not what you think. So Poppy, I am so thrilled to have you on the Show today. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited being here today, too.

Yay. Well, this is gonna be a learning experience, I think for most of us. So why don't we start by having you introduce yourself and tell us how you got into iridology.

I am a Board Certified Animal Naturopath from and went to a College that offered an animal naturopathic program and also taking courses from Clinton college and some other naturopathic type colleges. I studied animal and human nutrition at Cal Poly. And also at Delta College. I was a year and a half away from a dietitian license and I didn't believe in the food pyramid. So I bounced out and just dove into the natural, holistic aspect. I was not going to tell people to eat jello. wasn't going to do it. And so I've taken I'm certified in homeopathy. I am an AI tech for horse reproduction. I've been a horse trainer and started Equine Alternatives first back in 1998. And then just rolled into other animals with muscle testing, and then adding other modalities like herbs and diet and so it became kind of like a life health coaching for your animals. But iridology was a course offered at College. And I thought it was a total joke. I thought it was like this woo woo ridiculous thing, but it was affordable. And I thought it would set me apart because I didn't know any animal iridologists. So I jumped on board and halfway through the, it was a two day like six hour thing. And halfway through it, I was just blown away by it and just wondered why nobody was doing this. So I was all in after that and started to document I actually tried to prove it wrong. And there are some glitches to to what we figured out. I have a membership and we try to passionately do research and advanced animal iridology so I have like four veterinarians that submit eyes and their whole case studies and we learn from that.

Wow. Okay, so it's been a journey for you.

Yes, it is. And every year we we learn more and more.

Well, because I never knew this even existed before I talked to you. Can you share with the listeners what is iridology.

WHAT IS IRIDOLOGY?

Iridology is the study of the colored part of the eye. And so if you I'm sure all of you have looked deeply into your animal's eye and then went, why is that blob there? Or why is there some different coloration? And some people even go? Yeah, my animal's eyes went from like yellow to brown, or really dark. So then often they run their animals to the vet. And the vet usually says, oh, it's not a big deal. We don't know why it does that. Well, iridology does. So these superficial marks, not like abscessed corneas, or anything like that. So you have to differentiate between a legit eye issue or this superficial mark, but they can be in black or brown, gray, white or yellow. And you can detect like toxicities, Parasite load, bone alignment issues, trauma. So it's it's so exciting. And this is why I always say you'll never look at your dog or humans again, after hearing about this because you'll just be staring at every single animal’s eyes from here on out.

Well, let's dive into this. How long has this modality been around? How did it start?

WHAT IS THE HISTORY?

So they recorded Howard Carter, I think it's Howard Carter, when he discovered King Tut’s tomb, discovered silver plates of Iris markings. And so the priests were actually iridologists in ancient Egypt, and would record it on silver plates. And so they found those. I believe China probably had some recognizing aspects to it. But those were tangible plates that they had in their own hands and realized that it was iridology. And I love the fact that the priests were also your medical doctors back in the Egyptian days.

That is fascinating. Okay, so it's been around a long time.

A long time. Exactly. And fun fact, now, because of the human retina recognition system, science is looking at the retina more and more, because you know, you do those retina looking into your computer and recognizes you. But now they're detecting neurologic diseases before it manifests in the body through Iris markings. And we're starting to we're seeing the same in our own studies and research in our in the membership. So we're seeing equine neurologic issues show up before the owners are recognizing it. It is great in prevention, you can be ahead of the curve.

Oh my gosh, okay, you're blowing my mind. When I looked this up. It says animal Iridology enables the constitution of the animal to be obsessed or not obsessed, assessed. What does that mean? What does constitution mean in this case?

A constitution for me it's kind of the over all, like description of the animal's well being. So I love the fact that you can use it as a constitutional assessment. Because I also am a acute prescribing homeopath. I'm not a chronic prescribing homeopath. I haven't done those years and years of school. I wish I did, I kind of kick myself because I love homeopathy also. But you can actually since animals can't talk to you and the owners often don't know what is really going on, you can look in the iris and see the stress levels and the toxicities and just some chronic deeper marks that might have been there. And the owner didn't even know like maybe falling off that sofa did some issues or just over the top behavior. So yes, your animal guardian can communicate what they know but if it's like a rescue or something where you have no history, the eye can help you. the iris can help you determine what that personality what that intensity what that trait is. And and that definition of the whole being through the iris.

WHAT CAN BE DETECTED?

Okay. But you mentioned a few things that can be detected from iridology. Can you tell us a little bit more like what exactly by looking at the iris and the markings? What else can we see besides I think you mentioned toxicities. And you I just I just read you know bone alignment and parasite load, individual organs, their skeletal load.

Yeah glandular health, stress levels, skin, circulatory, neurologic health, levels of pain. So all your detoxifying organs, if they are not functioning, if they're getting congested, then you know, illness is setting in because your skin, your liver, your kidneys, your lymphatics, they all have to be functioning for the body to keep in alignment, to have that whole health aspect. And so you can actually see where your ailamentary aspects are functioning or not functioning the GI tract. The thing I love about iridology is they were so on top of gut health before anybody was talking about the gut microbiome. They were already talking about disease settling in the gut, and you can see where the gut is either stressed or toxic or just not fluid and functioning from the iris.

Oh, my gosh, that is amazing.

Yeah. It's just so crazy. The more I learn, the less I know. And it's just overwhelming and awesome. And it's super user friendly for the pet parent.

Well, what exactly are you and we looking at and looking for? Is it just us looking in their eye? Or do you need special equipment or tools to see better?

WHAT TO LOOK FOR?

The funny thing about cell phones is it's totally exponentialized the user friendly aspect of iridology. So back in like the 1950s, you know, you had to find somebody with a certain type of camera. And even before color photos came out, they were hand hand drawing the irises. So prior to color photos, it was all like sketches. And after color photos, you had to find somebody with a pretty elaborate photography system. But now, with the cell phone technology, anybody can take pictures of their animals eyes and gauge their wellness. So you can actually see if their diet is working, what their pain levels are. We have people tracking their their animals, chronic diseases. we had in the membership, we have like animal iridology practice classes. And one gal has been tracking her animal’s disorder. And last night, I was like, hey, it looks like your animal’s getting better. And she's like he is he is and you could totally see it in the iris.

No way. Oh, my gosh. Well, you mentioned before, like, you know, if we have a rescue, that the eyes are the window to the soul and to the health that we can actually see. I think they call them stress rings or cramp rings in the irises and that so many rescues have this because of what they've gone through.

IRIDOLOGY IN PUPPIES

Right and over vaccination. So, so I've been trying to do a study on puppies. We have horse foal photos, where the foals, you know, horses open their eyes right away, whereas puppies and kittens don't. So it's a little tricky. And so I keep asking my members to get me puppy photos prior to vaccines. And we haven't been able to get very clear shots yet, but after vaccines, those eyes look really bad.

That doesn't surprise me.

I know and it's heart wrenching. I just every time somebody submits a puppy photo, I'm like, this is after vaccines, right? And they're like, Yeah, this sucks. And so it's just heart wrenching, but we're trying to track it from from birth to end of life and also genetic lines. So we're trying to track the father and the mother and see what the genetic crossovers if you can detect genetic abnormalities in the pup for purpose, you know, if you look at, so if you're considering breeding to a certain stud dog, you can look in the iris and go I don't know if that's gonna be a greatest . I kind of digressed on your question.

No, I this isn't all just amazing. A tool that I didn't even know was in the toolbox, which is cool. Hey, Poppy, we are going to take a break. This is a perfect time to take a quick sponsor break. And we're gonna get into this everyone so hang tight. We'll be right back.

SPONSOR AD

Let me tell you about the dog food that I’ve been feeding to Dutton – it’s my pleasure to introduce everyone listening to Raised Right human-grade pet food.

 

They’re a family-owned company that works with world renowned veterinarian, Dr. Karen Becker, to make “home cooked style” whole food recipes for dogs and cats that are complete & balanced through using simple ingredients. And when I say simple, I mean simple, because all of their adult dog recipes have 10 ingredients or less, with some having as few as just 7 or 8 ingredients!  That’s all REAL food!

 

Raised Right’s limited ingredient recipes are high in protein and low in carbs.  Most have less than 2% carbs because they don’t use any high carb fillers like potato, rice, or pasta found in many other products.

 

One of the most unique things about Raised Right is that they were able to formulate their adult dog recipes to meet AAFCO’s requirements for a complete & balanced diet through using ONLY whole foods, without having to add any synthetic vitamins or minerals!

 

You can go to RaisedRightPets.com/WagOutLoud and use the coupon code PETS20 to get 20% off your first order of Raised Right’s human-grade pet food – I’ll quickly spell out the website that’s https://www.raisedrightpets.com/WagOutLoud

 

Your pets will thank you!

And we are back with Poppy Phillips and talking about this amazing science of iridology. Poppy, I understand that there are seven zones of the iris, can you quickly touch on those?

You know in the animal? We don't. We haven't dialed that in like humans yet. So there's the outer rings that go in concentrically into the inner rings. When I studied with Mercedes, who is still alive, she's a pioneer of animal iridology. And I'm happy to say that she’s on my cell phone, so I can call her up and ask her questions. She doesn't go into detail about that. So thank you for asking that. It was something that I actually asked her too is, why don't we break that down? More. So I actually need to apply myself on that better. So if it does Jive as distinctly as humans humans are so much more advanced. Humans, they can tell like the mother marks on one eye and the father marks on another eye. And the brain region is so much more detailed. So this is why we've taken the work of Mercedes and tried to run with it and uplevel it. It is in progress. That's the exciting part is we this is like third generation animal iridology in a way. Or second generation I guess.

Well how does somebody learn this science or become a practitioner?

HOW TO BECOME AN IRIDOLOGIST

So I am going to start doing courses. I have one in the process and then doing like little webinars, we also have the membership. Mercedes was certifying people through her course. And but Mercedes is kind of on the retirement level. She's in her later 70s right now. She's basically handed me her stuff and said run with it. So I am putting together a situation where people can get certified and create community in membership we do assess eyes and practice on it and have ongoing conversations and and the fun thing is eyes change. So when you get your, your diet right or when you go to the chiropractor or, or if you have a surgical procedure, it will all mark on the eye and you can track that. You'll see the changes instantly, like real time like it happens so fast. It's crazy. Like you can do a chiro adjustment. The iris and the pupil will respond instantly the minute you release that nerve that releases in the eye.

I just I can't believe I never knew about this.

I know. This is why this is my platform. I’m screaming it from the top of the buildings right now and you guys this is the coolest stuff, and it's so easy, it is hard to take your dog’s photos, because it can hurt their eyes. So you have a small window of opportunity, like don't get too obsessed with it. I take, oh, if there is an issue, if you notice something in your animal’s eye, then definitely recorded it and you can video it or you can photograph it make sure there's enough light, there's no glare. But will you have the flash enough to get into it, but kind of stand back and zoom in so you're not like flashing in front of their face. So yeah, they don't love that flash, you guys. So be careful with that don't, don't shock them. Or else they will never let you take their eye photos again, but make sure your lens is clean too. get clear pictures, I learned the hard way on that. Yeah, and there are certain things that will give you a false reading or there's some issues to why it wouldn't work is sometimes the eyes are just too dark. And you can definitely go into your editing on your cell phone and try to tweak it with contrast and bright and all that so you can see a few marks. But if you have eyes that might be black or toxic, then you might not see much, but you can also go well, they're super black. So maybe we need to detoxify and medication, certain anti inflammatories that will block the reading, the markings on the eye because they're nerve type medications. And so you'll get a false healthy reading.

That makes sense. What is the one thing you cannot do with iridology?

CAN’T DIAGNOSE

You cannot diagnose like cancer or any sort of diseases. I'm not a veterinarian, but what you can do is point people in the right direction. So I've had some very difficult cases where vets are stumped. And we looked at the iris and said, Hey, look in this area. And it was accurate. So I've actually had a case where the client had done like all these at home tests like AnimalBiome, and lots of veterinarians and the dog was having a clear life, concerning issue. And the iris showed a very, very stressed GI tract, not toxic, the owner was super savvy, and had this dog on an amazing diet. So the GI tract wasn't toxic, but it was seriously stressed. And then they finally scoped it and found like lesions or ulcers in the GI tract. And so the iridology was more accurate than anything they had done up to that point and help the vet get to the right place.

Okay, now you're giving us examples which we all love. What are some other cases that you've had where iridology had the answer?

REAL EXAMPLES/CASE STUDIES

This isn't my case. But this is a friend of mine, who is an amazing equine iridologist, and she actually does pre purchase assessment for horses. And so people will submit eyes to her, she'll read them and say, hey, you need to X ray this area or that area. And she had a horse come to her that was absolutely sound and healthy. And she looked at the eye and went, No, this isn't gonna fly and the owner was the pre purchase potential owner was just like, No, I think you're wrong. And she goes, Well, just let's be safe and Xray that area. And unfortunately, the the horse was probably drugged. And the Xrays were horrible. So this guy was wasn't even going to pursue like a pre purchase exam, but off of her own Iris assessment. She nailed it. absolutely nailed it. And for my dog, I had a dog with a spinal cord tumor. And I could literally track the spinal cord tumor growth and recession with it. So I wouldn't have known that mark was the spinal tumor mark. But we went ahead and had the surgery done. And that mark went away with the surgery, or was just a little blip in the iris. And then like three months later, it started growing again and I went to my my dog's neurologist, I go, Hey, I think this is growing back. He's like, No, you're just imagining things. I'm like, I don't know. And about a week later, he was like, you might be right, let's do an MRI. So before he read The MRI, I go let me tell you what I think is going on I go, it's bigger. It's back and there’s two tumors now and he looked at me and goes, How the hell would you know that? I know I want to show you my iridology study. And he was absolutely open to seeing it and even more blown away by the results matching the MRI.

Sure. And were you guys able to operate again or what happened?

I didn't want to put him through that. So we just got him a cart, and let him live out the next six months. Like a party animal. We made the best six months of it. And so yes, so A the iridology helped me be a little ahead of the game. I learned a ton from it. And yet, we didn't stop the progression. Yeah. And so you can see you can kind of gauge chronic illnesses, acute illnesses, trauma, I had a cat come in the other day. The client sent me photos saying, hey, my cat's eyes changed drastically. And they were marked in the spinal cord area all the way up to the brain region. And I go like, is your cat acting weird? She's all No, not really. And it was a animal who live next to a Nature Preserve. So this cat can come and go. I bet your cat got him a little bit of a tiff with some animals or something like that. And so recommended homeopathy, I actually do this pet prayer process also with animals. So we prayed for her cat. In four or five hours, this cat's eyes had totally cleared out. Yeah. I'm trying to think of more case studies, we have a veterinarian that submitted a paralyzed dog who had a leg removal, and the whole leg marked on that eye. So the right eye controls the right side of the body. And the left side controls the left side. So whatever side the leg was removed, you could actually see the shape of the leg in the eye in that quadrant.

So what are we looking for when we are looking for… you've mentioned lesions, or blobs or marks? What does that look like?

HOW TO ASSES THE IRIS

For the pet owner, What you're looking for is like little streaks or furrows, you're looking for dark marks, light marks, texture of the eye. If the eye looks super fibrous, there's probably some stresses going on there. Or maybe we don't know for sure. Maybe it's a little dehydration also. It is something we're currently researching. But the shape of the pupil if it's not circular, if it's a little oblong, or just not very crisp. You can also tell absorption if your animal’s actually absorbing it, nutrition and diet. You can if the eye is darker, it might be toxic. So clear. You can see these eyes clear up with like detoxification so you can literally gauge your program, which is so fun. And you can help with that too. Absolutely. Yeah. So I can help or I refer you to other people. It doesn't have to be me. I'm not like all in. I just love teaching and helping people see this stuff because I think it is a super cool tool that could possibly help you save your pet’s life. You can see heart issues coming or managing lung issues. We did a dog in our iridology practice class last night and we could tell that he had a low oxygen ring. And the owner was like, well, he does have a trachea issue. So he's just not getting enough oxygen. There you go. There you go. It's right there. It's all in the eye you guys. You can also read the sclera. But we haven't advanced to a lot of sclera reading as a community in the membership. We are trying to advance this together collaboratively. But still, step by step. There's so much to do.

Sure. Well, if somebody wants to learn you mentioned your course or that you could just do an assessment on their animal. Can you tell me more what would they get out of that or you know, even just one on one with you.

So if you want to do one, one on one appointment? The trickiest thing is getting the eye photos. so there's a couple people, I've had to say, this isn't gonna work for us because you can't get the eye photos. So you will to get your best eye photos, you might need a friend holding some treats, or maybe get a squeaky toy or a ball. shoot away and try to crop it as close to to clear and filling your screen as possible. But I can also crop on my side, if you get a video, I can freeze it and crop it. And then I have a whole assessment chart. And I also like to see the whole dog's body so we can compare and contrast before and after the dog's body too. So Mercedes never tracked the physical body of the animals. And it was one of my frustrations is I want to see the animal change, because in my own client one on one, where I'm going to their account, we can see that. And so if I'm working on a horse, in person, I can shoot the photos. Do the body work, you can actually see if I did a good job or a bad job on the bodywork. And, you know, revisit. I didn't really get that. Let me go back and do that again. And then the eye clears up in this department. So yes, we can do that one on one on Zoom. We go. We assess your eyes together, you get a print out and recommendations or discuss what you're most comfortable with on how to proceed.

Okay, well, I will put where to go to get with Poppy. But she has a really amazing offer for those that are thinking about making an appointment with her. Do you want to share that Poppy?

OFFER

Yeah, I would love to work with you guys, if you are super excited or freaked out that now you have marks on your animal’s eyes. And I always tell people don't panic, as long as your animal’s in a good good body space and mental space. It's not like life or death. I have a 20% percent discount for this podcast. So if you guys want to hop on, that there's a booking link that we're going to attach, right or doing, say the booking link?

Well, really, it's yeah, it's up to you. I mean, however, do they just mention this podcast? Or is there a certain code that they use for the 20% discount?

So the link actually is already infused with the discount.

Oh, perfect. Well, and I have a link for you guys in the show notes. So just click on that. And as we are wrapping up, Poppy, do you have any last words of wisdom for us on this topic?

Well, if you are seeing marks in the eye, don't panic. If you think that your animal is having a serious veterinarian emergency, of course, go to your vet. If you think there's vision loss or, or some infection, of course, go to your vet. But if it's just superficial marks that you're seeing streaks, like squiggly lines across your animal's eye and they seem to be in Okay health, they're not stressed out, then this is something that might be really fun for you to gauge and hopefully prevent your animal for going down that road that we can be ahead of time. I haven't had animals that were on like Prozac, things like that, that we were able to help manage better, and it definitely showed up in the eye. A lot of people don't give me much history, they just want to see what I read in the eye. And I'll be like, Wow, your dog’s really stressed. Like how would you know that? Like it's super easy.

It's so nice to not only see health challenges, but their behavior too right?

Behavior. Absolutely. And you can read the eye and like reduce your stress load. If you're, you know, we'll have a conversation about what do you think is stressing your dog and is there a way we can manage that better? So yeah.

Well, Poppy, we are about to wrap up where, but where can everybody find out more information about you and your practice, which is Holistic Animal Insights.

Krista, thank you. It's www.equinealt-hai.com. So my first business was all about horses, Equine Alternatives, and then I rolled into a broader range pet space, and that was the creation of Holistic Animal Insights. That is my website. I do have a booking link there, but the discount code on there so use the only way you can get that discount code is to be listening today.

SOCIAL MEDIA

FB: https://www.facebook.com/holisticanimalinsights/

IG: @holistic_animal_insights_

TikTok: @holistic_animal_insights 

That's right. Well, I encourage everybody to learn more about this, I know that I have had my quote unquote, eyes opened by you, Poppy. Just I am so grateful that you shared this information and that you are a sponge and continued learner in this space. So I just want to thank you for all that you do and for sharing.

Well, thank you for having me on, but also your passion to just keep keep the dog wagging.

That's right. It's all about education, isn't it? We don't know what we don't know.

Exactly. And nobody knows at all. So it's a collective collaborative effort between your vets and your holistic practice nurse, or your trainers, your diet, everything to make that healthy dog live as long as possible.

I love it. Well, thank you, Poppy, for being with us. We appreciate you.

Thank you and have a beautiful day.

Thanks again to the team at Raised Right for being our monthly sponsor.  Raised Right does it right, with human-grade, complete and balanced, limited ingredient pet food.  Why not get some raised right for your cat or dog and save 20% on your first order by checking out RaisedRightPets.com/WagOutLoud.  Your pets will thank you!

Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time.

Don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE and please leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Android | Spotify I Stitcher I iHeartRADIO

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. The host as well as guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and Wag Out Loud LLC neither endorses or opposes any particular views discussed here.