Fireside Chat With Ohio Veterinarian, Dr. Rae Gandolf!

Hello! My name is Dr. Terry Fossum, CEO and Founder of Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to sit down in a fireside chat with Dr. Rae Gandolf, a veterinarian from Ohio. 

During this conversation, we talked about her dog Timber, and about how she, as a veterinarian, decides whether a hemp product is worth trying.

In today’s article, I am going to highlight some of the topics that were discussed.

Timber’s Background Story

Dr. Rae and her husband adopted their mixed breed, Timber, and the first thing they did was take her on a mountain bike ride with them. 

She’s a happy, active dog by nature and from the age of one to eight, she was doing 12 to 15 miles on the trail with them regularly! 

At around eight years old, she ruptured one of her knees and had to have surgery on it. Once her eight-months of recovery were finished and she was back to hitting the trail, she ruptured the other leg as most dogs do.

After a daunting two years of back and forth recovery, she’s happy and doing small hikes with her parents again.

How Dr. Rae weighed the decision

Being a veterinarian, Dr. Rae had been paying close attention to hemp products for over a year because the tides have changed quite a bit recently.

With so much research coming out in the field of veterinary medicine, this caught her attention.

Her first question was safety. In her words: “Well, enough safety information has come out that I’m comfortable trying it.”

Her second question was the label. She wanted a product where what the label says is in it is actually in it, which is what a certificate of analysis is for.

Dr. Rae is a skeptic at heart, and she kept her expectations modest.

Her advice to other owners

For the skeptics, Dr. Rae can relate.

Her read of the published safety data was reassuring enough for her to try it. Our standing advice is to check with your own veterinarian first, especially if your pet takes other medication.

Her approach is to give a new supplement a fair trial of about a month and then decide whether to continue based on what you actually observed in your own animal. Our printable trial diary is built for exactly that.

If you want to try hemp extract with your pet, our buying guide explains what to look for on a label, and our dosage calculator gives a starting amount by weight.