Top all-time · #19614
skeptvet.com
Personal blog · skeptvet.com/Bloghealthscience
skeptvet.com is a personal blog at skeptvet.com about health and science. Since 2018, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
A veterinarian's blog taking a skeptical, science-based look at veterinary medicine, with posts on raw diets, pet food and pet longevity. HN readers cite it as a reliable source on those topics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
What Hacker News says?
Yes, I read the whole thing when it came out years ago. I remain thoroughly unconvinced. Back when this study came out, pop-sci magazines and websites reported it uncritically. But it was also a much less cynical time, before the reproducibility crisis really took hold. Aside from the blatant and unapologetic p-hacking, there are some other flaws of data gathering and analysis that make their conclusions dubious. Fo…
Comment linking /Blog/2014/01/do-dogs-line-themselves-up-with-the-earths-magnetic-field-to-poop/
on “Dogs poop in alignment with Earth’s magnetic field, study finds (2014)”If someone is thinking of doing it because they watched Pet Fooled on Netflix, I advise that they do additional research first. Raw isn't necessarily better or worse, but best to make as informed a decision as possible. I pasted this link elsewhere in the comments, but I found this vet's analyses of raw food to be useful: http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2013/11/raw-diets-for-pets/ --- As it relates to anti-vax attitudes in…
Comment linking /Blog/2013/11/raw-diets-for-pets/
on “FDA names dog-food brands with potential link to canine heart disease”A good source of information raw food is the Skeptical Vet blog (written by a vet who tries to take a scienced based look at veterinary medicine). http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2013/11/raw-diets-for-pets/ (this is a summary page linking to all of his posts on the topic) We tried a raw diet with our dogs for about six months, and while there were some minor benefits (less stinky poops), we ultimately switched back to kibb…
Comment linking /Blog/2019/06/fda-update-on-grain-free-diets-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/
on “FDA names dog-food brands with potential link to canine heart disease”Actually, there is. It's among the most common causes of death for domestic cats ([1] says the second most common). It's been what killed most of the cats I've ever known (notable exceptions being two that got hit by cars and the one who, no kidding, died of mercury poisoning after being fed nothing but canned tuna her entire life). [1] http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2015/03/longevity-causes-of-death-i...
Comment linking /Blog/2015/03/longevity-causes-of-death-in-pet-cats/
on “Elephant 'smoking' footage baffles experts”Dogs evolved to eat human scraps. Raw diets may be better nutritionally than kibbles, but cooking the same food is more nutritious and much safer[1] than raw food. After talking to board-certified vets who actually research this stuff, I feed my dog home-cooked human-grade food. 1. https://skeptvet.com/Blog/2018/02/yet-another-study-shows-th...
Comment linking /Blog/2018/02/yet-another-study-shows-the-real-dangers-of-raw-diets-for-dogs/
on “Old Dogs, New Research and the Secrets of Aging”People interested in this topic might want to check out the Skept Vet's web site: http://skeptvet.com/Blog/ The site is run by a veterinarian who "takes a skeptical and science-based look at veterinary medicine". There's a strong bias towards evidence based research over junk/pseudo-science (which should appeal to a lot of HN'ers), and I've learned a lot from reading his blog.
Comment linking /Blog/
on “General Mills to buy pet food maker Blue Buffalo for $8B”