Hello this is Krista with episode #136 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. I'm just checking in. Have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? I have vetted these companies and products, have used them on my own dog Winston, and I can assure you that they will help your dog to thrive. Just go to WagOutLoud.com and check out the partner Products section. And I've negotiated discounts for most of them, so why not see what can make a difference in your dog's life? Did you know that the liver performs about 1500 essential functions in your dog's body? That's one busy organ! 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. Faz Bashi is Scientist, Physician, Investor and Entrepreneur focused on human and animal health and life sciences. He is a Champion for Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Possibletarians who want to make the world a better place. Hi there dog lovers! Thanks for joining us today and wanting to learn more about innovations for the love of dogs. And to chat with us about this topic is Faz Bashi. He is a scientist, a physician, investor, and entrepreneur. Faz, thank you so much for being with us. Can you introduce yourself and share why are you so passionate about focusing on innovations in healthcare and life sciences, specifically for dogs? Wow, Krista. So thank you for that beautiful intro. And by the way, congratulations, Wag Out Loud is really busting a seam . So I'm excited. I'm so excited to be here. And yeah, my background is in healthcare and the sciences. And I've spent a lot of time just recently, probably over the past, I'd say about 12-13 years, focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, angel investing, venture capital, doing a lot of those things. And animal health is a big passion area for me, and I know you and I share a love for all animals, and specifically with dogs. Dogs are just an amazing creature. They are just incredible additions to our lives. They're just we're so blessed to have them. And they're definitely becoming more and more integrated into our families. In fact, people refer to them as their fur babies. Yeah, and they truly are. And we want what's best for them as we want for ourselves. We want convenience of being able to, to be able to take care of whatever may be ailing them or concerning them be able to do it at home. So I'm excited about the future of pet health and veterinary medicine, all these things and I want to be able to contribute to it. And that's why I'm here because you are too. You and I chatting I mean, we just said before this started how are we going to fit all of this into such a short interview? So I guess where I would like to start is since your background is in immunology and virology, are those the areas of medicine that most interest you? It's an area where I have expertise. But I am looking at the whole picture of humans and animals. So the whole picture what what concerns me is everything from snout to tail, right so everything in between there that affects a dog's well being, their health, their coat, everything. the food that goes in. you and I've talked about this a lot. intake and output right? So inputs and outputs, what food goes in and what comes out. Everything in between really matters a lot to the health and well being of the animals. So there's so many opportunities there to do good things. Well, Faz you are a busy busy guy. Did I read that you recently became a member of the Board of Trustees at the Morris Animal Foundation? Is that correct? That is correct. Oh What an absolute honor and just an amazing group of people. Morris Animal Foundation for those who don't know is a 75 year old brand, nonprofit entity created by Dr. Morris. By the way, an original entrepreneur in his day. So if you know about KD Diet for kidney disease, Dr. Morris is credited for having created that, that brand, and so from pennies off of every can that was sold that went into the coffers. Morris Animal Foundation now is one of the oldest and one of the largest grant givers to scientists studying animal health and wellness across the country, across the world even and they're doing great things. So I'm just delighted and just absolutely honored to be in this group of amazing people. And guess what? They’re based in Colorado! That is what a perfect fit. That's, that's really cool. So do you know of any exciting things that they're working on as far as scientific innovations or studies that are going to be coming out? It's happening all the time. And so if you look at all the veterinary institutions across the country, whether they're schools or just institutions of science, if a researcher is getting a grant from the NIH, they're also probably getting a grant from the Morris Animal Foundation. That's how amazing this organization is. So there is so much going on across the country in basic science research from gastrointestinal issues that are going on various kinds of infectious diseases as well. And by the way, you know, we're living in the world of COVID right so we all know now this word known as the Coronavirus. Well Coronavirus, also has a variant of its own, that's species specific, that affects dogs and cats on their own. And now we're learning also more and more about how diseases jump from animals to humans, and sometimes from humans to animals as well. But there's a lot going on that we need to all be aware of. And also how does it then eventually, how does that knowledge then eventually become a product or something that you and I will use for our fur babies? That's the important thing. And I think Morris is playing an absolute critical role and doing all those things. How, exciting. Well, the industry as a whole, do you think that animal health is pretty much following in the footsteps of human health? Or are there instances where it's the other way around? How far behind is veterinary medicine to human medicine? Well, you know, there's a lot of corollaries obviously, between humans and animals. And, and as you also know, there's a lot of initial testing that is done on animals, when a drug comes out to market or a medical device comes out to market, there's a lot of stuff that goes on there. And what's really important to consider, at least as far as the industry is concerned, is there's this deep desire from anyone who goes into veterinary medicine or human medicine, to do good to do no harm to be there for the individual patient that comes in. Now for veterinary medicine is a little bit different, right? Because the actual patient cannot speak. It's really the pet parent that is speaking on behalf of the dog or the cat or the hamster when they come in. So there's something extraordinary if you think about it, that happens between a veterinarian and the pet parent on behalf of the animal. There's this three way connection that's happening in the room around that patient. So there's something extraordinary about one, the relationship that's happening there, the information that needs to be gathered, there's a lot of diagnostics that are available. But at the end of the day, the story that we give to our let's say, our primary care physician, when we go into for our physical exam, the story is what's really important. When did it happen? What does the pain or issue look like? And that has to come from the pet parent. So there's a great deal of reliance on information gathering from the pet parent. And then there's what do you do with all the data that is being generated? Now with COVID? Krista, this is kind of exciting because both human and animal medicine has had to go through a major transformation because of the world we live in. It's not convenient anymore to just take a ride down to the veterinary clinic or the human clinic and see someone in person. So there's a lot of transformations that are happening right now, on the digital side of care. How do you present a patient to a veterinarian through telemedicine, let's say, and there's a lot of that that's going on? Or how do you change your workflow, so that you no longer have to have people sitting in a waiting room, but you might be able to see them on the curb side, and then be able to take the patient in to be able to get the treatment they need. So yeah, there is a lot of corollaries and I would say both the human and the animal health side of things really are focusing on major transformations over the next five to 10 years. Hmm, okay, get ready. Faz, you are one of the founders of Anubis Bio, and I love the company. I met you quite a while ago, and you have a product called DoggyStat, and I love, love, love that product. Can you tell us how did that company and the product come to be? Yeah, you know, so I think we talked about this just a little earlier. You know, pet parents nowadays are really treating their dogs and their cats and their pets as members of the family. And as we looked at the marketplace and tried to find solutions there, we wanted to find ways of naturally resolving issues that the animals were dealing with. And so the idea of using food, food, and what's inside of DoggyStat is our patented food supplement. It's made from eggs and milk, very simple ingredients. And what it does is it helps to solve stomach upset, normal stomach upset that animals get whether it's from stress, a new environment, loud noises, going into doggy daycare, or boarding facility for an extended period of time. Anything that stresses out the animal, the dog, eventually what happens is it manifests in their GI tract. they get stomach upset, and then they get diarrhea. The other issue is there's lots of other factors that dogs may pick up on a daily walk or going to a dog park and visiting with other dogs or other things that may contribute to their stomach upset. So the genesis of the company and the intellectual property was around this idea of how do we deliver a natural product that helps essentially resolve these types of gastrointestinal stomach upset from stress or from other factors in a meaningful manner. And we've done it through DoggyStat, and I appreciate the fact that you also agree it's it really is doing some wondrous things for for pet parents will get so much great feedback. And we're in distribution now. Through MWI Animal Health, they are distributing to over 90% of the veterinary practices across the country. So really great partnership, and we're just delighted to be here. Fantastic! Well, thank you for bringing that to market. Oh my gosh, what a great product. Okay, well, we're here to talk about innovations. So what do you think that we'll be seeing in the future when it comes to advancements or new technology specifically geared towards canine health and wellness? Krista there's so much happening right now, as we just touched on a little bit earlier COVID, the world of COVID and the world of working at home and convenience of being at home, there's a lot of shifting now away from going to a hospital or going to a clinic and coming to home. So we already touched on telemedicine, telemedicine is definitely that. It is happening. And there's a lot of different platforms that you've heard of out there, from Ask a Vet to Dutch, to a whole bunch of other platforms where you can get care at home, or you can even ask for a veterinarian to come to your door. So those are those are very cool things. So here's the here's the thing that everyone has to contend with. At some point, the veterinarian needs highly accurate information from from the pet and from the parents. And so how do you get that data to them? Well, the world of wearables is advancing like crazy. And you and I just talked a little earlier about this, but I'm actually working with an amazing company that is developing the most accurate wearable, that gives you medical grade information through a collar, through a vet. Being able to look at biometric data in a you know, very sensitive way is just so valuable. So that's one of the areas I think wearables you're going to see more and more of these types of medical grade technologies coming through. There's a lot going on in terms of diagnostics, especially for areas that are the most common reasons for parents to take their pets into into the veterinarian's office. And, you know, periodontal disease. I've heard quite a bit from my friends who are in the world of dentistry for animals, and they're looking for innovations. And I think there's some really cool things that are happening right now as we speak, on being able to, to help detect periodontal disease ahead of time in cats or dogs or any other species, and then also being able to transform that information into into real preventative measures that you can take so that you can actually see results. See what's happening when you actually brush the teeth of your dog or your cat. So there's there's a number of things Krista that are really exciting and food. I mean, we could go on and on about how amazing new companies are. Coming up with incredible new sources of proteins for dogs and cats and just incredible stuff going on. Well Faz, I am going to stop you there for just a moment we are going to take a quick commercial break and then get back into innovations. We'll be right back. 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