Game-Changing Therapy Improves Lives of Pets and Owners
Armed with only processed prescription food, Dr. Judy Morgan felt like she had nothing to offer her patients. After deciding to expand her knowledge, she stumbled onto a therapy that would not only transform the lives of patients she had never before been able to help, but benefit their owners, too.
Analysis by Dr. Karen Shaw Becker
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STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Dr. Judy Morgan has dedicated her life to caring for animals — and now she’s focused on educating every person she can on how to help their pets lead long, healthy lives
- Nominated for a Healthy Pets Game Changer Award by Donna, Dr. Morgan started out like many veterinarians — bored and frustrated by the lack of tools to help her patients thrive
- After an initial journey into chiropractic care, Dr. Morgan’s eyes were opened to integrative veterinary care and the power of healthy food
- Dr. Morgan has countless examples of animals’ lives turned around by holistic, integrative care, including dietary changes; even their owners often get healthier as a result
- While Dr. Morgan retired from clinical practice in 2020, she remains active in the holistic veterinary community
- It’s her passion to educate others and share the power of natural strategies for helping animals to stay well and heal from disease
We call them "Game Changers" — the exemplary, hardworking individuals who have gone the extra mile to promote animal welfare all around the world. Every week, we feature a special Game Changer, so if you know someone in your community who deserves this award, nominate them and help us get the word out about the magnificent work they do! Click Here to Nominate a Game Changer Today!
Dr. Judy Morgan has dedicated her life to caring for animals — and now she’s focused on educating every person she can on how to help their pets lead long, healthy lives. Nominated for a Healthy Pets Game Changer Award by Donna, Dr. Morgan started out like many veterinarians — bored and frustrated by the lack of tools to help her patients thrive.
"I kept saying, ‘If I have to talk about fleas, ticks, heartworms and vaccinations 10 more times tomorrow, I don't know if I can do it," she said. "I have nothing to offer. I have prescription diets … I had nothing, and frankly, I was bored."
After serendipitously taking a course in chiropractic and applying what she learned in her practice, "It was a game changer," she said. "Then I had to cry over the dogs and cats that were paralyzed that I couldn't treat in the past and now I was seeing the changes that I could make so I had to get my forgiveness to myself for not knowing what I didn't know, but because it opened that big door for me."
Opening the Door to Holistic Care and Food Therapy
After her initial journey into chiropractic care, Dr. Morgan’s eyes were opened to integrative veterinary care and the power of healthy food:
"I started studying homeopathy, I studied raindrop therapy, essential oils, light therapy, sound, vibrational. You name it, I was just going to learn whatever I could learn about everything. And then I decided to take an acupuncture course through the Chi Institute.
And when you go to the Chi Institute, you don't just learn about acupuncture, you learn about all four branches of Chinese medicine. So I learned a lot about herbs, I learned about tui na. But then I also learned about the food therapy and the food therapy to me was like somebody just hit me over the head and said, ‘This is what you were meant to do.’"
In one of her first holistic consultations, she saw an old Doberman that was obese, unable to walk and had cancer. Her guardians were willing to do anything to help her live out her final days.
"And I thought, ‘You know what? I have so many tools in my toolbox … I'm going to give them something to do,’" Dr. Morgan said. She gave them a recipe for homemade dog food and did acupuncture on the dog, which ended up living for another four months — the healthiest she’d been in some time.
"Not only did she live that four months, within about a week and a half she was up walking, she lost the excess weight, her coat bloomed. She was amazing, and when they brought her in to finally have her put down because she was just at that point, they said, ‘We are so thankful for the past four months.
This has been the best four months of our dog's life and we felt so empowered because we were able to help her and making her food was a joy and we loved seeing the changes, we just wish we had known this earlier.’ And I felt like saying to them, ‘Yeah, I wish I had known this earlier, too.’"
Good Health Travels Up the Leash
Dr. Morgan has countless examples of animals’ lives turned around by holistic, integrative care. But it’s not only the animals who benefit. Their owners often do too. Another one of Dr. Morgan’s patients was an obese dog with cancer, mobility issues and hypothyroidism. She recommended dietary and exercise changes, helping the dog to live for another year. Later, the family came back with a new puppy, but Dr. Morgan didn’t recognize them at first:
"She [The owner] took a picture out of her wallet and it was a picture of her and her husband when they got married, and they were both about a hundred pounds overweight and really just struggling with a lot of health issues, and she said, ‘Over the past year, because you told us how to feed our dog and what would help her and she did so well, we thought, well, if we're doing it for her, why don't we do it for us?'
Between the two of them, they lost 200 pounds. They looked like totally different people. They felt better. She said, ‘We go to the gym, we go hiking, we are so excited.’ And then they had a new dog that they were going to start off on the right foot. So not only are we able to change the lives of the animals, but a lot of times, we're able to change the lives of their caretakers because they see the power."
While Dr. Morgan retired from clinical practice in 2020, she remains active in the holistic veterinary community. It’s her passion to educate others and share the power of natural strategies for helping animals to stay well and heal from disease. Now the author of four books, including three cookbooks for dogs using Chinese medicine therapy, Dr. Morgan also blogs, offers educational courses on her website and regularly does podcast interviews.
If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Morgan and her teachings to improve the health of your pet, you can find her at drjudymorgan.com.1 She wants everyone to know that it’s never too late to make positive changes for your pet’s health or your own health:
"We've taken 15- and 16-year-old dogs that were in horrible shape and turned them around. They hang around for another three or four years, which is pretty amazing. So it's never too late to change, and even if you can't make a major change, even a minor change. And don't beat yourself up for what you didn't know, because you can't go back, you can't change that, you didn't know.
I can't go back and change all the prescription diets I sold. I can't go back and change the animals that were put down because I didn't have all these tools in my toolbox. But what I can do is be thankful for every animal who taught me something along the way.
I think, even as pet parents, your pets are teaching you all the time. Be thankful for that and give them all the love you can. And then any changes you can make for the better, that's awesome."
