About Us

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Max was the best dog. Truly a girl's best friend. Few understood him, but he was my best bud and most loyal companion. 

I got him about 6 months after losing my first dog to hemangiosarcoma (spleen cancer). She was only 10. 

When I first started out in practice I worked primarily with horses. Max would ride shotgun on the way to farm calls and we spent most of our time together. 

When I first got him he was on a raw diet. 

In my first practice that I worked at we were provided discounts on dog food, so I switched him over to a kibble diet. At the time I didn't think much of it. 

2020 brought the "pandemic" and with it I started to question a lot of the things that I was taught in veterinary school. Values were starting to misalign with how I was practicing and while I was able to do some good, the truth of some of these industries was starting to seep into my psyche. 

In 2021, at the age of 6, Max started to act unwell. In true panicked owner fashion, we went to our vet and he was diagnosed with some mystery illness. At the time he was having ear infection, skin flare ups, stomach troubles. I was told to put him on a hydrolyzed diet and after looking at the ingredients and realizing it was mostly just corn, I started to seek other ways to help support his body. Ways that I was never taught in school. 

I started him on a fresh frozen dog food and saw some improvements. 

Sadly, in 2022 he started to decline further. He had been on antibiotics, antifungals, pain medications, steroids. You name it, I had thrown it at him. And he wasn't getting better. 

I wish his story had a happy ending, but I lost him in July 2022 at the young age of 7, to lymphoma. 

Through that heartbreak I became obsessed with helping other pets in a way that I hadn't been able to help my own. I started voraciously researching vaccines, pharma, the history of the industrial medical complex and veterinary medicine which led me to much research into alternative healing, terrain theory and many many other rabbit holes that have coalesced into where I am today. 

Which is... still learning. 

I have done a 180 on much of what I thought conventional veterinary care should look like. And my hope in you finding this page is that you are open to and willing to explore some alternative avenues as well. 

The day I put Max down I remember looking down at the handful of pills he was on and thinking there had to be a better way. And wishing that I had had the foresight to keep him on a species appropriate diet. This became the foundation for how I would practice moving forward. 

As I gave him his last goodbye I promised him that I would do better. 

That is what I have set out to do. But I can't do it alone. 

Too often we place the authority for our health, our pet's health, our children's health in the hands of someone with a white coat and stetoscope around their neck. 

Health begins at home. It begins with common sense. It begins with reducing toxins, feeding real foods, avoiding excessive chemicals and medications, exercise, sunlight, boosting the body's natural defenses so the immune system can function as it should. 

That is why I have called this Grassroots. It is really about going back to basics, working hand in hand with clients to create a wellness program instead of relying on a sickcare model.

Health doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it. But it does require stripping away the things that we have grown accustomed to. It requires critical thought, questioning of those in postiions of authority, and a stripping away of what is convenient for what is actually helpful. It requires some dedication in this modern world, but it is doable. 

My name is Dr. Emily Fray. And I am here to help.