Beware Social Media's Vet 'Experts'

The Facebook message is dire.

“First they eat grass. Then they lick their paws. Then they slow down. Then the lumps appear. It’s not four separate problems — it’s one immune system screaming for help,” a Facebook post by The Dog Parent’s Guide reads.

According to Dr. Sarah Martinez, DVM: “This is the most preventable problem I see in my practice every single week.”

Variations of this post have been circulating on social media since December 2025, on accounts with names like “Healthy Dog Insiders,” “Furry Family Wellness” and “Saving Pets One Pet @ A Time (THE ORIGINAL).”

The post made its way to Utah State University Extension Veterinarian Chloe Stenkamp-Strahm by way of one of her clients. They wondered if they should take its advice.

According to the post, dogs crave what their wolf ancestors eat, and wolves eat mushrooms to boost their immune systems. Our pet dog’s diets are missing this crucial nutrient and suffering for it, according to the Facebook post, causing premature death.

Stenkamp-Strahm immediately noticed red flags.

First, grass-eating is not an uncommon behavior.

“We still do not know why dogs eat grass, and although historically we have tried to link this to GI illness, we really don’t have true evidence of that. So unless grass-eating is associated with vomiting or other clinical symptoms, or it becomes obsessive/compulsive in the dog, we tend to just monitor,” says Stenkamp-Strahm, adding, “it’s probably best to keep your dogs from eating grass or lawns that have been treated with different chemicals.”

Secondly, she says, any lump or bump on a dog that persists for more than a month should be assessed by a veterinarian.

“If lumps or bumps are actively growing or changing or painful, having them assessed earlier in the course of noticing is ideal,” Stenkamp-Strahm says. “Vets will use their judgement, but typically do an aspirate of each mass, which allows them to look at the cells the mass is composed of under a microscope, to determine whether it warrants further care.”

Though Stenkamp-Strahm is not an expert in wild dogs, she did a quick scan of research on wolves and coyotes and did not find anything to suggest that they consume mushrooms as a food source. Rather, they may consume mushrooms when more common food sources become scarce.

“In any event, mushrooms do not seem to be a dietary staple (of wild dogs),” Stenkamp-Strahm says.

Then there’s the Penn State study referenced in the Facebook post:

“Then I found it,” the post reads. “University of Pennsylvania, 2012. Dogs with cancer who received Turkey Tail lived 199 days longer— Not because it attacked tumors… But because it restored immune function.”

Stenkamp-Strahm looked for this 2012 study and found a research article from that year titled, “Single Agent Polysaccharopeptide Delays Metastases and Improves Survival in Naturally Occurring Hemangiosarcoma.”

This pilot study tested the active ingredient in Coriolus versicolor, or turkey tail mushrooms, in 15 dogs with a cancer called splenic hemangiosarcoma, who had had their spleens removed. This aggressive disease will typically lead to death within three months of splenectomy (spleen removal). The study’s findings showed a cohort of the 15 dogs treated with the mushroom ingredient lived 113 days longer than their historically untreated counterparts. These results, the article says, merit further “proof-of-concept studies for therapies that have some evidence for antitumor effects.”

Remember, the Facebook post wasn’t about dogs with cancer of the spleen who had undergone splenectomies. It was about dogs who eat grass, lick their paws, and display lumps or bumps.

The Facebook post nonetheless concludes with a link to a “Turkey Tail +” mushroom supplement sold by PuppyLabCo. Following the link takes you, again, to “Dr. Sarah Martinez, DVM.” This time, there’s a photo accompanying the byline.

Running the photo through Google’s reverse-image search turns up a LinkedIn profile for a different veterinarian: Lien d’Hespeel, with Animal Oasis Veterinary Hospital in Naples, Florida.

D’Hespeel says she was recently alerted to the use of her photo when someone forwarded a similar link to her clinic. She relayed the matter to her clinic’s legal department, who have reached out to the site to demand the picture be removed.

“Needless to say, I’m very frustrated that my image is being used to promote a product I do not endorse and that, in my professional opinion, offers no meaningful benefit to pets,” d’Hespeel wrote in an email. “Unfortunately, misleading veterinary information and marketing like this is increasingly common online, and it’s discouraging to see how easily pet owners can be persuaded away from evidence-based care and guidance from licensed veterinarians.”

Attempts to contact the email registered with the domain — asking about Dr. Sarah Martinez and explaining writers’ difficulty verifying her credentials as a veterinarian who attended Cornell and completed a residency at UC Davis — received no response by the time of this article’s publication.