About Us

On the road to Full Circle Ranch
On the road to Full Circle Ranch

Mission Statement

The Royal Animal Health University (RAHU) is dedicated to teaching and advocating a hands-on, holistic, innovative, and common-sense approach to all aspects of animal care.  Our effective, science-based, integrative veterinary summits and webinars are designed to help caregivers — from pet parents to industry professionals to veterinarians — as they improve their options for the health of animals, our environment and our planet.

 

Dr. Barbara Royal, DVM, CVA

Dr. Barbara Royal, DVM, CVA
Dr. Barbara Royal, DVM, CVA

Barbara Royal, DVM, CVA, founder and owner of The Royal Treatment Veterinary Center, is an internationally-renowned pioneer in complementary medicine and physical rehabilitation. A passionate advocate of commonsense and cutting-edge approaches to optimal animal health, Dr. Royal provides a bridge between Western and Eastern medicine.

Dr. Royal has extensive experience in veterinary care, including zoo, marine, and wildlife animals, emergency medicine, pathology, conventional practices, nutrition, herbal remedies, physical rehabilitation techniques, and alternative treatments.  She is also an acupuncture expert for pets and exotic zoo creatures.  She is the go-to veterinarian for Oprah Winfrey.

A nationally-published author in numerous magazines and an international lecturer in her field, Dr. Royal is often featured in the media for her successful treatments of animals and groundbreaking work in veterinary medicine.  She lives in Winnetka, Illinois with her husband, two children, her cat, Arthur, and her dog, Darwin. Her first book, “The Royal Treatment:  A Natural Approach to Wildly Healthy Pets” was published September 2013.  After graduating with high honors from the University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine (1995), Dr. Royal’s early career was exclusively devoted to cultivating her expertise in state-of-the-art, modern veterinary treatments.  Her work with greyhounds, who are hypersensitive to many medications, led Dr. Royal to explore the most effective modalities in ancient traditions.  She completed training in acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine from IVAS, Advanced Western & Chinese Herbal Medicine through Tufts University, and studied Animal Physical Therapy and Healing Techniques at the University of Tennessee.  Her uniquely practical and open-minded approach, skill as a diagnostician, and compassion for animals is much acclaimed: she operated on a room-sized grouper named Bubba at the Chicago Shedd Aquarium; she reconstructed a woodchuck’s de-gloved feet at the Woodstock Illinois Animal Hospital; and, at the Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo she became the first veterinarian in the world to perform acupuncture on a zebra.

With her multi-faceted knowledge and her individually-tailored practice, Dr. Royal provides comprehensive care for her many patients.

If you would like to book Dr. Royal for a speaking engagement or media interview, please fill out the contact form and we will get back to you as soon as possible. To view a selection of Dr. Royal’s recent interviews and press, please visit our press archive.

 

Dr. Natasha Lilly, DVM, CVA

Dr. Natasha Lilly, DVM, CVA
Dr. Natasha Lilly, DVM, CVA

Dr. Natasha Lilly is a California native who has a need to travel and a great appreciation for the variety offered on our planet. She first fell in love with the San Luis Obispo area as an undergraduate at California Polytechnic State University studying Animal Science on the pre-veterinary track. In 2008, Natasha completed her DVM studies at UC Davis with an emphasis in equine medicine. She initially went to work outside of Chicago in an equine sports medicine practice. After becoming disappointed with the conventional options to treat our animal athletes, she began taking an interest in complementary medicine, especially acupuncture. She attended an equine and small animal acupuncture certification course through IVAS in 2009-2010.

Dr. Lilly was mentored and worked for an established acupuncturist and complementary medicine DVM in Chicago, Dr. Barbara Royal. In Dr. Royal’s small animal practice, the approach to animal health blended conventional and alternative/holistic medicine practices. Upon relocating back to California, Dr. Lilly began acupuncture services out of a few locations and settled into practicing at Central Coast Pet Hospital and Emergency in 2012. During that time, she attended courses in Chinese herbal medicine through the Chi Institute and canine and feline nutrition. She will be leaving her practice temporarily as she turns her focus to education and equine rehabilitation.

Full Circle Veterinary Center officially opens for business on January 30th, 2017 and is a facility where a collective of veterinary specialists in equine health will work to create a comprehensive plan using a similar model as Dr. Royal created. Dr. Lilly has served on the board of the AHVMF since 2012 and works with members to further scholarship, funding and research in complementary veterinary medicine.

Beginning this April, Dr. Lilly and Dr. Royal will team up again to teach a course in integrative veterinary medicine at California Polytechnic State University, SLO. She has also co-created the Royal Animal Health University which is dedicated to teaching and advocating a holistic, common-sense approach to animal care with onsite and online course offerings. 

In addition to complementary medicine, Natasha is found enjoying time with family and travel, riding her amazing horses of all different backgrounds, and hiking the beautiful central coast trails. Natasha, her husband and their three children live with their chickens, ducks, sheep, horses, dogs, and cats on a ranch in Edna Valley.

Steve Brown

Steve Brown started working with dogs in the early 1980s trying to develop Charlee Bear® Dogs: medium-sized, non-shedding dogs bred “to give and receive love.” Working with leading canine geneticists and behaviorists, he developed a long term breeding plan for the dogs, breeding one litter every other year. In 2010 he stopped the breeding program when a puppy was diagnosed with Addison’s disease.

In 1992, understanding that positive reinforcement training techniques were required for proper training, he developed a pocket-perfect, low-calorie training treat, Charlee BearÆ Dog Treats, still one of the best selling dog treats. In the mid 1990s Brown started focusing on diet and developed Steve’s Real Food, one of the first AAFCO-compliant, raw meat-based diet. 

After developing national distribution, Brown left the company to focus on research and education. In 2004, Brown co-authored with Beth Taylor a book on canine nutrition, See Spot Live Longer, now in its eighth printing, and published numerous articles on canine and feline nutrition in leading natural health web sites, pet magazines and veterinary journals. In 2006 Brown began to understand the major weakness of most dog foods was in the fats, and, after three years of research, Brown wrote the “highly recommended” Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet, Healthier Dog Food the ABC Way (Dogwise Publishing, 2009). Much of Brown’s research and work is built from his Canine and Feline Diet Formulator™ Program, which he’s been working on for 20 years to be able to fully analyze and properly formulate ancestral type diets and to serve as an educational tool.     

What Steve Brown enjoys most is teaching veterinarians and other knowledgeable canine professionals how to formulate fresh food diets that meet NRC, AAFCO, FEDIAF (EU) and ancestral standards. Recently Brown has written articles for the IVC Journal, Feline Nutrition, Dog’s Naturally Magazine, and the Whole Dog Journal, been a speaker at the numerous webinars, and, with Dr. Karen Becker, lectured at the 2016 American Holistic Veterinary Medical Conference on building balanced diets. Brown is also a consultant and formulates dog foods for several fresh-food-diet manufacturers.

Throughout Brown’s adult life, he focused on “technology transfer”: sharing the findings of leading scientists and researchers with people who can use the knowledge. For example, before he started working with dogs, Brown was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through MIT to teach architects, builders and engineers the latest knowledge on energy efficient building designs.

Rodney Habib

Rodney Habib
Rodney Habib

Rodney is a digital artist, film maker, multiple award-winning blogger, lecturer, founder of the Top Canadian Retailer Award winning Planet Paws, and, more importantly, a pet parent.

Today Rodney stands on the frontline amongst pet owners who demand a change in the ever-so declining world of pet food. With his global work, he is inspiring pet owners to ask more of their manufacturer.

His social media presence has gained him worldwide recognition as he was honored in 2016 at the Canadian House of Parliament, with the Communicator of the Year Award at the International Summit and Facebook recently recognized and honored him for having one of their top pages, which allows him to spread his message to over 100 million news feeds.

Once the host of the #1 radio show in Canada, In The Dish, today he is filming a documentary series on canine cancer called The Dog Cancer Survival Series.

Rodney has made numerous TV, social media headlines, movie, and radio/podcast appearances including ABC National News, BBC London, CBC, Global National News TV, Financial Post, National Post, the Pet Food Documentary “Dog Food Mythbusters”, Ty Bollinger’s upcoming Truth About Cancer series, and Dr. Goldstein’s upcoming box office movie on pets.

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