Ozone Therapy for Dogs & Cats: What It Is and the Evidence

October 27, 2026

Ozone and UV Light Therapy for Pets: Nature, Amplified

Here's a question I get from clients more and more: "Is there anything else we can try?" Usually it comes after the diet is cleaned up, the supplements are dialed in, and the pet is still struggling with chronic inflammation, pain, or an immune system that's either asleep or overreacting.

Ozone therapy keeps coming up in those conversations, and more veterinarians are quietly bringing it into their practices. So I asked Jonathan Lowe of O3Vets and O3Pets back on The Pet Parenting Reset to walk us through it. This time we also got into a newer pairing he's pioneered: ozone with ultraviolet light, which he calls O3UV.

I'll give you what Jonathan told me, and then I'm going to give you the research, including the parts that are thinner than the enthusiasm. You deserve both. And for what it's worth, I'm a coach, not a vet. I don't treat animals. The point of this post is to help you have a better conversation with the person who does.

Listen to the full episode here

What ozone actually is

Ozone is three oxygen atoms bonded together (O3 instead of the O2 we breathe). Jonathan calls it "oxygen on steroids." It's reactive, it has that sharp, fresh smell after a lightning storm, and it's a potent antimicrobial, which is why it's used to purify water, air, and oil.

One thing he was quick to say, and I want to repeat it loudly: you do not want to inhale ozone. The EPA's own health summary lists airway inflammation, aggravated asthma, and temporary drops in lung capacity from breathing it. Medical ozone is a different animal because of how it's delivered, and as Jonathan put it, administration "makes or breaks it." That's the first reason this isn't a DIY-from-a-YouTube-video situation.

How it's thought to work

Jonathan calls ozone a biological response modifier. It doesn't suppress a symptom or target one thing. It nudges the body to do what it already knows how to do. If you've heard me say "support the body's design instead of fighting it," that's why this one fits.

The leading explanation in the research is called oxidative preconditioning. A small, controlled dose of ozone creates a brief, mild oxidative stress, and the body responds by switching on its own antioxidant defenses. A review in Medical Gas Research lays out this idea, including activation of a pathway called Nrf2, and a paper on Nrf2 and medical ozone goes deeper. Dose matters enormously: low doses are protective in this model, high doses are damaging.

Jonathan also described a chain reaction. In his words: "That's helps oxygen get to starved tissues. And what that does is help create cellular energy. And what that does is encourage the mitochondria to function more efficiently." I couldn't independently verify that full chain. Some small human studies suggest ozone-exposed red blood cells release oxygen more readily, but I found no solid evidence that this translates into a clinical benefit. So when you hear "increases oxygen," read it as Jonathan's explanation of a plausible mechanism, not a proven outcome.

What the veterinary research shows

This is the part I always want to be upfront about. I went looking for randomized controlled trials of ozone therapy in dogs and cats and didn't find any. What exists is mostly small, uncontrolled, or retrospective.

The best example I found is a 2023 retrospective study of 21 dogs with intervertebral disc protrusions. Adding medical ozone to conventional care was associated with improvements in neurological grade, pain, and quality of life. The authors were clear that prospective studies are needed.

For topicals, lab data on ozonated olive oil shows antibacterial activity, with a 2024 study on bacteria from companion-animal wounds and a study on oral pathogens finding it moderately antiseptic, weaker than chlorhexidine in the oral study, and gentler. Test-tube results don't always predict what happens on living skin, so treat these as encouraging, not conclusive.

My honest read: ozone is a modality with a plausible mechanism, a long history of clinical use, and a lot of practitioner experience, but a small controlled-evidence base. That's not a reason to dismiss it. It's a reason to use it with a veterinarian who knows how to dose it and to keep your expectations honest.

Ozonated oils and the ozone apothecary

Jonathan's team also makes topical products, available at Ozone Apothecary, which he spun off because the products are for people and animals. Think ozonated oils, creams, shampoos, ear oil, and an ozonated oil-pulling-style mouthwash he keeps on his desk. Almost any oil can be ozonated, coconut and olive being popular choices.

He shared one story he'd heard from a customer: "her dog was just suffering with recurring ear infections. And this is what finally got it under control." The product was a simple ozonated olive oil ear drop. I can't verify that story, and it's one anecdote, not a study. Recurring ear infections have lots of root causes (food, allergies, yeast, moisture), so if your dog has them, work the root cause too. But it's an easy conversation to have with your vet.

I also floated an idea: rubbing ozonated coconut oil along the gum line of an older dog who can't safely go under anesthesia for a dental. Jonathan said absolutely, though I'd still run it by your vet first.

He also mentioned ozonated glycerin, which he calls "new and kind of like hot and interesting in the ozone world." Here's what he says: "there's been some use cases with tumors in dogs. That have been incredible successes where it's completely shrunk those and reduced them to nothing from being massive." His theory: "it works kind of like a Trojan horse," because glycerin is sweet and "cancer will attract that." He added, "still a lot of research needs to be done." I couldn't find any published evidence on this, so it's his account and an early theory, not an established treatment. If your dog has a tumor, that's a conversation for a veterinary oncologist, ideally an integrative one.

Getting it: your vet first, home second

Jonathan says his company started "over a decade ago, you know, about 14 years now, doing just training and providing equipment for veterinarians," and in recent years has supplied more for home use. His reasoning on cost: "if you do, you know, five or six treatments, you've probably paid for the office visits you would have had to pay for if you're going to the veterinarian. And oftentimes people are doing 30 to 40 treatments on one animal." I can't verify those numbers, so check pricing and your own vet's fees yourself. On training, he says they "walk people through exactly what they're getting into and we'll usually even do a treatment with them... on like a Zoom meeting." And on safety with other therapies: "there's pretty much no treatment that's going to interfere with ozone therapy." That's his statement. I haven't found independent data on interactions, so ask your vet about your pet's specific medications.

If you're interested in the at-home route, start with O3Pets, see how it works, and look at the Get Started page. To find a veterinarian already offering it, check the O3Pets vet map. And if your vet doesn't offer ozone yet, send them to O3Vets. Jonathan says "training can be done in a matter of hours over Zoom meetings," with in-person courses and on-demand training for both vets and pet guardians. Pet parents asking is, honestly, one of the main ways vets learn about new modalities.

My ask is the same as always: get a veterinarian involved. Dosing, delivery method, and which pets shouldn't get it are not things to guess at.

UV blood light therapy and O3UV

This is the newer part of the conversation, and the part where I'd add the most caution.

Jonathan described ultraviolet blood irradiation (he listed several names, including "photobiomodulation, ultraviolet blood irradiation, biophotonic therapy"). In his words: "we're taking blood and we're treating it with ultraviolet light and then reintroducing it back into the vein." His explanation of how it works: "you're creating an auto vaccine." Combined with ozone, he says, "it actually is very synergistic," and he calls the pairing O3UV. He also says it "not only upregulates the immune system" but can help autoimmune conditions where the immune system is "attacking itself." I couldn't verify the autovaccine mechanism or the claim that it works in both directions, so please read those as his explanation, not established science.

He compared it to a treatment used in human medicine called extracorporeal photopheresis, where a patient's blood is treated with light outside the body and returned. That one has real regulatory standing: it was FDA-approved in 1988 for the skin manifestations of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and it's widely used as a later-line treatment for graft-versus-host disease. That's a valid precedent for the idea that treating blood with light can change immune behavior. It isn't the same as UV blood irradiation, though, and photopheresis relies on a light-activated drug that UVBI doesn't, so it doesn't prove UVBI works.

Now the honest part. UV blood irradiation has a long history in the 1930s and 1940s, but modern controlled evidence is lacking. In a 2016 news report on the therapy, an infectious disease physician said he found only decades-old anecdotes, and a researcher who studies alternative medicine said the therapeutic claims hadn't been substantiated by good evidence and raised the question of whether UV could damage blood cells. The device makers dispute that. I found no controlled veterinary trials of O3UV.

So where does that leave you? This is an emerging, low-evidence integrative option that's most reasonably considered, with a vet, when a pet has a serious or chronic condition and you've weighed the alternatives. It's not a first move, and it's not a replacement for a diagnosis and a plan.

The stories: horses and Mochi

Jonathan shared two stories, and I can't verify either, so here they are in his words.

On a horse training course in Ocala, Florida: "These horses were kicking, like just kicking, trying to get away... and immediately after ozone treatments... same palpitations, no response, comfortable." That's his firsthand observation, not a controlled study.

The other was Mochi, a 10-year-old dog. "I believe it was stage four lymphoma. I'm pretty sure it was lymphoma," he said, noting his memory wasn't certain. According to him, the guardian tried a standard chemotherapy protocol, saw her getting worse, stopped, and chose "ozone therapy and one other natural treatment." His account: "Mochi went into remission and stayed there. And last I knew was 14 years old and still kicking." He added, "regardless of what you think, when you see that happen, you've got to be able to say something's going on here." He also told me, "I want to see both" (the studies and the animals).

I do too. A story like Mochi's is real and worth being curious about. It's also one dog, told secondhand, with a second treatment in the mix, and it can't tell us whether ozone caused the outcome or what the odds are for the next dog with lymphoma. I'd never tell anyone to skip an oncologist because of a story, mine included. What it can do is point to questions worth asking an integrative veterinarian.

Why this belongs in the ReWilding conversation

I said it in the episode and I'll say it here: when I think about ozone, I think about how far we've drifted from the conditions our pets were built for. We keep them in sealed, recirculated-air houses, away from sunrise and sunset, off healthy soil, drinking questionable water, and then wonder why inflammation is everywhere. Ozone and light-based therapies are interesting because they borrow from natural elements, oxygen and light, rather than a compounded drug.

But amplified nature is still second to actual nature. The foundation is the same as always: clean food, clean water, clean air, real daylight, time outside, less stress. Use modalities like these as a layer on top of that foundation, with a vet, not instead of it. If you want a starting point, start with How to ReWild Your Pet's Diet and my at-home tests for dogs, because knowing what's actually going on beats guessing.

Questions to bring to your vet

Do you offer ozone therapy, or would you be open to training in it?
Which delivery methods would you use for my pet's condition?
What dose and schedule, and how will we know whether it's working?
Are there conditions or medications that make this a bad idea for my pet?
Would you consider UV or O3UV for a case like ours, and what's the evidence you'd look at?