Editorial Policy
Last reviewed: 2026-11-05 · PawElden Editorial
1. Why this policy exists
PawElden publishes owner education for senior dogs. Owners often arrive late at night, worried, after noticing a change in an aging dog. That moment deserves discipline, not marketing. This page explains, in plain English, how content on pawelden.com is researched, worded, reviewed, and updated.
We hold ourselves to a YMYL ("Your Money or Your Life") standard: wherever a topic can affect a dog's health or an owner's wallet, we show our work and stay inside what the evidence supports.
2. The three-tier verdict framework
Every symptom guide sorts its advice into the same three verdicts, so an owner always knows how strong the ground is under a recommendation:
| Tier | Verdict label | What belongs there |
|---|---|---|
| ✅ Works | "Backed by mainstream veterinary guidance" | Comfort, monitoring, and environment actions only (for example resting surfaces, home traction, tracking changes). Never carries treatment claims. |
| 🤔 Uncertain | "Mixed or thin evidence — decide with your vet" | Research is inconsistent or limited; supplement categories such as glucosamine/chondroitin and CBD sit here. The message: talk it through with your veterinarian before spending money. |
| 🚫 Don't Waste Money | "Skip unless your vet specifically advises" | Category-level wording only; we name categories, never attack brands. Real marketing language may appear only inside quotation marks, clearly attributed. |
3. Source tiers
Tier 1 — required for every medical-adjacent claim. Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine; the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA); WSAVA; AVDC (dental topics); AAHA; peer-reviewed journals such as JAVMA.
Tier 2 — context and product logistics only. VCA Animal Hospitals, the Merck Veterinary Manual, and university extension resources may support background and logistics context; a Tier-2 source never carries a medical claim on its own.
Not accepted as evidence: commercial pet blogs, product or vendor pages, content farms, AI-generated aggregator pages, and forums. Owner anecdotes may illustrate an experience but are never cited as evidence.
4. Review chain and interim posture
Two gates stand between a draft and publication, and no guide publishes without both:
- Structured self-edit. Every guide is checked line by line against the site template: verdict framework, source tiers, wording rules, and disclosure placement.
- Internal evidence review. Our editorial lead reviews every claim against the source it cites, followed by a final owner sign-off before anything goes live.
Interim posture (labeled as interim): Our in-house editorial review follows published veterinary guidance; an independent veterinary review program is in preparation.
PawElden never states or implies that its content has completed veterinary or medical review, and we use no endorsement-class wording about the site itself.
5. Update policy
- Every page carries a last-reviewed date.
- Medical-adjacent pages are re-validated — including every source link — before any republication, even for small edits.
- Dead or moved citations are fixed or replaced before publish; nothing goes live with a broken evidence trail.
- Medical-adjacent guides are re-reviewed at least every 12 months — sooner if major veterinary guidance changes.
6. Wording rules
These bans apply to every page on the site:
- No disease-reversal claims. We never state or imply that any product, supplement, food, or routine reverses, eliminates, or resolves a disease.
- No absolute-outcome promises. We never promise results for an individual dog; outcomes vary, and we say so.
- "Proven"-class outcome words appear only in the same sentence as a direct link to a specific peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial; otherwise we avoid them entirely.
- No endorsement badges. We never suggest that a veterinarian or veterinary organization has endorsed this site, our content, or any product we discuss.
- No diagnosis framing toward the reader's dog. We describe patterns and signs; diagnosis belongs to a veterinarian who has examined the dog.
- No dosing instructions. No amounts, frequencies, strengths, or schedules for supplements or medications — ever.
- No fabricated endorsements, statistics, or urgency. No invented quotes, invented numbers, or "act now" pressure.
- Category-level wording only in the 🚫 Don't Waste Money tier (see Section 2).
7. How content is produced
Content is produced with editorial tooling and human review; AI is used as an assistant under human editorial control, and every published guide passes the full review chain in Section 4.
8. Affiliate integration rule
- Affiliate links appear only in the ✅ Works tier.
- Maximum of 2 product mentions per guide.
- The FTC disclosure module sits above the first mention in every guide that carries a link.
Full details: our Affiliate Disclosure page.
9. If you disagree with a page
Corrections and source challenges are welcome and are treated as part of the editorial process. See the Contact page; updates are handled under Section 5.