Natural Pet Medicine Holistic Veterinary Care Holism is seeing a dog with an ear that keeps on becoming infected and curing him permanently by changing him to a natural diet. It is not just giving symptomatic antibiotics and steroids. However we may on occasions do just that if it is appropriate but hopefully just short term.
Holism is seeing a cat with a lower urinary tract problem and treating their resentment to a new cat in the house or garden to resolve the situation. Many vets will try to do this but because of time constraints use shortcuts such as prescription diets and anti-inflammatories.
In the ear infection example I might use antibiotics initially or the first time we see a problem but if it keeps coming back we look deeper into diet, emotional problems and other factors. The time spent doing this can be a lot longer than the standard consultations and more expensive to start off with but you will save in the long run.
Animals have evolved to cope with a certain diet and way of life, the closer we stick to this natural way of life while still enjoying modern comforts the better. I believe much of the behavioural problems, allergies and autoimmune diseases we see in our companions all result from modern drugs and modern life styles. The aim of the site is to help minimise this. A truly Holistic approach is more than just using herbs or homeopathy rather than modern drugs, one tries to take into account all aspects of the animals well being, in particular diet when deciding on a treatment regime. Modern medicine can also have an important role in Holistic medicine and need not be avoided out of hand. The saying "prevention is better than cure" is very true and should be considered in any healing path but an holistic approach looking at diet, avoidable stresses, exercise and constitution seems to be the most affective.
The site has some introductions to the different 'modalities' we can use sometimes called alternative or complementary treatments. Many of the homeopathic remedies, dietary supplements or herbal medicines can be used in junction with modern conventional medicines and I am certainly not against using modern techniques and diagnostics.
Read more about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and its use in pets on our sister website
