Introduction

"It does not matter whether medicine is old or new, so long as it brings about a cure. It matters not whether theories be eastern or western, so long as they prove to be true."

Jen Hsou Lin, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Holistic veterinary medicine, also known as alternative, complementary, or integrative veterinary medicine, is increasing in importance and use in veterinary practice. Conventional training of veterinary assistants and receptionists usually omits most methods of complementary medicine; thus, anyone working for a holistic veterinarian may have to learn by osmosis, so to speak. Pet owners are often more knowledgeable in this field than technicians or veterinarians, but they are also sources of misinformation. If you know at least a little bit about a subject, even if complementary medicine is not performed in your practice, clients are more likely to tell you about any complementary therapies they are using and to accept your advice about combining or dropping certain therapies. (This is especially important when the therapies they are using are interfering with useful conventional treatment.) Other pet owners have many beginners' questions that could be easily answered by a technician with a little knowledge, allowing the holistic veterinarian to spend time doing what he or she does best: applying additional methods of diagnosis and treatment to chronic conditions that do not respond well to conventional treatments.

Objectives

The objectives of this book are to help the technician to

• understand holistic veterinary medicine
• educate the public about holistic veterinary medicine
• understand his or her role in helping the holistic veterinarian
• understand what he or she can and cannot do in a veterinary practice
• learn about methods the technicians themselves can use either alone or in a veterinary practice
• gain some familiarity with what a holistic veterinarian can and cannot do
• learn about training and certification programs in various aspects of holistic medicine for technicians and veterinarians
• learn how to judge whether a nontraditional treatment shows promise even if it sounds crazy

The place of the technician can be especially important when performing the following tasks:

• answering general questions about holistic medicine
• discussing the practice's views on holistic medicine
• explaining what the veterinarian does and does not do
• explaining Chinese medical theory
• taking a holistic history
• designing, judging, and feeding holistic diets
• explaining the care and administration of homeopathic remedies and preparing those remedies
• explaining how to store and administer herbal medications
• preparing their veterinarian's prescription for herbal tinctures and ointments
• helping with hospice care and grief counseling
• designing and administering a physical therapy program

Overview of Holistic Medicine

Veterinarians are interested in holistic medicine for a number of reasons. Many holistic veterinarians became interested because they themselves were helped by holistic rather than conventional medicine. Others saw the results that a holistic veterinarian was achieving that they themselves were unable to achieve using conventional medicine.

Some methods used in holistic medicine can add income and clients to the practice with only a little study and a minimum of additional expense. At the other extreme, however, are methods that require more expensive education and lifelong study. A holistic veterinarian may use a single modality, a few, or a combination of many. In general, no matter how it is used, complementary medicine emphasizes wellness, natural methods, treating the whole animal (not just a single disease), and preventive medicine. The human-animal bond often plays a big part in holistic medicine.

To attract clients who are interested in holistic methods, both the technician and the veterinarian must understand the clients' viewpoints and speak their language. In addition, if the clinicians in a practice are recognized as being knowledgeable about complementary medicine, the practice's clients are more likely to turn to the veterinarian rather than the Internet as a source of information, which may prevent problems with malnutrition and misuse of herbs and other modalities. Instead of ignoring warnings about a dangerous practice, pet owners will act on the veterinarian's advice, perhaps preventing a catastrophe. For example, when grapes and raisins were first recognized as causing kidney damage in susceptible individuals, there was a message making the rounds of pet owner e-mail lists that this was just another example of veterinarians who thought all dogs should eat only commercial dog food and that grapes were a healthy treat for dogs. Holistic veterinarians answered those claims, spread the word about the very real dangers of possible kidney damage, gave supporting case studies, and their responses rapidly replaced those uninformed comments. Until a veterinarian who is respected in the alternative medicine community gives a valid response to this type of misinformation, there is a very real danger of problems such as this as well as the use of toxic herbs, improper detoxification procedures (which can lead to death), avoidance of veterinary care until it is too late, and other disasters.

Complementary Medicine for Small Animals

The goal of holistic medicine is to normalize the body, bring it back into balance, help it heal itself, and provide solutions that are more natural and have less side effects than those used in traditional medicine. Better food, the right kind of exercise, and treating the whole animal, not just the symptoms, are elements of practicing holistic medicine. Instead of giving medications that just counteract the symptoms without fixing the root cause, holistic medicine tries to heal the body and stop or reverse the cause itself.

Conventional veterinarians follow this practice to a certain extent and have begun using items that have been staples of holistic medicine for years. (See Chapter 4 for examples.)

For instance, to treat inflammatory bowel disease, special diets are often prescribed, some of which contain prebiotics. An increasing number of companies are now also marketing probiotics to conventional veterinarians to treat this disease as well as others. Veterinarians who are specialists in internal medicine are also incorporating all parts of this approach. Doing so is good for you, your pet, and the environment. Because complementary medicine aims to treat the whole animal, not just the disease, the idea of the holistic approach is to help the body heal itself (by correcting abnormal balance of bacterial species in the gut as well as by giving them prebiotics to help them thrive) rather than use methods to fight single problems (such as fighting bacterial overgrowth with antibiotics alone and inflammation of the gut with corticosteroids alone) and ignore others (including side effects brought on by those other methods).

To determine what is wrong in the whole animal, diagnostic methods and vocabulary may be used that are different from that to which conventional veterinarians are accustomed, including methods that have been used for thousands of years. These methods may bring insight by offering a new way of looking at a problem and may guide the veterinarian to a new treatment modality. This is especially true of chronic diseases. For example, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a catch-all term for chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Veterinarians will readily admit that what works for one animal will not work for all animals in the treatment of this disease. In fact, a diet that helps one animal (such as a high-fiber diet) may harm another animal (that requires a low-fiber diet). By using traditional Chinese theory, Ayurvedic medicine, or taking a homeopathic case study, this general diagnosis can be broken down into a number of different parts, each of which would require different herbs or remedies and diets. Instead of a hit-or-miss treatment method (if this doesn't work, try that thing next), a more precise treatment may begin right away.

Another tenet of holistic medicine is the idea that we and our pets are bombarded by unnatural substances: artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, substances such as corn gluten meal, insecticides, air fresheners, cat litter perfumes, even nylon dog collars. These substances can build up in the body and cause reactions in sensitive individuals. Treatment consists of not only removing these from the environment but also removing them from the body by a procedure known as detoxification. Again, conventional medicine has now recognized problems caused by many of these substances.

Overvaccination is an issue of concern to many holistic veterinarians. Fibrosarcomas in cats have been linked to vaccination. Other less well-known problems may include autoimmune disease and chronic arteritis as well as other chronic inflammatory diseases (Hogenesch et al., 1999; Souayah et al., 2009). The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) all now recommend vaccinating less often than once a year for most diseases except for canine bordetella and canine influenza. Research that was in progress at the time of the first...