Holistic veterinarians help to prevent and treat illness and disease in animals by placing their focus on the whole individual, rather than just addressing certain symptoms. By its very nature, holistic medicine is humane, minimally invasive, and gentle. It seeks to correct root causes of the ‘dis-ease’, whether they are emotional or physical, and to achieve balance and harmony within the animal being treated.
While it is sometimes necessary to use both conventional and alternative medical approaches to help animals achieve the best possible health and well-being, this integrative approach is still considered holistic. Everything that affects the animal, including their disease pattern, environment, genetics, nutrition, level of exercise, and interrelationships with their human family, are taken into consideration to develop the best treatment protocol. A combination of various natural and conventional therapies may sometimes be the best answer to achieve healthy goals.
Natural support such as vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements, oral, and topical herbal preparations, flower essence formulas, homeopathics, and aromatherapy, can make a significant, positive difference for animals in disease prevention, and for the successful treatment of both acute and chronic illnesses. Like their conventional colleagues, holistic and integrative vets will employ surgery and drugs for more acute or traumatic situations, but will also support quicker and more efficacious healing by adding appropriate natural approaches to complement the more modern medical approaches.
The world of natural healing provides an expansive cornucopia of choices and solutions for both humans and animals. Using plants, flowers, nutrients, and other naturally-occurring substances, natural remedies for pets abound as more people choose this healing route for their furry families. It is important to remember that just because a product is natural, does not automatically mean it is safe. While natural remedies for health are generally less toxic and cause fewer side effects than conventional medicines, not every substance is safe for every individual, nor appropriate to use with other existing health conditions.
It is always recommended to seek out the advice of a professional veterinarian qualified in the use of holistic health products before using anything, conventional or natural, with your pets. It is crucial to use products from reputable companies, as this natural industry is still fairly unregulated, and there are many products on the market that will cause more harm than good. That goes for conventional pet products, as well.
Herbal supplements and topical products for animals use a range of plants to provide specific, desired effects. Formulations include capsules, tablets, liquid extracts and sprays for oral ingestion, and creams, gels, sprays, lotions, and drops for topical applications. Specific formulations for animals differ in contents, concentration, and potency from those made for humans, to ensure safety and efficacy for their different physiology and smaller bodies.
Natural herbal products intended for oral ingestion may include separate vitamins, minerals or other nutrients such as Omega 3 essential fatty acids. Natural herbal products made for topical use may also contain other natural ingredients, such as essential oils, aloe vera gel, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), and certain oils like jojoba to promote faster healing.
As the safest natural products on the market, flower essences never contraindicate with other health conditions, medications or surgery. Originally developed by British physician, Dr. Edward Bach, flower essences are specially prepared and extremely diluted so that only the ‘vibrational essence’ remains. This is what makes them so safe to use, and they also have no aroma, making them a great choice for just about every creature on this planet!
Flower essences are thought to provide gentle and subtle healing influences on the body and mind to help correct physical, behavioral and emotional imbalances in animals. One of the most used and trusted flower essence formulas for decades has been the Bach Rescue Remedy. The alcohol-free pet version is perfect to help de-stress any animal, and tends to work very quickly, within minutes, for both acute and chronic stress, trauma and pain.
The practice of aromatherapy utilizes concentrated, volatile, and aromatic oils extracted from plants, generally through steam distillation or expeller/cold pressing. Referred to as essential oils, these substances are the strongest form of natural medicine, and they provide healing through inhalation and also skin absorption. Highly effective with both mental and physical health disorders, aromatherapy is often one of the most pleasant therapies for humans, working to balance and normalize our bodies and minds as soon as we smell the aromas of the essential oils.
While aromatherapy can also be pleasant and healing for animals, we cannot stress enough the importance of consulting a qualified professional holistic veterinarian before using essential oils or products containing essential oils with your pet. Concentrations need to be extremely low to be safe for use with dogs, while some vets recommend staying away from them completely for cats, and they should never be used around birds. There are a number of essential oils that shouldn’t be used around any animal, ever. All that said, products from reputable companies offer a wide range of both topical and diffuser aromatherapy products for animals in safe concentrations that can help a wide range of health conditions and pet-related concerns, such as flea and tick control, muscle and joint pain, and skin and coat related issues.
Somewhat similar to flower essence therapy, homeopathy uses plants and other natural materials that have been specially processed and diluted to create a wide range of remedies for specific healing purposes. While homeopathic remedies prepared or prescribed by an actual Homeopathic Veterinarian are extremely potent and should only be used on animals under professional supervision, over-the-counter homeopathic products for general public consumption are exceptionally safe, with few, if any side effects.
Homeopathy works on the principle that ‘like cures like’, and the original substance used in its full form would tend to cause the very same symptoms one is trying to treat. But these substances are repeatedly shaken and diluted, so that eventually, only the ‘vibrational essence’ remains. When the animal ingests the right homeopathic remedy that matches the vibrational field of the source of illness, it is believed that this acts as a stimulant for the body to help it kick in with its own natural healing processes to heal the root cause of the illness. If the wrong remedy is chosen, however, it won’t tend to cause any negative symptoms or side effects, but it won’t help heal the dis-ease, either. To ensure you’re using the right OTC homeopathic product for your own pets, be sure to consult with a qualified and knowledgeable holistic veterinarian.
