Greetings Dog Lovers Around the World.
I am honored to have been asked to represent the alternative medical perspective for treating problems that may arise with your dog companions.
First let me introduce myself. I am Jill Elliot, D.V.M. I founded a small animal holistic veterinary practice in New York City called Happy Tails Holistic Veterinary Services. I see cats and dog. Most of these cats and dogs live in apartments in Manhattan or one of the boroughs, and some live in houses in a country-like environment. I mention this, because the problems of these companion animals may be different than animals living in a more rural environment or living primarily in an outdoors setting.
I live with two wonderful cats, Lucy, a 15 year old tortoise shell (black and orange) female, and Cybal, an 8 year old silver Persian female. Both these animals were adopted because their owners could no longer live with them. I was the proud owner of Lickety Split, a Silver and Black Keeshond for 13 years, until he passed away two years ago.
I graduated Ross School of Veterinary Medicine in June 1995 and have practiced conventional veterinary medicine since that time. Three years ago I started to explore the alternative medicine field. In particular, I studied homeopathy. I started by using homeopathy on my own companion when conventional medicine was unable to achieve any success in various medical problems. I saw tremendous improvement in my dog’s chronic disease, as well as improvement in his energy. He also lost his life time fear of thunderstorms as a coincidence of treatment.
I then started using homeopathy with my conventional clients and again saw tremendous improvement in their conditions, in many instances, where the conventional treatments had little effect.
I hope to be able to elucidate what homeopathy and other holistic treatments can offer your animal companions so that they will have a longer and healthier life.
How Homeopathy and Conventional Medicine Differ
Let’s start with an explanation about the difference between conventional medicine and homeopathy.
Conventional veterinary medicine is based on the predominant medical philosophy taught in various schools of veterinary medicine in the United States and various other countries. It uses the medical model to examine your animal companion and diagnose the medical problem. It does this by physical examination as well as other diagnostic tests. These can include blood tests, urine analysis, x-rays, ultrasound, etc. Once a diagnosis is reached, the veterinarian may prescribe antibiotics, steroids; specialized veterinary diet or a medical intervention likes surgery. These procedures are based on the diagnosis reached.
Holistic medicine is an umbrella term that includes a variety of alternative approaches to healing such as acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, etc. By the way, these are all recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association as acceptable treatments, if practiced by a veterinarian with postgraduate training in these areas. Many of these methods, especially acupuncture and homeopathy, are practiced solely or in conjunction with conventional medicine in other parts of the world (Japan, England, Germany, etc.) All of these modalities have a proven tract record of providing healing when used appropriately by trained professionals. The qualified veterinarians practicing these alternative methods have spent many years of postgraduate training before engaging in these modalities.
One question you as a consumer should ask any holistic/alternative veterinary practitioner, is about their training in whatever modality offered by them.
The Holistic Approach
Homeopathy differs from conventional medicine in many ways. One of the major ways is that the practitioner takes into account the entire picture presented by the patient. This includes the medical signs as well as the mental state of the patient. Both of these areas are very important in order to come up with the correct remedy for each condition seen.
The homeopathy does not base his/her prescription on a diagnosis. Therefore if he/she is presented with two different dogs with liver disease, the specifics of the case will guide his prescription.
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For instance, one dog many show signs of anorexic (loss of appetite) without thirst, and has diarrhea as well as has an irritable personality. The second dog may have not appetite, be very thirsty, have bouts of vomiting early in the morning and seem lethargic most of the time. A conventional veterinarian would most surely treat both of these dogs with the same liver disease much the same way. Whereas the homeopathy would prescribe two different remedies based on the two different pictures of the case being presented.
In addition, homeopathy can also be used to treat personality disorders like fears, separation anxiety, aggression to just name a few. Conventional medicine can only offer suppressive drugs for these problems. When the drugs are stopped the behavior usually returns. Whereas with homeopathy permanent cure can be achieved, as I experienced with my own dog and his fear of thunderstorms.
Like Cures Like
A German physician named Samuel Hahnemann developed homeopathy in the 1800s. Dr. Hahnemann studied the medicines of his time. He found that he could use very small dilutions of these medicines to achieve cures whereas excesses of these medicines could poison or kill. He discovered this by doing “provings”. These provings were done on healthy people to find out what symptoms could be produced by these remedies. (This is very different from how modern medicines are developed. They are usually tested on ill persons.) Dr. Hahnemann found that whatever symptoms the remedies could produce in healthy people, they could also cure in people showing these symptoms.
Therefore the expression was coined “like cures like”.
Another difference between conventional medicine and homeopathy is that conventional medicine tried to stop symptoms. They seem to think that symptoms are the disease and if they stop the symptoms, they are curing the disease. Actually they are very good at suppressing disease. However often the disease returns in the future, usually in a worse state than the original disease. Homeopathy sees symptoms as expression of the disease but not the disease itself. Each individual will express the disease in different ways, therefore the different symptoms are very important in helping to point to the correct remedy to be chosen.
Healthier and Happier
Homeopathy always tries to have the patient use his or her own life force to try to cure the disease. In some cases the patient may be too sick to be able to be cured. But cure, if possible, is usually the goal of most treatment. In many cases, even if total cure is not possible, the patient feels better and is better able to live with the medicine disease. In many cases there is great improvement and the patient with a terminal disease may live a longer time than expected and be in a healthier and happier state for that whole time.
Another different I alluded to earlier is that conventional medicine tries to eradicate discharges. Whereas homeopathy encourages gentle discharges. Homeopathy views discharges as the body’s way of clearing itself of toxins. If these toxins are suppressed, they have to be cleared through internal organs, which then become toxic and eventually become diseased.
These are very different ways of approaching disease and treatment. They are conflicting in nature. As a consumer, you might be very confused as to which approach is best for your animal companion. The topic is vast and much more complicated than can be explained in this column. I will suggest several books that you can read to deepen your own understanding of homeopathy. And in future articles I will discuss various aspects of homeopathy, how it works, what it can and cannot do.
Homeopathy is a slower gentler treatment with the goal of achieving the highest level of health for your animal companion. In addition to homeopathy, we will also discuss optimal nutrition to aiding this process. Different countries throughout the world have very different diets, but will discuss concepts as guides.
In closing, I hope you have a basic understanding of the differences between conventional medicine and homeopathic treatment philosophies. I look forward to deepening you knowledge by writing future columns.
Looking forward to contributing to a happier, healthier future for all our animals’ companions.
Jill Elliot, D.V.M.
Happy Tails Holistic Veterinary Services
New York City, New York
Suggested Reading List
For deepening your knowledge I suggest the following reading materials:
Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs (Small Doses for Small Animals)
By Don Hamilton, DVM, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1999
Natural Health For Dogs and Cats
By Richard Pitcairn, DVM, Ph.D. and Susan Pitcairn,
Rodele Press, Inc, Emmaus, PA, l995
Demystifying Homeopathy
By Jacob Mirman, MD, 5117 France Ave. South, Edina, MN 55410, (1999)
Fax: 612-836-1283;
to order on line or read the entire book on line go to
http://www.demystify.com
Or just read all on their website:
http://demystifyinghomeopathy.com
Reigning Cats and Dogs (4th Edition) (discusses raw food diets)
By Pat McKay, Oscar Publications, Pasadena, CA 1998
