Is it Right for Your Puppy?
Your veterinarian may already be incorporating some less traditional, or alternative, methods into the way he or she treats your puppy. If you're not really sure how these could or should benefit your pup, it's easy to find out. Through all his life stages, the more you know about all the approaches to health care, the greater your perspective when it comes time to treating your puppy for a disease.
Alternative care is also referred to as holistic, integrative, or complementary, as well as nontraditional. These are all ways to differentiate it from traditional or conventional care.
It seems everyone has their own interpretation of what “alternative” or “holistic” means relative to health care. Here's how the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association defines it:
Holistic medicine, by its very nature, is humane to the core. The wholeness of its scope will set up a lifestyle for the animal that is most appropriate. The techniques used in holistic medicine are gentle, minimally invasive, and incorporate patient well-being and stress reduction. Holistic thinking is centered on love, empathy and respect.
This mixture of healing arts and skills is as natural as life itself. At the core of this issue lies the very essence of the word “(w)holistic.” It means taking in the whole picture of the patient — the environment, the disease pattern, the relationship of pet with owner — and developing a treatment protocol using a wide range of therapies for healing the patient.
In a way, it's quite commonsensical, and rather than be perplexing, alternative care can be easily incorporated into what you do with and how you treat your puppy daily.
This chapter will explore some of the more common alternative therapies available, and you can certainly do your own research. One place to start is with the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) at www.ahvma.org. Founded in 1982, the AHVMA helps veterinarians and pet owners expand their understanding of treatment options.
How Does It Work?
When a veterinarian takes a holistic approach, he or she not only works from a complete physical examination, but also examines the influences of nutrition, behavior, past medical history, stress, and any other contributing factors. Like a conventional veterinarian, a holistic practitioner will start with blood work to gauge your puppy's overall health. A urine or feces sample may be necessary, as well. The veterinarian will go on to ask you about the nuances of your puppy's lifestyle and schedule at home. Maybe you moved recently, and your pup started itching more out of stress or an allergic reaction to a new carpet or floor finish. Maybe you switched detergents and when you washed his bed the new soap became an irritant. Maybe the sound of a garbage truck has spooked your puppy into soiling a particular area in the house.
While getting to the root of the problem may take longer this way, the “cure” is a real one, and not just a medication that might mask the real problem. Of course, medication may be just what your puppy needs, or medication in combination with a small but important environmental change.
