Vet smart: comprehensive health care for pets

It's a concern shared increasingly by conventional practitioners. "As humans, we all go through a series of vaccinations, and rarely do we have boosters given over a lifetime, so why would our immune system be that different from a dog's or cat's?" asks Peg Rucker, DVM, past president of the American Animal Hospital Association. "I think the reality is that, as a profession, we have been treating vaccines as a commodity. We've been pushing it like a flea product. Frankly, it shouldn't be that way. It's a medical decision."

Most agree it's not a matter of not vaccinating, but of vaccinating prudently. Says Kohn, "I take the approach that puppies or kittens should wait for the initial vaccination until they are at least 8 weeks. We don't want to get into eight, ten or twelve vaccines in the first year. Three is the maximum. At one year, we give a booster, and then it's up to the client."

Healthy Lifestyles

Finally, while many pet owners turn to holistic medicine for the first time only after exhausting conventional cures, practitioners say the best time to visit is while your pet is still the picture of health. "Even though animals might not look like they're in pain or having any ailment," says Robinson, "by using various techniques, we can help detect problems early.

"For example, puppies tend to be real healthy, their muscles are loose, they have a range of motion in their joints. But just in the process of living and playing, they can get stresses on their systems. Once the muscles become shortened from just a slight injury, if that isn't resolved, it's going to lead to more muscle strain. If someone is available to evaluate it, they may detect it early and fix it, and the body is returned to health."

And, in the end, whether its conventional or alternative medicine, for those of us who love our pets, optimal health is the ultimate goal.

RELATED ARTICLE: Butch the boxer: the healing power of pet acupuncture.

by Lori Tobias

By the time Deedee Pavlik rescued Butch from the Colorado animal shelter, the epileptic boxer had already been abandoned once and rejected by adoptive families twice.

"They told us he was epileptic," Pavlik says, "but I don't think anyone knew how bad it was. He had 17 seizures in one night. We carried him to the Colorado State University Veterinary Hospital. They had to take him in on a gurney."

Days later, Butch was released with a new regimen of several drugs. The medication helped ease the seizures, but it also sapped his energy and triggered bladder infections. Before long, the seizures returned, necessitating higher dosages of medication. And so it went for 3 years. Higher and higher dosages of drugs brought short-term relief, but the seizures always returned. No one was sure what would kill the boxer first, the seizures or the drugs.

"Finally," Pavlik says, "it got to the point where the doctor was giving him so much medication, he said, 'This is too much. Butch is the worst case of epilepsy I've seen. I don't believe in it, but there is a lady here who does acupuncture. I don't know what else to do with Butch.'"