Here’s how an integrative health approach may be the best option for your pet

These days, we are all looking for ways for our pets to live longer, happier and healthier lives. Advances in veterinary medicine are going a long way to help animal lovers accomplish these goals. However, often the approach to solving a patient’s medical issues is still archaic in nature. You take your pet to the vet for a specific reason, say she’s having trouble walking, and the vet focuses solely on the area the symptoms seem to be coming from, rather than considering your dog’s body as a whole and other factors that could be affecting it. For example, your dog may be favoring a foot due to nerve pain originating in the spine.

Medical care practitioners sometimes get hung up in the symptoms and specific problems and forget about the rest of the animal. Integrative Health, on the other hand, looks at your entire pet for answers to their health problems.

“Being integrative means talking the whole animal into consideration,” Dr. Timothy Mann told iHeartDogs. “Instead of seeing an ear infection or a list symptoms and problems, you are seeing a living being and using all senses to make lives better.”

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Timothy Mann, VMD, is the author of The Beautiful Aardvark: A Veterinarian’s Story In Business (March 30, 2016), and owner of the newly established Whole Health Veterinary Hospital and Dental Clinic in New York City. The clinic takes a compassionate, integrative health approach to promoting the well-being of its staff, its clients and their pets. Previously, Dr. Mann founded and ran the Brooklyn Cares Veterinary Clinic, a veterinary practice serving over 17,000 clients in Brooklyn, New York.

An integrative health approach for pets, he explains, combines traditional practices such as medications with holistic and alternative therapies such as acupuncture, laser therapy and nutritional counseling. It is ideal for helping pets heal and stay well and happy because it:

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• Takes into account the whole animal rather than zeroing in solely on a specific diagnosis, and
• Leverages every tool available to contemporary practitioners.

Moreover, because an integrative approach puts a premium on compassion, it is humane.

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So What Does This Mean When You Bring Your Pet To The Vet?

Take for example this cat Dr. Mann recently saw that was blind. He explains:

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I just saw a cat who was blind. Instead of focusing in on the eyes or just looking at that, we found high blood pressure due to a thyroid disorder which was causing the blindness. Given any luck, we can reverse the blindness and make this cat live much longer. It can be done with medication or herbal therapy or radiation. How the treatment is done is up to the owner but giving the full story is the integrative approach.

Had he just looked at this cat’s symptoms – blindness – he may have come to the conclusion that it was irreversible and would have focused on what the owners needed to do to live with a blind cat rather than look for an underlying cause that may have been treatable. Thanks to his integrative approach, this cat may get her sight back.

Another example is a dog named Liberty who came into Dr. Mann’s practice last week with facial swelling. Liberty had been seen by another vet three week ago for an annual wellness appointment and the owners were concerned about arthritis (being a 9 year old Great Dane, it is a large problem).

Dr. Mann said the other vet took some blood and found he had very high liver values. He explains below:

Instead of following the bad bloodwork, the conventional vet said, “Ah, he’s nine, how long is he going to live anyway?” Told the owner that liver disease can happen in older dogs and not to worry about it. Gave them Rimadyl – an anti-inflammatory, which is bad for the liver. [Liberty ended up] with wildly high liver values and facial swelling. The disease that was occurring was not addressed. While you should always decrease pain, being integrative means more options:

1. Treat the underlying disorder, figure out what it is.
2. Present lots of options. My dog is an older Rootie/Poodle mix and I don’t use Rimadyl a common anti-inflammatory unless I need to. She is treated with stem cells every 2 years, low level laser, acupuncture, omega three fatty acid supplements and joint supports. I may use Rimadyl during bad days or when we go for long hikes but I have more options.
3. Respect what the owner wants. If it is just Rimadyl, that’s fine as long as the owner is given all the options. Most like making choices and knowing the side effects/consequences. Using even omega three supplements would be 1/2 the price and may or may not have the same effect. It’s worth trying.

Either way, everyone’s goal is to make your best friend even better!

Again, there is such a different between the integrative approach and what you may be used to when you go the vet’s office. Knowing you have options and that there might be a better way to treat your pet is a huge deal when it comes to bettering our pet’s lives. And, like in the case of Rimadyl vs. supplements, save you some money.

Cost

This does not mean that integrative care is always cheaper. Since you are trying to find the root of a problem, it could cost more at first (with tests, etc.) depending on what you are dealing with. And of course, if you don’t have to keep going to the vet because your pet is in more pain or getting worse, you will save money. In the case of Liberty, they paid two vets to take care of something and the second one was an emergency call. You know how expensive that can be!

The good news is that most insurance companies should cover integrative treatments, so check with your provider about your specific coverage.

The best thing about this type of vet care, as mentioned, is it gives you options. It’s always good to know there is more than one way to treat your pet’s health issues and that you can try different ones if needed until you find one that works. So next time you are at your vet’s office, ask them about doing more. If they refuse, you may have to do some research and find a vet that is more open to an integrative approach – it could change both of your lives for the better.

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