By Carrie Hyde | May 27, 2022
We know how nervous going to the vet makes our pets, but what many owners don’t see is the anxiety a trip to the vet can sow in us. This is especially true for those of us who lean more holistic than the typical veterinarian.
For us, going to the vet often means getting into arguments with the doctor or having to lie about our treatment plans. Neither of these circumstances is good for us or the vet. And, most importantly, they can negatively impact our pets’ care.
If you tend to be more holistically minded and don’t have the option to use a holistic or naturopath vet for your pet’s care, then this article is for you. Below, we’ll outline the differences between traditional vet medicine and holistic pet care and walk you through some helpful ways to deal with your vet to reduce anxiety and arguments to assure your dog gets the best care possible.
What Is Traditional Veterinary Medicine?
Traditional veterinary medicine revolves around western treatments for ailments and diseases. These treatments typically include prescription drug therapy, anti-inflammatory drugs, surgery, antibiotics, and other symptoms-specific treatments.
This type of vet medicine is also heavily focused on pharmaceutical preventatives like dewormers, flea and tick treatments, and vaccinations.
Much of traditional medicine is symptom-focused rather than root-cause-focused or whole-body-focused. For instance, if you take your dog to a traditional vet for an ear infection, they’re likely to prescribe antibiotic ear cream to cure the ear infection. What they typically will not do is look for the root cause of the ear infection. Because the cause is not addressed, it is likely the infection will return down the road.
In some cases, such as a broken bone, treating the specific reason for the visit is enough to ensure the wellbeing of the pet. But in many cases, addressing the symptoms is not enough to prevent the problem from returning or prevent other problems from arising that stem from the same cause.
What Is Holistic Pet Care?
Holistic pet care, on the other hand, is focused on looking at the whole picture.
Treatment plans in holistic pet care often revolve around diet, alignment, systemic health, and therapies meant to target whole systems or the whole body. Specific treatment options may include acupuncture, massage, chiropractic adjustments, aromatherapy, and nutrition supplements. While more traditional treatments may be used to address symptoms, these additional steps are employed to balance the root cause of the issue.
If you take your dog to a holistic vet for an ear infection, they are likely to receive treatment for the symptoms as well as a workup to test for allergies, imbalances, and nutritional deficits known to cause ear infections.
How to Approach Your Vet as a Holistic Pet Owner
If you are holistically minded, then going to a vet that uses more holistic approaches to medicine is a great idea. Unfortunately, most of us do not have this option.
Luckily, even if you find yourself stuck with a traditional vet, there are still many steps you can take to assure your pet gets the best whole-picture care possible. And you can achieve this without arguing with or lying to the doctor by using these simple approaches.
Be Clear on Your Stance on Preventative Care
At least once a year, you’re likely to find yourself at the vet for a simple checkup appointment. It is at these visits that most holistically-minded owners tend to feel the most threatened by traditional veterinary approaches. This is because these are the appointments where preventative measures are most likely to be discussed.
Most holistic practitioners and followers prefer to take a “keep the body healthy to prevent disease approach.” Meanwhile, most traditional docs prefer a “use chemicals to thwart off problems before they start” approach. Often, these two mindsets are at odds since many of these chemicals can harm the body.
The first thing you should do when establishing a relationship with your vet at these annual appointments is to be clear on your stance on chemical preventatives. This doesn’t have to be an argument so long as you are open and respectful to your vet’s point of view, and they give you the same courtesy.
Simply tell them that you prefer not to use preventatives unless your pet is at high risk for developing the condition they are meant to treat. If you are already using an herbal or holistic preventative for the condition, be open about it and be prepared to back up your choice with scientific research about its effectiveness.
If your vet believes a specific chemical treatment is necessary because your pet may already be infected, such as with intestinal worms, ask that they run diagnostics to confirm first.
If your vet is adamant about a preventative because your pet is at high risk for something, such as heartworm in a southern state, then it is in your pet’s best interest to hear them out. If you’d prefer to do more research on alternative preventatives, that’s okay too, but be open about that. Tell your vet you will come back if you can’t find an effective natural option (and if you can’t, then the chemical preventative is your best option, so do make sure you come back).
Open a Dialogue About Vaccinations
Vaccinations are another common preventative that traditional vets lean on. While many holistically-minded people bristle at the mention of vaccines, the truth is, these can be incredibly effective in preventing diseases.
Every nine minutes, someone in the world dies of rabies, a disease that is almost always transmitted to humans through domesticated animals. In the US, we rarely see over 5 rabies deaths in a single year. This remarkable achievement is thanks entirely to the use of the rabies vaccine in pets.
All this is to say that some vaccines are absolutely worth the risks associated with the shot.
Outside of rabies, determining whether a vaccine is worth it or not, depends on which one it is, what your pet’s risk of getting that disease is, and how dangerous the results would be if they did get it.
Understanding all of these factors can only be accomplished if you are willing to open a dialogue with your vet. Be straightforward about how you feel about vaccinations and that you only want to give your pets the shots they absolutely need.
For many pets, especially those who spend most of their time indoors and who are not exposed to areas where wild animals roam, you can often get away with the bare minimum in the vaccine department. And, older pets that have had their early shots can often opt for titers instead of revaccination to determine their coverage.
Vaccines your vet may recommend include distemper/parvo, leptospirosis, bordetella, parainfluenza, Lyme disease, panleukemia, feline calicivirus, feline viral rhinotracheitis, and more. Depending on your pet’s lifestyle and overall health, the need for these vaccines could range from necessary to absolutely not needed.
To assure your pet only gets the vaccines they need, you should ask these four questions about every shot that is recommended to you:
- Given my pet’s lifestyle, how high is their specific risk for getting this disease?
- If they were to get this disease, what could happen, and what are the odds of severe illness?
- How effective is the vaccine at preventing this illness?
- What are the known side effects of this vaccine?
Based on the answers to these questions, you and your vet should be able to come up with a vaccine routine that you both feel comfortable with without putting your pet at unnecessary risk for vaccine complications or illness from preventable diseases.
Don’t Settle for General Diagnoses
Even outside of preventative care, many traditional vets are reliant on general treatments that may or may not actually help your pet with the problem they have. In their defense, this reliance is often bred out of the fact that many owners do not want to pay for extra diagnostic tests to determine exactly what is wrong with their animal.
If you want to preserve a holistic approach with your pet, you must be more receptive to additional diagnostic tests. Not only can these show your vet exactly what is going on with your pet, but they can often lead to a better whole-picture diagnosis, which is what we want.
For example, if your dog has a skin rash, your vet’s first instinct might be to prescribe a general antibiotic cream to treat it. By pushing for the skin scrape and analysis, your vet may find that the rash is actually a yeast overgrowth, something that can be treated with a much gentler approach. This more in-depth diagnosis also gives you a path forward for determining possible root causes.
By pushing for an exact diagnosis, you can avoid unnecessary treatments. This is something that is especially valuable if the option you’re given is extreme, such as surgery. While this approach may cost more upfront, it can often save you money in the long run.
Approach Appointments with an Open Mind
Being upfront with your veterinarian is important. But you also need to be open-minded and flexible.
The fact is, no owner is going to be more knowledgeable on pet health than their vet (unless you also have a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine). That’s not to say you may not know your pet’s behavior, routine, and other personal traits better, but when it comes to medicine, there’s a reason they’re wearing the white coat.
All this is to say, even if your first instinct is to balk, you should still listen to what your vet has to say. Vets are notoriously set in their ways. But so are many owners. If both of you can listen to one another and be willing to start a dialogue, then your pet can only benefit.
Traditional approaches aren’t best for all situations, but neither are holistic approaches. Often, you’ll find that mixing a little bit of traditional medicine and a little holistic medicine is the best way to handle a situation.
Of course, if your vet won’t listen to you or you feel very strongly that they are wrong or missing something, then you should absolutely seek a second opinion.
A Healthy Relationship for a Healthy Pet
By being open with your veterinarian about your desire to handle your pet’s care in a more holistic way, you set the groundwork for an open, honest relationship. This will allow you to ask questions, discuss alternatives, and find ways to handle your pet’s treatments and preventative care in a way that promotes health above all else and assures your pet is getting the best care possible.
By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | May 27, 2022
Written for The Spaw by Sara Seitz, Professional Freelance Writer and Novelist with Pen and Post
Carrie Hyde is the founder, owner, and Pet Life Coach of The Spaw in Tustin, CA. Carrie’s extensive experience and understanding of pet nutrition and coaching enabled her to create The Spawdcast, a podcast dedicated to educating pet parents and pet industry professionals on ALL the options available to their pet. Her mission is to open pet-owner’s eyes to the questions they may not even know to ask, to shine a light on the many myths that have been part of pet care for decades, and to offer whole solutions for their pets. Carrie Hyde is a certified pet nutritionist with the goal of helping pet parents & pet professionals with a new understanding of how to care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.
