Dr. Becker, whose posts on Mercola.com are excellent, discusses why holistic vets, especially good ones, are hard to find. This is important because as a conventional vet I was making many of your pets live a shorter life with more chronic problems, even while I was able to save their lives in a crisis or from some major physical problem.

I now suggest that no one be without a holistic vet. Because homeopathic vets can still consult by phone, and a few other generally holistic vets consult by phone, it is possible to have a primary holistic vet anywhere you live.

Dr. Becker gives several reasons for the paucity of holistic vets (though there is a strong increase since I started in the early 80s).

  1. Vet schools do not teach it – much. Or they actively are against it. There are holistic student clubs, but often they are run by one passionate student, so when she graduates the club languishes if there is not an ardent faculty member or other school support. AVH, AHVMA and other organizations actively (even with money) support the school clubs when there is one. Dr. Becker: of 29 vet schools, only 14 teach acupuncture for chronic pain and NONE require courses in integrative medicine – some offer electives.
  2. Acupuncture is the most attractive, and even has a seat on the AVMA governing body. “Over 4,000 veterinarians have become certified in the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS), Chi Institute, or the Colorado Medical Acupuncture for Veterinarians course”, according to Dr. Becker. In my experience many of them are merely using a few points in a very conventional manner, and are not truly embracing the holistic paradigm that many of my readers know so well. Florida, California, Louisiana and Colorado vet schools have “integrative” faculty, mostly using acupuncture, because it has the most research done with animals.
  3. Funding is the key to research and it is mostly funded by corporations expecting to reap monetary benefits. The AHVMFoundation is funding great studies, but has many factors of 10 less than any corporate funding. Please financially support the Foundation (www.AHVMF.org) and also share the successes you have had with your animals at their site. Dr. Becker says of 24,000 studies on acupuncture, only 371 are with animals, and for 27,000 herbal studies only 417 are with animals.

You can still help your companions holistically, even if no great integrative vets are near you.

  1. Search every one of the holistic organizations – see my links page – for one near you or a phone call homeopath.
  2. Take classes, read books, study videos yourself in the many healing modalities you can do at home. Some are 100% safe – Reiki (offer it daily), acupressure (for maintenance and healing), Massage, Healing Touch for Animals, Quantum Touch and other energy methods like reconnective therapy, Flower essence therapy. Many other therapies can be done at home with proper training, study or carefully watching as they are not 100% safe – homeopathy, herbal medicine, Chinese herbs, aromatherapy and more. I am offering webinars now, though no one responded to the first course. If you wish training in any area, email me and I may be able to create a webinar. I know many of you have asked for classes and I am not sure I have kept close enough track (and I lost some files that I have not sorted out yet), so let me know AGAIN, of your specific interests.
  3. Follow the basic keys to health.
  4. Learn a method of asking yes/no questions to fine tune your treatments – dowsing, pendulum, applied kinesiology, fingers…etc.
  5. Keep a journal, mine or creating your own, so you can successfully know what works the best, from day one, for each of your family members – of any number of legs!
  6. Have a Pet health Coaching session with me to fine tune your approach, select the best vet for you, understand how much healing you can expect and what may help the best at home.
  7. Keep reading books, magazines and web sites, remembering to be very critical of the information.