Holistic Treatments For Sick Pets

First, take a deep breath and relax. Thank you for being interested in taking a broader view of health. You can be in charge of the next steps in your pet’s health, even if the problem is critical.

How ill is your dog/cat? Is there one problem (diarrhea, itchy ear, green eye discharge, vomiting)? How is she feeling in general – active, playful and eating, or lying down and not moving much?

Step One

If you, after thinking a moment about what is happening right now and how she is feeling right now (in general) are very worried, please go to the emergency clinic or to your local veterinarian for an evaluation. Hopefully your local vet is an integrative one whom you have worked with already. Click here to learn how to create your health care team. If possible take a friend with you. Once you are there,  you still have time (usually) to tell the veterinarian, “Thank you for the examination and your recommendations. I want to take a few minutes in the waiting room (or car, park, etc) to plan my next steps and we will be right back in.”

Step Two – timeline and master symptom list

This is especially important when you have been futilely treating illnesses for months or years. When the problem is more immediate, you can abbreviate the process. Remember you are in charge, so use this information as best works for you. Starting and keeping the timeline up to date will be key to preventing future problems and increasing life spans!

1.      List every current symptom and quantify them (measure or on           a scale of -10 and note if 10 is good or bad)

2.      Think of possible triggers:

a.       Recent vaccines

b.      Diet changes

c.       People changes – off to college, home from college, new              job, divorce, staying home (pandemic)

d.      Relocation

e.       New additions to family – baby, new pet, new people

f.        Toxins given for fleas/ticks, yard, house (new paint,                     furniture, rugs, litter), nearby golf course sprayed.

g.       Weather and phase of moon

h.      Anything else you can think of

3.      History of this problem, treatments and responses to treatments. 

Step Three – Examine for subtle symptoms

  1. List all symptoms, even ones that have been there awhile
  2. Look at the Early Warning Signs of Internal Imbalance list and add any that are present now to your timeline.

Step Four – Overall Health (what context the symptoms are in)

  1.    Energy level
  2.    Emotional state/Behavior/Mood
  3.   Appetite
  4.   An easy way to remember to always do this step is to think about shining a BEAM of light on the quality of life (Behavior, Energy level, Appetite and Mood)

Step Five – Take Action

I cannot give you all possible parameters to make this decision, as it will be based on the data collected above. I list in a minute a few possible choices you can make. Then, after waiting the right amount of time (one day for diarrhea, one week for skin problems, etc) evaluate his response to your treatments and decide on the next steps. I will give lots of examples of choices people have made. Many other examples can be found in the many holistic books listed on this site.

A few action choices:

  1. Treat at home
    1.       100% safe energy treatments you have learned
    2.       Food
    3.       Supplements
    4.       Herbs     
  2. Use lay holistic practitioners for energy treatments
  3. Find a holistic veterinarian who may also have staff trained in holistic approaches.
    1.  Local
    2.  Phone consulting (many homeopathic vets can do this)
  4.  Go to your local veterinarian for diagnostic tests, further exams and be sure to have them explained until you understand the implications of each one.