An integrative vet may offer a blend of traditional AND holistic options. They could provide herbs or tinctures that have been proven helpful for your pet.
They may also evaluate your pet’s diet, personality traits, and environment to ensure they receive the best care. This allows them to treat your pet and avoid any significant issues.
Preventive Care
A regular physical exam can help your pet live a longer, healthier life and avoid the cost of treating health issues that could have been prevented with routine care. The same goes for the many routine vaccinations your pet may need, deworming treatments, dental cleanings, and more.
An integrative vet is more likely to consider your pet’s diet, nutritional supplements, herbs, and other lifestyle factors in their treatment plan than a traditional veterinarian. A holistic vet can also provide various wellness options such as acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, tuina, and therapeutic nutrition.
An integrative veterinarian such as Divine TLC can still recommend vaccines and other routine treatments but will often suggest titers (blood tests that evaluate your pet’s antibody response to specific vaccinations) instead of a blanket recommendation. They’ll also take a more comprehensive approach to your pet’s history, identifying potential risk factors and health concerns that might have contributed to the current issue. They will also discuss long-term prevention and overall health goals for your pet.
Treatment
In the event of disease or injury, holistic veterinarians offer a wide range of treatment options to heal your pet. They use traditional medicine diagnostics, drugs, and procedures like surgery in conjunction with appropriate complementary medical modalities.
These healing techniques include acupuncture, herbal medicine, tuina massage, and natural supplements. They are safer than prescription medications and don’t come with the side effects that can sometimes accompany them.
Integrative vets also consider your pet’s lifestyle, diet, and social habits when determining the best course of treatment for them. They may even recommend titers rather than a routine vaccine schedule for some vaccinations.
You will spend more time with a holistic veterinarian than a conventional one because they are focused on getting to know your pet’s complete picture of health. This includes a thorough physical exam and assessing your pet’s diet, environment, and lifestyle. The results of this can often be quite impressive!
Prevention
Holistic veterinarians spend time with your pet, evaluating their physical health, observing behavior and personality traits, and considering diet, environment, and lifestyle. This provides a more complete picture of your pet’s health, which allows the holistic vet to create a diagnosis that addresses the underlying causes of a disease.
This means holistic vets often recommend acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine, or chiropractic as part of the treatment process. They may also advise on a diet or nutritional supplements to help keep your pet healthy.
Veterinary staff are aware that the traditional approach to disease prevention is not enough for pets and that there is a need for preventative care that includes natural healing methods such as holistic treatments. This is particularly important for three conditions for which integrative veterinary care shines:
Healing
A holistic vet takes a different approach to diagnosing and treating illnesses than traditional veterinarians. They use their additional training to find therapies that help pets heal naturally and improve their quality of life. They also have a toolbox full of alternative treatments such as acupuncture, shockwave therapy, tuina, herbal medicine, and cranial sacral therapy. These are often less invasive than surgeries and much safer than medications that can cause harmful side effects.
Holistic vets look at the whole picture of your pet’s health to assess diet, lifestyle, stress levels, and social habits. This means they have many treatment options and will choose the best ones for your pet.
They believe that your pet should have access to natural remedies and herbs just like they did in the wild. They encourage prevention and are always looking for ways to keep your pet healthy so they don’t have to visit the vet as often.
