The earliest known writings about herbal medicines date back to 2800 B.C. in China, but while many complementary modalities may not be new, their application in veterinary medicine is still novel to many Americans.
The 146th Annual American Veterinary Medical Association Convention in Seattle July 11-14 offers many educational programs about a wide array of complementary care techniques, from acupuncture to chiropractic.
Dr. William L. Ormston, owner of Jubilee Animal Chiropractic, presents a series of lectures on Saturday and Sunday, June 11 and 12, beginning with Benefit of Chiropractic for Horses. Dr. Ormston said that his programs introduce the novice to this modality but also updates experienced practitioners.
In his practice, Dr. Ormston said that he's used chiropractic care to extend the lives of animal, lengthen the working lives of animal athletes, and to relieve pain and paralysis in a diverse array of animals. The most exotic animal he's treated was a giraffe in a petting zoo.
"I treated a barrel racing horse that they were ready to retire, but we were able to improve its time by more than a second," Dr. Ormston says. "Not only was the horse able to compete for another two years, but it was winning. In fact, the horse retired recently only because its rider became pregnant. We've been able to keep a lot of horses from becoming pasture ornaments at an early age."
His practice includes many animal athletes, including the world's fastest flyball dog, as well as the world's fastest flyball pair, and a number of agility dogs that are competing at the international level. One of his favorite accomplishments, though, is a 75 percent success rate in relieving paralysis due to spinal problems in dachshunds. These are dogs that would have likely faced surgery without his care.
Dr. Ornston says that through his lectures he really wants to educate veterinarians about how chiropractic care works so that they can best apply it in their own practices. Chiropractic veterinary care does not replace traditional veterinary care. Like all complementary modalities, it serves as a complement to traditional veterinary care. In the case of chiropractic care, Dr. Ormston says that it treats the nervous system housed in the spinal column.
"Most people think you go to the chiropractor to get your bones cracked," he explains. "Yes, we do adjust the spine, but that has an impact on the nervous system."
Dr. Patti Schaefer, owner of Canisport Veterinary Services in Washington State, will be speaking on holistic medicine in during her lecture Holistic Approach to the Canine Athlete. She uses nutrition, acupuncture, stem cell therapy, rehabilitation work, chiropractic medicine and other forms of complementary care to help bring out the best in the canine athletes she works with.
"A lot of people look at holistic medicine as being the alternative, but I look at it as all encompassing. We will do whatever is needed and we will look at the whole dog to keep that dog in top shape," she explains. "We are not just examining a body part that might be having trouble, but the whole dog."
During her career, she says that she's seen complementary veterinary medicine gain a great deal of popularity and respect from fellow veterinarians.
"I know when I started doing acupuncture in the mid-90s there was a lot of people who didn't understand how it worked or helped, but now that we've seen successes there are a lot of veterinarians who want to learn more about it to try to help their clients," Dr. Schaefer says. "I have a lot of clients who have gone for acupuncture for themselves after they've seen how much it has helped their pets."
Dr. Deborah Mitchell, of Knollwood Hospital for Pets in the Chicago area, will teach veterinarians the history of acupuncture and Chinese medicine during a number of lectures she will be giving on the issue from 8 to 11 a.m. on July 14, beginning with Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine Veterinary Acupuncture. Her presentation will be followed by afternoon wet labs that include demonstrations of acupuncture techniques using live animals.
Dr. Mitchell says that veterinary acupuncture has been slow to become poplar in America. The earliest written documentation about veterinary acupuncture dates to 3000 B.C. in the form of an Indian treatise on elephant acupuncture. But the first American textbook on veterinary acupuncture wasn't published until 1994. In 1995, the Student AVMA annual meeting included lectures on veterinary acupuncture, and since then, the practice of acupuncture has taken off in the United States, she says.
Dr. Mitchell says that she accepts acupuncture patients on a referral basis only, meaning that all her acupuncture clients are already involved in a traditional course of veterinary treatment. Her most common patients include those with inoperable tumors, neurologic problems, chronic wounds and chronic pain.
"About half of my patients come to me on referral from local veterinarians, with the remainder coming from large specialty practices," she explains. "Many are senior patients with multiple health challenges who have not responded well to traditional therapeutic approaches. Others are patients with painful arthritis and spinal disease, chronic skin disease, liver and kidney disease, and cancers that are not amenable to surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy."
Source
American Veterinary Medical Association
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