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by Alan Frayer I’m not a stranger to controversy. I’ve held positions in a variety of industries where battle lines are drawn; sometimes I’ve been on the winning side and other times not. One of my more recent efforts has been in the dietary supplement industry, which often questions the use of drugs to treat conditions that might be better treated through improved nutrition. The majority of the proponents in this position are not medical doctors, but a sufficient number are to make the debate worthy of consideration. Such is the case with any discussion of holistic pet care. Holistic pet care, from my perspective, appears to be a natural (pardon the pun) extension of the concepts behind improving human life through health food and nutritional supplements. The idea that we can extend and improve the lives of our companion animals through a combination of love, quality nutrition, sleep, clean air, fresh water, exercise, sunshine, and positive surroundings is as attractive as the same concept for people. A worthy ideal, whatever the difficulty in attaining the goal. But as the majority of doctors believe drugs are still the key to human survival, and who are taught, and still teach, that they haven’t done their job properly if they don’t issue a prescription to any patient who has spent more than 15 minutes in their examining room, so exist a majority of veterinarians who firmly believe it is only through drugs that the woes of our pets can be brought to an end. And it may be that, in the case of veterinarians, the issue is greater. First, while most human prescriptions are filled by a third-party, a third-party pharmacy for pets is rare. The vast majority of prescriptions for pets are filled by the vet who ordered the prescription, or at the least by someone who works in the same office. I won’t say this is the case with most vets, but one does have to wonder how much of the decision to issue the prescription is based on the profit motive, regardless of the ethics. Let’s look at diabetes, for example. The most common form of diabetes in humans has been found to be aggravated, if not caused, by improper nutrition. We have seen clear evidence that pharmaceutical treatment of diabetes can be reduced, if not eliminated, by improved nutrition and exercise. We can only expect the same to be true with diabetic pets, failing an announcement that animal diabetes is as dissimilar to human diabetes as feline leukemia is dissimilar to human leukemia. Yet, the only treatment most veterinarians offer is ever-increasing dosages of insulin, which, coincidentally is only available from that same veterinarian. What happened to simply improving the animal’s diet, removing the high-carb ingredients that aggravate the condition in the first place? Holistic veterinarians are no less responsible for your pet’s health, but they aren’t as quick to turn to drugs as a solution. You owe it to your pet to learn more about holistic pet care, and to locate a holistic veterinarian in your community. The preceding is the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other contributors to the web site. Comments are welcome in our Discussion Forums. |
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