Veterinary Holistic Services
Holistic medicine is an approach that considers the animal as a whole, which encompasses the body, mind, spirit, diet, and environment. In our attempts to meet your pet's total needs, Schulhof Animal Hospital combines contemporary medicine with proven noninvasive, complementary practices and remedies that work in harmony with nature.
Holistic medicine is designed to stimulate the body's natural healing abilities. It can also complement traditional treatments by enhancing their effectiveness and reduce their side effects. Among our holistic approaches are dietary considerations and nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, laser therapy, and homeopathy.
Nutritional Supplements
We offer several brands of dog and cat food designed for both healthy and ailing animals. Choosing the right food may help control weight as well as bladder, kidney, liver, and particularly skin and joint problems. A proper diet can also help control diabetes and arthritis, and can help older pets maintain a better quality of life.
Depending on your pet's condition, our doctors will help you choose the right diet for your pet. We can also prescribe many natural vitamin, mineral, and enzyme supplements, as well as a variety of joint and coat supplements.
Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is the basis for what we know of today as traditional allopathic medicine. Many of today's pharmaceuticals were originally derived from the purified active component of herbal folk remedies.
However, more recent science has shown that in fact a number of the constituents of a particular plant may actually work together to cause the healing effect. When the active component is isolated from these other plant compounds found in nature, its healing effect is diminished. Therefore, there has been a movement to explore and use more ancient, complex plant-derived medicines. A number of our practitioners are studied in the use of herbs for healing.
Laser Therapy
Laser Therapy has long been known for its usefulness in pain relief, wound healing, arthritic conditions, intervertebral disk disease, pyotraumatic dermatitis (hot spots), post-surgical pain relief and incision healing, degenerative joint disease, lick granulomas, lacerations and abrasions, periodontal disease, gingivitis and otitis, amoung other things.
Therapeutic lasers are able to deliver larger doses of optimal wavelength light over a larger area for consistent treatment outcomes. Laser therapy, like acupuncture, eases pain and actually heals without the use of pharmaceuticals and in many cases surgery. Studies have shown, that when tissue cultures are irradiated by lasers, intra-cellular proteins—specifically cytochrome C—absorb the energy from the laser. Photons are absorbed within the mitochondria and the cell membrane, producing higher ATP levels and boosting DNA production, leading to an increase in cellular health and energy. Like acupuncture, Laser Therapy reducees pain and inflammation, and stimulates nerve regeneration, muscle relaxation, and immune system response.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a form of energy medicine and works by stimulating the body's natural healing abilities. The science of homeopathy was begun by a German physician, chemist and Greek scholar by the name of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann. Dr. Hahnemann stumbled upon the Socratic principle of "like treats like" or the Law of Similars while translating medical books from Greek into his native German language.
By experimenting upon himself, Dr. Hahnemann discovered that an extracted and diluted substance that produces a certain pattern of symptoms in a healthy person, will, if given to an ill person with the same symptoms, heal them. He used his new found knowledge to bring about seemingly miraculous cures in a time when western medicine was limited to cupping and leaching. Today we have more than 2000 homeopathic remedies developed by Hahnemann and his followers. Schulhof Animal Hospital is well-versed in the application of homeopathic medicines and uses homeopathy as an adjunct to our traditional practices.