Being raised in North America, when we're sick we go to our doctor who gives us a prescription for this or that, possibly combined with some old home remedy (that usually doesn't work).
So, as a well educated Animal Health Technologist our medical education is taught almost completely from a westernized point of view. Antibiotics for infection, anti-depressants for behavioural issues, diuretics for congestive heart failure, narcotics for pain management and so on and so forth. What about a simpler approach? Vitamins, supplements, diet change, herbs, acupuncture and so on....does this really help?
Honestly, I have no clue. I have been raised by western medicine and I treat animals with western medicine. Sure, I have seen a Chiropractor a time or two, and yeah it helped. I've also taken some vitamins (multivits, glucosamine etc.) and yeah it made me a bit perkier and less painful. I have always thought that alot of the stuff that we, as humans, put in our bodies that we think will help us does, however, I think that if you really think that something will help you, it will...the mind and positive thinking works in a very mysterious way.
But what about this approach for our animals? They really can't tell us what's wrong with them, it takes a very thorough history, full physical exam and diagnostics (blood work, radiographs, CT scans etc.) for us in the veterinary profession to even try to come to a conclusion.
Walter suffers from food allergies, more specifically to chicken. His symptoms are mild compared to others. He gets red, inflamed skin above his eyes and on his ears and becomes very itchy, he also vomits readily after eating chicken. We have been taught that when an animal is allergic to food it is generally a protein source; chicken, beef, soy are the top three, basically because they have been used so much in the past and in so many common commercial foods that animals have become allergic to them.
In western medicine, his treatment is:
a) Change his food to either a hydrolyzed protein diet (means the protein source is broken down so small the body cannot detect it, therefore cannot recognize it) OR a novel protein diet. (meaning a 'rare' protein source) such as duck, turkey, rabbit, venison, kangaroo etc.
b) Give low dose oral anti-histamines/steroids (such as prednisone) to decrease the inflammation in the GI tract and skin (will eventually try to wean off, but not necessarily)
c) Keep them on this specific diet for a minimum of 3 months, then try adding in ONE protein source at a time to see what the animal reacts to, OR just keep them on the restricted diet.
This kind of makes the nutritional component to the animals life a bit dull. They can only have special hypo-allergenic treats, which most but not all, animals don't like. Sometimes, all of a sudden, they quit eating that food, and it's a bit of a pickle trying to find them an alternative food that's comparable.
Personally, if it was me....I would get bored of only having one kind of food pretty quickly. But, animals are different and many don't have a problem eating the same thing day in and day out for years on end.
Walter's treatment was very similar. We changed him to a hydrolyzed protein diet, but he would only eat the dry and not the canned (as there is only ONE canned food on the marked that is made this way) and started him on daily steroid therapy. We changed his diet to a novel protein source (venison) and he hated it, both dry and canned. NOW....he is back to a hydrolyzed protein dry food (different company) which he enjoys and a novel protein (lamb) canned food, which he isn't crazy about. But he still continues to vomit, on an every other day basis.
I have been educating myself on alternative treatment for allergy prone animals, with the help of my veterinarian. The holistic clinics that I have talked to suggested switching his food to a grain free diet (because in eastern medicine it is different grains that one is allergic to and not proteins), add omega 3's and 6's to the diet (as they have a natural anti-inflammatory effect), other skin support supplements and possibly even add in Chinese herbs and acupuncture treatment if diet alone doesn't help.
So, over the past couple of weeks, I have started to introduce omega oils and a dry skin support supplement into his diet. The omega oil he's ok with, the dry powder stuff....not too crazy but will eat it eventually if he gets hungry enough. So today, I went out to one of the local "health food" pet stores (ugh...) and bought him some yummy, grain free canned food (I thought I should start with canned and eventually change his dry later on...don't need too many changes).
I bought only 4 cans today:
Merricks New England Boil, Lobster Feast and Seafood Medley
California Naturals Deep Water Fish Formula
So, as a well educated Animal Health Technologist our medical education is taught almost completely from a westernized point of view. Antibiotics for infection, anti-depressants for behavioural issues, diuretics for congestive heart failure, narcotics for pain management and so on and so forth. What about a simpler approach? Vitamins, supplements, diet change, herbs, acupuncture and so on....does this really help?
Honestly, I have no clue. I have been raised by western medicine and I treat animals with western medicine. Sure, I have seen a Chiropractor a time or two, and yeah it helped. I've also taken some vitamins (multivits, glucosamine etc.) and yeah it made me a bit perkier and less painful. I have always thought that alot of the stuff that we, as humans, put in our bodies that we think will help us does, however, I think that if you really think that something will help you, it will...the mind and positive thinking works in a very mysterious way.
But what about this approach for our animals? They really can't tell us what's wrong with them, it takes a very thorough history, full physical exam and diagnostics (blood work, radiographs, CT scans etc.) for us in the veterinary profession to even try to come to a conclusion.
Walter suffers from food allergies, more specifically to chicken. His symptoms are mild compared to others. He gets red, inflamed skin above his eyes and on his ears and becomes very itchy, he also vomits readily after eating chicken. We have been taught that when an animal is allergic to food it is generally a protein source; chicken, beef, soy are the top three, basically because they have been used so much in the past and in so many common commercial foods that animals have become allergic to them.
In western medicine, his treatment is:
a) Change his food to either a hydrolyzed protein diet (means the protein source is broken down so small the body cannot detect it, therefore cannot recognize it) OR a novel protein diet. (meaning a 'rare' protein source) such as duck, turkey, rabbit, venison, kangaroo etc.
b) Give low dose oral anti-histamines/steroids (such as prednisone) to decrease the inflammation in the GI tract and skin (will eventually try to wean off, but not necessarily)
c) Keep them on this specific diet for a minimum of 3 months, then try adding in ONE protein source at a time to see what the animal reacts to, OR just keep them on the restricted diet.
This kind of makes the nutritional component to the animals life a bit dull. They can only have special hypo-allergenic treats, which most but not all, animals don't like. Sometimes, all of a sudden, they quit eating that food, and it's a bit of a pickle trying to find them an alternative food that's comparable.
Personally, if it was me....I would get bored of only having one kind of food pretty quickly. But, animals are different and many don't have a problem eating the same thing day in and day out for years on end.
Walter's treatment was very similar. We changed him to a hydrolyzed protein diet, but he would only eat the dry and not the canned (as there is only ONE canned food on the marked that is made this way) and started him on daily steroid therapy. We changed his diet to a novel protein source (venison) and he hated it, both dry and canned. NOW....he is back to a hydrolyzed protein dry food (different company) which he enjoys and a novel protein (lamb) canned food, which he isn't crazy about. But he still continues to vomit, on an every other day basis.
I have been educating myself on alternative treatment for allergy prone animals, with the help of my veterinarian. The holistic clinics that I have talked to suggested switching his food to a grain free diet (because in eastern medicine it is different grains that one is allergic to and not proteins), add omega 3's and 6's to the diet (as they have a natural anti-inflammatory effect), other skin support supplements and possibly even add in Chinese herbs and acupuncture treatment if diet alone doesn't help.
So, over the past couple of weeks, I have started to introduce omega oils and a dry skin support supplement into his diet. The omega oil he's ok with, the dry powder stuff....not too crazy but will eat it eventually if he gets hungry enough. So today, I went out to one of the local "health food" pet stores (ugh...) and bought him some yummy, grain free canned food (I thought I should start with canned and eventually change his dry later on...don't need too many changes).
I bought only 4 cans today:
Merricks New England Boil, Lobster Feast and Seafood Medley
California Naturals Deep Water Fish Formula
And I have 2 cans of Before Grain from my previous cat; 1 can of Tuna and 1 can of Salmon
I have used the Merricks canned food with my last cat to entice him to eat. It looks really yummy....has a very nice broth, the food itself is like slop (which I think a cat would like rather than the fluffy pate/mousse stuff) and has whole shrimp, and fish pieces in it.
When 6 pm rolled around (dinner time for Wally), I was all excited to serve my very deserving little boy a wonderful dinner of 'Seafood Medley'...mmmmm. I popped the can lid and he came running. I put about a quarter of the can in his dish and warmed it up (skipped the supplements for today)...mmmmmmmmmm, I thought. As I was bending down to put this dish on his placemat he did his usual "give it to me...NOW" dance. He smelled it for a second, took a teeny tiny little lick....and....
.....walked away....ugh...
Guess he didn't like seafood medley too much. I felt bad and gave him half a can of his old food.....and guess what.....he ate that.
Well, for today....
Holistic food 0 Veterinary diets 1
Stay tuned for what happens in the next round of....."Who wants to try holistic medicine?!"
I have used the Merricks canned food with my last cat to entice him to eat. It looks really yummy....has a very nice broth, the food itself is like slop (which I think a cat would like rather than the fluffy pate/mousse stuff) and has whole shrimp, and fish pieces in it.
When 6 pm rolled around (dinner time for Wally), I was all excited to serve my very deserving little boy a wonderful dinner of 'Seafood Medley'...mmmmm. I popped the can lid and he came running. I put about a quarter of the can in his dish and warmed it up (skipped the supplements for today)...mmmmmmmmmm, I thought. As I was bending down to put this dish on his placemat he did his usual "give it to me...NOW" dance. He smelled it for a second, took a teeny tiny little lick....and....
.....walked away....ugh...
Guess he didn't like seafood medley too much. I felt bad and gave him half a can of his old food.....and guess what.....he ate that.
Well, for today....
Holistic food 0 Veterinary diets 1
Stay tuned for what happens in the next round of....."Who wants to try holistic medicine?!"
Posts
Hey! The steroids are not to keep his immune sytem low--they are to combat and calm the inflammation in his intestinal tract that are causing the symptoms. Once the inflammation subsides, very low doses are use to keep it at bay. A subset of cats respond to diet alone, so we try to wean off the drugs as a routine to see if diet alone works. In many cases, it does. In many cases it only partially works, but then can use even lower doses of the meds.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing.....the diets that we use do contain extra omega fatty acids for antiinflammatory effect, as well as other nutrients that have been shown to be beneficial. These diets have been developed based on over 50 years of animal nutrition research by veterinary nutritionists as well as other specialists (people with 10 years+ of education/study) whom have determined and are determining through research what the nutrient requirements are in general and for specific diseases. These diets undergone animal feeding trials to ensure their safety and that they support health, pass rigorous testing to ensure purity, safety and lack of contaminants, as well as post-processing (processing just means mixing the ingredients, cooking and packaging) testing to make sure they contain what they say they do. Because the regulations are so slack in the pet food industry, many of the foods that you get off the shelf have undergone NO study or testing, which is why we tend to recommend the veterinary versions--because they are the best avaiable. We often do recommend additional supplements like omega fatty acids, but most often cats refuse to eat them. Our approach as western practitioners is to use the medications that we know are safe and effective to get the disease under control and provide immediate relief to the animal, and then to do as many non-drug things as possible in an effort to wean the drug doses down to the lowest effective dose, which is right off in some/many cases.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t seem to me as healthcare cant be made to feel luxurious. My experience with the elite health care services defines a very different story. Right now, I am engaged in Elitehealth.com concierge wellness program which is designed for healthcare at concierge level. They are providing me medication with care at the highest level of comfort. Their wellness program allows me to have a direct access to my personal physician via phone and email, but also in the emergency situation which I had because of having a heart attack, physician came home and also were present in the emergency room to expedite my care. They provided me a patient care concierge who managed all my transportation and accommodation. All this meant a lot to me when it comes to health. So, a concierge level hospitalization is a boon to me, and many other who are desiring to experience.
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