What is Integrative Veterinary Medicine?
Integrative veterinary medicine is a comprehensive medical approach to pet care that combines the best of conventional medicine and complementary and alternative therapies. This type of veterinary practice focuses on treating the whole animal, partnership between the client and the veterinarian, and use of all appropriate therapeutic options to achieve optimal wellness for your pet.
The emphasis is on using all reasonable therapies or systems of medicine that work together to provide an increased capacity to prevent and treat disease that would not be possible using one system of medicine alone. This integrative approach to veterinary medicine is designed to minimize adverse effects, maximize successful treatment outcomes and improve the quality of life. Any veterinarian who uses therapies outside of conventional medicine and combines them with conventional medicine is an integrative veterinarian. The future of veterinary medicine lies in integration; ONE medicine, the one that works.
Complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) therapies that may be included in an integrative medicine approach include acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, tuina, chiropractic, canine physical therapy and rehabilitation, therapeutic nutrition, nutritional supplements and Reiki. All of these therapies treat the whole body and as such can be referred to by the generic term “holistic,” meaning that they view the body as an integrated whole and take the body, mind and spirit into account when formulating a treatment plan. CAVM therapies are designed to stimulate adaptive homeostatic mechanisms in the body and or to provide the body substances by which the body can heal itself.
Integrative and CAVM medicine terminology:
- Complementary medicine is used with conventional medicine
- Alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medicine
- Holistic medicine is a generic term for any treatment / therapy session that is intended to treat the individual as a whole
- Allopathic medicine is conventional or Western medicine
Click here for a listing of veterinary medical conditions that can be treated with an integrative approach.
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