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homeopathic vet
so luther had his first visit to a homeopath today.
after talking to her for a couple of hours about luther's health, i'm not sure i'm interested in going back to regular vets for him. she said a lot of very sensible things that completely jive with what i know about animal (and human) health.
this lady has a phd in immunology in addition to her holistic certifications (she went to a school that has a very demanding program. i know because my friend, dawn is currently a student there. she says she switched over because she didn't feel like western medicine looked at health, but only at the end problem, and doesn't really have "cures" for almost anything. it's great for trauma and accidents, but doesn't have much to offer in the way of prevention and wellness. she treats people, and also her 4 horses and 6 cats in addition to other people's animals. i was impressed with her credentials and also her outlook.
first off, she said that if i want this to work, i can never vaccinate him again. she said (and backed it up with books by respected vets who's names even i've heard of before)that vaccines are mostly very hard on animals, totally fuck with their immune systems and in a lot of cases are unproven. there is also a lot of hard evidence about most of them causing worse problems than they solve. true for humans and animals. she says the only vaccines she recommends are rabies and distemper and only recommends them once. there are ways to test if the antibodies are still in your animal after that. 90% of animals get a lifetime of protection from that. the main reason we vaccinate our animals more often is because of legal concerns (and i think i would still vaccinate a dog, despite what she says. dogs bite more often than cats and i'd have to have my dog put down for such a thing).
she also said that the food i'm giving him (science diet, which is vet recommended) is garbage. i knew this already. i'd been told that by a vet who specialized in nutrition. trying to switch to a higher protein diet was part of what started all this. she recommends several different types of cat food available at holistic pet shops and whole foods (solid gold, innova, felidae and eagle pack to name a few) and says the raw food diet is best for them. you can find recipes online by looking up BARF (bones and raw food) online. she says she knows several people who've had complete turn-arounds in their pet's health just by changing to that diet.
she also proscribed a remedy to give him, which will come in the mail with instructions, and gave me a bunch of book names and websites to check out. the fee is less than what i've been paying for all his regular vet bills (165 for the visit, including 2 follow-ups and 15 for the remedy).
so i've been doing some research. and not just on the sites she gave me. there is a LOT of stuff out there on raw food diets for cats. there are a LOT of vets who recommend it and almost all of them have stories of animals having complete recoveries from a variety of illnesses(none of which are luther's but excellent nutrition is important for all sick and well animals) from changing to the diet.
so i'm sold. i'm going to try these alternate feeding things. i'll let you know how it works out. the proof is in the pudding with both the diet and the remedy. i'm not getting my hopes up that this is going to save him, but i definitely believe that it will give him a higher quality of the life he has left.
here are some of the sites i've been looking at if you have your own interests in this:
first, this is the website of the place luther is going now.
http://www.homeopathichealthclinic.com/Pets.htm
a collection of sites and articles by vets, owners, and holistic practitioners
http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.html
http://www.catnutrition.org/vetletter.html
http://www.barfworld.com/
http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm
http://www.holisticat.com/
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/author.htm
http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/atkins-cats.html
http://www.alt4animals.com/nutrition_feline.htm
http://www.petsynergy.com/nutrition.html
after talking to her for a couple of hours about luther's health, i'm not sure i'm interested in going back to regular vets for him. she said a lot of very sensible things that completely jive with what i know about animal (and human) health.
this lady has a phd in immunology in addition to her holistic certifications (she went to a school that has a very demanding program. i know because my friend, dawn is currently a student there. she says she switched over because she didn't feel like western medicine looked at health, but only at the end problem, and doesn't really have "cures" for almost anything. it's great for trauma and accidents, but doesn't have much to offer in the way of prevention and wellness. she treats people, and also her 4 horses and 6 cats in addition to other people's animals. i was impressed with her credentials and also her outlook.
first off, she said that if i want this to work, i can never vaccinate him again. she said (and backed it up with books by respected vets who's names even i've heard of before)that vaccines are mostly very hard on animals, totally fuck with their immune systems and in a lot of cases are unproven. there is also a lot of hard evidence about most of them causing worse problems than they solve. true for humans and animals. she says the only vaccines she recommends are rabies and distemper and only recommends them once. there are ways to test if the antibodies are still in your animal after that. 90% of animals get a lifetime of protection from that. the main reason we vaccinate our animals more often is because of legal concerns (and i think i would still vaccinate a dog, despite what she says. dogs bite more often than cats and i'd have to have my dog put down for such a thing).
she also said that the food i'm giving him (science diet, which is vet recommended) is garbage. i knew this already. i'd been told that by a vet who specialized in nutrition. trying to switch to a higher protein diet was part of what started all this. she recommends several different types of cat food available at holistic pet shops and whole foods (solid gold, innova, felidae and eagle pack to name a few) and says the raw food diet is best for them. you can find recipes online by looking up BARF (bones and raw food) online. she says she knows several people who've had complete turn-arounds in their pet's health just by changing to that diet.
she also proscribed a remedy to give him, which will come in the mail with instructions, and gave me a bunch of book names and websites to check out. the fee is less than what i've been paying for all his regular vet bills (165 for the visit, including 2 follow-ups and 15 for the remedy).
so i've been doing some research. and not just on the sites she gave me. there is a LOT of stuff out there on raw food diets for cats. there are a LOT of vets who recommend it and almost all of them have stories of animals having complete recoveries from a variety of illnesses(none of which are luther's but excellent nutrition is important for all sick and well animals) from changing to the diet.
so i'm sold. i'm going to try these alternate feeding things. i'll let you know how it works out. the proof is in the pudding with both the diet and the remedy. i'm not getting my hopes up that this is going to save him, but i definitely believe that it will give him a higher quality of the life he has left.
here are some of the sites i've been looking at if you have your own interests in this:
first, this is the website of the place luther is going now.
http://www.homeopathichealthclinic.com/Pets.htm
a collection of sites and articles by vets, owners, and holistic practitioners
http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.html
http://www.catnutrition.org/vetletter.html
http://www.barfworld.com/
http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm
http://www.holisticat.com/
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/author.htm
http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/atkins-cats.html
http://www.alt4animals.com/nutrition_feline.htm
http://www.petsynergy.com/nutrition.html
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I've both gotten some very bad recommendations from homeopathic types and had people close to me lose pets permanently because of them.
(For example, vegetable oil *will* kill ear mites in kittens. It'll also give them the a worse yeast infection than they're ever likely to get otherwise. Kinda failed to mention that second part. Also, dogs cannot have a half or a quarter of a human aspirin every day. They die from internal hemorrhaging.)
Her credentials sound pretty good, so you're probably ok, but it still makes me kinda nervous. Sadly, good vets are just as hard, if not harder, to find.
Good luck. I hope it works. It'd be nice if Luther made a complete turnaround.
thank you for your concern.
if you are interested. her name is kristin linner. she's also been in practice a long time and treats her own animals. that speaks well for her. you don't just get lucky messing with people's health. i got the impression she really loves her horses and cats and she's had really good results treating them. also so far i've had good results taking her advice (see more recent post).
Re: thank you for your concern.
(Anonymous) 2007-02-08 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)Sounds like she really knows her stuff.