Use the guide below to jump to individual sections for fast reference.

WHAT IS HOLISTIC VETERINARY MEDICINE? | MODALITIES USED | AHVMA JOURNAL | AHVMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES | HOLISTIC ADVANCEMENT FUND | HISTORY OF THE AHVMA

What Is Holistic Veterinary Medicine?

Holistic (or Integrative or Complementary) Veterinary Medicine is the examination and diagnosis of an animal, considering all aspects of the animal's life and employing all of the practitioner's senses, as well as the combination of conventional and alternative (or complementary) modalities of treatment. When a holistic veterinarian sees a pet, besides giving it a comprehensive physical examination, he/she wants to find out all about its behaviors, distant medical and dietary history, and its environment including diet, emotional stresses, and other factors.

Holistic medicine, by its very nature, is humane to the core. The wholeness of its scope will set up a lifestyle for the animal that is most appropriate. The techniques used in holistic medicine are gentle, minimally invasive, and incorporate patient well-being and stress reduction. Holistic thinking is centered on love, empathy and respect. 

This mixture of healing arts and skills is as natural as life itself. At the core of this issue lies the very essence of the word "(w)holistic". It means taking in the whole picture of the patient, the environment, the disease pattern, the relationship of pet with owner and developing a treatment protocol using a wide range of therapies for healing the patient. 

The holistic practitioner is interested in genetics, nutrition, family relationships, hygiene, and stress factors. Many patients present in a state of "dis-ease." At this point the holistic challenge lies in the question "why?" By a series of analytic observations and appropriate testing the goal becomes finding the true root source of the pathology. A simple-appearing symptom may have several layers of causation. Only when the true cause of the ailment has been found is there the possibility for a lasting recovery. 

It is at this point that the most efficacious, least invasive, least expensive, and least harmful path to cure is selected. 

In many acute situations, treatment may involve aspects of surgery and drug therapy from conventional western technology, along with alternative techniques to provide a complementary whole. This form of treatment has great value for severe trauma and certain infections. It often outperforms other methodologies. It is also at this time that other treatment plans such as those listed below are brought into use. Once the symptoms have been treated, the task is not complete until the underlying disease patterns have been redirected. The patient, as well as the client, will be guided to a new level of health.