Guest Post: Our Experience With Holistic Treatments (Part Two)
I believe that it's important for dog lovers to share our personal canine experiences in our own voice, which is why you will find occasional guest posts on Grouchy Puppy doing just that -- do remember Maggie's two-part series on pet adoption or Elisa's series on her experiences dog fostering?
Today, Jana Rade is sharing part two of a two-part guest post discussing her experience with holistic treatments. Jana is a graphic designer by profession and never aspired to learning about dog health issues until she met Jasmine. Unfortunately, she received a crash course in the subject due to Jasmine’s many health issues and has since become an advocate for other pet owners and their four-legged friends.
Our Experience With Holistic Treatments (Part Two)
Here is a little note: any modality is only as good as the vet using it. Truly. It is one thing to decide to go with either conventional modern medicine or alternative holistic medicine and it is another thing all together to find a vet who is good at it. I know people who curse holistic medicine just because they stumbled upon a bad apple and things went wrong. Holistic vets are good or bad just like conventional vets are good or bad. This is important to keep in mind. If you’re not getting the results you want, you might be using a wrong approach OR you might be using a wrong vet.
After our first non-traditional experience, I did change my point of view and always considered using holistic approach before resorting to conventional medicine.
When Jasmine did have muscle-related pain and mobility issues, we decided to add physical therapy, cold laser and hydrotherapy. Jasmine saw a veterinary chiropractor regularly. At times we combined that with acupuncture too. It might sound like we were throwing everything into the pot, and it’s true, we were. Somehow, those things seemed to work very well together and each of Jasmine’s vets saw and appreciated the difference it was making for Jasmine. Somehow, all of that was the magic formula Jasmine needed. Every time we “dropped” one of these things, we could clearly see that Jasmine’s body was missing it. So we kept them all on board.
In spite of all her problems, Jasmine was able to enjoy almost ten years of full life. Until her last days, she enjoyed her walks and had a bounce in her step. She lived for her walks and time outside.
Ironically, when things did go wrong with her neck, it seemed to have been the drugs that sealed her fate. For Jasmine’s entire life I was resisting putting her on steroids. Couple times I almost folded but as it turned out it was life-saving for Jasmine that I did not. This time, with the amount of pain she was in, with her neck messed up, I couldn’t argue about using them. Jasmine needed quick and decisive help. We did what we had to. But I do feel strongly, that however necessary that was, it was one of the nails in her coffin.
Other than antibiotics when needed, there was very little good drugs ever did for Jasmine. Almost killed her twice and likely did kill her the third time. Treatments Jasmine benefited from the most were alternative to drugs.
When Cookie injured her leg, we reached to physical therapy, hydrotherapy, chiropractic and cold laser without hesitation.
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In her blog, Dawg Business, Jana Rade shares her experiences and the lessons she has learned with others. She shares this message with all dog owners: At the end, your dog’s health is up to you!