Here are some questions and answers to give you a little more insight into the practice:

A. Leaving the Royal (Dick) School of Vet Medicine in '92 with an Honours degree in Pathological Sciences and a BVM&S under my belt, the last thing I thought I'd be doing was running my own consultancy in equine and small animal homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition. I had no plans for going alone with my own business, let alone setting up in the heretical veterinary arts in 1999.

After my first three years in mixed practice in Yorkshire, I faced a decision. I had been to several training modules at the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London and was getting keen to do more homeopathy. I had to decide whether to continue to be a conventional vet and dabble in complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), or to commit myself to a new medical philosophy.

I opted for the latter, moving down to West Sussex to a practice offering equine and small animal first opinion conventional and complementary therapies. I stayed for four years, gaining my Membership of the Faculty of Homeopathy in 1998 and completing the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society course the same year.

A. I feel that modern medicine, veterinary or otherwise, has painted itself into a corner. It is very good at curing acute, but not chronic disease. This is because it does not fundamentally understand the holistic nature of chronic disease. It is often treated as an elongated acute problem, as opposed to being seen as a completely different phenomenon.

Homeopathy, herbal medicine and acupuncture, the CAM modalities I have a specialist interest in, are better at addressing these problems. I would like to see the veterinary practice of the future using the best of all medical worlds for the good of their patients; primarily using alternative medicine, but not being afraid to use the best of orthodox drugs when necessary. There is no conflict in my mind. They are opposing sides of the same animal, making the whole.

Holisticvet, the company I started in 1999, was established to begin to address this. It is my drop in the medical ocean.

A. I see patients in London at the Hyde Park Veterinary Centre, every fortnight on a Wednesday. Most of the time I'm based in Bath doing small animal work, or seeing horses. I have clients in France, Belgium and Spain with whom I also work frequently.

Between these regular surgeries are equine calls and house visits. I will do telephone consultations, but only if the animal cannot be transported to a nearby vet or if the condition is psychogenic/behavioural and has been seen by a colleague. Contact is always made with the primary practice. Referrals are always contacted personally following consultations.

My cases are a mixture of referrals from conventional colleagues, second opinion cases driven by a client or primary cases where a vet may not have seen the case before. I will sometimes ask vets to do a few further tests to clarify a diagnosis. We do not have x-ray or ultrasound scanning facilities at the practice.

A. Colleagues in practice are very helpful and are mostly sympathetic to what I'm doing. But, when I get the inevitable 'I'll be very interested to see what happens with so-and-so', I often hear notes of disbelief in their voices. Animal owners are the opposite. They are generally very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, bearing in mind that this is a subgroup who will actively seek out CAM therapies for their pets and horses.