More About Holisticvet –

Questions and Answers

What you were doing prior to the establishment of Holisticvet?

Leaving the Dick Vet 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 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. To continue to be a conventional vet and dabble in complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), or to commit myself to a new medical philosophy, was the dilemma I faced.

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.

Why you decided to set up the your consultancy?

I feel that modern medicine, veterinary or otherwise, has painted itself into a corner. It is very good at curing acute disease, but not chronic. 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 and acupuncture, the CAM modalities I have a specialist interest in, are good at addressing these problems. I would like to see the practice of the future using the best of all medical worlds for the good of their patients; orthodox medicine when indicated and CAM the rest of the time.

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

Please give us a range of activities you undertake, including a description of a 'typical' week - if such a thing exists!

I see patients in London, at the Hyde Park Veterinary Centre every month on a Wednesday. Every fortnight I consult at the Purton Veterinary Centre, Swindon. Most of the time I'm based in Bath or seeing horses in the South of England. I have clients in Belgium and Spain who I go to see regularly, too.

Between these regular surgeries are equine calls, visits to colleagues' practices referring occasionally 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 will always be contacted personally following consultations.

Cases seen are a mixture of referrals from the clinicians at 'my' practices, referrals from other practices in the area or client driven second opinions. Bookings are made by the London, Swindon and Bath clinics, but if clinicians or clients want to chat to me about a case before it is seen, I am available.

What are the attitudes to your business on the part of 1) vets in general practice; 2) animal owners?

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.

Here it would be interesting to describe briefly a case that you believe had a particularly interesting therapeutic outcome or that sparked the 'conversion of a sceptic'.

Case report:

Holly:

Holly had had colitis six times a year since the age of five weeks when she had come from Battersea Dogs Home. She was presented to me at the age of twelve. In the last five years, the attacks had become more and more frequent. They mainly occurred between midnight and 5am with Holly producing 'enormous spongy, aerated diarrhoea', like tan coloured whipped cream

These episodes followed any upset in the house - the owners going on holiday, coming back from holiday, the plumber coming to fix the washing machine would upset her, as would anything but utter tranquility.

She had been treated each time with metronidazole and salazopyrin when things got worse. When I saw her she was on clomipramine, and had been for three months, and this had helped enormously.

I prescribed homeopathic Phosphorus and advised a gradual change over to a raw food diet. Within two weeks we were able to remove the clomipramine as she had become more settled and less (hyper)sensitive. The owners actually moved house within a month of the first prescription and Holly was fine for the entire time without any conventional treatment. She does get unsettled at times, but if she does, she is re-dosed with Phosphorus and never now has any diarrhoea whatsoever.

The owner is delighted, the referring vet is delighted, but most of all, Holly is pretty calm about the whole thing.

Taking stock - with the business up and running for a couple of years, how closely has it matched your expectations, and what hopes/goals do you have for the business in future.

I would like to see veterinary practices taking advantage of the benefits an integrated approach to medicine can offer. CAM veterinary therapies are a very real form of medicine.

The public want them for themselves and are more and more aware they are available for their animals. As a profession we need to embrace a new approach to healing our patients to maintain our credibility and our patient's best interests.