Twice in the last week people have expressed surprise (tinged in one case with disapproval) at an "unholistic" suggestion I made about the care of their dogs. Actually, I can understand that, as they were no doubt expecting me to suggest an herbal or other alternative approach to dealing with the problems, and were taken aback when I suggested a battery of diagnostic tests on one hand and an allopathic pain medication on the other.
"That's not very holistic," said one of them.
I laughed a little and told her that actually, it was. That's because to me, "holistic" has nothing whatsoever to do with what substances you use. It's all about how you think. Do you see the whole animal, the species, the environment, the lifestyle, the air, the water, the genetics, the amount of exercise, the restfulness of that animal's sleep, that animal's relationship to the humans and other animals in his or her life? If you do, then you are taking a holistic approach. It makes absolutely no difference to me if you use an herb or a drug or frankly, the laying on of hands, as long as you do two things:
Keep the big picture in mind when appropriate (ie, when I take my dog to the ER with a broken leg I don't want them to waste TOO much time on the big picture), and use objective criteria to monitor the success of your treatment.
For example, I personally believe there is no way to treat a urinary tract infection in a dog other than with antibiotics. A holistic vet friend claims to have done it, and I do believe him, but my experience has been otherwise. But it doesn't matter what I believe, or what he believes, because the presence or absence of a UTI is a matter of fact, not opinion. Go ahead and treat it with colloidal silver or prayer or Clavamox. Just follow up with a urine culture to make sure you actually cured it, and I don't really care HOW you did it.
What's actually ironic is the sheer number of supposedly scientific conventional practitioners who not only don't follow up the treatment of a UTI with a culture, but don't even START with one. They do the "let's give them a course of Antibiotic X and see what happens" thing, without knowing if the dog actually has a UTI, or if the putative bacteria is sensitive to the prescribed antibiotic. Who is being unscientific here, the holistic vet who uses cultures to see if his treatment worked, or the conventional vet who uses guesswork and crossed fingers to treat something he or she hasn't even diagnosed?
Of course, this is why I get screamed at for being not holistic enough by the holistic camp, because to them, fewer drugs are always better and "more holistic," and so are fewer tests, fewer trips to the vet, and fewer vet bills.
I'm all in favor of fewer vet bills, and none of my dogs likes going to the vet, so I sympathize. Really, I do. But there's nothing "holistic" about tying one hand behind your back when your dog or cat has a problem, and refusing even the least expensive and least invasive diagnostics on your pet because you have a dogmatic objection to going to the vet or supporting the Allopathic Oligarchy.
What's "holistic" about deliberately not obtaining and using as much information as possible about the condition and the success or failure of the treatment?
For that matter, what's "holistic" about using an herbal wash to control your dog's itchy skin? Itchy skin has a cause, and if possible (and it isn't always), you should find and eliminate the cause, not just suppress the itch. Of course for many dogs and cats parasites, primarily fleas, are the cause of the itching, and for them, parasite control is the answer. But for the many, many flea-less pets who still itch, in my experience over nearly 20 years, most will stop itching when put on a homemade diet. I don't know why, though I have my pet theories. It's just something I've observed. In their case, something about the diet was the underlying cause of the skin problem. You removed the symptom by treating the underlying cause.
But there are a few animals for whom this doesn't work. At that point, conventional medicine has a huge array of tests that can help identify an underlying cause for itchy skin. It may be that they can be treated with alternatives, it may be that there is no treatment. But there's nothing to be gained in not taking advantage of that testing and the diagnostic skills of, say, a good veterinary dermatologist. Of course not everyone can afford to do this, but that's a separate issue from not believing in doing it.
Another reason "holistic" people don't use vets is, they say, "If I go to the vet he'll just put my dog on (antibiotics, steroids, fill in the blanks)."
I have no idea what this means. A vet can't "put" your dog or cat on anything. Its YOUR animal, YOUR decision. Since your pet can't advocate for him or herself, you have to do it. That's your job. Sure, you might hate it. I personally hate having a soaking wet Borzoi climb under my sheets at 5 AM. Life with pets can suck sometimes. You just have to suck it up and say, "I'd like to have a diagnosis and hear your treatment suggestions, and then I'm going to go home and consider my options before I make a decision." The vet might not like it (although you'd be surprised), but just say it with a smile. And if you're willing to do the diagnostics (as many pet owners are not), the vet may just be so pleased at that, they won't worry as much about how you're going to fall into the clutches of a witch doctor once you are armed with the diagnosis.
And that brings me to another great thing about my alternative definition of "holistic."
By not defining "holistic" as synonymous with "alternative" or "natural" or "herbal," you free yourself from the tyranny of any one school of thought, any one modality, any one "my way or the highway" approach. You don't need to find a "holistic" vet, you can use a whole team of vets, most of whom would rather die than so much as set foot in a health food store. It doesn't matter, because YOU are the "holistic" one. YOU are the one seeing the big picture. You can even use non-holistic "holistic" vets, the ones who say they are holistic but really are just practicing conventional medicine with alternative substances, using herbs and supplements instead of antibiotics and steroids, and never looking at the big picture. That doesn't mean they are not highly skilled herbalists or acupuncturists or chiropractors or nutritionists. You can use their strengths, too, along with those of the conventional practitioners you've seen, and combine it all into your own individualized, customized, holistic protocol, the one designed by you for your dog or cat.
Nothing could possibly be more holistic than that.
And that's why I say holistic isn't about the substances you use, it's about what's in your head.
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